“That will help.” I grimace. “But still.”
“Right.” She rolls her eyes. “Which brings me to the second thing. I only have twenty countries to go. Before I took this job, I’d vacationed in Germany, Italy, England, France, Costa Rica, Australia, and ...” She pauses, counting silently on her fingers. “Oh, Switzerland.”
My goodness. Maybe she truly is a Southern belle, the kind who grew up wealthy, like Scarlett O’Hara—Gone with the Windbeing the only other thing I know about the South besides the bullets in Shreveport. So why is she a flight attendant now? “You went from vacationing all around the world to booking free flights for a place to sleep?”
She pauses. “Claire played matchmaker with the two of us so we could share our sad stories, but she doesn’t know mine yet the way she thinks she does.” Angel presses her lips together. Her shoulders round, as if in subconscious protection. “I dropped out of college to marry the heir to a hotel chain.”
Whoa. My eyes widen. I’m not even sure what question to ask next. Is she a widow? A divorcée? I’d never dated either before, but this must be a sign that I’m getting older.
She takes a deep breath. “We lived a pretty extravagant life for four years. We didn’t have jobs because we didn’t need them. Which is how Matt talked me into dropping out of college. I’d worked my butt off and had a full ride to Appalachian State, but I was tired. While he offered me the world.”
I just stare. This woman has lived three lives—at least.
“His parents paid for our wedding at Cape Hatteras. It was a fairy tale.”
I shake my head. Pilots earn a good income, but she’s talking about old money. “I’ll bet.”
She tilts her head, and her eyes wander away from mine. “Matt was my best friend. We had a blast together. After an incredible four years, hisparents took us to Aspen for New Year’s.” She covers her mouth, and her cheeks puff. If she was one of the guys, I’d assume she was belching. She peers back toward me. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I have digestion problems, and I burp a lot.”
I shrug with my eyebrows. “I wasn’t going to say anything ...” I really want to return to her narrative.
She smiles, then settles back in. “I did visit doctors when I was filthy rich. Nobody could do anything for me. I tried pills, and they offered surgery, but I decided to simply quit drinking soda and consume Tums like after-dinner mints.”
“I’m sorry,” I offer. “That sounds painful.”
She reaches across the table to touch my hand. “Thank you for understanding.” She pulls away before it becomes weird. “My father-in-law wasn’t so understanding.”
I narrow my eyes. She’s not going to tell me her husband divorced her over a burp, is she?
“After the midnight champagne toast, I burped a little louder than normal. Matt’s dad said something rude, which I tried to laugh off. He’s always had a bit of a temper when he drinks, and he’d break things everywhere we went.” She takes a deep breath. “But I didn’t expect him to throw a chair at me.”
I jolt back in my seat.
“Matt tried to excuse it as drunken behavior, but I was hurt my husband didn’t defend me. Little did I know that after the restaurant called the police and I gave a statement, Matt would never speak to me again.”
I freeze in shock. My brain is trying to comprehend, but it doesn’t make sense. “Your father-in-law assaulted you, then your husband ghosted you?” I’d always assumed the worst breakups were a result of infidelity, but this has to do with money. Her husband chose his inheritance over her.
“Pretty much.” She winces at the memory. “My hotel room key didn’t work that night, so I couldn’t get into our room. I figured it was a glitch and stayed across the hall with a friend since it was so late anyway. But Matt checked out of the hotel without me, canceled my credit cards, andserved me with divorce papers. Since all our money was actually his dad’s, I was left with nothing.”
And I’d thought breaking up with Joey had been tragic. At least she’d talked to me. She may have lied about cheating, but she’d said goodbye. “What did you do?”
“Oh, I cried a lot. And I was certain that when Matt saw me at the divorce hearing, he’d have a change of heart. I mean, how could anyone just throw away years of loving someone? I’d thought our relationship was rarer than his father’s millions.”
“And?”
“He did not.” She sighs and lifts a shoulder helplessly. “So I became a flight attendant to give myself the world.”
My jaw just hangs there. “That is the craziest story I’ve ever heard. I hope you get hired by your dream airline and make it to your thirty countries.”
“Thanks.” She smiles sweetly. “Though I didn’t tell you my sob story for sympathy. I told you because it’s the reason I was dating that older pilot in the first place. After my horrible divorce, I never want to get married again. So I pick men who I know don’t want commitment. The saddest part of this story is that I didn’t know he was already married to someone else.”
I try to ignore the fact that she’s telling me this while on a date with me. I absolutely want commitment, so it’s good to know up front that I won’t get it from her. Note taken. More importantly, when Claire told me Angel’s relationship had ended because of cheating, I’d never expected her to be the “other woman.”
Rather than hurt for the pilot’s wife—though I do feel bad for her—I wish I could help Angel. She’s still broken, and that’s leading her to other broken relationships.
“Angel, you absolutely did not deserve to be treated that way.”
She shrugs off my condolences. “I was young and infatuated. I thought I was in love, but maybe I just loved the attention.”
