Page 18 of Excitable Boy
“Yes, Sir.” She did, feeling overwhelmed when she saw the map of the area.
She’d forgotten how relatively small Sarasota was in relation to the Tampa Bay area.
“Find an alternate route, honey. Take your time. Find 60. It might be called Adamo Drive where you are. That goes all the way over to Westshore, I remember that much.”
She found it and pulled it up as a route. “It looks pretty clear.”
“Okay, baby. Take that route. We’ll get our bags and go back upstairs to a restaurant to grab a snack and wait. When you get here, pull into the cellphone lot and call me, and we’ll head down to arrivals and you can pick us up there instead of having to park.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Love you, pet. You’re doing fine, baby. It’s okay.”
It took her almost forty-five minutes, but she finally found her way to the airport and the cellphone lot. “I’m here, Sir.”
“Good job, sweetheart. I think I’m actually sober now, so I can drive us home.”
“Wait, what?”
“Mike and I drank on the plane.”
Shit. “No, I’ll drive, Sir.”
They agreed where to meet and she gave them a five-minute head-start by taking a moment to run into the bathroom there in the parking lot.
Then she followed the signs and slowly picked her way through airport construction to make it to the arrivals side, where she spotted the two men standing with their luggage.
She nearly sobbed in relief. She pulled up, threw it into park, hit the lock switch to open the passenger door and back hatch, and jumped out to go hug Tony, slamming the door behind her.
“Love you, sweetheart.”
“Love you, too.”
“Hey, Shayla,” Mike said.
“Hi.” She didn’t want to be rude an ignore him, but…yeah.
She closed her eyes, aware Mike was heading to the SUV to load his luggage.
“Um, Tony? What’s the trick to opening this thing,” he called out.
“Just open it. Pet, honey, we need to get moving before we get in trouble.”
She kissed him once more and stepped out of his way, circling around the back of the SUV to get the hatch, where Mike still hadn’t figured out how to open it.
She tried it. “I know I hit the switch. Let me go unlock it.”
Tony dragged his suitcases around to the back hatch while she returned to the driver’s door and tugged on the handle…
Fear settled inside her as she walked back to the rear hatch. “Um, Sir?”
“Pet, unlock the car. We can talk inside.”
She swallowed hard. “Do you have your keys with you?”
“My house keys. Why?”
She couldn’t help it. She burst into tears right there.
“Pet, what’s wrong?”
When the airport police officer walked up to find out what was going on, she didn’t blame him for bursting into laughter at her plaintive wails while Tony explained she’d accidentally locked her keys in the vehicle.
The running vehicle.
Which was now blocking traffic.
At one of the busiest airports in America.
