When the Heart Falls(9)

My best friend, Jenifer, interrupts my reading by pulling on my arm and shaking me. "How can you read right now? This is the most exciting day of our lives!"

I look up and force a smile at the pretty blond. "The excitement won't really start until we're actually in Paris." Our group has dispersed as we all wait for boarding.

Someone sits next to me and I turn, facing my French professor.

He smiles at me. "Bonjour, Winter. Comment allez-vous?"

"Bonjour, Monsieur Bellugue. Je suis bien. Et vous?"

We carry on our conversation in fluent French, other students eyeing us in surprise.

He chuckles. "You could be teaching these French classes, you know. You're better than most natives."

I shrug. "It was my passport to Paris, in a manner of speaking."

He nods. "I received your emails about your book. I'm sorry I couldn't reply sooner. The plans for this trip took a great deal of time."

"I understand." I wait, hoping he has more to say to me, hoping he'll agree to my request.

He points at the novel in my hand. "I don't even know how you found out about my pen name and my books, but well done." The skin around his brown eyes crinkle into fine lines when he smiles. "And to answer your question, yes, I'd be happy to read and critique your novel when you're ready."

"Thank you. That means a lot to me."

He leans in, whispering, even though I'm pretty sure no one speaks French well enough to follow our conversation. "Let's keep this between us, shall we? I like to stay incognito, as they say."

I match his whispering. "Your secret is safe with me."

He nods and returns to his seat to read, and I dive back into my book, ignoring Jenifer as she prattles on about the trip.

When my row is called to board, I'm jolted back to reality, dying a little inside when the sexy cowboy tips his hat at me and smiles, reminding me of Daring's little surprise in my suitcase.

Head held high, I hand in my ticket and walk down the hallway to the plane.

Checking my ticket stub against the seat numbers, I find mine by the window and stow my larger bag in the overhead compartment, then clutch my backpack to my chest and scoot into my seat.

My embarrassment fades as I look out the window and dream of flying over the ocean to the most romantic and amazing city in the world.

Just as my imagination begins to create wild stories of adventure and love, darkness settles in. Rodney boards the plane, almost as sexy as the cowboy, but with a hard edge to his good looks. I can no longer see him as anything but a snake.

On the plane, there's only one place to hide until he's seated, and that's the bathroom.

I make it just in time, and squat in the tiny room, miserable. It seems it's my lot to hide from my life in the places people shit. Lovely.

The best I can hope for is that he won't notice me.

Time passes slowly as I wonder how long to wait before it's safe to sneak back to my seat.

I count to one hundred the way I used to when playing hide-and-seek with my sisters. One-alligator, two-alligator… over-enunciating each syllable. At one hundred I slip out of the bathroom, close the door and hurry down the aisle.

Just as I'm about to reach my seat, Rodney stands and blocks my path.

His lips curl up in a smirk, and I want to vomit knowing I ever kissed that mouth. "Hey, babe, slow down," he says. "No running on an airplane."

"I need to get to my seat." I try to squeeze past, my skin crawling when our bodies touch, but he moves to the side to prevent my escape.

"Your seat? You were all alone there. Listen, it doesn't look like anyone's sitting beside me, so why don't you come sit with me?" He grabs my arm to guide me to his seat.

I shrink away. "Monsieur Bellugue said we couldn't do that, remember?"

"Always such a stickler for the rules. Well, except for that one night." He winks at me and anger, shame and fear fill my body. "Come on. Don’t be an Ice Queen. Just come sit with me."

I pull my arm away, a bruise forming where he gripped me too hard. "No."

"Come on, babe. Let's just—"

From behind, someone puts a hand on Rodney's shoulder. The guy's wearing a cowboy hat, and he talks quietly. "I believe the lady said no."

He has a Texas accent and, when he looks up, I recognize the sexy cowboy from the x-ray line. I'm not sure whether to be embarrassed or grateful.

Rodney scowls and turns his body halfway around to face the newcomer. "We're just gonna sit together."

The cowboy looks past Rodney and locks eyes with me. "You're seat 32B, right?"

I nod, my heart hammering too fast to risk speaking out loud.

He holds up his ticket and shows Rodney. "And look at that, I'm seat 32A. Now, I get terribly bored on flights, so I'm going to need my traveling companion. If you have an issue with that, we can take it up with the staff."

Rodney's jaw locks and his face hardens. "No issue."

The cowboy smiles. "Well good. I hope you enjoy your flight." He waits for Rodney to move.

Rodney puffs up his chest in a moment of false bravado before pushing past the cowboy to throw himself into his seat.

Once Rodney is out of earshot, I find my voice. "Thanks. That guy's a creep."