My knees were knocking and my heart was beating a chaotic rhythm as I passed the flight attendants smiling with false cheer, saying, “Thank you for flying with us.”
Yeah, right.
I jumped from the open door to a covered, makeshift gangway and caught up with the crowd exiting it. I was breathing hard and sweating – like I had been the entire flight, hoping to find a bathroom to puke in very soon. Plus, I had topee. Other than the fact that you belonged in an insane asylum to even venture to the restroom on board, I had heard the “flushing”. It sounded as if it would suck you clear out into the blue sky. No. Thank. You.
Exiting the gangway, I looked around frantically for my group. I swear if they had forgotten me and left again after I had crossed Hell and back to get here, I was going to shoot ‘em. Dead. With no remorse.
I heard Ally holler my name and glanced in that direction. She was waving great big and peering at me with worry. I probably didn’t look so great. I really didn’t want to know.
A rush of relieved air blew past my lips and I hiked toward her and the crew. Brent met me halfway, his eyebrows crinkled in concern. “What’s the matter, darlin’?”
“Bathroom.” It was all I could manage.
His eyes scoured my face and he nodded quickly. His arm wrapped around my waist as he started leading me to my requested location. “You’re shaking,” he murmured quietly and began rubbing my back, jostling me. That was the wrong thing to do. I dropped my bags and ran as fast I could to the door with the picture of a woman over it. I barely made it to the stall.
I was hunched over the sink splashing water on my face and wiping the tracks of mascara that had accumulated there from my stint in the stall. I cupped water in my hands to clean my mouth out as Ally watched me from the doorway, trying not to look upset enough for the both of us. She didn’t say anything. Nothing needed to be said. It would only embarrass me more, and she knew that.
When we exited the crew was waiting with varying expression. I ignored them and put my ear buds back in. I could finally hear again. While I had been getting up close and personal with the toilet, my ears had finally popped back to normal. I guess the pressure of throwing up had offset the cotton that had found a home in my ears.
I followed them quietly. Mortified. I wassothe odd kid out. I couldn’t even fly like a normal person.
We waited next to a glass enclosure for what had to be a tram of sorts by the look of the empty tracks inside it far below. The place was packed from other arrivals. I was pressed between Zane and Cole with Brent in front and Stash behind me, Ally next to Brent in front of Zane. I got the impression they were protecting me. Like if they didn’t keep an eye on me at all times, I might disappear. The sad thing was, I might have. Getting lost in here would sure be easy.
The tram arrived and everyone surged forward as the outer doors opened. Brent and Ally were forced farther away in the chaos, and Cole, now pushed behind me, reached around my waist and grabbed my hands, placing them on one of the vertical, silver bars. I gripped it tight and let my forehead fall forward on its cool, slick surface.
Cole, warm and solid, stayed pressed against my back with one hand holding the bar right below my hands with the other wrapped around my waist where his thumb slid up and down. In soothing motions, he rubbed my belly. I didn’t complain or push him away – not that I really could with so many packed in here. It helped my queasy stomach and calmed my nerves as the tram jolted into motion.
He released the bar momentarily, and plucked out one of my ears buds. I turned my head to scowl. He bent his head way down and with his lips pressed to my ear, his cinnamon smelling breath fanning my hair, and asked softly, “Was this your first time flying?”
My eyes narrowed further and I looked away, but nodded. What else was there to say? I had made a plum fool out of myself and they had all seen the aftermath. My eyes found Brent’s four people over. He was watching Cole with extremely calm eyes, like a lion studying his prey. Again, a new look I had never seen. He had always been calm, but this was something different.
Cole’s arm tightened a smidge, taking a small step closer. Our bodies aligned wholly. He whispered, “When I first flew, I was seven. My mother was sitting to my left, she had given me the window seat, and my father was in the seat in front of me. Everything was going like clockwork. I was the typical youth with his face plastered to the window. At least, until we hit the turbulence. There had been a rough storm the captain had tried to fly around, but he had caught the edge of it. I hadn’t felt sogood after that, and told my mother so, but she had only patted my knee and told me I would be fine. I wasn’t.
“I had stretched forward for the little brown bag in the back of the seat in front of me, but I hadn’t been big enough to reach it. Instead, when I leaned forward the seatbelt and a bump on the ride had pushed my lunch up. And I do mean up. I blew chunks all over the person and seat in front of me. My father. And if you knew my father, you would understand exactly how bad that was. I cried the rest of the way until we got to our hotel. Ever since, I take Dramamine before a flight and chew gum and bring a book or movie to watch. Anything to keep that from happening again.”
I felt myself smile. It was hard to imagine him at the age of seven, tiny and innocent. I rested back against him further. He had managed to make me feel better as only Brent or Ally had ever been able to do. I murmured, “Thank you for that.”
His cheek brushed mine. “I would have seen you again.”
“Huh?” I tried not to look at Brent’s overly quiet face. I stared out the windows. We were coming up on another building.
“After our encounter on the balcony. I wouldn’t have let you leave it without you agreeing to see me again.” His warm lips briefly touched my neck as the tram came to a stop.
Oh.Oh, my.
***
The crewwas greeted by an attractive, ball-cracking woman in her early thirties and a well groomed, white haired man somewhere in his sixties. They were tanned to perfection, professional to a tee, and considering me like a pesky bug that needed to be squashed. Cole and Brent had greeted them while the rest of us had went to get the luggage off the whirling snake-like, black belt that had carried everyone’s luggage in a steady stream of constant movement.
That hadn’t been fun. The area had been just as crammed as the tram had. I had knocked the man next to us, trying to help Ally get her heavier-than-sin bag off the belt. When I had stumbled, it had caused him to lose his grip on his own bag, dropping it, only to watch it move away before he could snatch it since it had been elbow-to-elbow room only.
“You’re a regular menace, aren’t you doll?” Stash had snickered, jutting between the furious man and myself. I had grimaced. Laughing and chipping me under my chin, he had spied his own bag. “I have a feeling things are going to be exciting from now on with you around.” To that, I had strode off, along with a tailing Zane. They had most definitely decided that someone was to watch me at all times. Like a parent with their young. Just the impression I wanted to make.
Now, I was peering into poisonous green and hard-core grey eyes after striding up behind Stash and Ally, Zane close by, but not hovering too obviously. All had already said their hellos – evidently, the crew had met with them previously so they already knew them – and Ally had been introduced, getting leered at covertly by the white haired man. Now it was my turn to meet and greet. Somehow, I had an inkling it was going to be par for the course today.
“I think you have the wrong group,” green eyed lady said, her hand shooing in my direction. “This is a private party, if you don’t mind?” More flicking of her wrist.
“Miranda, this is the other part of our group we were waiting for,” Brent interceded. “She’s another member of our staff we brought along with Ms. Fields.”
