Page 85 of Just for December

‘Yes!’ cries Duke, scrambling to stand up.

He spins around and watches Evie as she leaves the bar, shouting a thank you over her shoulder. When she sees him, she stops walking, stares, looks at Magda, then back to him.

‘Evie,’ he says, taking a step forward, and the ten steps it takes for her to reach him feel like seven eternities.

‘Duke,’ she says, coolly. ‘Hello.’

‘I’m going to …’ Magda says, looking between them. ‘Go.’

Evie looks at her. ‘No,’ she says. ‘You don’t have to.’ Shelooks at Duke. ‘Our flight is boarding,’ she says. ‘I’m not trying to be cool or anything, it’s just we really are going to miss the flight if we don’t get a move on. We don’t have long.’

‘I’ll walk with you,’ Duke suggests, hurriedly, and Magda slips ahead to lead the way so that Duke and Evie can fall in step behind her. The waiting area has cleared out, and they join the back of the queue, only a handful of people in front of them. They really did only just make it.

‘Where is your stuff?’ Evie says, looking him up and down.

Duke pulls a face. ‘I … actually don’t know,’ he says, and she looks at him with those eyes, those lips, that hair, that face, puzzled, and he laughs. She’s here! He caught her! ‘At the hotel, maybe?’

‘I don’t get it?’ she says, puzzled.

‘I realised you’d left already and I just … got in a cab,’ he explains, and her face, when she understands that he’s here for her, is a face he will remember until the day he dies. It’s surprise, then confusion, then pure, unadulterated joy followed by flushed cheeks as she gets self-conscious.

‘Evie, your boarding pass?’ Magda says, turning to them. Evie hands her pass to the flight attendant, and Duke does the same.

‘You’re on this flight too?’ Evie asks. ‘To Salt Lake?’

‘Well,’ he says. ‘I needed the ticket to get past security. I can just wait with you until they’re closing the doors, right?’ He turns to look at the attendant.

‘Not really, sir, no,’ she says, alarmed. ‘This is kind of a you’re-in-or-you’re-out situation.’

Duke looks at Evie. She seems hopeful. It’s a no-brainer, then.

‘In,’ he says.

‘In,’ Evie echoes. ‘You’re going to fly to Salt Lake?’

‘Sure,’ he decides. ‘I mean. Look. There’s things I want to say!’

‘So say them!’ Evie retorts.

‘Okay!’ He laughs, and then they’re both laughing, and Magda turns around from where she’s walking, up front, through the jet bridge, and smiles.

‘Just wait,’ he says. ‘Magda – we’re coming, okay?’

‘We won’t fly without you!’ Magda shouts, boarding the plane.

‘Evie,’ Duke says. ‘I don’t know what I am doing. All I know is that I’ve been looking for love all my life, and all my life it’s been in the wrong places. And something has happened this month, during this time in Germany, where I’ve realised that I had my own stuff to deal with. I’ve been a performer for my job, and in my real life, for so long I didn’t know where one Duke ended and the other began, and I was resentful of it, but I still didn’t change it, you know?’

Evie does something strange with her head, a sort of nod-meets-a-shake, like she really is trying to follow along but: what?

‘Okay,’ Duke says. ‘This isn’t coming out great. I think what I mean is: I was looking for love outside of myself, right? And then you came along, and you sort of … challenged me – I don’t even know how. You make me want to be better, Evie. You make me face up to who I am and where my actions don’t match my words and I find you so freaking stubborn, and impossible to read, and a little bit infuriating, quite frankly—’

At this, Evie laughs, and it’s then that Duke sees the tears in her eyes, threatening to spill over.

‘You are!’ he repeats. ‘You are infuriating. But also kind of a realist. You make me better because you force me into reality, and you know, you said love isn’t mad dashes through airports but I did one hell of a mad dash for you, and I think that’s because I’m kind of a fantasy guy, and that makes us a tiny bit perfect for each other. And between fake-dating you, turning into real-dating you … I guess I got so scared because there’s nowhere to hide with you.’

‘I’ve been told that before.’ Evie giggles, and those tears are streaming, now, down her cheeks. ‘But I tried!’ she protests. ‘I did a whole romantic gesture last night and you weren’t even there! It started to feel like even if you were right, the timing was wrong, or the place …’

‘And that’s where Ms Reality comes in,’ Duke agrees, taking a step towards her. He can’t bear to not be touching her. He has to touch her. He wants her face in the palm of his hands, his lips against hers. ‘Because we have to make this the right place and the right time. If I know anything, it’s that when two people have whatever this is—’ he motions between them ‘—that they are morally obliged to the gods and the stars to figure everything else out.’

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