We're going to need more than five minutes

Wanna go party tonight?

In the end she even put on a bit of makeup because she had serious doubts that they would let her through security otherwise, as terrible as she looked, and for the most part she kept on wearing her sunglasses and a hat – even indoors – which together with her mask made her look utterly ridiculous, but she figured that every once in a while she too was entitled to some over the top celebrity attitude.

Technically she probably shouldn't be driving due to the residue alcohol in her body, but she cared shockingly little about the risk of getting arrested for DUI or steering her car off the road. On her way to the airport, she dropped Lola and Levi off at a friend's as usual. She felt quite bad for not having spent a lot of time with her two babies lately and constantly abandoning them since she had been too busy romping about with her boyf... ex, but for better or worse, those days were over now. Just this one last trip to New York, and if ever there was a time that she deserved to take a break from her usual life, it was now.

A part of her was surprised he still hadn't tried to contact her. But it started once she had arrived at LAX: he tried calling her, and again after five minutes when she – obviously – didn't pick up. Then he started texting her. One message. A second one. Then a voice message. All the while, she was dying inside. Dying to read them, to hear his voice, to answer his calls, to talk to him. Her heart still wanted him, after all! Her heart had never agreed to any of this, and it was suffering. Her heart wanted nothing more than turn around, go to him, fall into his arms, hug him tight and never let go. But her heart couldn't be trusted right now. It had made enough poor decisions in her life and by now had forfeited its decision making rights. So here they were. And she was more than happy to put her phone into flight mode sooner rather than later, and she probably wouldn't switch it on again anytime soon after landing.

Thankfully, she made it on the plane in time and without any major incidences. Every now and then she even managed to forget about the seat right next to her that would remain empty. But then she found herself drawn back to thinking about him more and more as time passed by. What had he been trying to tell her? Would he still be begging her to come back? Tell her how much he loved her? Would he have more reasons why they belonged together, why she had made a terrible mistake? Probably... what else could it be? If he had slept over it, come to the conclusion that she was right and was agreeing with her, he probably wouldn't be calling her to let her know. And for a random, potentially even work related question or topic, the timing and persistence of his reaching out was way off too.

When she saw the flight attendant coming her way with the beverage cart, the thought of a gin tonic suddenly seemed quite tempting to her since she was already starting to feel way too clear inside her head to deal with the situation.

From JFK she took a cab into the city and shortly after stood on the doorstep of her dear cousin Bianca, Soma's mother, who had been more like a sister to her growing up, they were that close.

Bianca was understandably surprised to see her, and with a suitcase too.

„Lana?! Oh my God, hi!", she hugged her tight, , „What are you doing here?"

„Well, I was missing the city – and you, of course – and I had some spare time on my hands, so I thought, why not catch a flight?"

„That's amazing, I'm so happy to see you, and Soma will be too. But, come in, come in!", she closed the door behind her cousin, „From the suitcase I'm guessing you plan on staying here?"

„Oh well, I mean... only if that's okay? I'm dropping in unannounced after all, so I'm totally fine with booking a hotel?" The truth was, she had a hotel booked, of course. But it was a honeymoon suite with an extra „Lover's Package" – whatever that meant – and in any case, she was pretty confident this experience wouldn't make her stay in New York any more pleasant.