Chapter 39 - The Man at Gate 17Seven years after her canceled honeymoon, Clara was back at an airport.
Again.
Sienna had threatened to ban her from airports for narrative reasons.
Clara ignored her.
She was traveling to Copenhagen for an Aurora employee-ownership conference.
No security crisis.
No inheritance.
No missing relatives.
She arrived early.
At Gate 17, a man accidentally knocked over her coffee.
"Oh God. I'm sorry."
Clara stared at the cup spreading across the table.
The man grabbed napkins.
He was perhaps forty.
Dark hair.
Glasses.
No expensive watch.
No visible arrogance.
He looked genuinely horrified about the coffee.
"I'll buy another."
"You don't have to."
"I absolutely do. I just murdered that one."
Clara laughed.
His name was Adrian Cole.
He taught architectural history.
He knew nothing about Aurora.
At least he claimed not to.
Clara became suspicious.
Then amused at her suspicion.
They talked for twenty minutes.
His flight boarded.
He hesitated.
"Would it be strange if I gave you my number?"
"Yes."
He looked embarrassed.
Clara continued.
"But strange isn't fatal."
He smiled.
He wrote his number on a napkin.
Not her phone.
Not a business card.
A napkin.
After he left, Clara photographed it and sent it to Sienna.
Sienna called instantly.
"WHO IS ADRIAN?"
Clara held the phone away from her ear.
"A man."
"Is he married?"
"I don't know."
"Criminal record?"
"Sienna."
"Secret twin?"
"Stop."
"Has he ever died?"
Clara started laughing so hard people looked at her.
That evening she searched nothing.
No background check.
No corporate investigation.
No private security report.
She waited two days.
Then texted him.
Coffee survived this time.
Dinner followed.
Then another.
For the first year, Clara refused to call what they were doing a relationship.
Adrian did not pressure her.
He had his own apartment.
His own career.
His own money.
His own failures.
Most importantly, he had no interest in owning any part of Clara's life.
Three years later, he proposed.
Not at an airport.
Clara had forbidden that.
He proposed in her kitchen while pasta burned.
Clara stared at the ring.
Then at him.
"Do you know what happened the last time I wore one of those?"
"Your sister gave me a seventeen-page briefing."
Clara closed her eyes.
"I am going to kill her."
"She included diagrams."
"Of course she did."
Adrian smiled.
"You don't have to say yes."
That sentence decided it.
May you like
Clara looked at him.
"Yes."
