Page 77 of Ace My Heart

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. His body was turned towards mine, his eyes slightly bloodshot, which somehow intensified the blue of his irises.

“I mean, you were clearly hard-up last night. You almost tried to jumpme, and when I rebuffed you, you disappeared for hours, and then brought some random hole-with-a-heartbeat back to our room and had loud, drunken sex at three in the morning.”

Joel made a weird, strangled sound. Was he choking on a peanut? I looked at him, worried, before realising with rising frustration that he was laughing.

“What the fuck is funny about this, Joel?” I demanded. He guffawed harder, reaching for the bottled water.

“Any hole in a storm – that’s going in the phrasebook!”

I found my own lips curling at the corners as I realised my mistake. His laugh had always had an infectious quality to it.

“I meant, any port in a storm. Or maybe any hole’s a goal – I don’t know.”

“Any hole in a storm is my new favourite saying!” Joel shook with laughter for a long moment, then took a deep breath, had a sip of water, and was suddenly completely sober.

“Mel, I’m sorry about what happened last night. I shouldn’t have brought someone back to the room. It was really inconsiderate of me. I should have thought about how much it would upset you.”

“Upset me?” I asked, looking back at the magazine so he wouldn’t see the consternation on my face. “It kept me awake, that’s about all it did. How drunk were you, anyway?”

He sighed. “Drunk enough that I can’t even remember what her face looked like.”

“She couldn’t have been that memorable then, could she?” I asked cuttingly.

“She doesn’t even rate as the most memorable woman I touched in the last twenty-four hours.”

Why did that make my chest jolt?

“How many women did you touch yesterday, exactly?” I managed to ask over the sudden tightness in my lungs.

“Just one other.”

I could not respond to that. Instead, I stared out the window, white, fairy floss clouds below, blinding sun all around.

When I had myself under some semblance of control again, I turned back to him, all business now.

“Okay, Joel. I’ll forgive you. But if we’re going to do this – work together I mean – we need some ground rules. First, no bringing other people back to the room.”

Joel nodded.

“Second, no going out for hours on end without telling the other person where you’re going, or when you’ll be back. We’re here to work, not to play.” He nodded again, a little amusement creeping onto his face.

“Third –” but I didn’t get to a third, because the plane shuddered, and I lost my train of thought. I closed my eyes. It got worse. I could feel the sweat on my palms as I clawed the armrests.

And then his hand was on my face, stroking. I couldn’t open my eyes, so I just let him touch me until the shaking (both the plane’s and mine) stopped. I opened my eyes. Joel was leaning close, his thumb on my cheek.

“It’s okay, Mel. It’s going to be okay,” he whispered. I felt mybody relax slightly. The seat belt light went off with a ding. Joel undid his belt, moving closer and wrapping his arms around me until I was cocooned in them. I didn’t protest. I was so exhausted from the turbulence that I had no strength to argue with him.

I felt his lips brush my forehead once. I just let it happen.

When I felt calm enough, I spoke. “Hey, Joel,” I began.

“Yeah?” he replied quietly.

“You know how I said once that if you’d been my big brother, I would have killed you by the time I was twelve?”

“I remember.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re not … my brother that is. Because if you were, Iwouldhave killed you, and then you wouldn’t be here to act all big brotherly now when I need you.”

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