Airport Scene
Chapter 8: Airport Scene
“Be good for Po and Yaya.”
Ira was knelt down before the twins near the driveway of their home trying to control her emotions as the moment had arrived for her to head to the airport. Her parents stood behind Sammy, who was trying to control the tears behind his eyes that threatened to spill like a waterfall, and Star, who had the brightest smile on her face.
Like Tawan, she took things in stride and she could also see how important this job was for her mother. When Ira sat her down to ask her about her feelings of her going back to work, Star said she just wanted her to be happy like she was in the pictures they would look at from her university days of after parties from a modeling gig.
“I love you both and I will call you as soon as I land,” Ira promised them, putting a hand under each of their chins.
“Okay,” they both said, Sammy’s a little sadly and Star’s excitedly.
Star reached out and hugged her mother tightly around her neck before pressing a loud kiss to her cheek. Though she was sad to not being seeing Ira for almost two weeks, she reminded herself that her mother was going to do something she loved and had not done as much as she would have liked. Tawan explained it to her by using her soccer games and karate competitions as an example. Their daughter easily grasped the understanding then, knowing how sad she would be if she was not able to participate in her favorite activities on a regular basis.
“My sweet girl,” Ira crooned by her ear before pressing a long kiss to it. It was never more evident to her how much her daughter resembled her other mother and how her son encompassed so much of herself.
“Kick their butts, Mommy!” Star cheered in their embrace making everyone laugh.
“Yeah, kick their butts,” Ira’s mother laughed teasingly behind her hand.
Ira looked up to her, still holding Star in a tight grip, and rolled her eyes amusedly. Her father chuckled and placed a hand on his grandson’s shoulder, gently pushing him towards his mother and sister. Sammy had his head down somberly, so he patted the back of his head to make him look up. Ira rocked Star in their embrace as she reached her hand out to him to take.
And like always, because he could never refuse his mother no matter how upset he was, he took her hand as she enveloped him into their hug.
“You won’t have time to miss me,” Ira reminded him as she put her cheek to his temple.
Tawan walked up and grabbed the last of her wife’s luggage to load, but stopped at the sight of Ira holding their children. She took a deep breath, not knowing if this was going to be a difficult ten days or a normal ten days, mostly for Sammy’s sake. Tawan was not afraid or nervous to have to watch her children alone, she had done this many times before when Ira would take a girl’s trip with her friends or when she was sick.
Though it had been a few years since she had done it, she was confident in her ability to be a short-term single mother to her children, especially in support for Ira.
“It’s time to go, Ira,” Tawan informed her gently.
Ira squeezed her children as close as her strength and space would allow, pressed a kiss to their temple’s, then slowly released them. She gave them the strongest smile she could as they stepped back, pursing her lips to hide a tremble as her eyes watered more. She stood and went to her parents to sling an arm around their necks to bring them in for a group hug.
Ira thanked them for coming to see her off and helping as needed while she was gone, and they brushed her off and told her that they loved her and was proud of her.
“Call me if you need anything,” Ira told her parents as she stepped back.
“You call us if you need anything,” her mother told her, eyeing her seriously and waving goodbye.
“We love you,” her father said, placing a hand on his grandchildren’s shoulders.
“I love you all,” Ira said back, backing up to the SUV while waving and blowing them all kisses with her eyes on her children. “Be good.”
With one last look, Ira turned and quickly made her way to the passenger door.
“My lady,” Tawan joked, holding the door open for her with her hand out.
Ira rubbed under her nose, a small laugh and sniffle escaping. “Silly,” she commented, taking her hand to step in.
Tawan chuckled and waited until she was fully in to carefully close the door. She looked back to her children and in-laws to wave goodbye and jogged around their black SUV to get in. The light shined on the brand new wax job and she noticed a smudge on the hood that stopped her in her tracks.
She frowned as she pulled out her handkerchief and gently wiped the blob from her perfectly detailed prized possession. Satisfied, she smiled and nodded, doing a quick once over, then headed to the driver’s side to get in.
“Ready?” Tawan asked as she buckled her seatbelt.
Ira had a frown on her face that bordered judgmental and amused. Sometimes she wondered if Tawan loved her car more than she did her. It was the one and only thing that Tawan had ever bought that was both for herself and the most expensive asset they owned, aside from their house.
Ira remembers the day it arrived and the way Tawan was practically giddy with excitement and anticipation as it was being delivered to their house. So much so that she spent hours taking pictures and talking to her brother as they walked around it about plans for some extra custom work.
“Sometimes I think you love this car more than me,” Ira teased, sliding her sunglasses on.
“SUV, babe. How many times do we have to go over this,” Tawan reminded her, putting on her sunglasses, too. “And I love you both equally.”
“You better be joking with me right now or else,” Ira deadpanned and looked to her.
“Darling, it cost me a lot of money to import this,” Tawan reminded her, trying to hide her amusement. “That’s not including modifying it specifically to my liking and our needs. This is my baby. And it’s also so rare to see a 2023 Cadillac Escalade around here.”
“Your ‘baby’,” Ira challenged, lowering her sunglasses to glare at her. “You definitely better be joking now. I am your baby.”
“Yeah, I mean you both are my baby,” Tawan corrected herself, a big smile spread across her face.
“Tawan,” Ira inhaled irritatedly.
“I get to play with you in bed and I get to play with her on the road,” Tawan continued, patting the dashboard.
Ira smacked her arm with the back of her hand and raised her fist like she was going to punch her. With all the sadness she had endured just now in telling their children goodbye for the next ten days, she needed this moment to alleviate some of her stress to prepare her for her job. This was a huge moment in her career, a stepping stone to her ultimate goal.
Ira understood that this was what would lead to doors opening to the major leading fashion labels, work that would transform her career.
“I’m just kidding,” Tawan laughed as she tried to grab her fist. “You know you’re my #1 woman.”
“You called this car a ‘her’,” Ira laughed and playfully punched her ribs.
“Hey! Whoa! Shhh,” Tawan yelped and patted the dashboard again. “She didn’t mean it, baby.”
“Tawan,” Ira growled and rubbed her temples.
“Don’t call her a ‘car’, babe. She’s an SUV,” Tawan whispered, correcting her.
Ira frowned at her and Tawan laughed as she reached over the center console to give her kissy lips. Like always, her wife’s charming personality and childlike shenanigans worked on her as Ira broke into a smile. Tawan’s ability to make people forget what they were saying or doing when she entered the space worked just as effectively on her.
Though she hated how easily her wife could make it difficult to even feign indifference with her, she loved it more because it was infectious and so her. There was also the fact that Ira could be very particular about her black 2022 Audi RS7, an upgrade she made a few years ago of her college graduation gift from her parents.
“Idiot,” Ira mumbled, grabbing her face and kissing her.
“I love you, too,” Tawan smiled and looked behind her. “Now wave goodbye to our babies.”
Ira released her to turn to her window as Tawan rolled it down for her. They both waved goodbye to their children and her parents before Tawan turned the engine over and shifted the gear to take off. Ira blew kisses and waved goodbye until they were out of sight, even sticking her head out the window.
She tried to not think about how sad Sammy looked as Star grabbed his hand to hold. She had promised her that she would take extra care and look after her brother while she was gone. She even offered to do the same for Tawan after she had the amusement of watching her look for something in the kitchen, scratching her head in deep thought and repeating her steps.
Tawan could see out of the corner of her eye that the realization was hitting Ira completely now as they headed to the airport. While keeping her eyes in the road, the corners of her mouth twitched a smile as she reached over and rested her hand on her thigh.
Ira, staring out the window and not looking away, instinctively put both of her hands on top of her one and squeezed. Tawan rubbed her thumb over her skin before Ira slipped her hand under hers to lace their fingers and cradle her hand between hers.
As she continued to stare out the window, the outside passing by in a blur, she felt a sudden and unexpected rush of emotions.
Her heart started to beat fast, the base of her spine started to tingle, and her lips started to twitch in expectation, all the things that happened when she would walk a runway. Each step she took felt like the most empowering, mystical force at her back.
These emotions and feelings just simply reaffirmed to her that what she was doing was the right decision despite how hard it was to take the step. Deep in her bones, from the moment she chose to be a wife and mother, she knew that she would always come back to this calling.
It flowed too perfectly for her not to.
“Is it bad that I’m excited for this?” Ira said, mostly to herself.
Tawan, barely hearing her, squeezed her hand. “I’m glad you admitted it,” she said, looking between her and the road.
“Does it make me a bad mother, though? For being happy being away from my children?” She pressed, turning to her.
“Are you crazy?!” Tawan almost yelled and looked back to her in disbelief. “That’s not at all what this is. You’re never a bad mother for wanting to provide for your children. And you don’t have to be depressed at work to feel better about being away from them either. You deserve to be fulfilled and happy with not just motherhood, Ira.”
“I know,” Ira pouted and played with her fingers. “But-,”
“So does it make me a bad mother for liking the work that I do this whole time?” Tawan retorted, pushing her sunglasses up on her head as they stopped in traffic. “Or your mother when she’s presenting cases before judges? Or my mom when she’s saving lives at the hospital?”
“No,” Ira said immediately, offended as she pushed her sunglasses up on her head, too. “I just…I haven’t felt this, like, rush in a while. Not since before we got pregnant. When I was still working.”
“Those are just the butterflies in your stomach,” Tawan comforted, looking to her endearingly. “The things that remind you how much you love something before you do it.”
“Butterflies?” Ira asked for assurance.
“Star gets so nervous before a game or competition that she said she felt like her stomach was trying to float away,” Tawan said, laughing in thought to herself mostly. “I told her it was the butterflies. They were reminding her how much she loved and cared for the game and sport.”
Ira thought about what she said, deeply thought about it and let it mull over her brain. She was unfamiliar with sports, though competitive in nature, but that did not stop her from learning as much about soccer and karate as she could to best support her daughter.
Tawan was the one that had athletic background having taken karate lessons when she was younger and being an avid gym rat. She also had her older brother to thank because he was super athletic and he would practice basketball at home with her.
“Butterflies,” Ira said to herself, tasting the word a bit.
“Butterflies,” Tawan affirmed, nodding before looking back to the traffic.
“You know,” Ira started in deep thought and looked to her, “…it kind of reminds me of when I was walking down the aisle to you.”
Tawan’s head jerked back to her, touched. “Awww,” she cooed, stumped for words as her eye whiskers smiled.
Ira giggled and leaned over to her. “That was smooth, huh,” she said, looking at her lips.
Tawan’s smile dropped just a little and her eyebrows furrowed some as she looked between Ira's eyes and lips in anticipation. She licked her own lips as she debated on reaching across the space between them to kiss her, worried that she would forget about the fact they were sitting in traffic at the moment.
Ira made the decision for her when she reached her other hand over, not breaking their intertwined fingers to hold her in place, and tickled under her chin to beckon her closer. Tawan laughed, but restrained from moving and waited on her to make the first move - which she did and moved to hold her jaw with her finger tips so she could slowly kiss her.
They pulled apart after a few seconds, smiling cutely and a little shyly at one another.
“You’re my butterflies, too,” Tawan whispered between them, looking at her lips again.
Ira, slowly smiling wider as she watched her, loved how confident and empowered she became when making the most sought after woman in a room’s knees buckle. Sometimes she would still get a little jealous at how women would hang on her wife’s every word, their eyes lost deep in the waves only Tawan could produce.
But Tawan was oblivious to them, never understanding why people were so enamored by her as she was just born with this face and could not change that fact. Nevertheless, her chest would puff out a bit at Ira marking her territory. Ira would always be the only person in the world who could make her toes curl in so many different ways. There was no one in this life, on this earth, or of this universe that she would choose every time except for Ira.
If Ira did not exist then she did not exist.
Tawan watched as Ira leaned to her again to capture her lips in a deep and desperate kiss. Ira wanted to savor every moment of it, etch it into her brain to flip through her memories later when she needed a personal boost when she was alone. The longest she had been away from her family was for long weekends when she would go on girls trips with her friends to unwind and reset.
This was her first work trip - her first major work trip - and she was nervous about whether or not she could compete with the younger and veteran models alike that had been consistently working.
“I’m going to miss you,” Tawan mumbled against her lips. She ran her nose down her jaw to kiss her neck.
Ira giggled, flinching away and grabbing her face to stop her from tickling her with kisses. She forced her to look at her again then kissed the tip of her nose. Tawan smiled contently, loving when she would baby her, then kissed the palm of her hand before sitting back in her seat. She grabbed her hand again before she could rest them back on her lap and squeezed it.
What she hoped and, thankfully, what Ira felt in her touch, was that Ira knew how proud she was of her to take this giant leap.
Tawan also wanted her know that she would catch her every time whenever she needed her.
Traffic started to move again and Tawan eased them through it, checking her watch a few times to make sure they were on time. Ira continued to stare out the window, occasionally telling her wife something to remember about the kids or the house. Tawan knew that no matter how prepared or supported Ira made her for her leaving, she would always worry.
That was why she was happy she was heading to Paris because she hoped she would focus on her work and not on their perfectly prepared and supported household while she was away.
They pulled up to the airport entrance and parked, and Ira’s stomach fell to her feet as she saw Mali standing there with her luggage and waving excitedly at them. It seemed that it was always going to keep hitting her like a freight train that she was actually doing this, it was very real, she was actually going to Paris to walk a runway for an up and coming brand. A brand that the fashion world was buzzing about being the next big thing if this show took off like it was anticipated to.
Ira felt so much pressure to be her best for this, knowing that so many people were counting an depending on her, but her worries at home distracted her from that. Now it was making her stomach churn at just how real this was. It was actually happening and they actually wanted her.
Tawan stared at her as she looked out the window. “Are you happy?” She asked, smiling sweetly.
Ira took a deep breath and turned to her. “I’m scared,” she confessed, some nervous tears forming.
Tawan reached over, giving her a comforting smile, and wiped at the corner of her eye. Ira leaned into her touch, reaching up to grab her wrist and close her eyes for a second.
“It’s okay to be scared,” Tawan soothed her. “But are you happy?”
Ira opened her eyes and stared into her mesmerizing dark orbs, the love swimming so vastly and deeply the same as her amber ones did when she looked at her. Despite her fears and insecurities, there was this fire at the surface that compelled her to run to this challenge with open arms.
She missed the thrill of the garments she wore blowing in the wind she kicked up when she walked a runway, all the eyes on her, cameras flashing, the music blaring as everything went silent and she zoned in on her steps while looking straight ahead. This was a rush that she could not explain, it was only something one had to experience to understand.
“I am so happy,” Ira said confidently, smiling the same.
“There’s my girl,” Tawan smiled proudly and winked.
Ira broke into a smile, the anticipation buzzing in her body and ready to burst out. Now feeling like she did not have to worry as much about her wife’s mental state and seeing her confidence emerge, Tawan hopped out of their SUV and headed to the back to pull out Ira’s luggage.
Mali approached Ira as she opened the door and exited, jumping some on her tippy toes as the coffee she had on her way to the airport increased her energy. Ira laughed and grabbed her hands to greet and match her excitement.
“Take care of my wife, please,” Tawan requested half jokingly as she rolled the luggage to the women.
“Don’t I always,” Mali reminded, winking knowingly at her.
“I never doubted you,” Tawan laughed and let the luggage go.
“I’ll take that,” Mali offered, grabbing the handle and heading inside. “Bye, Tawan. I promise we will be good."
“Thanks?” Tawan joked again, tilting her head in fake concern making them all laugh. “Bye, Mali. Have fun.”
Ira watched her wife wave her friend off. “I’m going to miss you so much,” she said, circling her arms around her neck for a hug.
Tawan molded into her and pulled her closer by her lower back. “Don’t miss me too much. Make sure you have fun,” she reminded her, burying her nose in her shoulder and rubbing up her back.
Ira nodded in their embrace and closed her eyes to savor this one last moment. She was actually ready to take on this challenge, to explore this new opportunity and embrace it for all that it offered. All of this was possible because she had the loving support of her family and friends, especially the woman that she currently did not want to let go.
Tawan closed her eyes, proud not being enough of a word to describe what she felt for her wife in this moment, so she squeezed her close, rubbed her hands over her back, and pressed her nose into her neck.
“I love you. You are going to do great like always. Call me when you land. I don’t care what time it is, I’ll answer,” Tawan promised.
“I will. I love you more,” Ira said thickly, inhaling the scent of her hair.
They pulled apart and stared into each other’s eyes, excitement and longing mirroring back to them. A man’s voice over the public announcement system sounded and snapped them out of their own world. Ira grabbed the back of Tawan’s neck with both hands to pull her in for a kiss.
They smiled into it, taking a moment to savor their connection, almost laughing at how dramatic they felt as if they were sending Ira off to war. Tawan pecked her lips a few times then pushed her away gently by her hips to make her leave or else she would miss her flight.
“Go,” Tawan ordered gently, smiling and waving.
“I’ll call you when I land,” Ira promised, backing away and waving.
Tawan stuffed her hands in her pockets and watched the love of her life disappear into the sea of people. Ira turned around and took a deep breath as she sought out her manager, her journey alone for this part starting now.
Both women sent up a prayer that the flight was safe and the experience was infinite of possibilities.