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I spun my lie around the truth. “Eh, just wishing for my own happily ever after one day. What about you? Why are you heading to the island?” I asked, to change the topic to something else.
“Vacation,” she answered, almost giddy.
“By yourself?” I asked. She struck me as being fiercely independent, but I was still a little confused. “Don’t most women vacation together, or with their boyfriends? I’ve heard it’s not safe to travel alone as a woman,” I pressed.
It was unfortunately a man’s world, and this island was no different. Cruel men lured women into their nets and they were dragged into the abyss to never be seen again. I thought of Abby falling into that trap and had to hold back a rage. She was something rare they’d certainly covet.
“Well, I’m not most women,” Abby responded quickly. I could see a fire in her eyes that told me there was a story behind her words. One I didn’t know if she’d ever explain to a stranger like me, but I was curious.
“No, clearly you aren’t. You are heavily tatted, and you say what you think.”
“I’m also single, don’t have many girlfriends, and I am very capable of protecting myself,” she said, answering my question.
“Are you?” I asked, curious about both of her answers. Single and hardened.
How in the hell a woman like her wasn’t snatched up by now was beyond me. I’d only known her for a brief moment, but she was already the real deal. Someone I could relate to.
“Very,” she said with a bit of warning. Her eyebrow raised in challenge. Like she was daring me to ask her for a demonstration or daring me to ask why she was single. I could go either way, but I was sure the demonstration would make me rock hard. Capable women were my kryptonite, and if she felt capable enough to challenge me, well, it was game over. I wasn’t sure that I’d ever had a woman want to challenge me. It was new and exciting. I was a hard ass to the rest of the world, but right now I might as well have drawn hearts over my eyes. It was a shame that I wasn’t traveling for vacation. I was going to be very busy, and she’d be on a return flight home before I knew it.
“I’ll take your word for it.” My lips curled up on the right side into a smirk. “What kind of training do you have? Athlete to athlete, of course.” I winked, doing my best to be playful. I wasn’t sure I’d ever tried this hard to be charming. This must be what Jones and Yates did all the time. It had to be exhausting, but I could see the appeal. To have others look at you as desirable and not a threat to their safety.
“Judo and Capoeira,” she answered quickly and turned her head back to gauge my reaction.
“That’s…impressive. It takes a lot of training to learn some of the flips in Capoeira,” I praised.
“Thanks, and what styles do you practice, aside from deadlift?” she mocked with a serious face. Then after a few seconds she could no longer hold onto the expression and she smiled again. The woman actually made my insides flutter.Holy shit.
“You’ve got jokes. I like that. I studied Krav Maga and Kung fu. I’ve studied the highlights of others, but I don’t usually let my opposition get close enough to me for hand-to-hand to be required,” I stated.
“Let me guess, former military, and your weapon of choice is…a M4 Carbine?” she said. She hit the target center mass with her guess. That struck me as strange, unless she was also in the military. With the tattoos and her physique, it would make sense.
“Guilty,” I said with a cheesy smile. “You know more than the standard civilian. Did you serve?”
Her eyebrow ticked just slightly; a normal person may not have noticed, but I was trained to notice. “No, I just know my stuff,” she answered, too quickly. It was possible she lied, but I let it go. Why lie about service, especially to someone else who served? It wasn’t my business and she wasn’t required to share.
The plane taxied down the runway, and we took off without incident.
“So why Nassau?” I asked, not quite ready to give up on our conversation. This girl was exactly my type, and the hopeless romantic in me wouldn’t let me give up this shot. It was like we got a second chance being on the same flight after our earlier run-in, and I didn’t want to piss it away.
“A friend of mine told me I should come here,” she answered as she grabbed some pretzels from the stewardess, then she passed a bag over to me.
She pulled open the bag and drew a pretzel into her mouth. “Why did your friends decide to have their wedding in Nassau?” she asked me. I watched her lips as she chewed; they looked perfectly kissable, even with pretzel crumbs on them.
“Because it’s beautiful, I guess. I wasn’t privy to their wedding planning,” I said with a shrug of my shoulders.Lie.
“Indeed it is,” she echoed.
I could feel the lull in conversation like it was a physical wall I was slammed into. Abby looked down at her phone and scrolled through something on the internet. It looked suspiciously like a police report, but I ignored it. Who knew what her job was? She could be a police officer or lawyer.
I decided to try to strike up conversation again in a little while. I wouldn’t push her too far and take a chance on her changing her seat. I put my earbud back in and stared out the window. It was nighttime, so I couldn’t see much besides the lights of cities far below, and when we made our way over the ocean, it was just inky blackness beneath us. It reminded me of the many times I waded through dark water just like it to take out targets or recover caches of weapons stolen by terrorist organizations. While I liked to swim, I no longer did so at night. Those missions took the fun out of that for me.
We were fifty minutes into the flight when I saw a light come on and felt the cabin shake a little. I pulled my earbud out and listened to the flight attendant’s announcement.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are experiencing some turbulence. You may experience some discomfort while we pass through this rough patch. I can assure you that everything is well and we will be through it soon. Please remain in your seats and buckle your seatbelts.”
The attendant put the phone back on the wall, and I looked over to find Abby’s fingers wrapped tightly around the armrests. Her knuckles were white. Her chest raised and fell rapidly.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
