Page 13 of Pomegranates and Olive

"He's all yours." An unexpected twinge of jealousy knots my stomache, but I shake it off as I smile at her. "Enjoy."

"Off you go then." She hands me my new boarding pass and ushers me through the gate and down the ramp. "Have a great trip."

I apologise to the cabin crew waiting at the aeroplane door as I rumble down the air bridge before coming to a screeching halt at the entrance of the plane.

“You’re in seat 34A.”

Window seat. But last row. Ugh! I’ll be breathing in fart for the next hour!

As I force my bag into the crowded overhead compartment, I look around the cabin. There's a couple in front of me and an older man wearing a Hawaiian shirt directly across from me. He’s already snoring. I do a little happy dance as I get seated. It looks like I've got the row to myself me so I might be able to stretch out once we're in the air.

"What on earth are you doing?"

Having been caught mid-seat-dance, the heat rushes to my face. "Yilmaz!"

He removes his cardigan, sits down and fastens his seatbelt, with an amused chuckle. "Looks like we're going to be sitting together."

Ugh!

"Lucky me."

"I was going to say lucky us."

I twist myself as far away from him as I can in my limited seat space, but I can still feel his steel-grey eyes on me. He then positions his right arm possessively on the shared arm rest between us so his bare forearm nudges mine, while his leg presses firmly against me.

“You realise there’s three seats in the row.”

He waves his boarding pass at me. “Mine says 34B. I sit where I’m told.”

“Do you always follow the rules?”

“When it suits me… and right now it does.”

This 50-minute flight is quite possibly going to be the longest flight of my life.

And yet I find myself hoping for a mechanical problem, not enough to kill us all but maybe one that will ensure that this 50-minute flight is stuck on the tarmac and I’m stuck sitting next to this annoying, beautiful, arrogant man for just a little longer.

Oh dear, Olive.

3

My Near-Induction Into The Mile High Club

I try to ignore Yilmaz and turn my attention to the cabin crew who are starting their safety demonstration. Still, I lose interest in that pretty quickly and turn back to scrutinize him. That bronzed, caramel complexion. Those steel-grey eyes that seem to be laughing at me from under those long, thick eyelashes.

That jolt of electricity that shot through me when he held my hand.

Librarian Olive would snort with derision at Yilmaz, but this is the new and improved Olive and she’s making all the decisions now. New and improved Olive, who's already broken the law in a foreign land by stealing a coffee, and is ready to tick a few other items off her list before we've even gotten off the ground. She forces me to smile and...oh no... bat my eyelashes at him like some love-sick fool.

"Thanks for helping me. The lady at the counter printed me another boarding pass. I'm so glad you didn't miss the flight."

"I think —" He waves a card around before slipping it in his pocket. "— the ‘counter lady’ would have been more than happy if I had missed my flight entirely."

"She did blush when she brought up your chivalry. Probably would have given you one of her kidneys if you would have asked her for it."

He leans in, his dark eyes holding mine. "She wasn't really my type."

My double-crossing face heats up. Now, I’m the one blushing, for sure. "Is that right?"

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