Page 34 of Beyond the Blues
“Althea makes the best Spanakopita. Have you got any to try?” Althea nods and walks behind the counter, opening the fridge. I don’t follow, as I don’t want to interrupt her at night again. Althea wraps it up in some baking paper and hands it to Nora. Nora goes to pull out her wallet, and Althea puts her hand over Nora’s and shakes her head.
“Goodnight Althea.” I whisper.
“Goodnight and thank you,” Nora says afterwards, and we walk back along the beach. Nora opens the baking paper and takes a bite out of the pastry.
“This is divine.” Nora continues munching down on it. Then we approach the cats again, and as if on schedule, they come running back towards us. I kneel in the sand, open my bag and pull out the rest of the cat treats from before.
“Do you always keep cat treats in your bag?” Nora jokes.
“Only the essentials.” I reply, feeding all the cats equal amount of treats.
Nora rubs her eyes roughly, making them red and patchy.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“Yeah, I’m just allergic to cats,” Nora adds, brushing it off as if she said nothing.
“What the fuck, Nora? Why’d you not tell me sooner?”
“Because I know you love cats, and you seem so happy feeding them.” I pull Nora to hug me and walk her backwards away from the many cats.
“You are so silly.” I laugh a lot louder than intended. Nora just casually let me hang out with the cats, whilst her allergies were flaring up by the second. We walk back to the hotel room and I immediately start searching for some medicine. I pull out some antihistamines and give Nora a couple with a cold
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flannel to cool down her irritated eyes.
“I think this is very romantic.” Nora says, laid back on the bed, the cold flannel over her eyes.
“Stupid, but romantic.” I add. Nora yawns. I’m not surprised since it’s midnight and we’ve filled this day with activities.
“You should go to sleep. Your flights in the morning.” I say softly. Nora pulls the flannel off her eyes and looks at me.
“I don’t want to sleep, I just want to look at you every second till I go.” Nora’s face was sad again, eyes heavy, but I wasn’t sure if that was from the allergies or not.
“I’ll still be right here next to you, and-” I take a deep breath. I debated taking Nora to the airport or not, wondering if it would hurt too much to see walk away, but either way she’s leaving me, whether it’s here or the airport.
“I’ll go to the airport with you.” Nora’s eyes light up with a gleam.
“Really?!” she asks. I nod.
That’s that. This is our last night next to each other. I hope not forever, but for a while.
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19
Chapter 19
It’s early in the morning, and the sun is only just beginning to rise. Nora is still peacefully dozing in the back of the taxi, her mouth ajar. We pull up to the terminal, crowds of people entering the airport, the chaos of it all making me feel more awake. I could barely sleep last night, waking up every hour, just to look at Nora. When we stopped at the drop off, the taxi man alerts us loudly we’re here, jolting Nora awake. We get out of the taxi and stand outside the airport, unsure of what to do or say.
“How long have you got before you have to go through security?” I ask.
Nora looks down at her watch and her face crumbles a little.
“Thirty minutes.” Nora says sadly.