“Terrance.”

I turned and faced Andrea’s friend Brazil. I guess she was out of town when I talked to Andrea a few days earlier, tempting her with a threesome. Meeting Brazil there at the airport immediately made me wonder if Andrea had talked to her about our conversation. So I felt a little bit uneasy.

“Oh, hey, how are you doing?”

She grinned. “I heard you talked to Andrea recently.”

That made me even more uneasy.

“Ah, yeah, I did.”

Brazil nodded. Now that I could focus on her without any distractions, she looked better than I thought she did when I first met her, even in the basic gray sweats she was wearing. I was in blue jeans, white T-shirt, a sports jacket, and the comfortable brown leather shoes that I usually wore for travel.

“So, how’s it going? You have another event in town this weekend?” she asked me.

I locked in and focused on her beautiful brown lips. They had the perfect size and plumpness.

“Ah, no, I’m just staying over for the night. I’m actually on my way out to L.A. tomorrow.”

I wondered if she was thinking the same thing I was thinking, only Victoria would be in the way of things. In fact, I didn’t even want Brazil to see me with Victoria. I didn’t want to spoil anything for the future.

So instead of walking forward toward baggage claim, I stopped and stood there.

“Where are you flying back in from?” I asked her. It was none of my business, but I didn’t know what else to ask at the moment.

“I have family in Kansas City.”

“Oh, Kansas City. Is that where you’re from?”

She looked me in the eyes and said, “I was an army brat. I’ve lived everywhere.”

“So, what does that mean, you don’t have a home turf ?”

“Chicago,” she told me, “it’s my adopted city now.”

I nodded back to her. “Big choice. Few cities in America are bigger.”

After that, we just stood there awkwardly for a minute. “Are you walking to baggage claim?” she finally asked me.

I said, “Yeah, but I just forgot, I wanna buy some good coffee and hit the restroom before I leave. But tell Andrea I said hi.”

Brazil smiled. I wondered if she realized I was bullshitting. At least she was being cordial with me. She didn’t have to speak to me at all.

“Okay, well, I’ll tell Andrea I saw you.”

“Yeah, you do that,” I told her, and I walked off toward an airport coffee shop. Then I wondered if Brazil knew what Victoria looked like from the cancer dinner at The Millennium Ballroom.

Even if she does, that doesn’t mean she can link her to me, I thought to myself as I walked away.

I walked off to the restroom to force myself to piss, before ordering coffee and an apple pastry. I was stalling for time to make sure Brazil had cleared the area. I gave myself ten minutes, while sipping my coffee and munching on my pastry before I began a slow walk toward baggage claim and ground transportation again.