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Holly was panicking. Again. An orderly queue was forming in front of the gate as they waited for the air stewards to check their passports. And Holly was meant to be in it, ready to board, only she couldn’t. She couldn’t get on the plane and spend the entire time sitting next to a man who had been so openly flirting with her. Not one as good looking as he was.
‘We should probably get in line.’ Evan nodded to the queue, but rather than moving to join it, she smiled tightly.
‘I’ll just be one minute.’ Without pausing, she turned around and scampered to where Caroline was behind her, in a deep conversation with Sandra.
‘Caroline,’ she hissed. ‘Caroline. I need you to swap seats with me. Sorry Sandra.’
Interrupting conversations wasn’t something she normally did but needs must. Her heart pounded in her chest as Caroline broke off her conversation and turned to Holly. She frowned, each of her reactions infuriatingly slow.
‘What’s wrong with your seat?’ she asked.
‘Nothing’s wrong with it. I just don't want to sit in it, that’s all.’
Caroline scoffed, before offering Holly a withering look, crossing her arms over her chest. It was undoubtedly a tried and tested pose she used with her children. ‘I’m hardly going to swap with you if I don’t know what’s wrong with your seat.’
‘I’ll swap. I’m not bothered,’ Sandra said. ‘I’ve got an aisle seat though—’
‘No, don’t swap with her. Tell us what’s wrong with your seat first,’ Caroline pressed.
Holly gritted her teeth. There was no way she wanted to tell Caroline the real reason. If she did, her friend would turn it into this whole thing about Holly finding Evan attractive, and the entire break would be a nightmare as she engineered situations to get the two of them together.
‘I just don’t like middle seats, that’s all.’
Before Holly could say any more, Caroline took Holly’s phone from her and entered the password, the way only a true friend could.
‘You don’t have a middle seat. You’re in seat C. It’s in the aisle. You’ll be fine.’ She shrugged as she handed the phone back.
Throwing a quick glance over her shoulder, Holly noticed Evan now queuing up, and he was looking at her expectantly. There would only be so long that she could stand here talking to Caroline before it became obvious what she was doing. Against all her better judgement, she took a steeling breath and spoke again.
‘Fine. I’m sitting next to Evan.’
‘You are?’ This time Caroline turned back to her immediately, her eyes wide and gleaming with mischief.
‘Please. I just don’t want to have to deal with any small talk at the minute. I just want to read my book in peace. And I’ve got enough to worry about with Hope and Ben and Georgia and the fact that I don’t think anyone truly knows how a plane stays in the sky. I mean, it’s weird right? It just floats there. It’s not natural. I can’t deal with all that, and with sitting next to Evan.’
‘Why? Because you fancy him?’
As a grown up, Holly knew it was 100 per cent wrong to slap a person under any circumstances. Even – or possibly especially – someone that was a dear friend. But as a smirk spread onto Caroline’s face, so did a sense of burning fury within her.
‘I guess that’s just fate,’ Caroline said.
Holly sucked a deep breath in through her nose. ‘It’s not fate. It’s random number allocations. Please.’
‘Nope.’ Caroline folded her arms across her chest once more. ‘I like my seat and I like the idea of you having to make small talk with the gorgeous Evan for two hours. And there’s no point asking Jamie or Fin to swap with you, either. It’s been Fin’s plan to set you two up since they organised this thing.’
Holly clenched her fists at her side so tightly, it was a miracle she didn’t crack her phone.
‘Please, Caroline. I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll babysit. I’ll babysit once a week for a month. Two months. Anything.’
She was begging, she knew that, but she couldn’t see any other way out of it. The champagne that had felt like such a good idea at the bar was now churning in her stomach and the thought of the take-off alone was turning her dizzy. All she wanted to do was sit on the plane, bury her head in her lap, and close her eyes until it was all over.
‘Name your price, I’ll do it.’
It was the last offer she could give, but it wasn’t enough.
‘I’m sorry, Holly, but there are some things you can’t put a price on.’ Caroline smirked.
The tannoy crackled overhead, once again repeating the request for Holly’s rows to board. In one last-ditch effort, she offered Caroline her most desperate, pleading look.
