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My entire career, really.
FIVE
Greyson
“All I’m saying isthat she’s going to work a lot better for a lot longer if you baby her a little bit. You don’t have to fly them like your life depends on it every time you’re in the air, you know?” Kenton asked.
“Technically speaking, my life does depend on it every time I’m in the air,” I told him. “So there’s that.”
“You know what I mean,” he said with a shake of his head. “If you’re not knocking the front propeller off, you’re getting something else jammed. Just fly it like it’s meant to be flown. Like a little angel. A sweet, sweet angel.”
“You say that as if you know anything about angels,” I told him. “Or flying, for that matter.”
“I know the plane isn’t supposed to physically fall apart every time you touch it!” he shot back at me, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
I knew he was just teasing me, but he did have a point. I did fly hard, but that was how I liked it. I threw myself into whatever I did, and I pushed things to the absolute limit. It didn’t bother me to have to push something harder than before. It didn’t bother me to push something to the limit.
That was just the way I did things, and I had no issue with that.
Kenton was my mechanic, and I had full confidence he was going to be able to work with anything that came at me. Not like he didn’t have the entire stock of parts at his disposal. And with the way I budgeted, I had the money to pay him to make sure my plane was ready to hit the sky any time I was ready to fly.
“And you say you’re going to be with one client for the next few months, huh?” he asked. “It’s been a while since you’ve had someone commit to you like that.”
“I guess some businessman who’s going to be going back and forth from here to Florida,” I said. “So the weather’s going to be nice.”
“I bet. I don’t know if I should be jealous of the thought of you settling in with some hot girl you picked up on the beach while I’m up here slaving away. And when the weather turns, you get to be down there with the sunshine and did I mention the hot girls in their bikinis?”
“It’s not like the women in Florida walk around in their bikinis all day,” I told him.
He gave me a look, and I fired a smirk back at him. He knew as well as I did that there would be plenty of girls for me to choose from when I got down there. But I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to be living it up in that way. Not that I wasn’t okay with the idea of being bombarded with beautiful women in bikinis, but the fact that I was going to be working a lot with the same client made me want to make sure I left them with a good impression.
I didn’t want them to think I was the kind of pilot who they would have to worry about showing up to the airstrip hungover. That just wasn’t my way of doing things. I was the kind of pilot who took this seriously. Sure, there were going to be plenty of times when I had the chance to get out and have some fun while I was on a trip, but I was always sure to be ready to fly again the next morning.
I would never put anyone in danger with my flying habits, but that wasn’t always something that people trusted.
I had worked with plenty of other people in the past who were really worried about what I did with my time. Plenty who had seen movies where the pilots were inebriated or otherwise unfit to fly the plane, and who weren’t able to take care of their crew while they were in the air.
Sure, there were always going to be those who were paranoid about what they were going to get with me, but then, I had my own reserves when it came to working with the same person for as long as I would be with this one.
It was a few hours to get from here to Florida, and that meant we were going to have plenty of time to get to know each other. This wasn’t the kind of flight that we would handle and part ways and never see each other again. This was the kind of flight that would lead to more flights.
But again, I wasn’t even sure of the person I would be working with.
“I hope you wind up with someone who really doesn’t care about basic hygiene,” Kenton said.
“What?” I asked, surprised with the sudden angle he took.
“You heard me,” he said. “I hope you wind up with someone who doesn’t bathe, or who you have to tell to brush their teeth before they get on the flight. It’ll serve you right to have to deal with someone you have to hold hands with for the next few months.”
“I don’t know why you have to be so unreasonable,” I said with a shake of my head. “And it’s not like you’re going to get any real enjoyment out of my suffering anyway. I don’t have any way to reach you when I get to Florida.”
“But just knowing that you’re going to be suffering up there is enough to bring a smile to my face,” he said with another grin. I wanted to slap him, but I just shook my head. I didn’t mind his teasing, but after he pointed out that this person may not subscribe to daily hygiene, I did start to wonder just what kind of person I would be getting with this trip.
There were all kinds out there, that was for sure, and I had no idea who this was.
All I knew was that the secretary for some interior design company had gotten a hold of me and booked the flight for the next few months. They had, of course, been willing to work with us and the schedules we pilots who worked with the agency had, but I was greedy.
I was the one taking the call, and I could commit to working with the same person for the next few months. With the money they were paying me to make sure I was available all the times they wanted, I had the freedom to be able to turn down other private flights for the time it would take me to work with this client.
