A Big Kind of Little Love

Chapter 4: Wake-Up Call

The ear-splitting sound of Camilla's ringtone cut through the sleepy silence of the bedroom. Jumping up, nearly out of the bed, Lucia looked over her heavily sleeping wife to see that Luka was calling her.

"Camie! Camie!" She yelled, shaking her slumbering wife awake.

"What? What is it?" Camilla replied with groggy panic in her voice. 

"Luka's calling you, answer the fucking phone!" Lucia shouted back.

The sound of Luka's name prompted Camilla straight awake, eyes wide with eager anticipation. She scrambled to grab her phone, nearly knocking it off the night stand in the process.

"Hello? Hello?" She asked, making sure her first 'hello' got through to the man they've been waiting to talk to. 

"Camilla?" The man asked, a hint of panic also shared in his voice.

"Yes, hi Luka! How are you?" She said back, trying to make it sound like she hadn't just woken up from a dead sleep and that it wasn't 1:46 in the morning in their part of the world. 

"Put it on speaker!" Lucia whisper-shouted, earning a slap on her arm in response before her wife finally set it to speaker-phone. 

"Hi Luka!" Lucia added to the conversation.

"Oh, Lucia, great, I was hoping you were there too!" Luka responded. "Listen, can you two get to the airport? Like, now?"

The two wives shared a look of confusion.

"The airport?" Camilla asked, "Why? Luka, it's not even 2 a.m."

"I know, I know! I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important. But I just put little Evie on a plane to Rhodea. She's yours, you guys!" Luka sounded stressed but excited while sharing the news.

Camilla instantly started to tear up, while Lucia sat on the bed in disbelief at what she had been told. This was the greatest news either of them had ever been told. Right there, in their bed, in the middle of the night. 

"Hello?" Luka yelled over the phone, "You two still there?" 

Lucia grabbed the phone as Camilla was too engulfed by her joyful tears to react, "Yes! Yes! We're still here! We'll head to the airport right away. Thank you so much, Luka. Thank you so much!" 

"I'm very, very happy for you two, Lucia," Luka stated happily, "I know how long you've waited. But remember, this is just the trial period. A worker from the agency will stop by later today and every two days after that for three weeks, just to make sure everybody is happy and safe."

"Yes, of course! We'll be ready!" Lucia said, the widest smile beaming across her sun-kissed complexion. 

With that, the two women threw on any kind of clothes that they could find easily and ran out to their car. With Lucia driving, the car bolted out of the driveway and screeched as the tires skidded on the road. Lights in the windows of other houses in the suburban neighborhood flipped on as concerned neighbors checked outside for suspicious activity. 

What should have been an hour's drive to the airport in the large Colossi capital of Rhodea turned into a 35 minute trip as the two women sped significantly over the speed limit. Normally, Camilla would have scolded her wife for driving so fast but, in this scenario, she figured it was more than warranted. 

Despite the expedited drive, the two rushed into the airport upon arrival, leaving their car in an area where cars were probably not allowed to park. But they didn't care. Evie was the only thing on their minds. While the airport was usually bustling with travelers looking to fly to other parts of the continent, at this time of night it was a ghost town. Save for the few people that must have missed flights and were sleeping in the seating areas.