AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I laugh, but my joy is cut short as the plane lurches forward, taking my stomach lining along with it. “There’s nothing in the manual you need to worry about, Paige,” I say. “Neither of us were in positions of authority over the other. I didn’t answer to you. You didn’t answer to me.”
“I do now,” she points out.
“Right. You do now. But no one’s getting retroactively fired for something that happened four years ago, so can you please stop being so weird about it?”
“I am not being weird.”
“Are you always this hostile around people who have seen you naked?” I ask. “Or just me?”
Her jaw drops. The plane lurches forward on the runway. I grip my armrests, my smile once again slapped right back down.
“Look, Paige...” I take a breath. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. There’s nothing to discuss.”
“Thank you.”
“That’s why I want to clear the air and start fresh,” I say, thinking fast for the right words. “I admire you and the work you do. That’s why I agreed when Graham offered to let me borrow you on this trip.”
“Borrow me?”
“You know what I mean.”
The plane rises off the ground and my gut lurches, but I keep talking, embracing the adorable distraction sitting beside me.
“This is my dream job,” I say. “I’ve wanted it since I learned of its existence when I was a fifteen-year-old dishwasher in the hotel restaurant. I’m not going to screw it up. I saw an opportunity to learn from the best and I took it, even though I knew it’d be awkward.” I look her in the eye, selling the little white lie. “So, can you and I just acknowledge the past, give it a wink, and move on? Please?”
Paige exhales slowly. “Yes,” she answers calmly as the plane shifts in the air. “Yes, we can do that.”
I relax my grip on the armrest, but I don’t let go. “Thank you.”
We sit quietly. I keep my eyes forward, refusing to even glance out the open window next to Paige’s head.
“You never returned my calls,” I say.
Paige looks over. “I thought we were moving on,” she says.
“We will. I called you. You ghosted me. Why?”
“I didn’t ghost you.”
“Why didn’t you call?” I ask calmly.
“Because I didn’t. Okay? Can we wink now?”
I stare forward in silence, giving it a sincere attempt, but…
“Just seems like you would have at least texted…” I mutter.
Paige deflates. “Oliver.”
“I mean, we had a good time.”
“Oliver.”
“A real good time…”
“I’m moving on now,” she says, her voice full of finality.
“Oh, don’t stop, Oli,” I say with a high-pitched moan. “Never stop fu?—”
