In Flight (13 page)

I got caught in the back galley when passengers were allowed to deplane scant seconds later.
 

Brenda and Melissa, who used the jump seats in the back galley, bombarded me with questions while I waited a little impatiently for the plane to empty.

“What happened up there?”
 
Brenda asked me, her eyes wide.

“Was that James Cavendish I saw following the police off with those men?” Melissa asked, her expression nearly predatory.
 
She had that laser sharp look she got in her eye when she was into a guy.
 
I had seen it in her eyes way too often, considering how short a time I’d known her.
 

So she found out his name
, I thought, a little uneasily.
 
She probably knew more about him than I did now
.
 
I actively avoided all social networking, and I didn’t even own a television.
 
I only knew he came from a wealthy family with a massive hotel chain around the world.
 
I had never even searched his name online to find out anything.
 
I was guessing that by now Melissa couldn’t say the same.
 

“Yes, that was him,” I answered her question first, curious to see her reaction.
 

She gave me a considering look.
 
“I didn’t even know he was on this flight.
 
You’ve gotta tell me when you see the hot, rich ones, Bianca.
 
I thought we were friends.”
 
Her voice was all offended sweetness, a strange new affectation for her.

I just stared at her, not knowing what to say for a long moment.

“I know you two ladies aren’t on the market, but I’m gonna say it anyways.
 
I call dibs on that one.”
 
She giggled as she said it, so I honestly couldn’t tell if she was joking.
 
Either way, though, it was at that moment that I knew she was crazy.

 
I shook my head, startled to feel a hostility towards her that I didn’t want to investigate.
 

“That’s not how it works,” I told her.

She giggled again.
 
“Whatever.
 
I wasn’t really worried about it.
 
Men want who they want, and I can tell I’m just his type.
 
I’ll have his number before we get to headquarters.”

Brenda and I shared a look.
 
Brenda went straight back to her own line of questioning.
 
“Why were the cops called?
 
I saw a commotion when we took off, but I couldn’t tell what happened, and there didn’t seem to be a problem after that.”
 

Brenda seemed to have adopted the skill of just ignoring Melissa when she got crazy.
 
I made a note to emulate her methods.

I told them what I knew, leaving out James’s specific involvement.
 
Melissa zeroed in on the oversight immediately.
 
“Why did James follow them off?”
 

Was she really on a first name basis after one short conversation with him?
 
Was I missing something here?
 

“He and some of the other people in first class heard a lot of what they were saying, I suppose.”
 

I was saved from having to answer anything else when Stephan strode into the galley.
 

He looked at the other two women.
 
“Last passenger is off, ladies.
 
Bianca and I need to speak to the police and write incident reports, but you guys are good to go, since you weren’t involved.
 
We’ll see you first thing in the morning.”

Brenda smiled, grabbing her bags and saying goodbye before hurrying off.
 
Our employee bus was on a twenty minute timer.
 
She’d have to get down to the bus stop in three minutes or wait another twenty, I observed as I checked my watch.
 

It was a plain metal watch with a dark blue face.
 
It was looking a little the worse for wear, I noticed for the first time.
 
It had lasted two years, and it looked like I needed a replacement, by all the nicks and dents in it.
 
Watches in good condition were actually a job requirement for us, so I’d have to buckle down and go shopping for once.
 

I’d been on a super tight budget for the last six months.
 
This would be the first time I’d gone shopping for anything besides food in that time.
 
Shit
.
 
That gave me an uncomfortable thought.
 

I looked up at Stephan, who was staring at Melissa.
 
I could tell he was wondering why she hadn’t left yet.
 

She just beamed at him.
 
“I’m gonna stick around for a bit, make sure you guys get everything squared away okay.”
 
She put an awkward arm around my shoulders.
 
Especially awkward considering she was six inches shorter than I was, even in her ultra-tall heels.
 

Stephan and I shared a look.
 

“She’s been through an ordeal, poor thing, with those men saying those awful things about her,” Melissa said, her voice dripping with false sympathy.

I ignored her, talking to Stephan.
 
“I forgot to pay for my drinks last night.
 
I’m sorry.
 
What do I owe you?”
 

He’d been on a budget similar to mine lately, and for the same reason, so I knew he couldn’t afford to be buying me drinks at the bar.
 

We had both saved money from working steady amounts of overtime over the last four years.
 
We had taken that savings and found two nearly new houses that had recently been foreclosed on, right next door to each other.
 
We’d both been able to successfully buy the small houses, and were now proud homeowners.
 
And neighbors.
 

It had been something we’d fantasized about as homeless teenagers.
 
We’d talked about it endlessly, how someday we wouldn’t be homeless.
 
Instead, we had promised, we’d always live right next to each other.
 
And we’d been serious about it.
 

We’d worked and saved, and it had been one of the happiest days of my life, the day we moved from our small shared apartment and into our small, side-by-side houses.
 

He grinned at me.
 
It was a shit-eating grin.
 
“You don’t.
 
James bought out the bar for the night.
 
That’s why it emptied out so fast.
 
He covered all of our drinks for the night, and Melvin said his tip for last night was a month’s worth of his normal pay.
 
And all thanks to you, Buttercup.”

I stared at him, stunned speechless, my mind racing.

“Why thanks to her?” Melissa asked him, her voice sharp.
 
“What is going on with you two?
 
It almost sounds like you’re pimping your girlfriend out.”

Stephan looked at her, and his eyes were as cold as I’d ever seen them.
 
I’d never been on the receiving end of that icy stare.
 
Melissa took it better than I would have.
 

“Bianca is the most important person in the world to me,” Stephan told her coldly.
 
“She’s my best friend and my only family.
 
She is not, however, my girlfriend.
 
And it’s thanks to her because James Cavendish is crazy about her.
 
So crazy, in fact, that he rented that entire bar out for the night.
 
All just so that he could get her number, and spend some time with her.”
 

Now it was Melissa’s turn to look stunned, but she recovered almost immediately.
 
It turned into a catty glance at me.
 

She gave me an insulting once over.
 
“I bet you misunderstood.
 
Stephan just thinks you’re special because you’ve been BFF’s forever.”
 
And with that heartwarming assessment, she stalked out of the galley.

Stephan and I shared a look that communicated what we were starting to think about the little red-headed gold-digger.
 

     
The mess that awaited us outside of the plane was dealt with more quickly than I would have thought possible.
 

They were holding the loud-mouthed men somewhere in the airport, questioning them extensively.
 
Probably scaring the hell out of them, I thought.
 
One police officer was waiting for us when we deplaned, and interviewed me briefly about what I’d seen and heard personally.
 

My part was short.
 
And I got to hear Stephan’s account first hand, so I got a pretty clear picture of what had gone down.

It had started out as raunchy chatter by the men, though Stephan had heard about that second-hand from James.
 
Comments about my body, things they’d like to do to me, graphic and disgusting, but nothing we’d call the police about, usually.
 

And then on takeoff, one of them had apparently gotten especially loud and graphic, talking about some drugs he had with him just for women like me, and that they should follow me through the airport and buy me a drink.
 
And drug it.
 
And then try to get me alone in their hotel room.
 

That encouraged the others to add in what they would do to me when I was drugged and unconscious, and there I got a clearer picture of why the police had been called.
 

I doubted the men would get arrested, unless the drugs they had mentioned really were in one of their suitcases.
 
I thought it more likely they would lose a few hours of their precious vacation time and get the hell scared out of them by the police.
 

Stephan finished telling his version of the events shortly, and without any unnecessary embellishment.
 

The police officer nodded and wrote as he went on.
 
Just as he finished up, I saw James approaching with another police officer.
 
Neither of these officers had been there to meet the plane.
 

Just how many police were involved in this fiasco?
 
I wondered, a little baffled.
 

I stiffened a little when I saw that Melissa was walking beside him, touching the back of his arm in an overly friendly way as she chattered away about God only knew what.
 
I tried to ignore her.
 

James looked stoic and unreadable as the trio got closer to us.
 
I noticed that he wore only his dress shirt, still with no tie or jacket.
 

“Did we leave his suit jacket on the plane?”
 
I asked Stephan.
 

Stephan blinked.
 
“Must have,” he said.

“I’ll go get it,” I told him, and turned briskly to do so.

The plane was deserted as I came back on, and I was relieved that another crew hadn’t yet taken it over.
 

I dug a pen and a piece of hotel stationary from my carryon, jotting down my name and number, and slipped the small piece of paper into James’s jacket.
 

I’d done a whole hell of a lot more already, so it seemed silly not to give the man my number.
 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Mr. Spellcaster

Both officers were absent, but James, Stephan, and Melissa were still waiting when I reemerged from the jetway.
 
James and Melissa were speaking, but James looked up when he saw me, giving me his full, intense regard.
 

Stephan was writing furiously.
 
He was filling out an incident report, I was sure.
 

I handed James his jacket without a word.
 

“Do I need to fill out my own, or can I just add to yours and sign?” I asked Stephan, referring to his paperwork.
 

“We can share,” he told me without looking up.
 
“I’m almost done.
 
I got most of it down during the flight.
 
I just left the end blank because I wasn’t sure those boneheads wouldn’t do something else
 
that I’d need to add.”

“K,” I said, waiting in a sort of awkward silence.
 
Even Melissa wasn’t chattering, and James just continued to stare at me without a word, as though he expected me to do something.
 

Finally, after watching me in silence for long, pregnant minutes, he spoke.
 
“Can I talk to you for a minute?
 
I need to go soon.”

I nodded, walking away from the others in silence.
 
I half-expected Melissa to follow us, but she didn’t, just watching us with a strange look on her face.
 

“I have to work until this evening, but I want to see you.
 
I’ll send a driver to pick you up at six.
 
Give me your number and address.”
 

He had his phone out, waiting.
 
I just looked at him for a moment.
 
This wouldn’t do at all.
 

“I put my number in your suit pocket,” I began.
 
“And I’ll drive to your place.
 
What’s your address.”

He definitely looked like he wanted to argue, but I didn’t think he wanted to push his luck, so he gave me his address stiffly.