Until Time Runs Out

Chapter 2

A pair of warm hands covered my eyes as I walked into the room. I giggled. "Christian! Stop it." I laughed and tried to pull his hands down from my eyes.

"No, stop." He whispered. "It's a surprise." He chuckled and lead me a some steps forward. "Promise that if I let go, you won't peek?" I nodded and I felt his hands leave my face. My eyes stayed closed, just like he instructed.

I heard a pair of doors open and Christian grabbed my hand. "Come here." I smiled and walked forward with him.

"Where are we going?" I complained as he lead me along.

"You ask too many questions." He laughed as he gave me a quick kiss. "Now, come on, love, we're almost there." I kept walking and following him.

"Okay." I heard another pair of doors open. "Open them."

I opened my eyes and blinked a few times due to the new amount of light. Hanging from the ceiling were blue and pink streamers. White table covered in all sorts of desserts and tables filled the ballroom we were currently in. I saw the golden dress and white tux hanging from hook on a wall in the corner.

I turned to Christian and couldn't help the smile that was forming on my face. He was so sweet sometimes. "Happy Birthday. Shall we dance?"

"ELISE!" Bailey's voice made me jump and sit upright from shock. I saw her running up to my bed and I cringed and braced for impact. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" She yelled as she attacked me with a hug. She threw her arms over my shoulders sending me back down to the pillows.

"Thank you, I think." I laughed. "What time is it?" I turned to look at the clock. 9 AM. "Come on, we gotta pack. We have four hours till our plane leaves."

"Shouldn't we leave early? With all the people in line and the tickets..." She trailed.

"Not when you have your own plane." I winked at her and threw the covers up.

"You didn't." She gasped.

I walked over to our closet. It was another bedroom, until we made it into a large closet. Bailey and I were the same size, and we were always borrowing each other clothes, it seemed silly to keep them separate after four years of living together. I loved it with all my heart. "Too late. I already did." I smiled. I picked out a pair of black skinny jeans and pulled them on.

"Elise." She whined and I heard her voice getting closer as she did so. "You need to stop spending so much money on giant things. Sooner or later you'll run out!"

"Well, that's what the later option's for." I smiled. She laughed and picked out her own clothes for the day. I slid on a loose blue tank top and some black ballet flats and grabbed our suitcases. "Start shoving all the clothes in them."

We cleared the entire closet into 4 suitcases, somehow, in the course of an hour. We were talented. I could already tell we'd need to buy another one in Italy, but it'd do for now.

"Breakfast time!" Kevin's voice came from the kitchen.

I groaned. "He stayed here?"

Her cheeks turned pink. "No. He went home last night."

"Then how- You did not give him a key!" I gasped. "We're all screwed!" I muttered under my breath as she laughed.

"I was tired of getting the door for him!" She defended herself.

               "You know you don't have to, we could just leave him out in the hall. Sooner or later he'd leave." She laughed and we headed to the kitchen.

Kevin spread out his food all along the counter. Dunkin Donut's donuts of all kind spread out, each one with a candle. "If you count there's 23. Or 24. I dunno. The guy working was an idiot." He shoved his hands in his pocket. "But. Happy Birthday."

I looked at them and surveyed them. I picked up a chocolate one with pink frosting and sprinkles. I took a bite out of it and smiled. "Thanks Kevin!" I took them all and locked them into a Ziploc bag before any of them could get one. "Plane food." I told Bailey with a smile.

She laughed and I went to the closet. I pulled all the suitcases and dropped them at Kevin's feet. "Here. Make yourself useful." I let out a large breath. "Take them to the car out front." I nudges my head towards the door.

He grumbled his protests but did anyway. I smiled and held my arm out for Bailey. She wrapped hers around mine. "To Italy!" We shouted at the same time as we headed towards the elevator.

The car was there when we got there and Kevin was waiting for Bailey. I rolled my eyes and got in the car. "Bails, you've got 5 minutes. Then we gotta go." I warned. She laughed and Kevin grabbed her waist.

"How long are you gonna be gone?" He asked her.

"A month, I think." She replied.

He turned back to face me. "You might wanna make it ten." He turned back to Bailey and I rolled up the window.

I turned on the TV to a rerun of Gossip Girl and opened a water bottle. After 15 minutes of watching Blair and Chuck argue, I rolled the window down again.

"Bailey!" She pulled back for Kevin, "We're gonna be late."

"I thought if you had your own plane it would wait for you to get there." Kevin pointed out.

"Yes. Maybe. Possibly. But we're leaving." I rose an eyebrow at her and she gave Kevin one last kiss as she walked over. She opened the door and slid in next to me.

"What if he found you in Italy?" She gasped suddenly. It had been quiet for a while, just Gossip Girl playing on the TV. It was nice. Then again so odd. I could tell this thought had been planted in her head for a while.

"Christian?" I snorted. "Not likely."

"That's be the perfect love story!" She gushed. "The man from England and the lady from New York torn apart, only to be later reunited in Italy on her birthday." She smiled. "That'd be perfect."

I laughed. "That kind of thing only happens in movies. It's been 4 years. He's not going to magically show up now." I grumbled. "I can't keep hoping he will. I need to focus on finding him instead of him finding me."

"But what if-"

"I've been 'what if'-ing for a long time now. He'll turn up when he wants to." I looked out the window to avoid more conversation.

~~~

The plane took off and we were headed towards Italy.

"Just think, Elise." Bailey plopped down in the couch we had on the plane. "In a few hours we'll be shopping in Europe again. All the window shopping and giant hotels and the Italian beach boys! We'll be eating in little cafés. Oh! We could get those little purse dogs to carry around!" We both laughed.

"First thing to do when we land in Italy: Get a purse dog." I joked. We burst out laughing again and the movie on the plane started. We slid on our headphones and Bailey continued talking about all the Italian adventures we were going to have while we were there.

Somewhere between her topics of what cafés to have breakfast at and what shoes to wear to the gala we always went to, I fell asleep.