“Yes.”
When the plane began to back away from the gate, Neveah grasped the armrests as her anxiety spiked into the red zone.
“Are you okay?”
“Can I tell you something silly?”
“Sure.”
“I’ve never flown before.”
“Never?”
“Nope.”
“Are you scared?”
“Terrified.”
“Don’t be. It’s not bad at all. You’ll see.”
As they taxied toward the runway, Neveah wished she hadn’t volunteered for this mission or been so confident in her assurances that she could handle it. At the moment, she felt like she was about to implode from anxiety.
“Hey, are you okay? It’s really nothing to worry about. It’s super safe.”
“I’m okay,” she said through gritted teeth as the pilot announced that their flight had been cleared for takeoff.
Jeremy extended his hand. “You want to hold on?”
She did. More than anything. “My hands are sweaty. They get like that when I’m nervous.”
“That’s no problem. Hold on. I’ve got you.”
Neveah wiped her palm on her jeans and then took the hand he offered to hold on for takeoff, which was one of the most exhilarating and terrifying experiences of her life. The whirs of machinery and thumps and bumps as the plane ascended caused her anxiety to skyrocket.
“That’s the landing gear being put away, the flaps adjusting for altitude and a few bumps from the clouds that don’t appreciate us disturbing them.”
With her eyes tightly closed and her focus on breathing, Neveah didn’t want to smile at his commentary, but the cloud thing was cute.
“Open your eyes. Check it out. It’s like looking at heaven, spelled correctly.”
She chuckled and forced her eyes open so she could look out, and sure enough, if there was such a thing as heaven, it must look just like that.
“Nice, right?”
“Yeah.” She realized she was still gripping his hand tightly and released him. “Sorry about that.” Her father would have something to say about her holding hands with a white guy, which didn’t matter at all to her. As she regularly told her dad, people were people, and she’d spend time with anyone she wanted to.
“No worries. I’m here for the whole flight if you need a hand to hold.”
“Thank you so much. That’s very nice of you.”
“Not a problem. What do you do for fun when you’re not working?”
“I work a lot.”
“You know what they say about all work and no play…”
“I’m a very dull girl.”
