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"Speaking of co-pilot, I hate to play the stick in the mud, but don't you all think it's time to start getting into place? People will start boarding soon, and I doubt they'll expect us to be standing around talking like this."
All of the banter stopped immediately. Both of my friends and Captain Stevens turned their attention to this Drew Larson. I expected some kind of a fight from Stevens at least, who never took kindly to being told what to do, but there was nothing. I could hear him grumbling a little as he made his way to the cockpit, but considering the loose cannon the venerable Fred Stevens usually was, that was nothing.
My friends both nodded at Mr. Larson and hurried toward the back of the plane, whispering and giggling to each other as they went. I turned to do the same, careful not to make eye contact as I went, and was almost to the safety of the back of the plane when the new co-pilot spoke up.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Is it about Captain Stevens?” I asked, turning and doing my best to look professional and not at all shook up as I did. “Because I can assure you, he’s harmless. I know he doesn’t always come off that way.”
“No, actually, it’s not about him. I kind of pegged him as harmless right off, you know? All bark, no bite?”
“That sounds about right,” I said, toying with my hair despite the fact that I didn’t really want to be flirting with this man. “And the bark gets worse, depending on how things outside of work are going. Or at least, that’s what I’ve come to believe.”
“I have no doubt. Now can I ask you a different kind of question? A question that doesn’t have anything to do with Fred and the source of his bark?”
“Of course, you can,” I answered breathlessly, wondering if the girls were hearing any of this in the back. “Although, I can’t promise to have the answer.”
“Something tells me that you will, seeing as it’s about you.”
“About me? What about me?”
“I was just wondering,” he asked. “Do you like to fly?”
“Well sure, it’s my job.”
“Right, I know that,” he said. “And that’s the answer that makes the most sense. But outside of the sensical answer, do you like it? Do you like being up in the air?”
“I love it,” I answered quickly, all of my hesitation momentarily gone. “I love it more than almost anything else on earth.”
“Tell me why,” he said.
“I love meeting new people all of the time, whether the passengers or the other crew. I love wondering what kinds of lives those people lead, where they’re going and where they’ve been. I love the idea that these planes could take us anywhere in the world. All we have to do is decide where we want to go.”
As soon as I stopped talking, I felt a wave of embarrassment flood my body. I'd meant to answer him, sure, but I hadn't meant to go into such specifics. The things I'd just told him were things I never said out loud, not to anyone. I couldn't understand what had made me just unload all of my thoughts on this man, who I didn't even know. All I knew was that I didn't want him asking me any follow-up questions, and so I turned his own question around on him in a preemptive strike.
“And what’s your answer?”
“To what, whether or not I like to fly?” he asked.
“No, actually, I think I already know the answer to that,” I said. “Something tells me you love it. But why? What’s your reason?”
“I love the control. The feeling of having total control over something so magnificent as an airplane. There’s nothing else like it. There’s no rush better in the world.”
It was a straightforward enough answer, but the way he looked at me when he was done talking wasn't straightforward at all. His eyes began on my face, but from there, they moved down slowly, taking in every inch of my body as they roved. Every place his eyes landed felt suddenly naked, like he had the power to take anything he wanted with his eyes alone. I felt frozen under the weight of his gaze, and if it hadn't been for the sound of Fred's voice ringing out from the cockpit, I didn’t know what would have happened.
“Hey! Pretty boy! Any chance you’re going to come up here and do some actual work? Or were you just going to talk to that pretty young thing all day and night?”
“Coming,” Drew called over his shoulder, his eyes never leaving my body. “On my way. As for you,” he directed his words at me, that intensity still all over his face. “It was good to meet you. Very good to meet you, in fact. I look forward to getting to know each other better while I’m working with your crew.”
His eyes did one more quick up and down movement, and then he was off, headed towards the cockpit so quickly that it was hard to believe that the two of us had ever had a conversation to begin with. I immediately set my mind to remembering that one of my hard rules was that I would never date a pilot, no matter what.
I had spent enough time with pilots to know exactly what they were like, and it wasn't what I was looking for. They were arrogant and inconsistent and would only come in and out of my life. And not just my life, but Emma's as well. A pilot was the last thing I wanted for myself, but as I made my way to the back of the plane, I found that I couldn't quite get Drew's searching eyes out of my mind. They were still roaming up and down the length of my body, and no matter how many times I shook my head to clear his image, I couldn't quite manage it.
“Enough, silly girl,” I whispered to myself, annoyed by how girlishly foolish I was behaving. “Just stop it. That guy is off limits, no ifs, ands, or buts.”
Chapter 4: Drew
“I ever tell you about that time I had with the Chinese hooker, pretty boy?”
