Finding Hilde at last, or is it?

Max drove like he was in the World Rally Championship. The back end of his clunker sliding out dangerously as he took each corner way too fast. Harry and Jamie were **** to hold onto the handles on the roof for dear life each time. Coming to a sliding stop out the front of the Limelight Hotel, Max told the two girls he would park the car while the two of them went inside right away.

Jamie had never been to The Lounge restaurant before but it was clearly signed when the two girls came dashing into the hotel lobby. Jamie pulling her Kazakh friend into the lifts and up onto the fourth floor of the hotel to where the restaurant was situated.

“She’s going to be here. I just know it,” she told Harry, trying to comfort the obviously nervous woman.

The elevator doors opened directly onto The Lounge restaurant foyer. A prim looking maître d’ waiting to greet the two girls behind a long table of solid dark wood.

“Good evening Misses. Do you have a reservation with us this evening?” The man said in just the right amount of condescension after taking in their ski-garb.

“My friend has a booking here,” Harry told the officious man, “Hilde Swanson. Is she here?”

The man frowned. “I’m afraid we’re not at liberty to give out our clientele’s information and as you clearly do not meet our dress code, I’m going to have to ask you both to leave.”

“Please! You don’t understand, I have to see her,” Harry started to beg.

Rather than deal with the pompous man, Jamie pulled a handful of notes out of her pocket and threw them onto the table. The crumpled bits of paper unfurling and sitting untidily. “She won’t be long and it’s really important!”

The maitre d’ huffed like it was the height of drudgery to have to handle something as mundane as physical money but he nevertheless scooped the notes up and tucked them away into the hip pocket of his waistcoat. “At the rear of the restaurant, in a booth. Try not to make a scene,” he said at last.

Harry turned to take Jamie’s hands in hers. It was the moment she’d been waiting forever since she’d left her home what felt like days ago now. Now that the time was here though, she felt more nervous at the prospect of meeting Hilde than she should have any true right to be.

Sensing Arayaka’s trepidation, Jamie told her supporting, “go on. Go meet your friend. I’ll be just here waiting for you. You can do this.”

The two new friends hugging once, before Harry went to find Hilde. Butterflies all through her stomach.

The Lounge restaurant was only sparsely attended at this time of day but still towards the rear of the place where the maitre d’ had indicated, it was even more empty. If Hilde was to be there, she was sure to have the utmost privacy for her dinner.

Stepping around a curtained dividing column, Arakaya’s eye came to rest upon the beautiful curly blonde hair of her long-time pen pal. The girl she had been exchanging letters with since childhood and travelled halfway around the world to meet. Hilde’s face was towards the man she was having dinner with so didn’t see Arakaya as she approached the secreted dining booth.

The gentleman was the first one to notice her approaching. Raising his eyebrow towards Arakaya as she got closer. “Can I help you?” he asked when it was certain the tall dark-haired stranger was coming towards them.

Arakaya didn’t answer him but instead spoke when her pen friend turned to look at the interruption also. “Hilde?” Arakaya was immediately concerned at the look of trouble and torment she could read on the blondes face at being disturbed.

For the briefest of moments, Hilde remained blank to Arakaya before her eyes widened in wonder. “Harry?”

Arakaya could only nod her accent in return. Tears threatening to blind her for the moment.

Likewise, almost unable to see, Hilde rose up out of her seat and enveloped Harry in a gigantic hug. All the fear and uncertainty Arakaya had been going through washed away at that moment by the comforting embrace of Hilde. The man remaining seated at the table throwing the two of them some sideways eye movements at the strangeness of the situation.

It was Hilde that was able to recover first, asking, “My God! This is amazing but… what are you doing here so soon?”

Arakaya didn’t understand Hilde’s question, instead telling her, “I waited for you at the airport but you never showed up.”

It was Hilde’s turn to look confused. Suddenly remember where she was and who she was with, Hilde turned to the man she had been dining with and said ever so obsequious, “I’m so dreadfully sorry about this. I promise I’ll only just be a moment and then I’m all yours.”

Taking Harry firmly by the arm, Hilde practically rushed Harry away from the table and into the ladies bathroom together. Harry complaining that Hilde was hurting her with the vice-like grip she had on her bicep.

“What the matter? What’s going on?” Harry demanded when she had shrugged her arm out of Hilde’s hand.

“Oh, Harry! It’s dreadful. My father was arrested the other day for a whole bunch of made-up crimes! That man is a lawyer and he said he’d help me to free him if I helped him in some other ways first.”

Arakaya gasped. “Hilde no! If only I’d known. I would have found my own way and not been waiting for you. Of course, you wouldn’t be there at such a time as this.”

Hilde again shook her head, not understanding still. “No, wait. You’re not due here until two weeks before Christmas. I was going to write to you and tell you not to come. All our family money has been frozen. I’ve only got the condo until the end of the week.”

“No. 12th of November, like you said in your email,” Arakaya told her. 12/11/2022 was the date Hilde had told her to book her ticket to arrive in America.

“December 11th, I said… Oh, Lord! We put the month first in America. I never even thought of something like that.”

It was such a simple miss understanding that went to explain every miscommunication that had occurred between the two of them.

“Day then the month in Kazakhstan,” Arakaya echoed. “It is good that I am here now though. I can help you with your family problems. Who is this lawyer you are meeting and what do you have to do for him?”

Hilde looked beyond embarrassed just then. “I couldn’t afford any of the good lawyers in town but this one agreed to try and fight the case pro bono if I could repay the debt in… other ways…”

Arakaya didn’t get the exact terminology of what Hilde had said but understood clearly what the man was after. “Hilde! No! You can not do this!” The fiery Kazakh was already on her way out of the ladies room and heading back towards Hilde’s lawyer.

As Harry returned to the table with Hilde just a step behind, the lawyer picked the wrong person to make his complaints known to. “Finally! A great piece of ass can only cover so much of my time if it's in the bathroom the whole dinner. What say we get out of here and that sweet little pussy of yours starts working on some billable hours, hey Hilde? That is unless your friend wants to join in too? I’m sure I could bring one of my partners in on this, after tonight of course…”

The man didn’t get any further as Harry upended a plate of tomato sauced pasta onto the lawyer’s chest. His brilliant white business shirt immediately stained crimson. “You fucking bitch! You’ll be paying for this!” he screamed in outrage.

“No. No, she won’t. Unless you want the Colorado Bar Association to hear about this,” Hilde said as she followed Harry’s pasta with an upturned glass of dark red wine onto the crooked lawyers head.

The two girls beat a haste retreat from the restaurant just then. Arm in arm past the enraged maître d’ who’d told Harry only moments before not to make a scene. In the foyer, Jamie held the doors to the elevator open for them. “I saw everything! That was amazing!” she beamed as Harry made the introductions to everyone on the way back down to the hotel lobby. Introductions repeated a second time when the lift arrived in the face of Max having parked the car and missed all the action.

“I think we better get out of here,” Max warned the girls as he saw a trio of ear-pieced security goons converge on the lobby from different directions, obviously alerted to what had gone on in The Lounge.

Max led them on a quick exit from the upmarket hotel before the security had a chance to throw them out personally. The four of them didn’t stop until they had reached his car that was parked a couple of streets over. Relaxing to catch their breaths and plan their next options Max asked Arakaya, “so what will you do know? Did you want to go with Hilde and catch up properly?”

Jamie extended a second offer to Harry and Hilde, “did you want to come with us and introduce Hilde to Zahara?” Jamie was certain that the erotically charged Egyptian would be likewise as enamoured with the bouncy blonde Hilde as she’d been Arakaya. Anything to get her from drooling all over herself she thought a little wickedly. She also didn’t want to surrender Harry to her penfriend completely just yet if she was being completely honest with herself.

“I don’t know,” Arakaya admitted. “I don’t even know where I’m going to sleep tonight. What did you want to do Hilde?” Harry asked putting the question to her.

“Your wonderful new friends all did such an incredible job looking after you when I couldn’t. I’d love to get to spend some time getting to know you all better. There’s another one that helped you too? Zahara was it?”

{Author’s Note: And we finally found Hilde!! Sorry for the delay in updating this again. I've been more than a little down lately but working through everything. It's a nice distraction to have Harry, Max, Jamie, Zahara and now Hilde to come back to. I thought I'd just go ahead and bring the group back to Zahara as I guessed everyone would want to go in that direction anyway but will, of course, leave the finer details of exactly what happens up to the readers! Feel free to throw your suggestions at me.

Dacia xoxo}