“Shall we get dinner?” Hez asked as he opened the car door for me and allowed me to slide into the warmth.
“I could eat,” I admitted. “But I’d like to change first. My pants are wet from the ice.”
He climbed in after me and shut the door before turning to face me.
“I’d wanted to take you somewhere nice, but if you prefer we could order in and stay at the house,” he offered.
“That would be great, actually,” I admitted. “I’d like to see if Simon was able to unlock my email. And then we could watch Die Hard together.”
It amazed me that he and his brother had never seen it. I’d thought my Hans Gruber joke was hilarious and had been slightly disappointed it had fallen so flat with the men.
“As you wish,” Hez said, then leaned forward toward the open partition. “Nik, take us home please.”
The wordhomemade something knot painfully in my throat, and to my horror I felt my eyes fill with tears. I turned quickly toward the window, so Hez wouldn’t see as I forced myself to calm the hell down.
I wanted to go home. Of course I did. My family was there and my friends and my job and my life. But deep down, I was starting to feel like I was already home. Like Germany was doing everything in it’s power to keep me there.
“Scheisse,” Hez hissed violently, causing me to turn and look at him in surprise.
“Is everything okay?” I asked, my brow furrowing as I noticed the agitated look on his face.
“Fine,” he said, shaking his head. “You know how to swear in German?”
“Sort of.” I laughed softly. “I only know a little German. A few swear words, do you take credit cards, where is the toilet, thank you, I’m sorry and excuse me.”
“Sounds like you have all your bases covered,” he teased. “And here I worked to become fluent in multiple languages when I could have used your short cut and saved myself a lot of hassle.”
“Clearly I’m a pro at international travel,” I joked, but my humor died as a thought occurred to me. I grabbed Hez’s arm and looked at his watch then groaned when I saw it was after six in the evening. “Is the embassy going to be open tomorrow?”
“I don’t think so,” he said, his expression telling me he realized the same thing I did. “They’re not usually open on Sundays. And Monday is Christmas Eve…”
“And Tuesday is Christmas,” I finished, leaning back in my seat and blowing out a heavy sigh. “I’m going to be stuck here.”
“Not necessarily,” he offered. “Let’s take things one piece at a time, okay? Simon was able to get access to your email, so you can reach out and see if someone can send you copies of your documents. Just focus on that for now, okay? And when that’s done, we’ll figure out next the next step.”
He was so calm and reasoned, that it forced me to chill out a little. He was right. If I couldn’t get my sister to answer me, then there was no point worrying about the embassy hours anyway, because I’d have nothing to take them.
One thing at time.
First, food. Then email. Then movie.
I could do this.
Chapter Eight
~Hez~
The mature, gentlemanly thing to do would have been to tell her that the text I’d received that had upset me so much had been from my brother, telling me that the police had recovered her documents.
But then I would have had to explain to her why I’d been so upset by it. Also, I was worried that she would want to check in to her hotel and leave me. And I wasn’t ready to let her go yet.
I knew I’d have to tell her eventually. I couldn’t actually allow her to miss her flight and remain stranded in Germany through Christmas. She no doubt wanted to return to her family, and she’d never forgive me if I lied to her.
So I would tell her…tomorrow. In time to take her to the airport and watch her walk out of my life forever.
I just wanted one more night with her.
I texted Simon to let him know that we would be sharing the good news with Hannah in the morning, and that he was to ensure there was food ready for our return, and to make himself scarce.