A Flight's Desire

Chapter 10: My Turn

The Van Henderson Leopold was the most famous shop in the whole of the Netherlands. Its owner, a major lover of chocolates in the world, was Aiden Jafari, a young African-American entrepreneur who wanted to spread his love of various types of chocolates. Although his franchise was limited to the European continent, he was planning to expand it to the entire world.

Robin unconsciously made her way to the shop that lay open in all its glory at the end of the hallway that she was in. She caught a whiff of cocoa right as she turned the corner. The golden lights inside the shop illuminated the floor in front of it and made it look like a grand opening. She walked in through the double glass doors, her mouth watering almost immediately. She saw entire aisles of chocolates that she loved. She was ready to spend her entire income on it. The shop was the size of a large bedroom, with four aisles to separate the different types of chocolate that were categorised on the basis of colour and filling. There were individual stands of candy canes and liquorice that invited little kids to beg their parents for a sweet treat.

A middle-aged woman sat at the counter and greeted Robin into the least crowded store with a genuine smile on her face. She had been removing the loose threads in her purple sweater when she noticed that there was a customer in need of assistance. "If you need anything, just call me. My name is Doloris."

Robin thanked the woman and made her way inside the store. There were glass jars on one side of the room with gumballs, chocolate spheres and sour patches which made her want to hug them close to her heart. She walked in knowing well that she had limited time, and so, she chose to buy the chocolates that took a long time to melt along with packets of fudge. She didn't know how much she could buy with the budget that she had in her mind, but she bought the mega bar of Toblerone just in case she had a mental breakdown while writing. "Man, I wish there was cake," she whispered to herself.

She took her basket of delicacies, which included Rice Krispies and the biggest packet of Reese's and grabbed another chocolate bar as she walked towards the counter. On the way, she saw a familiar black hoodie at the counter. He was talking to Doloris in a low voice, clearly trying to keep a low profile. "She has dark brown hair. She is tall and is wearing a pale trench coat-"

Doloris' gaze fell on Robin who lingered near the candy cane aisle. "There you go. I hope you have found her."

Ben turned around and sighed in relief. "Thank you, Doloris. You are a lifesaver!"

"Anytime," she said. "If it is okay, can I please have a photo with you? I'm a huge fan."

"Of course! I would be totally lost now if it wasn't for you." He answered modestly. "Robin?" He handed Doloris' phone to Robin after Doloris gave it to him.

"Yeah!" She shook her confusion while walking forward to take their picture.

Doloris came in front of her desk and stood beside Ben and that was when Robin realised how tall he really was. He was a little over six feet tall but she knew that she had no reason to feel intimidated, being five foot seven herself. "Cheese!" She smiled, indicating that she was going to take their picture.

A flash of light went off from the camera and the picture was stored in the memory card and forever in Doloris' heart. "Thank you so much," she said, taking the phone back and then thanked Ben as well.

"It is always amazing to meet fans," he said and then turned to greet Robin. "Please save me," he asked, his hands joined together.

"Save you?" She sounded just as confused as she looked.

"I choose Amsterdam. But I can't leave without people surrounding me. So....help?" He asked. "Besides we have a lot of questions to ask each other, or are you trying to escape from that?"