Chapter Twelve - Sophia

“Who would do this? On Christmas Day,” Marla, a singer on the tour, asked, giving voice to the silent question we’d all been pondering as we hunkered down in the security bunker under the palace. The noises from above were muffled by earth and the thick walls of the room itself.

No one answered her.

We were all too worried to give rise to a conversation. I sat against the wall, wringing my fingers together, my mind only able to think about where Derrick might be and whether or not he was safe. A handful of soldiers were in the bunker with us, but if they knew anything, they kept it to themselves.

I’d already exhausted my efforts to try and get information from any of them. I glanced around the room at the others, most of them were familiar faces, other singers or musicians, the two comedians, and the members of the production crew. Jenna and Blake kept their distance from me at the other end of the room. There were also a couple of other civilians, though I didn’t recognize them. Everyone wore the same look of terror.

A walkie-talkie type of device crackled to life and the soldier nearest me waited as orders were barked out. A lot of it was garbled code words that meant nothing to me, but one thing was clear, we were in for a long night. The soldiers worked to get everyone a sleeping bag and a packet of ready to eat food, which no one ate.

I drank a bottle of water and curled up on my sleeping bag, even though I knew there was no way I was going to be able to go to sleep. Not until I knew Derrick was safe.

Details filtered in throughout the long night, a calculated attack had been launched in another part of the city but it turned out to be a distraction so the rebels could rush the gate of the palace. The group of militants managed to get past the guards and infiltrated the base. The soldiers fought back and when the city was officially deemed safe, a detail came to retrieve all of us from the bunker.

We were told our luggage was already loaded and that we needed to get into the vans that waited outside the palace. Everyone rushed to get inside. Everyone except me. I worked on the soldier nearest to me, pleading to see if Derrick was okay.

The man didn’t crumble. Instead, he gently took my arm and very patiently explained, “Ma’am, I’m sorry, I can’t get that information for you. I need you to get into the van.”

Tears sprang to my eyes as I was steered to the van.

Were there casualties? I was almost certain I’d heard the report over the radio through the night as they’d fought so bravely. Was Derrick hurt? Or worse…?

I dug in my heels, managing to stop just short of the doors to the van. “But I need to know if Derrick is okay,” I protested through big, splashy tears. My argument fell on deaf ears as I was grabbed by the elbow and led away from the palace and into the waiting caravan.

The door slammed shut behind me and I crumpled into a ball on the seat.

As the palace faded from sight, with the sun just starting to rise overhead, I wondered if I would ever see Derrick again.

****

The vans took us to the airstrip where a chartered plane was gassed up and waiting. We all boarded quickly and the commissioned crew that had accompanied us made quick work of getting our luggage stowed away. I settled into my seat with nothing, still wearing my favorite red dress that was hopelessly wrinkled and dirty. I didn’t have a purse, phone, or laptop. I had no way of getting in contact with Derrick, even if he was all right and able to reply.

I rested my head back against the seat and closed my eyes, desperate for sleep so that I could have a few hours of not worrying about Derrick. Logically, I figured he was far from the firefight that had exploded at the gate of the base. But there was a sliver of a chance that he’d gotten caught up in the fight.

“You look like you could use a few of these,” a voice said, as a weight settled into the seat beside me.

I glanced over and saw Blake. I pulled back but he held up his hands in surrender, a white bottle clasped between two fingers. “Come on, Sophia. Let’s call a truce. I didn’t know what Jenna was trying to do the other night, all right? I had no part of that.”

I sighed, too tired to fight with him. I jerked my head at the bottle. “What are those?”

“Sleeping pills.”

“Prescription?”

Blake shrugged as though it was an obvious answer. “Yeah. Two of these babies and you’ll sleep all the way back to New York.”

“Then I’ll take half. I have no interest in becoming a zombie for the next two days.”

Blake tossed a few pills into his hand and snapped one in half. I gave him a leery look and he rolled his eyes. “They’re perfectly safe. Ask Marla over there if you don’t believe me. She took two on the way here.”

“All right. Thanks.”

I gulped the pill down with half a bottle of water and wrapped myself in the flannel blanket that had been on my seat when I got to it.

“So is your boyfriend okay?”

“I don’t know,” I replied, turning my attention to the runway below the plane. “I guess I’ll have to wait to get home and check my messages.” My stomach churned at the thought of spending the next two days in agonizing suspense. Maybe I should have taken two of Blake’s pills.

Blake maneuvered in his seat, clearly making himself comfortable. “You wanna borrow my phone and check your email?”

My eyes flew open wide. “You have your phone?”

“Sure.” He pulled the slim device from his front pocket and offered it to me. “Go ahead.”

I grabbed it with a greedy snatch. “Thank you!” New tears formed in my eyes, blurring my vision as I opened a website page and typed in my email address and password, struggling to hit the right keys as my hands began to tremble. The WiFi signal on the plane was weak and as I glanced around, waiting for the page to load, I noticed a bunch of other people all hopping onto their various devices.

A soft buzz against my palm snapped me back to attention. A new message was waiting in my inbox. I held my breath and opened the message, releasing a squeal when I saw that it was from Derrick:

Sophia,

I’m so sorry that we didn’t get a chance to say goodbye. I looked all over for you before I found out that you’d all been taken away from the base already. Damn it, I sure would have liked to kiss you one more time. In any case, I’m all right. We have a couple of injured, but no casualties. Thank God. I’m going to be working a lot the next few days, but please email me as often as you can, and I’ll send you my screen name to video chat soon.

Meeting you has changed my life and I know that we’re taking it slow, one day at a time, but know I will never forget these last nine days and that I can’t wait to get you back in my arms again.

See you for New Year’s, baby.

-Your soldier

I burst into ugly tears at the end of the message, immediately going back to the beginning to read it all over again. The plane, the noises as we prepared for takeoff, even Blake’s presence next to me all faded from my mind as I read Derrick’s words again and again. He was okay. Everyone was okay. And I only had to wait another week before we’d be back together again.

“I take it he’s all right?” Blake asked, his light, teasing tone cutting into my thoughts.

I nodded, finished the final re-reading, and then handed the phone back to Blake. “Thank you so much.”

“See? I’m not a complete asshole,” he quipped, logging my email off before pocketing the phone.

I wasn’t sure if it was the overwhelm of emotions or the result of the sleeping pill I’d taken, but it wasn’t long before my head drifted down to Blake’s shoulder and I was out.

****

I had two days back in New York to blitz through visiting my family and friends to do our make-up Christmas celebrations. They’d all seen the televised special and couldn’t stop asking about the attack during the Christmas show or the handsome soldier that had been on my arm in several of the segments. At first, I was reluctant to talk too much about Derrick, but after our New Year’s plans were solidified, the whole thing felt more real. It was actually happening, and I turned into one of those love-struck girls who started all sentences with things like “Well, Derrick says this…” and “Oh, Derrick would love that”—to the amusement and nausea of everyone I knew.

I didn’t care. I was happier than I’d been in years and wanted to shout it from the roof of every Manhattan highrise.

When Derrick finally arrived in New York, all of my grand plans to take him out and do tourist things fell apart, and we ended up spending three glorious days in my apartment. No clothes, no dinner reservations, no problem.

On the one night we forced ourselves to leave the house, we went out to dinner at a fancy French restaurant in the heart of the Upper East Side, thankful to avoid any lingering paparazzi. After placing our orders, Derrick slipped a hand inside his jacket pocket and retrieved a small box. My heart raced as he handed the wrapped package to me. “I never got a chance to give this to you. I was planning to give it to you after the Christmas concert, but that obviously didn’t work out so well.”

“You really didn’t have to get me anything,” I said, picking at the nearest corner of the bright red wrapping paper.

“It’s not much, but I saw it in one of the markets and wanted to get it for you.”

I eyed him for another long moment before continuing to unwrap the gift.

“Now, come on, didn’t you heckle me for being too careful when unwrapping presents?” Derrick asked, his eyes dancing with amusement in the candlelight. “Rip it like you mean it, baby!”

I laughed and tore open the package. Inside the box was a gold chain that had three charms attached to it. Two stars and a sliver of a moon in the center. “Oh, Derrick—” I sucked in a deep breath, struck by the beauty of the dainty bracelet. “This is perfect.”

“I thought it made a good reminder of that first night,” he replied, dropping his voice to a husky whisper.

Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, overwhelmed by the sentimental gift. “Thank you so much. I love it.”

Derrick took my hand from across the table. “Sophia, I know we said we’d take this slow, but I can’t keep this to myself anymore. I’m in love with you. That day we got torn apart, on the stage, with all those mortars going off in the background…” his voice dropped out, too thick with emotion to continue. He blinked a few times, seeming to struggle to clear the vivid memories from his mind. “When I thought that I might never see you again, I realized how much I cared. I don’t expect you to—”

“Derrick, I love you too.”

His eyes went wide and the glossy sheen became more obvious.

“I don’t know what’s coming next, but I can’t imagine not having you in my life. I love you, Derrick.”

He leaned across the table and brushed a tear from my cheek. “Must be kismet, huh?”

“Kismet.”