“Wow, Alice—you thought of everything!”

“I sent the text to Helena a few minutes ago, so she knows she’s on now.” 

Tina breathed a sigh of relief.  “So now, all we have to do is wait.  Angus, you’re all set?”

“I’ve got my gear right here,” he said, as he relaxed in the limo.

Bette was standing in a long line to check her bag—the computerized system had been out of commission since before her arrival, and she was getting antsy.  “F*cking modern technology!  Just when you need it, it crashes!” she muttered under her breath.

Much louder, she said, “Can’t anyone speed up this process?  I have a plane to catch!”  The woman in front of her turned and said, with disdain, “You and everybody else in these lines!  What makes you so special?”  Several people nearby who heard the remark snickered.  Bette just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms tightly in front of her.

After a few minutes, her cell phone rang.  “Bette, it’s Helena…Are you at LAX?”

“Yes, I am…why do you ask?”

“I thought that was you!  I’m here with Catherine for a quick poker game some of her friends had set up, but their flight is delayed, as yours also seems to be.” 

“How do you know when my flight is?”

Helena realized she had said too much.  “Oh, I seem to remember hearing that you were flying out this morning around this time,” she quickly recovered.

“Well, the f*cking baggage system is not working, so they have to manually check all the bags!  Wait…did you say my flight is delayed?”

“Yes, the monitor says it’s not departing for at least two hours—your plane isn’t even here yet!  It was delayed in Chicago because of a thunderstorm.”

“Shit!  I really don’t need this right now!”

“Well, Bette—why don’t you come with me!  Looks like we have a bit of time to kill, and Catherine is driving me bloody insane! It’s so noisy in here, so why don’t we go out and take a little walk?”

“Might as well—will give me something to do besides go crazy in here!  I really don’t want to carry this bag around, but it looks like I have no choice.”