The moment Erik got the text from Hanne, all worry and concern pooled at the bottom of his stomach.
He felt sick, like something bad was going to happen to her. Like maybe she was going to disappear off the edge of the Earth and become Amy from Gone Girl. Okay, probably not, considering how unlikely of her that would be, but still, he had this gut-wrenching feeling for her as he waiting in the driver's seat of his car.
It's that same feeling parents get when they know something bad happened to their child. The same one they get right before they report their child missing—a sense of being uncompleted, feeling as if they had lost a piece of themselves.
In this case, it's the feeling you get when you just know that your loved one is no longer in your life.
Can you imagine it? Hanneke Leijerzapf—the new Gone Girl.
It didn't make sense.
However, the text she had sent Erik made perfect sense, meant to create this aura of safety whenever he were to think of her.
HANNE
i'll be out in a few minutes. i need to get something done before i leave.
They were such simple words, and they created panic and fear in Erik's stomach. And just waiting there in his car made him feel anxious and even more anxious as the minutes flew past with the wind as if it had been nothing but wasted time.
I hope she's safe, I hope she's safe, I hope she's safe. Words repeated in his head over and over again, each time seeming like it wasn't enough.
He thought of all the possible outcomes if she wasn't to appear in the seat next to him in the next fifteen minutes. Abducted, and the text was actually sent from her abductor. Too cliché. Left him for Axel from the media department. Never. Got into a fight with Marta over a photo she took. Could be a real life situation. but no.
When ten minutes eventually passed, Erik couldn't be any more concerned for the wellbeing of his girlfriend. He had sat in his car, hands folded in his lap, looking out through the windshield, waiting for her. The feeling of being incomplete intensifying as the ten minute mark struck, and he swore he could die of caring too much right here, right now.
But it seemed like the worst hadn't come today, for the door of the passenger side had opened and there was Hanne sliding into the leather seat, placing her items down on the floor.
"Gott sei Dank," Erik muttered as he took her head in his hands and kissed her lips like they were the only thing he had craved for in this entire world. He kissed her and then her forehead, gently rubbing circles on her cheeks with the pad of his thumb.
Unlike many of the day he had picked her up from work, which was everyday, Hanne didn't look as sad and disappointed. She looked quite better, much better than what he had observed the past few days. Eyes didn't look like they had been crying or on the verge of bursting out into tears, her hair was kept clean and together, her entire look being as if her little breakdowns there and there didn't exist.
Erik didn't want to immediately assume that, magically, she had gotten better and become her old self once again. These kind of issues took time to heal, maybe even years if it had to go to that extent.
She looked up at him, her eyes big and her lips curving into the smallest of all smiles.
"Worried about me?"
"Of course!" he exclaimed. "I was so worried about you, I wanted to leave this car and find you myself."
Hanne did that thing she does whenever she gets flustered—gaze down at the floor, tilt her head a little and smile. "I just needed some time to talk to Marta and Tobias about something before I left. Sorry for taking so long, I was sure that by the time I left the building you have been driving down the street without me."
