‘Look, I don’t want to risk anything going wrong,’ I admit. ‘Things around us just seem to go wrong – the last thing I want is for some air marshal to detain us, because he thinks we’re up to something.’
‘You watch too many movies,’ he replies. ‘But if it makes you happy, we can wait until the coast is clear.’
‘What were you going to say before?’ I ask.
‘Hmm?’ he replies.
‘You were talking about what you were going to do, on the trip, and then you said but…’
I shift on the spot, trying to get more comfortable. It’s such a tiny toilet with barely enough standing room for one person. Our bodies are pressed close together, our faces just inches apart.
My heart is beating like mad and as I breathe in the air feels much heavier than usual. We just need to focus on the task at hand – that way I can get my mind out of the gutter, and we can de-escalate this situation. We both just need to calm down.
‘Oh, I was just going to say, you might not want floods or fires, but what about explosions and fireworks?’
He flashes me a cheeky smile and, oh God, why did he have to say that? We’re supposed to be calming down, not whipping each other up.
Ethan wraps an arm around my body and places his other hand on my face. I gaze into his eyes as he strokes my cheek lightly – my face cheek, that is… wait… scratch that, his other hand has settled on my bum.
I swallow hard. Obviously I want him, how could I not? But things always seem to get so messy, if we so much as think about getting it on. It’s like we’re jinxed or cursed or something. That’s silly, right? There’s no such thing. It’s just the two of us, alone, in a room. If we were to just kiss, just this once, just to see…
Ethan reads my mind. He leans in, his lips parting ever so slightly, and my common sense vanishes. All I can think about is kissing him but, come on, what’s the worst that could happen? It’s not like we’re going to make the plane fall out of the sky, is it?
I take a deep breath before mirroring his body language, leaning in, and I swear the anticipation alone sends a shock wave through my body.
Of course, right on cue, a loud banging on the toilet door interrupts us before we can actually kiss.
‘Come on now, that’s enough,’ a woman’s voice calls out. ‘Come on, get out, both of you.’
‘Shit,’ I say quietly.
Ethan purses his lips, like he’s trying to hide his amusement from me.
‘What do we do?’ I ask him.
She bangs on the door again.
‘Come on, come out,’ she demands.
We do as we’re told, opening the door and stepping out one after the other, like a couple of naughty schoolkids.
‘So sorry, I was just feeling so sick, so my partner brought me to the toilets,’ I tell the furious-looking flight attendant.
‘Do you think I was born yesterday?’ she asks, looking down her nose at us.
‘Honestly,’ I insist.
‘Even if I were to believe you – even if I didn’t see couples like you trying to get away with… this all the time – it was your poor son who gave you away,’ she replies.
‘What?’ Ethan says.
‘I asked your son where you were, and he said that you had both gone to the toilets to do role play,’ she tells him. ‘Your poor son…’
‘Oh, no, he got the wrong end of the stick there,’ Ethan tells her. ‘You know what kids are like.’
‘I do,’ she replies. ‘Their brains are like sponges – you need to be more responsible. Do I need to sit the two of you apart?’
We shake our heads.
