My eyebrows snap together. “Oh, are you flying to Phoenix today on the 4:05 flight?”
“Yup.” Mason signs the bill that was quietly slipped in front of him.
“We’re flying in to take a look at the progress on the restaurant build-out and his new house,” the woman with the blonde hair adds. Mason never told me her name. If that’s his girlfriend, I’d be a little annoyed that he didn’t even think about introducing me.
I smile. “Wow, so the two of you are moving to Arizona together?”
Mason shakes his head. “No, not us. I am. This is Claire, my real estate agent,” he quickly corrects.
From the corner of my eye, I see Claire jerk her head to the side, shooting him a look.Well, that was awkward.My head moves back and forth between them. “Alright. I’ll see you two on the flight then,” I say. “It was nice meeting you, Claire, and I guess I’ll see you around then, Mason.” I slowly turn to walk away.
“It would be my pleasure!” Mason calls out as the distance between us grows. I roll my eyes, refusing to give him any more of my time.
Sometime later and forty thousand feet in the air, Piper and I, with another member of our flight crew, begin taking drink orders and passing out snacks. Mason and his real estate agent are in row fourteen, and I just happen to be taking the orders for the front half of the plane. He’s sitting in the aisle seat, and she’s in the middle.
For the first half of our quick flight into Phoenix, I try to avoid making eye contact with him, but every so often, my eyes are pulled into the path of his magnetic gaze. I move down the slim aisle of the aircraft and down each row of passengers, focusingon the task at hand, but still, I feel the energy from him burn through me.
Knocking my mind and thoughts off balance, it causes me to nearly ram into the knee of an unsuspecting aisle-seat passenger on two separate occasions.
The temptation to look in his direction intensifies to a level that no longer allows me to distract myself. I finally give in, hoping to get a reprieve, like when you finally blink after waiting too long—only to find that Mason’s eyes are locked on me. Their invisible chains capture my line of sight, unwilling to let them go.
His face remains stoic, emotionless until the moment that I’m standing in the aisle of row fourteen. Swallowing hard, attempting to break the hold. “Can I get you coffee, tea, soda, or a personality, perhaps?”
Mason removes his earbuds, angling his head up and toward me. “Yes, I would love a personality on my flight to Phoenix,” he says.
I scrunch my nose and shake my head in response. “I’m sorry, sir, but unfortunately, those are unavailable for purchase on this flight.”
Claire leans over Mason’s lap. “I’ll take a gin and tonic, please.” Her voice is small, laced with obvious insecurity.
Mason immediately draws his body back and into the seat, purposely creating space between them.
“Sounds great,” I respond, shifting my focus back to the annoyingly good-looking man in the aisle seat. “For real, Mason, what do you want to drink?”
“You’re much more pleasant when you’re being kind.”
I roll my eyes once again.
“I’ll take some water, please.”
“Fabulous,” I say before moving on to the next row.
This was perhaps one of the longest hour and twenty-minute flights that I have ever been on. I spent the whole time distracted by my brother’s best friend, and he, quite obviously, spent the entire time distracted by me. Pinning me with his enigmatic emerald eyes whenever I moved through the cabin while pretending to work on his laptop with earbuds in.
I bet he’s thinking about how much better he is than I am—or how I haven’t changed in the six years since we’ve seen each other, and I’m still just his best friend’s aggravating younger sister.
Better yet, Mason is most likely thinking about all the women he’s going to fuck now that he’ll be living in a new city. Which takes me back to the awkward encounter we had at the airport bar. He didn’t introduce that woman to me at first, let alone acknowledge her in my presence. His actions can only lead to two conclusions, one being that I’m so insignificant that I did not even warrant an introduction of her—even though he introduced Claire to me. The other being that the woman believes she means more to Mason than she actually does.
Which, if I’m being honest about how well I know Mason, I can bet it was the latter of the two. She definitely means less to him than she thinks.What a jerk.
It doesn’t matter. I don’t care.
Thank god this is the last leg of my trip. I’m exhausted and looking forward to getting home to my wonderful little four-and-a-half-year-old, Luca.
As we make our final descent into Phoenix, I see the city lights come into view. I enjoy traveling to new places, but nothing beats the incredible feeling of arriving back in your own city. The orange sky envelopes the plane as we descend from the desert sunset and into the valley of the sun.
I glance over at Piper, both of us looking through the small oval-shaped window.
Resting her body on the back of the jump seat, she turns her head slightly toward me. “That orange sky,” she whispers through a smile.
