Somewhere Else [Damien Haas]

13. Physics

When I enter the booth, Laney's reading my file. I close the door behind me, and she looks up at me. "Your fiancée seems a little too stressed out," she remarks. "But I don't blame her. Her job for the past four years since Trump became president must have been the worst years of her career. So much shit on the news every single day. You really gotta thank God that she was assigned here in Japan and just so far away from that annoying orange, yeah?"

"Yeah," I reply, sitting down across her. "Let's bring it."

"Oh, yes, let us do so," she says, closing my folder and sliding it to her right. "From what I've gathered earlier in my interview with Jade, I presume both of you know a different thing that the other person don't know. I will tell you hers if you tell me what's your secret."

"Is it about the engagement?"

"Honestly, from the eye of someone who doesn't know you, you two would look completely ready for a lifetime commitment," she answers, grinning. "It's not about the engagement. We know that already, even though she told us that too. It's because I met you on your first day here and you said you were travelling alone."

I sigh and scratch the back of my neck. "Well, there goes that," I mumble.

"Yep. So just to clarify, you two aren't dating."

"Nope."

"Really?" she says, now even more confused than I was. "I swear, you two seem like you do. I'm sorry that I seem like I'm insinuating things, but it's just really there. I didn't need to point it out to Mark that you two were so in love."

"Well, you're half-right."

"Hmm?"

"I'm in love with Jade," I tell her, crossing my arms. "And I'm not even kidding. That's the secret you want to hear from me, but I'm in love with Jade Natalie Greene. I met her in a quiz bee back in high school, and she resented me for not knowing that the heart was the strongest muscle. But then we became study buddies, and then friends, and then we dated. When we broke up, I felt like I was crushed by heaven and hell that it took me half a decade to move on. And when I saw her thirteen years later in Japan, of all places, I knew I hadn't moved on. She was just out of my life back then, that's why I thought she was gone. But she's... she's just constantly running in my mind. And I want to keep it that way but in my heart. And I don't care if it's tiring; she can run in my heart all she wants because that's the strongest muscle."

"Wow," Laney mumbles, completely in awe. "She told me you were good in improv, but I didn't know you were that good."

"Thanks," was the only thing I could say.

She sighs, grabbing my folder and standing up. "Well, I don't really need to know anything else, that's all I needed to know," she says, shaking my hand and surprising me. "It was fun talking to you, Damien. Result's in a week, okay?"

"Wait, wait, you said you'd tell me what she told you if I told you what I was hiding," I reply, standing up.

Laney opens the door to reveal Jade still in a state of nervousness. "I think you need to hear it from her," she says before exiting the room and heading down the hallway.

I walk towards Jade, wondering what the hell she was hiding and watching her tremble with my every step. "What did you have to say to me?" I ask.

Jade reluctantly hands me a brown envelope that wasn't with her earlier. I open it and read the contents on the file inside. Red marks and all that jazz. An unfamiliar signature. A bold sign that says APPROVED. A flight headed out exactly six days from now. She tells me, "I'm about to leave."