Sally's Secret

Chapter 10

At the door leading to the hangar, Maria stopped short. She had forgotten to ask Gordon to meet her up here. Did he realise she wasn't allowed to go down by herself? Was he down there waiting and thinking she had stood him up? They hadn't set a specific time to meet, but she'd already spent quite a lot of time since dinner fussing with her hair and getting ready. She chewed on a fingernail nervously as she tried to come up with a solution to her dilemma.

She heard someone coming up the stairs on the other side of the door and stood aside so she wouldn't block it. With any luck it would be Gordon. She crossed her fingers and waited breathlessly.

It wasn't Gordon; it was Virgil coming back from his mission. He wore a clean plaid shirt, but his hair was mussed, his face was dirty, and he looked utterly exhausted. Still, he perked up on seeing her. "Wow, Maria, you look great."

How long had it been since anyone had complimented her appearance? The only other time she had worn this dress, the day she graduated from UCLA with honors, her mother had focused on her terrible taste in shoes, how criminally negligent it was to appear in public without makeup on, and various other nitpicks Maria could no longer recall, but which had stung a lot at the time and ruined the entire day.

She felt the blush rise in her cheek. "Thank you, Virgil. That's so nice of you to say. I saved you some dinner. We had chilli dogs, baked beans, and potato salad, but there's still some leftover buffalo chicken wings in the fridge if that strikes your fancy." She felt a twinge of guilt not to offer to run down to the kitchen and make him a plate, but she had legitimately asked for this time off and he was a grown adult who could microwave leftovers without her help.

"That sounds great." Oddly, he didn't leave, but stood there staring, like he felt he needed to guard the hanger from her spying eyes.

Kayo's sudden emergence through the door startled them both. She was wearing her street clothes, but she had a comms unit strapped to her wrist at all times. Just the break Maria needed.

"Kayo, would you do me a favour and call down to Thunderbird 4, please? I forgot to remind Gordon I'm not allowed go to the hangar alone, so I think he's waiting for me there."

Kayo looked back and forth between Maria and Virgil two or three times, her brows furrowed like she was confused by the request or something. This little hallway encounter was starting to feel awkward and weird. "I'll just take you down myself," Kayo said finally.

"Thanks," Maria said. Kayo turned around and went back through the door she had just come through. Maria followed closely. Virgil must have decided Kayo would provide enough security because he didn't follow.

Gordon waved from across the hangar. He was wearing his uniform, but Maria had expected that. If Virgil had to wear his when he took his grandma out for grocery shopping, Maria reasoned it must to be a rule of protocol. They could get called away on a mission at any moment, so they had to be prepared.

Kayo leaned toward Maria and whispered, "You okay with this clown?"

"I'm fine. Thanks for the escort. You never know when I might be tempted to come down here and wax a Thunderbird all by myself. Shame I'm not allowed."

Gordon had been approaching while the two women talked and evidently heard only the last bit. "You wanna wax Thunderbird 4? I'll help."

Kayo rolled her eyes at Gordon while shaking her head. "Right, because women always wear nice dresses to do someone else's chores."

Gordon shot Kayo a glare and a slanted eyebrow. "Don't you have somewhere you need to be right now?"

Kayo glanced at Maria, who was utterly torn between not wanting to make Kayo feel unwelcome, and wanting to start the submarine adventure that wasn't going to start until Kayo left. All Maria could manage was a patient smile at Kayo.