A few months later, I agreed to spend Easter with Jake on a very remote South Pacific Island. Seven days of white sandy beaches, beautiful turquoise waters, a bungalow on the beach and lots of food and drink; what more could a girl want? The holiday was absolute perfection, and I started to like Jake more and more. At times, I felt like a film star on that beautiful remote Island in the most exclusive, and therefore private, resort he could find. When it was time to leave, we had agreed we would both take the weekly flight to Sydney, and he would stay the night at my apartment before his flight to LA in the morning. Although I was reluctant to let him stay at my apartment, I really did have no choice.
So, late on the Saturday night, we arrived, very tried and jet lagged, back at my apartment in Sydney. After unpacking a few essentials, we fell straight to sleep. Now, although I had been perfectly honest with Ben about my entire trip (obviously minus a few details), and he had been very understanding, I had not wanted to risk an attempt on my Americans friend’s life. So, I had opted for the little white lie to Ben that I would be landing alone in Sydney on Sunday morning rather than Saturday night. That way, once Jake had safely left my apartment, I could text Ben, saying I had landed and was going straight home. Ben would be none the wiser, and I would not have to risk mine or Jake’s life. It was a Sunday, and I knew Ben would be busy anyway, so I was not too worried things would not go to plan.
So, when Jake left my apartment at 11am that Sunday morning, I immediately turned on my phone and texted Ben, saying I had landed early and was going straight home as I was exhausted. My plan was then to text again in an hour to say I was home and then go back to the truth. However, it did not work out like that at all!
As soon as I texted Ben saying I had landed, he texted back with, ‘I’m at the airport to pick you up. I’ve been here two hours waiting as I didn’t know your flight number.’ My heart immediately sank, since I was obviously in my apartment in my PJ’s watching TV! At that moment in time, I probably should have owned up and just admitted the truth. Nonetheless, once again I did not. What I actually did, was re-pack two suitcases (In a hurry, re-packing those suitcases was an absolute mission, I can tell you now), put my passport back in my handbag (that I very nearly forgot to do and would have given the whole game away if it had still been on the table when I walked back in), got dressed, tidied up the apartment so it looked like no one had been there, and got a taxi all the way back to the airport. When the taxi driver asked me if I was going anywhere nice, I don’t think I have ever laughed so much. He must have thought I was insane.
When we got to the airport, the taxi driver asked me what airline I was flying with. Through hysterical laughter, I managed to blurt out, ‘Any of them.’ To this day, I don’t know why I found it all so funny, but I did.
After being dropped off at departures by a very worried taxi driver, who more than likely phoned the police reporting a suspected terrorist, I headed straight for arrivals, the whole time trying to avoid Jake who was checking in to departures! Could you imagine what I would have had to explain if I had bumped into him, bags in tow, back at airport departures! There would have been no explanation on this Earth to explain that.
I, of course, began to panic that airport security would see me and I would be arrested for terrorism. Why else would someone get dropped off at departures with two suitcases and head straight for arrivals! I tried to act normally, but my heart was racing so fast, and my whole body was shaking so much, that I knew I was not doing a very good job. The whole time, I was texting Ben, making my excuses about long queues at customs and lost bags. With suitcases in tow, I got the lift down to arrivals and tried to spy Ben so that I could approach from an angle that looked like I came straight through customs. Of course, part of me wanted to ask airport security if I could just ‘pop into customs for a moment,’ but I did not think that would go down very well, even if I explained the reason. But then, luck was on my side once again, and I spotted Ben shouting at someone on his phone outside, sitting on a bench, completely distracted. So, after walking the long way round, I exited the airport doors, and Ben spotted me from his bench, hung up the phone and came over immediately. He gave me a big warm hug and told me how much he missed me, stating ‘Wow that took forever. Did they strip search you or something?’.
I felt absolutely terrible but, hopefully, it did not show. When we returned from the airport that lunchtime, I had to walk into my house and pretend I hadn’t seen Coco in over a week. The poor cat looked at me like I was absolutely mad. Sometimes, I am very grateful she can’t talk!‘Sometimes you have to lie. But to yourself you must tell the truth.’ — Louise Fitzhugh.