PHILIP

Winnie spoke on the phone to her sister and I caught bits of the conversation.  “What does your doctor say? . . . You’re going to the hospital right now? . . . Yes, I’m coming. . . I love you.. . . Yes. . . What’s the name of the hospital again?”

When she finished the call, she looked distracted, concerned.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

She nodded.  “It’s Jenna.  My sister.  She’s having a baby, and I promised to be there for her.  She had a c-section scheduled for next week, but now her water broke, which changes everything.”

“Is she or the baby in danger?”

“I don’t know.  Her doctor thinks she’ll be okay, but she wants her to come to the hospital right away.”  Winnie looked at the handcuffs linking us together.  “Have we even been together six hours yet?”

I looked at my watch.  It was four-thirty.  “No.  About five and a half hours.”

She nodded.  “Oh well, I guess it doesn’t matter.  One hundred dollars isn’t going to make a bit of difference either way.”

She turned her right wrist and looked as if she might key in the PIN number to unlock the handcuffs, but I put my hand over hers to stop her.  “What are you doing?  I thought we were going to last twenty-four hours.”

She looked at me.  “I have to go to New York.”

“Your sister’s in New York?”

“Yes, and I promised . . .”

“To be there,” I finished.  “I heard that.  But I don’t understand.  Where’s the baby’s father?”

“He’s in the army.  He’s deployed right now.”

Things were beginning to make more sense.  “All right.  Your sister needs you and you need to fly out as soon as possible.”

“Yes.  I need to call the airline because I already bought tickets for next week, but I don’t think they’re transferable.”

I shook my head.  “Don’t worry about it.  Just give me your information and we can be on the next flight.  My assistant Ramon will take care of it.”

“Ramon?”

“Yes, he takes care of all my travel arrangements.”

She looked dumbfounded.  “You’re coming with me?”

I held up my left hand, bringing her right along for the ride.  “I promised you twenty-four hours, and I will give you twenty-four hours.  Whatever it takes.”

Winnie looked as if she might cry.  “You are so nice.  Thank you.”

I wasn’t certain whether I was being nice or if I just didn’t want to let her go.  She’d agreed to be my companion for twenty-four hours, and I was going to hold her to that – if I could.

She gave me her phone again, and I spoke to Ramon.

Within half an hour, he secured first class tickets to LaGuardia.

We took a taxi to the airport and on the way, Winnie spoke to her fiancé Shawn.

Since I was sitting next to her, there was no privacy, and he spoke loudly enough that I, as well as our driver, could hear most of their conversation.

She said, “Hi, Sweetheart.  How’s it going?”

He said irritably, “How do you think it’s going?  It’s dinner time, Babe.  Make it quick.”

I wanted to reach through the phone and thump him on the head for being so rude to her.

She said, “Sorry to bother you, but Jenna called and she’s having the baby right now.”

There was some kind of loud noise on the other end of the call and Shawn swore.  “What’s that?” he said.

“I’m flying out to New York today.”

“Okay.  Got it.  Let me know how it goes.”

“But that’s not all,” she added, but he cut her off saying, “I really have to go, Babe.  Talk to you later.”

“Love you,” she said, but as far as I could hear, he didn’t say the same.  He merely ended the call.

She looked at me and said apologetically, “He isn’t always like that.  He’s just really busy during dinner time.  I’ll talk to him later tonight.”

He sounded like a jerk, but for her sake, I hoped she was right.  Every time she talked about her fiancé, her face lit up.  It was clear that she loved him, and she wanted their marriage to be a success.

When it came time to get through TSA, the officials wanted us to take off the handcuffs.  Nothing I said could convince them otherwise, and the more I tried to explain matters, the more insistent they became.  “I’m sorry, Mr. Nilsson,” one of the officers said.  “Rules are rules.  Miss Abbot is not in your legal custody, so it doesn’t matter what private agreement you have.  You must remove the handcuffs to be allowed to fly.  It’s a safety issue.”

Our conversation had drawn some attention.  I saw several people filming us with their phones.

I said smoothly, “Thank you for your time,” and walked with Winnie away from the entrance.

“What’s going on?” she said.  “We can take off the handcuffs.”

“No,” I said.  “It’s a matter of principle now.”

She said, “I just want to see my sister.  I don’t care about winning.”

I said, “Are you afraid of small planes?”

“I don’t know.  I’ve never flown in one.”

“Are you willing to fly in a private plane?”

Winnie sighed.  “I just want to get there safe and sound and see my sister.”

“All right,” I said.  “Give me your phone and I will make it happen.”

WINNIE

I filmed a brief video of us sitting in a luxurious airplane.  “Here we go,” I said.  “On our way to New York City.  Hopefully to get there in time to see my nephew or niece be born!”

I turned off the camera and looked around the cabin, admiring the luxurious décor – there were eight large seats with seat belts and behind that, there were several cream color leather couches, small tables, and even a bar.  I felt as if I were on a movie set.

“Do you travel like this all the time?” I asked Philip.

“No,” he said.  “Not unless it’s necessary.”

I didn’t comment.  I knew it hadn’t been necessary today.  I would have been just as happy to remove the handcuffs and take a first-class seat.

But that would have meant saying good-bye to Philip, I thought with a little ping of disappointment.  Without the contest, there was no reason for us to stay together.

I didn’t know how I felt about that.

I was enjoying spending time with him, getting a glimpse into how billionaires lived.  As the mixer had promised, I was getting the chance to walk in another person’s shoes.

Not to mention new shoes for myself.

I still couldn’t believe I was wearing Christian Louboutin shoes that cost more than my share of the rent – seven hundred dollars.  And the sandals hadn’t been cheap, either.

I sighed and leaned back in the huge chair, closing my eyes.  What a day today had been.  I glanced at my phone.  It was already 7 p.m.  Philip and I had been locked together for eight hours, but it seemed like much longer.

Philip said, “Are you all right?”

I nodded and didn’t open my eyes.  “I’m fine.”

I was worried about Jenna and hoped that I would get there in time to be a help to her.  I had spoken to her a few minutes before we took off.  Jenna said she felt fine, but she was having some contractions.  The doctor wanted her to have the c-section within the next twelve hours, and she wanted to wait until I was there.  Jenna tried to sound brave, but I knew she was worried.  She had begged, “Please hurry, Winnie!”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I promised.

I was also a little nervous about flying in such a small plane.  Technically, I knew that the science and safe ty of flight did not depend on the size of the airplane, but little planes were so . . . little.

I glanced briefly at Philip who looked completely at ease.  After being handcuffed for eight hours, I was feeling a little rumpled, and I wished I could take off my suit jacket and brush out my hair.  Philip looked the same as he had that morning:  cool, calm and collected.  Although there was a hint of shadow along his jawline.  He’d look good with a beard, I thought.  One of those close cut, barely-there beards, not a mountain-man-haven’t-seen-a-soul-for-six-months beard.  I closed my eyes again and smiled, imagining that.  He-man Nilsson wearing a plaid flannel shirt and jeans.

Usually at the end of the day, I liked to relax, close my eyes and think about my upcoming wedding.  I did so now.

In six weeks, Shawn and I were finally getting married in my parents’ church in Red Oak.  I couldn’t wait.  Afterwards, we would have a small reception with barbecue in my parents’ back yard.  Shawn hadn’t liked the idea of barbecue.  He would have preferred vegetarian fare, but since my parents were paying for it, he had reluctantly agreed.

And my father had graciously offered to grill some veggie burgers and portabella mushrooms for Shawn.

My wedding dress was beautiful.  In design, it was similar to Grace Kelly’s wedding dress with a sweet, high-necked lace collar and a fitted waist.  I didn’t like Grace’s wedding headdress, though, so I would have a more traditional poufy veil, more like Princess Di’s with a rhinestone tiara.

I could imagine it all – me in my beautiful gown and Shawn in a dark gray suit.  He was more of the jeans and t -shirt type, and he refused to wear a tuxedo, so we had compromised with a morning wedding and a gray suit.

My prior Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Kline, was going to arrange our flowers.  I told her she could do whatever she wanted as long as there were lots of white roses.  I wanted everything to be white and silver.  My bridesmaids would be wearing silver dresses.  One of my bridesmaids was Pam, my best friend from high school, and my roommate Gwen would be the other.

Originally, I had thought that Jenna would be my matron of honor, and we’d bought a cute silver maternity dress for her to wear, but that was when I thought we’d get married in June.

Two months before the wedding, however, Shawn had changed his mind.  He said that with Alamo Beans opening in May, he couldn’t plan a wedding, too, so we postponed everything until the first week in November.  That date worked for Shawn, who didn’t want to get married around Thanksgiving or Christmas, and I didn’t want to wait until the next year.

I was worried that November was too close to Jenna’s due date, and I feared that she wouldn’t want to fly with a brand new baby, but she said, “Don’t plan around me.  Do what’s best for you as a couple, and I’ll be there, whether I fit the dress or not.”

“And you do what’s best for you and the baby,” I told her.

Personally, I thought that a November wedding might be better than June.  As long as it didn’t rain, the Texas weather was nicer in the Fall.  Not so hot.

I smiled, imagining myself walking down the aisle in my beautiful dress with my father to give me away.  My cousin Rose would play Pachelbel’s Canon in D on the piano.

“Would you like something to drink?” Philip asked.

“Oh.”  I suddenly opened my eyes and sat up straighter.  Philip’s question had brought me out of my reverie.  I straightened my suit jacket and retucked my blouse with my left hand.  During our flight, my blouse had come half untucked.

I checked my hair and knew I’d have to fix it when we landed.

He said, “Forgive me.  Were you sleeping?”

“Maybe half sleeping, half dreaming.”

“Well,” he said with a smile.  “You looked very happy.  I’m sorry I interrupted you.”

“No, that’s fine,” I said quickly.  “Are we there, yet?”

“Not yet.  I just thought you might like something to drink.”

“What’s available?”

“Wine.  Champagne.  Beer.”

“Non-alcoholic?”

“Soda.  Juice.  Whatever you want.”

I noticed that unlike many Texans who called all soft drinks ‘coke,’ Philip called it soda, which was more of an East Coast thing.  I wondered if his nannies had been from the East Coast.

“I’ll have a Dr. Pepper,” I said.  Dr. Pepper was invented in Texas and my father considered it unpatriotic to drink anything else.

Philip pressed a call button on the arm of his chair and a flight attendant came out from the cockpit to serve us.  She was a woman in her early forties – fit and friendly, with big hair and a cute pale blue uniform.

Wow, I thought.  This was living the high life – to have our own private flight attendant.  I felt like a movie star or a princess.

I noticed that Philip drank flavoured seltzer water.

He saw me looking at him and he raised one eyebrow inquiringly.  He said, “What are you thinking?”

“You don’t seem to have a sweet tooth.”

“I do.  I just don’t indulge it very often.”

He smiled at me, and I was the first to look away.  This time, I didn’t ask him what he was thinking.