Page 70 of The Déjà Glitch
Either option filled her chest with a tight sense of panic, not at being stuck in the loop but at the thought of letting him go.
Lila gazed up at her, still waiting for an answer.
A swell of determination filled her like a balloon, pushing the panic aside and assuring her of what she needed to do.
“I have to stop him. I can’t let him leave.”
Lila gaped up at her with her mouth open. “You’re going to go after him?”
Gemma nodded once, assuring herself of her plan. “Yes.”
“Like, we’re going to storm the airport and try to stop him from getting on a plane?”
Gemma heard how rash and desperate it sounded. But still. “Yes.”
Lila knowingly, and a bit smugly, grinned at her. Then she shot out of her chair again and danced. “I knew it! Iknewyou were in love with him.Yes!”
Gemma’s face shyly burned as she threw her valet ticket at her. “Go get the car while I get the check.”
•••
Lila juggled takeoutcontainers in her lap as they sped across the city. Their waiter hadn’t even blinked when they claimed a sudden emergency and asked for to-go boxes and an early check. As far as he’d been concerned, they’d cleared up a table for him to fill with another paying customer. Gemma apologized profusely for cutting Lila’s birthday dinner short, but Lila assured her she had no qualms by running for the valet while Gemma had shoveled all their food into boxes and paid the check.
Gemma had no contact information for Jack, so finding him at the airport was her best bet. Angelica said he was leaving for London, so she’d put LAX’s international terminal into her GPS and they took off.
She had no plan for what to say to him, how to explain that she’d been wrong and convince him to stay. She hoped the words would come when the moment presented itself—ifthey got there in time.
She pressed her foot harder into the gas to make a yellow light. She had one eye on the clock too; it read 7:15. Nigel’s show started in under two hours. The show felt far less important than stopping Jack. She had two chances of a lifetime in front of her, she realized, and she knew that both her seven-year-old self and Nigel Black would want her to make the obvious choice.
“What are you going to say to him?” Lila asked.
“I don’t know. I guess I’ll figure it out when we get there.”
“That’s perfect. Don’t plan anything. Let your heart do the talking,” Lila said like she would have offered the same advice if asked.
The thought of what was in her heart had Gemma brimming and terrified at once. Grand gestures were not in her comfort zone by any stretch of the imagination. But neither were such strong feelings after a single day. She hadn’t let herself feel anything in so long, she almost forgot what feeling even felt like. But Jack had her feeling all sorts of things. Big things. Why else would she be speeding into the night to try and stop him from making a huge mistake?
She smiled to herself as they flew down a busy street. They were minutes away, according to her GPS. But of course they had to make itinto the airport once they got there.
On its best day, LAX was a total nightmare. On a random Thursday evening that may or may not have been repeated one hundred and forty-seven times, there would be no exception.
When they arrived, Gemma parked in a middle layer of the concrete garage housing an endless maze of cars. She and Lila skipped the elevator and dashed down an outdoorstairwell that spilled them out on the far side of two multi-lane, one-way streets that they risked life and limb to cross even with all the lights flashing and walk signs on. They made it under the dim eaves, lit by fluorescent overhead lights and smelling like exhaust, cigarette smoke, and who knew what else. The air inside the terminal was only an ounce fresher.
Of course, they couldn’t get anywhere without buying tickets, but the first step in their plan was to figure out which flight he was on. Then they would figure out how they might try to stop him from getting on it.
As they pushed through passengers and dodged luggage, Gemma realized that after everything they’d been through since that morning, she was finally the one chasing him. It put a smile on her lips at the same time a desperation tightened her chest with worry that she wouldn’t make it in time.
They found their way to a board with a dizzying list of departures and arrivals.
“What are we looking for?” Lila asked over a telltale chirp of a camera.
Gemma turned to see Lila with her handheld tripod pointing her phone directly at her. Where it had come from, she had no idea. “What are you doing?” she demanded.
“Giving your fans the happy ending they deserve,” Lila said with a smile.
Gemma gulped at the thought that thousands—maybe tens of thousands—were on the other end of the little glowing dot of light aimed at her. Anxiety pushed thoughts of protest to the front of her mind, but she realized with a thrilling sense of wonder that Lila’s obsession with broadcasting her life might have been of benefit in that moment.
She squared herself and looked right at the camera. Lila took a cautious step back like Gemma might repeat the scene from her living room and tackle her, but instead, she took a steadying breath. A rush of nerves came over her. Then she threw caution to the wind and let her heart do the talking.