Strangers

Chapter 44: Models & Maternity

LOLA POV

"Hello? Lola?" Linda's voice is every bit the reassuring comfort that I need right now. I don't know how long I've just been sitting in the airport lounge thinking, feeling sorry for myself. I wasn't ready to call Linda immediately, after the phone call with Harry I needed time to recover...get my thoughts straight. But when I realised that wouldn't be happening any time soon, I guess I had to call Linda and get out of here. It could've been half an hour or two hours, I wouldn't really know. Time just kind of passed while I was doing nothing but sift through the trampled ruins of our love.

"Please tell me you're not doing anything right now." I whimper, no longer caring about the strange looks people are giving the crying girl in the middle of the airport.

"I just got home from yoga, why? You sound like you've been crying." Her voice is immediately full of concern.

"That's potentially accurate."

"What's wrong?"

"I'm at LAX. I flew here to see Haz, and he flew to see me, and we missed each other. Everything is falling apart." I'm going to cry again.

"Okay give me like five minutes and I'll be on my way. I'll text you where to meet me." She says, a sense of urgency now in her voice.

"Thanks. I'll see you soon." I hang up and attempt to make my way out of the airport.

Linda looks every bit the stereotypical LA wife as she pulls up in her black Bentley, courtesy of hubby Brad I'm sure.

"I can't believe you're here!" She grins, hopping out of the car in an extravagantly flowy kaftan, floppy hat and enormous face-swallowing sunnies. She opens the boot to her car and elegantly tosses my bag in before engulfing me in a hug.

"Harry's loss is my gain." She smiles sweetly at me, holding me back at arms length as if to examine my post-flight exhaustion in all its glory. Her manicured nails wipe away a few stray tears that decided to linger around my eyes after my mini-breakdown in the airport.

Driving through the streets of LA isn't as exciting as it once would've been to me, travelling to different cities should always be exciting, but not when there's a negative association plagueing that excitement. I purse my lips as I stare out the window, finding fault with everything I see as if I have some sort of personal vendetta against the city itself.

"Your silence says everything, it's normally hard to get you to shut up." Linda taps her nails along the steering wheel while we wait at a red light.

"I was just thinking about the last time I was here. It was with Harry, obviously. And we were really happy."

"And you're not now?" She fills in.

"I don't know. I'm not ready for this conversation Linda, not with you." She's always been the first to give me advice when I'm in the middle of some sort of emotional drama, but right now my heart hurts too much to hear rational thoughts. I'm not ready for the truth, I'm not ready to tell it to myself and hear it repeated from her.

"That's okay."

"Tell me about you. LA seems to suit you. Where are you working?"

"Thanks. I'm not, actually. When we first got here it wasn't meant to be forever, and Brad can clearly support us, so he encouraged me not to work. But the longer our time here gets, the more I want to work. That was until we decided to try for a baby."

"What?! Oh my god, Linda that's so exciting! I'm so happy for you!" And I mean it. Any fool could see Brad and Linda were meant to be. I had no doubt that she was exactly where she was meant to be in life, and she's slightly older than me, so it makes sense that this is their next step. But my happiness for her lasts a second, because when your friends are moving on with their life, and you're just starting a new degree and barely dating a 21 year old, it's easy to slip into a panick of what the fuck am I doing with my life?