Only… the only way they’d know exactly what happened is if someone told them.
The thought lodges itself somewhere deep in my chest. I try to shake it off, but it sticks.
Stephanie was the only one who saw me fall. She was the only one close enough to see how it all happened.
But she wouldn’t… would she?
No. No, she wouldn’t. We’ve flown together for years. We’ve covered for each other through delays, last-minute sick calls, scheduling nightmares. She wouldn’t throw me under the bus.
Except… except maybe she had no choice. Maybe someone else saw. Maybe she was asked for a report.
She couldn’t have done this to get ahead, she’s already the purser. She’salready there.What’s left to climb?
I swallow hard, my throat suddenly bone-dry. Reaching for one of the bottles on the nightstand, I twist the cap open and take a sip, but the water’s gone warm, stale. Useless. With a sigh,I swing my legs off the side of the bed, careful not to wake Matthew, and pad barefoot into the kitchen.
The fridge hums quietly as I pull the door open, the cool air rushing over my flushed skin. I grab a fresh bottle of water and down half of it in one go until I can’t swallow another drop. Then, without really thinking, I open the freezer and reach for the pint of Ben & Jerry’s tucked in the back.
One good thing about being pregnant, I can eat what I want, when I want, and blame it oncravings. Not that I let myself go overboard. Pregnancy isn’t a free pass, not really. I still think about nutrition, about health, about doing right by the little life growing inside me. But right now, I needsomethingtasty to forget my career just imploded.
I slide back into bed, and take a slow bite of the ice cream. The sweetness hits my tongue, but it doesn’t comfort me the way I hoped.
They’ve never fired a flight attendant for something this small.
I chew that thought over with another spoonful.Never.Not for something like this. Not for a simple, split-second judgment call that, under any other circumstance, would have been praised as “quick thinking” or “good instincts.” I’ve seen crew members screw up far worse, real breaches, actual safety violations and walk away with a warning, maybe a notation in their file.
This? This isn’t even something that would have made it into a performance review.
It feels like a cop-out.
Could it be… maybe they didn’t want to carry me over maternity leave? Maybe they looked at the numbers, at the cost of benefitsand coverage, and decided it was easier to get rid of me now, while they could justify it, than deal with the logistics later.
The thought makes my stomach churn.
But that’s not supposed to happen. Not anymore. This isn’t 1980. Women have babies now, they take maternity leave, they pump during breaks, they come back and do their jobs. It’s supposed to be protected. It’s supposed to besafe.
Still… I can’t shake the nagging feeling that this istooconvenient. Too clean. Too perfectly timed.
If they’d done it a week later, after I told them the doctor wanted me off work, after I filed the paperwork for leave, I’d get it. It would make a twisted kind of sense. But now? Right now? It feels off.
I haven't even officially told them I’m pregnant yet. I rest the spoon in the pint and press my palm to my stomach.
“There has to be something I’m missing,” I whisper into the room.
Matthew
I stretch, waking up to the faint light of early morning bleeding through the blinds. It’s barely six. My body feels heavy and loose.
I must’ve crashed the second I came home from dinner with Mom. I remember stopping by the kitchen to put Brooke’s dinner in the fridge and telling myself I’d just lie beside herfor a second.
Apparently, that second turned into eight hours.
I roll onto my side, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, and freeze. Brooke’s awake. She’s lying next to me, eyes already open, watching me with an expression I can’t quite read.
“Good morning,” I say, smiling at her through my grogginess.
She smiles too, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. It’s faint, thin, and wrong.
Immediately, I’m awake. “What’s wrong?” I ask, sitting up straighter. “Is it the baby?”
