Folding another napkin around the cinnamon sugar-coated pretzel in his hand, Ben returned to Kai's gate from the food court.
He was as pleasantly surprised as she was to discover Kevin and Gwen had made an impromptu appearance.
They greeted him, but then remarked that their schedule wouldn't allow them to stay for more than a few minutes.
"Don't take it the wrong way," Kevin assured him, "but we can only keep the kid waiting in the car for so long, you know?"
So they bid each other farewell, and wished Kai a safe flight.
Kai waited for the couple to be too far away to hear her tell Ben, "'Have a safe flight.' Like I have any control over that."
Ben broke off a piece of the pretzel and offered it to her.
"No, thanks. I'll just have some fry bread when I get back home."
He shrugged and promptly ate the piece.
Attention, passengers.
A woman's voice broke through over the loudspeaker.
We are now going to begin boarding the next flight to Albuquerque International.
The announcement repeated in Spanish as a handful of people started forming in front of the gate to Kai's flight.
"Guess we'll catch up again later?" Kai wondered aloud as she got out her boarding pass.
"Yep. Good luck with everything in the meantime."
She kissed him briefly.
"Same to you."
As she started walking up to the line, Ben added, "Say 'hi' to Wes for me when you get there."
Kai held up her right arm and gave him an "okay" gesture as she kept on walking.
When he got back into his car, wiping his hands of the last crumbs of the pretzel, he was about to buckle his seat belt, but suddenly stopped himself.
He reached for the laptop case on the floor behind him, took out the laptop and opened up the text for his story.
At the top of the page, he typed:
Stannic Overboard
Dedicated to Kai Green