This isn't Real

Claire's hands trembled as she used every fiber of her being to not rip the note apart.

"A note? All he left was a note?" Claire exclaimed as heat started spreading from her chest up into her face and neck. She tried to blink back the tears welled up in her eyes but failed.

Hot, uncontrollable, tears ran down her face, as she reread the note again and again.

  "Tomorrow is our anniversary. He couldn't reschedule this meeting? What could be so important that he had to leave the day before our 5th anniversary on our FIRST ever trip together?" Claire cried out, nearly choking on her breaths.

Thoughts and realizations raced through her mind as she cried.

"How could I be so stupid? His bags aren't even here! What is going on? Why was I so blind?" Claire continued to sob.

A sharp pain radiated from her heart. Clutching her chest, Claire curled into a ball at the foot of the table.

Claire cried until her eyes were swollen and her throat was raw. She cried until no more tears could come out.

Her face was numb, and her body felt cold. She was completely exhausted.

Slowly stretching out her legs, she looked around at the room before her. The food on the table remained untouched and had gone cold. The note was lying crumbled beside her on the rug.

She also finally took notice of the bruise on her leg, which had grown into something gnarly. It darkened into a large, deep purple and blue blotch, taking up a significant portion of her shin. The skin around it was hot and swollen. The pain Claire felt was on par with the bruise's appearance.

Wincing as she moved, Claire carefully grabbed the table and pulled herself back to her feet. She limped back into the bedroom and grabbed her phone.

'There's no way I can stay here for the rest of the reservation alone. Our anniversary is tomorrow, and I need answers. I'm going back home today.' Claire resolved.

Scrolling through her phone, Claire pulled up her flight reservation details to see if she could reschedule it to an earlier flight. However, as she searched for her reservation, it came up blank. Confused, Claire double checked her information and searched again. Still nothing.

Sighing, Claire pressed the link to connect to the airline's customer service to figure out what was going on. The call was immediately transferred to hold music, so Claire decided to pack everything while she waited. After 40 minutes, she was finally connected to an agent.

"Hi, this is Claire Lancaster. My reservation # is R54621 for flight A31D back to H city in 3 days." Claire introduced in a hurry, tired from waiting on hold.

"Hi Claire, this is Julie with Airline Support, how can I help you today?" Julie greeted in a chipper and supportive voice.

"Yes, hi Julie. Two things. First, when I try searching for my reservation details, nothing shows up on my account even though I could see everything yesterday. Second, I want to reschedule that flight to an earlier one. A flight for today would be the best, if possible." Claire responded.

"Let me check that for you. Just give me a moment to pull up your reservation details." Julie chirped. "Please hold," and she placed Claire back on hold.

'Ugh, how long is this going to take? It's already nearly noon. I don't know how many more flight that are leaving the island for today' Claire thought, exasperated. Her bags were all packed, she had changed back into a more comfortable outfit, and she was even able to bandage her leg.

After 10 additional minutes on hold, Julie returned to the call.

"Hi Claire, I apologize for the long wait. I tried searching for you reservation details, but it looks like your reservation was already cancelled earlier this morning."

"What? Cancelled? But I didn't cancel anything?" Claire replied in shock. "So, what do I do now?"

"Well since you wanted to change the flight anyway, let's see if we can just find something for you for this afternoon. It does look like most of the flights for this evening are completely booked, but I do see an opening for a flight this afternoon. However, take off is in less than 2 hours. Do you think you could make that?"

"Less than 2 hours? Yes, please book that flight for me. The resort I'm staying at is not that far from the airport. I'll leave now."

"Alright Claire, I am reserving a seat for you on this flight. You should see the boarding information reflected on your account in the next few minutes. Have a safe flight!" Julie said as she disconnected the call.

After checking to make sure her account updated with the new flight details, Claire grabbed her things and ran, as best as she could, out of the room and down to the main lobby. She was able to do an early check-out as well as get a driver in a reasonable time frame to make it to the airport in time for boarding. Her injured shin did slow her down, but she was still able to make it to her gate.

Claire was able to find a seat near the gate counter. The plane hadn't arrived yet, so she had a moment to catch her breath and collect her thoughts.

'What am I going to do when I see him? What will I say? At the moment, I feel like I'm beyond crying, but what if it's different when I see his face? I don't know how to handle this.' Claire thought sadly.

This was not the first time that Derek had done something that's made Claire feel demoralized, in fact this feeling used to be quite regular. However, things had changed recently. Derek had changed. This whole year he had been kinder and sweeter than ever. Claire never expected to feel this level of disappointment from him again.

As she waited for boarding to begin, she scrolled through her phone gazing at various social media. Though it helped pass the time, it didn't make her feel any better like it normally did.  Usually when Claire felt these kinds of emotions, the different creations and posts made by the people she followed online felt inspiring. She would be able to find things that stimulated her own creativity and then she could find release in creating things of her own to share online. But today, she only felt pressing anxiety.

Sighing, Claire put away her phone and closed her eyes as she waited for time to pass. Eventually, her boarding group was called and she was able to get on the plane. Because of the last minute booking, Claire's seat was far in the back of the plane. Most of the overhead bins had been filled, so she also had to part with her carry on as she approached her seat. Not only that, Claire was also stuck in the middle seat of her row.

'This is going to be a very long 5 hour flight.' Claire thought.

The plane was able to take off successfully, but because of inclement weather it's arrival time was delayed by an hour. It was late into the evening by the time they landed. It took an additional 30 minutes to deplane and then another 45 minutes for luggage.

By the time Claire was able to collect all of her belongings, it was dark outside, and she was exhausted. The air was still damp from earlier, but it was no longer raining. She called Derek again when she arrived, but still received no answer.

"This is absolutely ridiculous! Where is he? Why isn't he picking up? There's no way his emergency business meeting lasted all day." Sighing again, Claire dragged herself and her luggage into an airport taxi. She was cold, hungry, and her leg was throbbing in pain.

The taxi driver noticed her low mood and proceeded onwards to her destination without much conversation. As they pulled up to the house, Claire noticed that the lights were on. It seemed like Derek was home.

Butterflies filled her stomach as she thanked the taxi driver and walked up towards the house. When she opened the door, the image that appeared before threw her for a major loop.

The ground before her was covered in red rose petals with small candles illuminating a path leading further into the house. Classical music was softly playing in the background, and the entire entrance smelled like vanilla.

Tears once again formed in Claire's eyes. Leaving her luggage by the door, Claire began to follow the path of candles towards their living room.

'What a rollercoaster of a day! I can't believe he did this. There was no need for him to be this dramatic, but I'm so glad he actually had something planned.' Claire thought with a smile. 'Too bad I changed out of my nice clothes earlier today. He could have given me some sort of sign so I'd be ready. At least my nails are done, but it doesn't matter overall.'

As Claire approached the entry way of the living room, she could hear Derek speaking.

"...Will you marry me?"