Breathless

Chapter 1

Why?

Why is this happening to me?

"Yes Mom, I'm trying, I swear!" I say into my cellphone.

"Sweetheart, this flight is, like, it's important. Your grandmother has been talking about this for weeks."
"I know, I know Mom. I'm literally runnin through the airport, but I mean, Seattle traffic is crazy." I shove through a crowd run as hard as I can.

I get there at the same time as another guy, and the gate is slid shut.

"Oh, no, please, please can you open it?" I beg.

The gate attendant shakes his head.
"No can do. You should've been here on time."

"Please?" the guy cuts in." I really need to get on this flight, and you're not only fucking over one person, but you're fucking over two."

The gate attendant shows no sign of pity, or remorse, or any emotion at all.

No, he sighs, and says, "The next flight to Detroit it at twelve."

"This was the twelve o'clock flight!" I snap.

"Exactly! And please? My wife is in labor. Don't make me miss the birth of my son." The guy says.

"It's at midnight." The gate attendant says. "If you want it, you better get it. It's selling out fast. And don't blame me for you two missing your flight. It's your faults. I guess you'll see your son when you get to Michigan."

"Actually, it's not our faults." The guy says, mad.

He's really attractive.

Like, I'm sweating, and I don't know if it's from all the running or his fine ass looks.

"That gate wasn't supposed to be closed until noon on the dot. It's 11:59."

"Exactly! We should have one more minute to-"

"No." the gate attendant walks away.

This is a joke.

"Erin, did you miss the flight?" Mom asks.

I groan.

"Yes."

"Erin!" I hear Madeline, my oldest sister yells in the background. She's thirty one.

"It's not my damn fault! The gate dude is a fucking bastard!"

I hear my Mom sighing.

"What time is the next flight?" Mom asks.

"Midnight." I mutter.

I hear Dad sighing.

"Get on that flight, Erin. Don't even leave the airport. Your grandmother is going to be upset."

"I know. Okay, I'll get on the flight. I gotta go."

We get off the phone, and the hot guy is on the phone.

I've never been so wildly attracted to somebody before in person. Of course there are celebrities, but this man is literally like, I don't even know. He's literally Jesus.

I force myself to walk away, away from the gates, back in line to get another ticket.

I'm on Facebook in line, and somebody runs into me and my phone clatters to the floor.

It's a shitty iPhone four and it's already cracked, so I don't really care if it falls.

I turn around and pick it up, and see the hot guy is in line behind me, still on the phone.

"I'm not leaving the airport." He says. "Okay, bye."

He hangs up, and I turn back around.

Don't say anything. You'll fuck it up. Just keep admiring his hotness.

I sigh.

I'm so awkward around guys. I wasn't raised with them. There are seventeen members in my Dad's side of the family, which is really my only family, because my Mom was an orphan, got a job at Mcdonald's, managed to get an apartment, and met my Dad. She never had family.

I have three sisters. Madeline, she's thirty one, and then Shannon, she's twenty six, and then Annie, she's twenty four, and then me, I'm twenty two. I have three uncles, all of them my Dad's brothers, and three aunts, my Dad's brother's wives. All of them have a child. There's Uncle David and Aunt Michelle, and my cousin, Katie, she's thirty five. Then there's Uncle Robert, Rob for short, Aunt Joyce, and my cousin Melanie, she's thirty. Then there's Uncle Ryan and Aunt Christina, and their daughter, my cousin, Rosalie, she's twenty seven. Then there's my grandparents. I'm the youngest, at twenty two, and every single one of my siblings and cousins are female, and they're all single.

We're all single unless we're married. My grandparents had four boys and hopes and wishes for female grandchildren.

They didn't think they would get only female grandchildren. It sucks because the Simon family name won't live on because there aren't any boys.

But there's a major pressure to all my sisters and cousins and I to get in a relationship because the family is dying for a male so much that they're almost craving it. It's so nervewracking for all of my siblings and cousins that none of of us have ever been in a relationship.

I've got no friends. I was born and raised in Holland, Michigan, but I moved to Seattle when I turned eighteen for college. I've graduated and I'm kinda stumbling blind to find out what I'm going to do with my life. My whole family still lives in Holland, and I'm trying to go to Detroit to get picked up by my family to stay in Holland for two weeks to visit, and everyone is so excited, but of course I missed my flight.

Anyways, I'm very nervous because I've never been so insanely attracted to a man before, not like this.

He smells lightly of cologne, and my palms are sweaty.

I remember him saying to the gate guy that his wife was in labor.

He's married.

I remind myself to not even think about it, but still, my mind is screaming at me to say something.

I turn around and he looks down at me.

I'm five foot six, and this guy is probably six foot two.

"I'm sorry you're missing your son being born!" I say quickly. I take a deep breath, thinking about how quickly I could jump out of that window over there, because I sound like an idiot. I let out my deep breath slowly, breathless. "That guy was a real jerk."

The man smiles.

"I'm actually single, and I've not got a son. I told that guy that my wife was in labor, hoping he would take pity."

"Oh..." I laugh nervously. "Okay."

I want to fucking stare at him and his hot looks, but I can't.

I force my eyes to the ground.

He wears vans.

Oh god.

He's even hotter now.

I turn back around, nervous.

I sound so stupid.

I buy that ticket as quickly as I can, text Mom to tell her that the plane takes off at midnight my time, three in the morning her time, and it lands at 8:30 in the morning her time, five thirty in the morning my time, and that there's an hour layover in Lincoln, Nebraska. Then, I find what gate I'm supposed to be at, and sit down as far away from the hot guy as I can, staring at him from across the waiting area, looking away every time he looks at me.