I looked at her but Mia just smiled at me. She’d been mistaken for innocent, angelic even, if you didn’t know she knew how to run her mouth.
Her hand gently settled over mine and I let go of the grip on the armrest so that I could hold it instead. The flight took off up into the air and I shut my eyes, ears popping as we gained altitude. Business, when I could manage it, was always conducted in my neck of the woods if a flight was involved.
"Hey," Mia's voice was quiet and gentle in my ear. "You're okay. We're in the air."
I opened my eyes to see Dante snickering. Idiot. Flipping him off, I turned to Mia who now looked out the window.
"How long is the flight?" she asked.
"About 8 hours," Dante informed her.
I groaned. I’d tried not to think about the duration of the flight. Eight hours in a metal bird, suspended in the air wasn’t a choice I would have made if Dom wasn’t family. Beside me, Mia took a book out of her bag and flipped it open to read.
"I'm about to take an 8-hour nap," Dante announced as he stretched out and got comfortable.
"I think 8 hours of sleep falls out of the category of a nap," Mia told him, finger holding the page during the temporary distraction.
"I don't judge your choices, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't judge mine," Dante replied, and with that, he reclined his seat and closed his eyes.
"What are you reading?" I asked after a little while.
Mia looked up from the book and blushed. "It's stupid."
I shook my head at her. "You seem pretty engrossed in it." I reached out for the book, but Mia pulled it away.
"It's just Greek mythology," she divulged. "I like reading the old myths of Gods and Goddesses."
"And what myth are you reading?" Mia mumbled something and I asked, "What was that?"
"It's about Hades and Persephone," she said clearly.
I knew nothing of this subject but if someone was to teach me then Mia would be my choice. "What's it about?"
Marking the page with her bookmark, she closed the book and turned to face me. Dante had started to snore softly opposite us, signaling that sleep had taken him and this conversation would be had in privacy.
"Hades was the God of the underworld and Persephone was the Goddess of spring," Mia explained. "He saw her and instantly fell in love with her. Hades kidnapped Persephone and took her to the underworld where he married her. She hated him at first but grew to love him."
As Mia talked about the story, I noticed the way her eyes lit up and how animated she became. She talked with her hands when she lost herself, motions untamed just like her laugh, in complete contrast to how she looked. I also couldn't help but draw the parallels between the story and our own, and for a moment I wondered if she realized it. I doubted it. Mia was away with her mythical Gods in Greece.
"Actually, she loved him so much that she turned Minthe, his lover, into a mint plant out of jealousy," Mia said.
That was a level of pettiness I could get behind. Eliminate the competition and you no longer had a problem.
"Tell me more," I encouraged her.
Mia told me about Hades and Zeus and Aphrodite, and I hung off her every word. Not because I had an interest in any of them but because here, thousands of feet above the air and with her contagious enthusiasm, it was easy to forget the reality of my life and imagine afternoons filled with her in a similar fashion. To come home to her with no dark cloud hanging over me and spend our time together with no worries about who knew.
After a few hours, Mia's head rested on my shoulder. The citrus scent that belonged to her filled my nose and I felt the calmest I had for the entire flight.
"I'm nervous about this wedding," Mia confessed to me, just loud enough over the hum of the plane.
"Why, princess?"
She sighed softly. "I'm worried I'm going to mess it up somehow and ruin Dom's moment."
My hand found hers again and I rubbed my thumb over her knuckles, the skin soft and unmarred compared to my own. Mia wore no rings and the lack of tan lines told me this was not a new occurrence. "I'm sure you'll be fine."
"That's easy for you to say," she said, squeezing my hand. "You're going to be sitting with everyone else watching me trying not to trip in an outrageous dress while I deliver Dom to the love of his life."
