Gamble With Desire

It was chaotic inside the massive airport. Finally, after waiting in quite a long line, Addison bought a one-way ticket to Baltimore, Maryland. She only had an hour left until the flight took off, so she had to hurry. After catching a shuttle that stopped closest to where she needed to be, she hopped off and began to jog to her gate.

"Excuse me? Hey! HEY!" someone shouted from behind her.

Addison turned around, expecting nothing more than for the voice to have been calling someone else. However, she found a guy with slightly messy-looking light brown hair, who appeared to be around her age, unmistakably gazing at her.

"I think you dropped this," he said, holding out her boarding pass which indeed had fallen out of her pocket.

"Thanks," she mumbled, took it back from him, and turned around and kept walking. She wasn't in a very social mood.

Addison looked over to find Mr. Boarding Pass walking beside her. "I'm Alex," he said and smiled.

She definitely wasn't in the mood for this pretty boy who clearly thought he was the best shit to hit town. It could have partly been the state in which she was, but he was just rubbing her the wrong way.

"I'm Addison," she said curtly.

"Cool name," Alex said and smiled. "So, Addison, where are you headed to?"

"Baltimore," she replied.

"That's funny, so am I."

"Cool," said Addison, not knowing what else to say. "Well if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head off to the bathroom before the plane starts boarding."

He nodded and Addison quickly made her way to the bathroom, eager to escape Alex. You'd think that kid was Superman or something, the way he thought he was so great for picking up my boarding pass, Addison thought to herself, irritated.

She took her time in the bathroom and was washing her hands for the third time when she decided she should probably go back to the gate before the plane took off without her.

Just as she was making her way to the seated area, a voice over the intercom announced that the plane was now boarding. Addison walked over to where people had begun to line up, and waited her turn. Within a few minutes, she was seated on the plane and was rummaging through her large purse to find her iPod. She was just in the process of placing her headphones in her ears when she felt someone sit down beside her.

Is those a joke? she asked herself.

"We meet again," said Alex and smirked.

Addison sighed. "Hi, Alex."

Without any further conversation, she pressed the 'play' button and allowed herself to fall asleep to her music.

"Addison?" She felt herself being shaken lightly. "Addison, come on, wake up."

She sleepily yanked at her earphones and opened her eyes. "We're there already?" It hadn't felt like it had been very long.

"No, we're not," said Alex. "There's some huge snowstorm and we're making an emergency landing in Philly."

Addison rolled her eyes. "Fuckin' a, of course we are." She paused. "Well uh, thanks."

He flashed a smile. "No problem."

Addison found out that she would get a call from the airport telling her when their flight would be able to take off, should she choose to stick with it. Rolling her eyes, she grumpily made her way to the luggage claim. Pulling her cell phone out of her pocket, she saw that it was 11:51 PM. Now she would have to try to find a hotel room at this hour, which wasn't going to be easy. Maybe I should have stayed in New York, she sarcastically thought to herself. After grabbing her luggage, Addison walked outside of the airport and jumped into a cab.

"Um, can you get me to the nearest hotel, please?" she asked.

"At midnight?" asked the driver; Addison saw him raising his eyebrows in the rear-view mirror. "Good luck."

She sighed. "Yeah, I know. Do you know of any that might have vacancy?"

"Of course I do," he replied. "They're places that even I wouldn't feel comfortable staying in, though."

Addison groaned. "Fine, I guess the closest half-decent one."

The car ride only lasted for about five minutes. During that short amount of time, she began to think a little - going over the whole airport scenario in her head, Addison started to think that she had maybe been a bit rude to that Alex kid. She mentally sighed, knowing there was nothing she could do to change this or make up for it, but the more she analyzed the situation, the worse she began to feel. Afterall, he was very friendly, and it's not like he could have known that she was in such a grumpy mood. Something else that struck Addison as odd was that she had a feeling she'd seen him before, but she couldn't think of where it might have been.

Interrupting her thoughts, the cab pulled to a stop. Addison looked out the window to discover that they had arrived at the hotel, which at a first glance, at least, appeared to be pretty safe. Addison handed over some money to the driver and began to climb out of the cab. Just as she was about to shut the door, the driver called, "Hey, good luck."

It took her a second to realize what he meant; Addison blinked and thanked him, shutting the door. She stepped into the hotel, dragging her luggage behind her. Other than a person with their hood up booking a room at the front desk, there wasn't a lineup. Addison walked up to the counter and waited for her turn.

"Okay, thanks a lot," said the hooded figure ahead of her. She frowned slightly; his voice sounded like Alex's. You're just tired, she told herself. Of course it isn't Alex.

A few seconds later, the man stepped aside and shuffled through some papers.

"Hi, is there any chance I'd be able to book a room?" asked Addison, stepping closer.

The woman standing behind the counter looked sympathetic. "I'm sorry, but there actually isn't," she said. "This young man here just booked our last one." She motioned to the guy standing a couple feet away from Addison.

He lifted his head and looked in their direction; Addison nearly fell over.

"Seriously?" she asked in disbelief. "This is not happening," she mumbled to herself.

"Fancy meeting you here," Alex chirped.

Addison groaned, turning back to the woman behind the desk, whose name tag read 'Claire'. "You don't have any rooms?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, we don't."

Addison sighed. "Could you give me the number for a cab company, please?"

The woman opened her mouth to respond and got cut off. "Don't be ridiculous," said Alex. "You could stay in my room."

"Really, Alex, it's fine," she said, trying to sound as polite as possible. Addison really wanted to try being nice to this guy, but she still wasn't in a very personable mood and, on top of this, she was beginning to feel exhausted.

"So what's your plan, get a cab to a different hotel with no vacancy, then go back to the airport and sleep in the lobby?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

Addison bit her lip, something she did when she was nervous or in thought. Even though she hated to admit it, Alex had a point - the chances seemed very slim for her to find a room elsewhere. Either way, though, it was an uncomfortable situation - sleep in an airport terminal, or share a room with someone who was practically a stranger. This kid could have been a raping murderer, for all she knew. True, he seemed harmless enough, but these days, anything's possible. She then also considered the fact that a terrorist could enter the airport and blow the entire place up.

Too tired to think any more, Addison came to her decision. "Alright, Alex," she sighed. "If you're sure, I guess I'll room with you."

"Awesome," Alex said and grinned. Acting like a gentleman, he picked up Addison's luggage as well as his own. As she trailed behind him on the way tohis their room, Addison couldn't help but wonder what the hell she was getting herself into.