Egypt feels so close, Ricardo can taste it. He's ready, Alicia's ready, Sofia's ready, even the baby is quiet and content in his carrier, staring at them. But there are delays, they sit and wait for the better part of the day, then the flight gets canceled entirely. They get a call from the promoter in Egypt before they can even figure out what happened with their flight, and get told to go home, there are new logistics to figure out due to rising COVID cases. So they end up calling Mike and asking to stay in his guest house. He agrees immediately and within the hour they find themselves sitting in the main room of the guest house, surrounded by luggage, and disoriented over how quickly things changed.
"This is..." Ricardo sighs. "Hell, we might as well spend the holidays here," he shrugs listlessly. "I don't even know, I thought we'd be halfway to Egypt by now. I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault," Alicia says. "We knew this would be a little weird, especially with everything going on right now." She smiles a little. "Besides, I can't complain at the prospect of spending the holidays with AJ, Mike and the rest."
"Yeah, that's true," Ricardo sighs. "Just frustrating. They told me I'd be back in Egypt weeks ago and it's just been delay after delay after delay."
"I'm sorry," Sofia tells him, settling in with Andre, freshly fed and washed. "I know how eager you have been to get back to that school. I wish there was something I could do to help encourage things along."
Ricardo chuckles, dropping his head back against the couch he's sitting on, Alicia's feet resting lazily on his lap. "Chase around all those people not taking COVID seriously and causing all of these delays with your spatula?"
She nods, staring at him. "You know if I could, I would."
"Yeah," he sighs. Mike's place is beautiful, especially this close to Christmas, they'd even decorated it and Andre keeps staring at the massive tree in the corner in awe, it's just... not at all where Ricardo was hoping to be at right now, and it's making him super restless.
"We'll get there," Alicia comforts him, leaning over to softly kiss him. "We will. Just gotta be patient."
"I know," he sighs, tilting his head to kiss her back. "Love you, Alicia."
"Love you too," she murmurs, smiling.
He tries to keep her encouragement in mind as he waits for another phone call from the company, which only comes a few days later, telling them their flight won't be until closer to Christmas, and they'll all need to test for COVID. Again.
He's truly starting to wonder if he'll ever see Egypt again.
