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They got to the airport with only five minutes to spare before the jet took off.
“Take care of Dami boy and girl, Jude,” Lola screamed as Jude and Damien were the last ones to go through the gates, which only people with tickets could follow. “Good luck, Dami boy. Bring your girl back home soon!”
Ryan said, “Everyone is looking at you, Lola.”  “Do you really need to yell this much?”
When Lola turned around, she gave Ryan a blank look before leaping forward to hug him without thinking.
Ryan was so surprised that he gasped. He mumbled, “Well, that’s unexpected,” as if he were talking to himself.
Lola felt his hands gently move around her. “Hey… you okay?” he inquired with a smile.
She moaned and put her head on his chest. “I just want my friends to be happy,” she remarked. “Damien’s love life is so hard right now, and Lena’s pain is coming back. I know I seem like a stubborn b*itch, Ryan, but I can’t stand to see them in pain.”
Lola’s eyes closed as he gently brushed his palm over the back of her head.
Ryan responded, “It will be okay, babe,” and she didn’t pay attention to what he called her. “Let’s trust fate and do our best to find answers.”
Oh my, her liver just moved as she was listening to him. She also got a little wet, which is bad.
“But you’re absolutely right that you’re a stubborn thing that you just said.”
She opened her eyes wide and stopped moving, her face still crushed against his chest.
Ryan went on, “I actually went to a strange festival in a village where they let their cows drink alcohol and then let them run free. You sound and look like one of those cows sometimes, throwing up on people and hitting them over and over again.”
Lola looked up at him with a glare.
“See,” he laughed. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
“I’ll show you a cow, alright,” she said, stepping back and raising her hand to hit him in the face.
But Ryan stopped that punch by holding her wrist and pulling her back into his arms with his other hand. Lola was ready for anything to happen next.
He kissed her lips lightly as he lowered his head. It was a brief moment that left her speechless.
Lola stared at Ryan with wide eyes as he seemed bewildered. And all of a sudden, everything he had been doing that was strange made sense.
*****
Lola went to the electronics store that practically everyone told her to go to for the first time and was shocked by how big it was.
“Whah—” she said, looking around with wide eyes and gripping the edge of her long white blouse.
She could swear that it didn’t appear so enormous from the outside. This made her think of the magic tent from one of the Harry Potter movies.
She was already clear what she wanted to get, but she couldn’t help but get sidetracked by all the electronics in her way, including a phone, a mousepad, a keyboard cleaning brush, LED lights, an LED mirror, a steam cleaner, an electric shaver, and so on.
Women spend a lot of time wandering around stores and malls, but they never buy anything they see. It is more fun to look at thousands of things that you might want to buy in the future.
After almost an hour, she finally got to the spy cameras she had planned to acquire before coming here. She was glad to find that there were a lot of different kinds of goods, such pens, wristwatches, sunglasses, vanity bags, and so on. She began to search for anything that may have a small, hidden camera in it.
“Wow, what a surprise, terminator!” a voice she knew said behind her.
Lola glanced around and saw the same smile and two naughty eyes.
Ryan was the one.
Damn it.
Since the airport incident, she had been staying away from Ryan like the plague. She couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss he had so gently put on her lips. The overall significance of all the things he did before that would frequently make her pulse beat.
Lola has been out with other people previously. They were all informal, like planning day trips, meals, and movie evenings after getting to know one other, like performing an extracurricular activity or interest. But she never felt like she was in a state of euphoria like this.
She didn’t know what to do with it.
Ryan made her blush as much as he made her upset lately. He was like both her drug and her poison.
“What are you doing here?” she questioned, sounding a little annoyed.
He playfully remarked, “The same thing you’re,” and then he stooped down to look at the objects in front of her and read what was written on the part. He lifted an eyebrow in surprise and whistled softly. He rubbed the back of his head and said, “From sharp knives to spy cameras in random things.”  “You’re doing really well, Lola. Who are you going after, honey?”
“It’s just to keep proof of any illegal activities in the store while Damien is away. And I’m not your honey,” Lola spat, even though her cheeks were already starting to turn crimson, showing how much his sweet words had impacted her.
She was becoming a loser!
“Really?” He looked like he didn’t believe it.
Well, she didn’t care. She had a bloody job to do.
She went back to looking at the items to choose the ones that would work best for her.
Minty air started to blow on her shoulder in a steady pattern, making her freeze.
Newness.
Surprise.
She turned her head to see that it was Ryan. Again, bloody! He was virtually breathing on her neck as his eyes were fixed on the spying objects she was looking at. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
She could even see the small blackhead on his nose since he was so near.
He didn’t look at her when he said, “I run a security company.”  “So, I’m thinking about getting some of this for myself—”
“Bullshit,” she said angrily. “You can do it from a respectable distance from me—”
“Are you talking about that same respectable distance we had at the airport?”
Damn! Why did he have to bring it up now?
At first, she was shocked because her wrath faded and was replaced with humiliation and a lot of other things. Because she remembered and was standing directly in front of the man from that not-so-distant recollection.
In just a few seconds, her cheeks turned red.
And in this short time, he had gotten even closer, almost close enough to breathe.
She couldn’t move and was locked staring at his eyes, which sparkled with something gentle, harsh, or desperate.
The ringing of a phone was the last thing that saved them.
She looked at the phone and saw it was him.
“Who’s Zen?” Ryan was peeking over her shoulder from the rear.
Lola made a clucking sound with her tongue because she was angry. “Just a friend,” she said, as any other answer would have made things too complex.
“I know almost all of your friends in Velden—”
“But she said, “Well, nearly. But you surely don’t know all of them.”
She excused herself from him and moved to a few racks away to take the call. “Ah, I had a very sweet feeling that you would call.”
“Is that so?” Zen’s joyful voice came through on the other end. He giggled in a sweet way. “And I have a feeling that we’re going to have a great time tonight. I hope you haven’t forgotten about our date?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t come, Zenieee?” Lola replied in a baby voice, pouting.
“Of course not!” Zen responded quickly, “Of course not.”
Lola rolled her eyes and made a frown, but she chatted nicely for another minute before hanging up. Ryan was no longer at the rack of spying goods when she got back.
Thanks. She thought. She was a little sad that he didn’t even say goodbye before he left. But she wasn’t really nice to him either. Ryan had to reschedule his trip back to South Hills since she kept trying to aid Damien. She felt a little bad about it now that she thought about it.