31 Days

6 - Rib

Warnings: none

Nineteen-year-old Amy looked around the airport, lost and confused. She'd never left her home country of Britain before, and America was proving to be overwhelming already in the two minutes she'd been there. Her eyes couldn't pick one thing to focus on and instead jumped around from person to person, all moving faster than the last, all looking like they were in a rush to get to where they were going.

She swallowed hard and tried to keep moving, seeing the sign ahead that read "baggage claim". Ok, she thought. Just get to baggage claim. Only focus on that right now. Then we'll figure out the next step once we get there.

But getting to baggage claim proved to be harder than she thought. It wasn't that descending to the next floor down on an escalator was the challenge, oh no. Rather, once she got to the baggage claim area and saw the numerous carousels, she began to feel hopeless all over again.

There are so many!

She took a deep breath and remembered how this worked. She simply had to find the carousel with the monitor displaying her flight number. Simple enough, right?

She steeled herself and began to walk parallel to the carousels, checking each monitor display for her flight number. There was 713 from Madrid, 1154 from Berlin, 2460 from Paris, 9012 from St. Petersburg... ah, there it was! Flight 8654 from London! She felt herself begin to smile and she hurried over to the carousel. It wasn't moving yet, but she was sure that any minute now, it would begin to move and circulate the checked luggage of her flight mates.

She took this short time between to pull out her phone and message her friends and family that she had landed safely. Just as she sent off the seventh and final text, the alarm for her carousel began to ring, indicating that the luggage was coming. She didn't move forward too quickly, instead she stayed back and resolved to only go forward when she spotted her luggage.

The luggage began to appear on the belt and people moved forward to claim their bags. She waited patiently, occasionally standing on her tiptoes when she couldn't see. Goodness, there were a lot of bags!

Finally, she spotted her black duffle bag with the floral scarf tied around the handle. She made her way forward and tried to find a spot where there were hardly any people. She managed to grab it off the belt and she breathed a sigh of relief. Now, she just had to find her way to the hotel van. Should be easy, she thought.

She swung the bag over her right shoulder and began walking towards the exit, pulling her phone out once again. She was checking the hotel van schedule and didn't realize how close she'd wandered to other people until she felt a sharp jab in her ribs. She cried out, and the force of the hit combined with the extra weight from her bag on her right side to send her to the floor.

As her body stung and her left side ached, she heard a voice over her exclaim, "Ack, I'm so sorry!"

Amy's brow furrowed as she turned to give the person a piece of her mind when she caught sight of the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen. Her short dark hair framed her perfectly symmetrical face, and her bright green eyes sparkled through her mini hair curtain. Any words Amy had come up with died in her throat.

The beautiful woman offered her hand to Amy, which she gratefully accepted.

"Are you okay?"

Amy nodded and spoke breathlessly. "Y-yeah, I'm okay."

The beautiful woman seemed to pause as if she had just truly seen Amy for the first time. She gawked for a moment before she cleared her throat and spoke.

"I-I'm Meredith."

Amy smiled at Meredith. "I'm Amy."

The two held eye contact for a moment longer than necessary, then Meredith looked away, blushing.

"I'm sorry I elbowed you in the rib."

"It's okay," Amy giggled a little.

"C-Can I make it up to you sometime?"

Amy felt her heart skip a beat in her chest. "Absolutely."

Meredith grinned in relief. "You busy tonight?"

Amy shook her head.

"Awesome! So...dinner at six?"

Amy smiled. "That sounds perfect."

A/N: a little wholesome romance for y'all this fine Tuesday; I hope you guys enjoyed!