Kathy had been smiling all week.  Since she first stepped off the plane in England she found herself smiling.  For the first time in a long time she was happy and was not afraid to show it.  She knew it was only a week but she felt as if she had left all her troubles behind.  Kathy had been planning this trip for years, always afraid to make the leap of faith it required.

Kathy had met a wonderful man online, Andy.  Their relationship had always been a friendly one but once Kathy decided to ask her sorry excuse for husband for a divorce - it went to whole other level.   Andy seemed to be everything that her husband was not - thoughtful, pragmatic, loving, intimate.  They spent weeks and months on end talking daily either by phone or by video link.  Of course they could only go so far through their limited means of communication.  Both longed to see other in person; to finally embrace; to finally kiss; to touch.  Plans had been made then broken many times to the point that neither of them thought that it was ever going to happen.  Finally something snapped in Kathy and she decided to just do it.  No matter what - just do it.  She promised herself that she would not think of all the things that could go wrong.  Instead she was going to focus on all the fun she could imagine with her "friend".

It took a long time for everything to be done but she was determined.  She socked a little money away every week to pay for the plane tickets.  She took her son, Tyler who is 6, to get his and her passports.  Finally, 3 months ago everything fell into line.  She was all set to go.

On the day of the trip she was so excited and so was Tyler - it was his first time in a plane and he loved planes.  Luckily, she had been smart enough to take a late flight so just as Tyler was starting to get bored it was also time for him to go to sleep.  He fought it a little bit but within 30 minutes he was out.  Kathy was not far behind him - she dreamed of lush English countrysides with Tyler, Andy and her having a picnic.  She dreamed of holding, kissing Andy all night.  She awoke about an hour before Tyler.  He was so excited to know he was still on the plane.

As they exited the plane, Kathy started getting butterflies about seeing Andy, really seeing him for the first time.  Would he still like her?  Kathy knew she was an attractive woman but she was by no means a knockout and who knows what she looked like during those hours of streaming video.  She hoped he did.  She knew she would like him - she just knew it.

When they went through security, she saw him and thought for sure she just might throw-up.  She knew this was the moment.  Andy ran up to her and gave her the biggest, most unexpected kiss she had ever experienced.  "Hello" he said.  "Hello" she responded.

From there the week got nothing but better.  It was everything she dreamed it would be and more.  So much so that she was still smiling just thinking about it on the plane ride home.  As the plane landed and she was smiling thinking about that glorious week - her voicemail went off.  She dug around her purse frantically looking for it believing it was Andy calling to see if they had landed yet.  To her dismay it was not.  The screen display showed 4 new messages.  Kathy looked at the numbers and saw they were all from her ex and promptly shut the phone.  She was not ready to deal with him just yet.  She wanted to stay in her moment of bliss as long as she could before returning to the real world.

When she stepped off the shuttle that took them to the main airport she was still in her blissworld.  Out of the corner of her eye she saw something that drew her immediate attention.  It was her ex.  He was standing there with his arms crossed and a big smile on his face.  Kathy's heart sank - something was wrong, dreadfully wrong.  She hadn't told him she was going to England.  Then she saw two policemen and a stern looking lady with papers in her hand walking towards her.  Kathy looked around for an escape.  It was a reaction, she had no intention of running.  But as soon as she did the officers broke into a run.  One snatched up Tyler while the other stood menacingly in front of Kathy.  The stern lady gave Kathy the papers and said something about a violation of the custody agreement.  Stern-lady turned on her heel, grabbed Tyler and walked away.  Kathy started crying uncontrollably.  She was crying so hard that she could not even see the lady walk Tyler over to his father or that when Tyler saw his dad he went running into his arms.  No, all she saw was blurry nothingness.  She screamed at which point the officers picked her up and moved her to an office.  Just as they let her go, her phone rang.  It was her ex.  She pressed the little green button and held it to her ear.

"Next time don't lie and say you're going to the beach for a week." her ex said in the most scornful voice he could muster.  And just before he hung up, she heard Tyler's voice in the background say "Who's lying daddy?"

Kathy started crying uncontrollably again.

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