“Why wouldn’t I be?” Danica scoffed. “Aren’t I going to Chicago as well?”
“You made it sound like we would be traveling separately.”
“You’re my girlfriend.” She said that loudly enough that two flight attendants turned toward them, and even Ms. Clayborn’s head slightly moved. “We also have no scheduling conflicts in this matter. Why would we travel separately? I have nothing to hide. Why? Are you ashamed to be seen with me?”
Alicia took a step back, aghast. While Danica did not give her a cold look, her voice was about a million degrees below freezing. Ms. Clayborn went back to her tablet. One flight attendant returned to stocking the wet bar. The last one, however, shivered.
“I am not ashamed,” Alicia said. “How could you ask me that?”
Her face softened, hand touching Alicia’s bare shoulder. “Just checking.” A furtive glance was shot toward the bothered flight attendant. “Come back here with me. Ms. Clayborn has plenty to keep her busy during the flight.”
Alicia should not have been surprised to find a new world in the back of the jet, yet she was. Instead of the neutral beige up front, this section was decorated entirely in black leather seating and a king-sized bed cordoned off with a sliding screen. A panel hid an entertainment center. There were plenty of snacks and drinks to keep them happy – and unbothered by overly helpful flight attendants. They probably even had their own bathroom, complete with a shower!This is even nicer than her yacht.Did Danica actually live at one address? Or did she spend her whole time hopping from one venue to the next? The family penthouse one night, her yacht the next, maybe a hotel to round out the week…I could never put up with that.Alicia preferred to have one cozy place to call her own.
Danica shut the door behind them. “We’ll have to sit down for takeoff, but after that, you can come and go as you please.” She showed her to one of the leather couches. “I hope that everything has been agreeable with you lately?”
Alicia nodded.Feels weird being beside her again. The last time they interacted, her father threatened her, and her mother – or at least she was pretty sure that was Mrs. Moreau – stole into the back of Alicia’s car and warned her to stay far, far away from Danica and her ilk.I didn’t listen.Alicia thought she would. After she returned home, she was almost determined to throw away anything the woman had given her and stop returning her messages. Then…
Then Ms. Clayborn showed up to take Alicia and Candice shopping.
How could Alicia willingly turn this lifestyle down, or at least until she gave it the ol’ college try?I would be a damn fool. Of course Danica’s father didn’t like Alicia. Why would he? She was a nobody from County Poor People compared to that family. As for the mother? Even if that was her and not some crazyvagrant, she was clearly from another planet.No wonder Russell divorced her.
This was what Alicia told herself as she willingly spent Danica’s money and dressed herself up for her approval. (Her own as well, of course. Alicia wouldn’t present her with something unless she thought it great first!) Now she stepped onto Danica’s plane to go to Chicago for almost a week. A week of what?Sex. Let’s be real. Alicia hoped for some proper touristing in there, but she had a feeling that she was at Danica’s scheduling whim. Why would she want to go see some sites when she could keep Alicia in bed?Not like I’m complaining…
The captain, a middle-aged man with a clean-shaven face, knocked on the door before stepping in. “We’re all good to go, Ms. Moreau. We’ll be taking off in about five minutes.”
“Excellent. Give us the signal when we’re free to move about the cabin.”
“Absolutely.” The door closed again.
“I’ve never flown like this before,” Alicia confessed. “I didn’t even know jets like this existed.” She realized how stupid she sounded the moment she said it. “I mean… of course they exist… just… they never existed in my world before?”
Danica’s arm snaked across the back of the couch. She was not in a hurry to touch Alicia, however. “There’s a lot for me to expose you to, it appears.” She chuckled. “I take so much of this for granted. The planes, the shopping, the food… sometimes I forget it’s not mundane to other people. It’s all I’ve ever known.”
Were they moving? It felt like they were moving. Only not really. Maybe that was Alicia’s stomach doing somersaults. “You had a plane like this when you were a kid?”
“To be fair, technology has improved dramatically since I was a child. Though yes, we had the top-of-the-line private jet for that day.” She must have meant the early 2000s. What were planes like back then, anyway?
“You’ve really lived a life of privilege.”
Danica stiffened. Was she put out that Alicia was bringing this up? “One of my first memories is traveling on a plane,” she said quietly. “I used to be scared of it.”
“Really? You? Scared of anything?”
Danica neither frowned nor smiled. “All children are scared of something. I was afraid of crashing. I remember my mother piling a ton of blankets on top of me and suffocating me until I felt safe. She spent a whole three-hour flight like that.”
“You remember how long it was?”
“I remember we flew from here to somewhere in Ohio. Random details like that stick with you.”
“Speaking of your mother…” No. Alicia wouldn’t bring up that. For some reason, she knew, in the back of her thickening head, that such a thing was a terrible idea. “Do you still talk to her? You’ve made it sound like she’s out of your life.”
Danica leaned away, nose crinkling. “I haven’t seen her in many years, no. After the divorce, my mother disappeared from my life. I couldn’t even tell you where she lives now.”
“You haven’t gone looking for her?” Even if Alicia hadn’t known about some crazy allegations, it was at least strange to her that a grown woman with the means and money hadn’t gone searching for her mother.
“She left my life for a reason. I don’t have the time or resources to go looking for someone who clearly doesn’t care about me. My father… no, never mind.”
What if I told you otherwise?Her father? Alicia had a hunch that whatever Russell was telling his daughter was nothing but a bunch of lies. Yet how did a woman tell her girlfriend, whom she barely knew, that her father was akin to a shitweasel?
