|
He exited the airport and slipped into one of the cabs lining the curb at LAX. After giving the driver his address, he leaned back in the seat, struggling to keep his thoughts from where they wanted to wander.
Kelly.
God, how he had missed her the first few months in Tripoli. He had thought of her seemingly non-stop as he and the reporting team headed into the countryside of Libya, to meet all of its various groups of people. Every chance he got, he phoned his answering machine, praying for a message from her. As the messages accumulated, and none were from Kelly, he had stopped calling. Eventually, he accepted she made her choice, and he had tried to move
on tentatively with one of the reporters in the team working on the documentary.
Once the cab dropped him at his apartment, Malachi let himself in. He glanced at the clock. It was a little after one P.M., so he had plenty of time to get settled before meeting Ana for dinner. Her flight had been booked earlier in the day, and he thought about calling to see if she was finding the adjustment back to American culture as difficult as he was.
He dropped his bags by the door and walked to the phone. He saw 213 on the indicator light and abandoned thoughts of calling Ana at that moment. Malachi took time to shower and slip on a blue button-down shirt and khakis before returning to the answering machine.
Armed with a pencil and paper, Malachi began to wade through the calls. Within the hour, he had listened to the first 150. He paused the machine to get water before he returned to the chair and pressed play. He had just taken a drink when Kelly's voice filled his apartment. He choked at the unexpected sound of her soft words.
***"I miss you. I need to talk to you. I have to tell you..."***
He frowned when the message trailed into silence, before it clicked onto message 152. He hit the back button and listened to her words again. She sounded upset. The time stamp placed the call at three A.M., three months before. He wondered how badly Justin had hurt her. His resolve not to call her was tested, but Malachi made himself press delete and listen to the next message. She had made her decision. They both had to adhere to it.
Ten messages later, he frowned again.
***"Mr. Norden, my name is Angela Baldwin. I'm Kelly's sister. She wanted me to call you. Please return my call when you get back into the country. It's urgent."***
He wrote down her number on autopilot, noting it was an L.A. area code. He forgot about the remaining messages on the machine as he lifted the phone and dialed Angela Baldwin. She answered on the third ring, and her voice was similar to Kelly's, but without the husky warmth. "Uh, hello. I'm Malachi Norden. I got your message."
There was a note of coolness to her voice. "Yes, Mr. Norden."
He cleared his throat, unaccountably nervous. "Malachi, please."
She hesitated, but didn't respond to his invitation to use his first name. "Could you meet me today?"
He looked at the clock. He had several hours until dinner with Ana, but he was reluctant to meet with Angela for some reason. Instinct urged him to slam down the phone. Instead, he said, "Tomorrow might be better."
"This is very important, Mr. Norden."
He sighed. "Alright. Could we meet for coffee?"
"I'm sorry, but I'm unable to leave my home today. You'll have to come to me."
Malachi bit back another sigh and copied the instructions to her house. "I'll be there within the hour."
"Fine." Without so much as a goodbye, she hung up.
He stared at the phone with confusion, wondering why Kelly's sister wanted to see him. A dart of excitement pierced him as he wondered if she had a message from Kelly. He tried to deny the fluttering of hope as he rushed from his apartment and hailed a cab. Despite his earlier reluctance to meet Angela, suddenly he couldn't wait to get there. If Kelly wanted to see him, he wouldn't hesitate. Things weren't serious with Ana, so she wouldn't be hurt if he broke it off before it started. Justin was still be a problem, but he didn't feel too badly about the pain his friend would feel, knowing how much he had inflicted on Kelly.
©2003 StoriesByEmail.com
|
