“I still want to be with you.” She kissed him firmly. “I don’t care if I ever go back to that stupid show. It’s utterly meaningless. I don’t care about anything right now except being with you. I haven’t felt safe until I walked into this car.”

Barry voice trembled. “You know what’s funny, Samantha? You think your life is falling apart and then poof! a woman gets in your car and it all makes sense again. Thank you for your vote of confidence.”

“Barry, this isn’t a vote of confidence. I love you.”

Barry pulled her toward him. “Baby, you are safe with me. I promise. Daddy’s here now. Everything’s going to be fine.”

Teterboro Airport was jammed that morning. Samantha saw Grey Navez, Lewis Franklin, and Tina Schultz with her entire family. Real Chen was at the Signature Flight Support desk demanding “What’s happened to my daddy’s plane?”

Samantha remembered Barry saying to her that until he met her he always preferred flying alone. He enjoyed reading a newspaper in the sky or catching up on script coverage. He had once mentioned that Clarice had tried too hard to make conversation when they flew together, and he resented it. This was his only time to really unwind, and he didn’t want to waste it on inane pleasantries.

As they walked to the plane Samantha noticed that he was limping slightly and once or twice stopped to wince in pain.

“Are you okay, Barry?” she asked him. “I get leg cramps now whenever I play tennis.”

“I’m fine. I get leg cramps when I don’t play tennis.”

Barry let Samantha walk onto the plane first. She saw that he was holding on to both sides of the small banister but didn’t want to say anything. Once inside, Barry spoke quickly to their stewardess.

“She’ll be watching a movie. Bring her whatever you’ve got. And an Absolut on the rocks. And I’ll have my papers and a diet Dr Pepper.”

“Thank you, Mr. Santorini.” The stewardess took her orders graciously.

“No, thank you.” He smiled at her and then looked at Samantha for approval. “See what a nice guy I’ve become.”

Samantha took his hand. “I’ve missed you, Barry.”

Barry stroked her fingers. “I missed you, too, babe. I didn’t even know how much. I was an idiot not to knock your door down. I just thought you were playing fucking games with me.”

“Oh, who knows what I was doing. It made no sense.” She shook her head.

“No, it made a lot of sense.” He turned her face toward him. “I was a total asshole. But next time promise we’ll talk about things before you disappear, like grown-ups. Promise?”

“I promise,” she said as Barry kissed her fingers.

“You are the love of my life.” He looked directly at her. “Forgive me.”