“Make sure you call us as soon as you land,” he said, pulling me into one last hug. “As a matter of fact, I expect to hear from you often. Chicago and Costa Rica are in the same time zone, so no excuses.”

“You checked the time zones?” I asked with a surprised laugh.

“Of course, I did,” he said as if it was normal for him to be this thoughtful, but then I had to check myself on that. Jared had grown up a lot in the last few years. He wasn’t nearly as shallow and self-centered as he used to be, and he deserved credit for that.

“I’ll call you when I land, and at least twice a week while I’m away,” I promised, pounding him on the back. “How else am I supposed to keep you up to date on how my wife search is going?”

He laughed and pushed me away. “Get out of here before I break your legs or something to keep you in the country.”

My Uber pulled up to the curb, and I stumbled down the steps, apparently a little more drunk than I realized. Opening the rear passenger door, I turned to where they stood and waved one last time. The goodbyes had gone on long enough. If I lingered much longer, I would never leave.

My five a.m. alarm woke me long before I was ready to get out of bed. I’d spent the rest of the night drinking with Juana, who had already moved most of her things in, while flipping through a photo album she’d dug out of the closet in my spare room. There were quite a few pictures of me and Darcy in there. I wanted to call her, but I never worked up the nerve, though. It was probably for the best. I did, however, stay up all night reminiscing about those eighteen hours we spent together, which left me groggy and grouchy for my early morning flight.

Anxious to get to sleep as quickly as possible, I found my seat in business class and began to stow my bags.

“Excuse me, Mr. Martinez?”

“Yeah?” I answered, still trying to maneuver my bag into the overhead compartment.

“It’s your lucky day, sir! You’ve been bumped up to first class.”

Frowning, I turned to look at her, one hand still holding my unsecured bag in place. “What?”

“You’ve been upgraded to a first-class seat! If you just grab your things, I can escort you—”

“What? Why? Is this some sort of promotional sky miles credit card thing?”

“No, sir,” she said, smiling awkwardly. “You’ve been gifted this first-class seat by another passenger.”

Okay, that was just odd. “I’ve never heard of this before. Is this something you do often?”

“Not often, but it does happen on occasion. Could you just grab your things and follow me?”