“Yes, that’s right.”

“So, there’s a little office there. They’ll have your bag. Just bring two pieces of photo ID and you’re good.”

Matt leant over and whispered, “I’ll take you.”

She whispered, “Thanks,” and wrapped up the call. She sat back in the dining chair and let out a sigh.

“Come on. I’ll drive you over.”

“Are you sure? I can just walk over. It’s not that far.” It was that far, and she was wrung out, but she didn’t want to be a nuisance.

“Nah, I’ll take you. It’s all good.”

A niggling thought leapt to the forefront of Jules’s mind. “Hold on, she said I needed to bring two pieces of photo ID, right? I’ve got my Colorado driver’s licence, but my passport is in my carry-on.” She looked between Ash and Matt.

Ash waved her off. “I’m sure it will be fine.” Ash seemed far more optimistic than she was.

“Yeah, that’s just common sense, right?” added Matt.

Jules nodded, not wholly convinced.

“Did you want to shower first, though?” asked Ash.

Jules looked down at her wrinkled tank and her dull, grey, post-flight skin. She must have looked terrible—she felt terrible.

“You look fine,” added Ash. “I just know that whenever I travel, the first thing I want to do when I arrive is shower.”

Jules would have killed to stay in the apartment and shower—and rest—but she also knew she wouldn’t be able to rest properly until she had her carry-on safely in hand.

“Let’s go,” she sighed.

“Back in a bit,” said Matt, leading the way out of the apartment.

It turned out that the errand took a quite a lot longer than “a bit”.

*

Several hours later, Jules was back at the apartment, showered and fed—four pieces of toast with peanut butter—and semi-reclined on Ash and Chloe’s couch, trying to keep her eyes open. Her fatigue probably wasn’t helped by the wine Ash had insisted on opening. It was delicious, though.

“I still can’t believe I left my bag on that bus,” she moaned. “What an idiot.”

“You’re being too hard on yourself. You’d just flown long-haul. No one is in their right mind after getting off a plane from across the world. I never am.”

“Seriously, though, when I realised it was a catch-22, I nearly lost it. They can only open a bag with the permission of the owner, but they couldn’t confirm my identity as the owner to their satisfaction without opening the bag.” She knew she was labouring the point. She’d given Ash the digest version as soon as Matt had dropped her back at the apartment, but she couldn’t help dwelling on the “what if” of losing her passport.

She needed sleep.

“I seriously can’t believe they didn’t just give it to you. I mean, were there dozens of hysterical women calling up about a lost bag with that exact description?”

Jules’s eyebrows shot up on the word “hysterical” and she looked pointedly at Ash, a smile tugging at her mouth. Ash caught the look. “Well, not hysterical exactly. Um, concerned, upset, worried.”