Afton Hotels were anything but boutique, so I wasn’t sure why he wanted to talk tomeabout this. “I see,” I chirped, stretching my own smile super wide in hopes I wouldn’t look difficult. “Well, I’m happy to connect you with my brother. Or my dad. They’re really the ones who are focused on the business.”
“I appreciate it,” he said. “Let’s connect soon.” With that, he let me board the plane, where Gabe’s headache was still in effect; he was slouched in one of the window seats and served me one-word answers whenever I asked him questions. He did raise his head, however, when I pulled out my phone to share the statement Cora had sent me. “So it probably wasn’t Cora. But—”
“She just felt guilty for what her sister did and wanted to help me,” I hurried to say before he could bring up Vienna. I frowned out the window as we flew over the crystal clear, sparkling ocean back toward New York.
I’d woken up to a furious text from Nicholas.Pom, did youhijack the jet?Sure, it might not have sounded furious to a casual observer, but I could sense the anger beneath my brother’s words. I’d texted back,Yes, I held Captain Ted at stiletto-point and forced him to take off.Hopefully Nicholas would be so outraged at my making light of the deadly shoe that had killed our grandmother that he’d forget how angry he was about the stealing-the-jet thing.
I continued, “Honestly, I kind of get it.” Or so I’d decided as I lay awake last night, staring at the crack running down the plaster of our ceiling, unable to sleep. If I up and left Nicholas at a time when he was troubled and then he snapped and killed someone, I’d probably wonder if my presence could have stopped him. Likely yes—I’d been told that I had an incredibly soothing aura. “I felt bad for Cora. Though hopefully I didn’t comfort her enough that she’ll decide I’m right and she doesn’t need to donate a bunch of money to my nonprofit.”
Gabe made a noncommittal “hmm.” “But this other thing, Pom,” he said. “You’ve got to admit it’s making Vienna look more…”
I was grateful he didn’t finish his sentence, but I didn’t think it was out of any consideration for me—it was because the flight attendant made an appearance to check on us and see if we wanted anything to eat or drink. “I’ll take a bellini,” I said, then reconsidered. I had a little headache of my own. “No, I’ll take a water. Sparkling. With lime. Not lemon.” The flight attendant nodded and made it a bit down the aisle before I remembered to add on, “Please.”
I turned back to Gabe, my stomach rolling, or maybe it was just turbulence. “I know how it makes Vienna look. I don’t want to, but maybe we do have to consider her as a possibility.”
“What do they say?” Gabe said. “Sometimes the most obvious solution is actually the solution.”
Whoever “they” were, I kind of hated them right now. “I have to talk to Vienna,” I said. “She wanted to talk while wewere flying here. Hopefully she still does.” I grimaced. “I can’t interrogate her, though. Not my best friend. I’ll ask her to help me with something nonprofit-related. That should help her let down her guard.”
“Smart.” Gabe turned back to the window. We were leaving the ocean behind, coming up on the Florida coast. I wondered how my cousins, Farrah and Jordan, were doing down there and mentally waved hi. “I might close my eyes for a little bit.”
I took a deep breath. “Gabe?”
“What?”
My stomach was still swimming unpleasantly, and of course it wasn’t turbulence. Captain Ted would be offended by the very thought. His flights were smoother than my mother’s forehead. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Gabe said.
Well, that was a relief to hear, at least. “Is… is everything okay?” He didn’t respond. Not to be dramatic or anything, but I had to fill the silence or I might die. “It’s just that you were behaving kind of weirdly last night, and now today with the headache, and…” I trailed off, because I wasn’t sure exactly where my speech was heading. “I just… Are you okay?”
The flight attendant chose that moment to come by with my sparkling water and a winning smile. “Let me squeeze your lime for you.” Gabe and I sat there awkwardly as the flight attendant juiced that lime to its last dying breath. I kind of wanted to wither up with it. Or maybe jump out the window. No, we were above Florida. No way was I dying in Florida. “Anything else I can get you?”
“No,” I said abruptly. “Thank you.” She retreated, leaving me and Gabe alone again. Suddenly I wanted to call her back and ask for lemon.
It took him an excruciating seventeen minutes to speak, or maybe that was just what it felt like. “Yeah,” he said, and paused.I definitely aged at least a year in his pause. “Yeah, no. Pom, am I enough for you?”
“What?” I said, offended by the question. “Yes. Of course. Like I would waste my time with somebody who wasn’t.”
He didn’t seem convinced. “I’m worried that maybe I don’t… I don’t quite belong in this world. Like you want things from me that I can’t give you. Like everybody around me is always laughing at me.Look at him, what is he doing here, acting like he belongs?”
“Aw, Gabe.” I’d felt exactly the same way when I’d been launched from my penthouse into his tiny little apartment. I knew I didn’t belong in that world of waiting in line and holding the subway pole and taking the stairs. My heart went out to him. “You belong because you’re here with me. If anyone has any thoughts about you, they can bring them to me, and I’ll take them down.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to beat them up?”
“No,” I said patiently. “I’ll start rumors that they ate baby penguin on their trip to Antarctica or made a coat out of baby giraffe skin.”
“Won’t your world see that as a fine thing? I mean, Jack Wohl is still invited to every gala, and everybody knows he burned down that homeless shelter for the tax break.”
“Yes, those were people,” I said even more patiently. “Nobody cares about people, buteverybodycares about baby animals.” Then what he’d said before struck me. “What could I possibly want that you can’t give me? You areeverythingto me. What’s mine is yours. My world is your world.”
Gabe snorted. “This will never be my world.”
It was like a fist had grabbed my heart and squeezed. We were a unit. A couple. What was mine was ours, and all of that. And once you were married, you werelegallyone unit.
If this was never going to be his world, then did that mean hedidn’t want to be one with me and everything? Did he not want to marry me after all?
I cleared my throat. I would do this new thing I’d been trying called “asking” instead of “assuming.” “What do you mean by that?”
