Page 127 of Closer than Ever

“What about what you said last night?”

“It must have been the wine talking.”

“That’s us reached ten thousand feet. If you’d like to approach the launch pad.”

The guy in charge of this god forsaken torture chamber in the air spoke as if they were swapping stories around a campfire. It was infuriating.

Hayley took her hand. “You will be fine.”

Anna gritted her teeth. She followed Hayley towards the door of the plane and the guides casually standing beside it, her legs feeling like jelly and her heart in her throat. This could well be the worst, and last, experience of her life. She always knew Hayley would be the end of her.

“If you’d like to pair up with your tandem and get clipped in, we’ll circle here until we’re ready to go,” the guide said in his thick Australian accent.

Instinctively, Anna stepped back and turned to Hayley. “Fuck my fucking life I swear to god this isn’t even funny. How the fuck did I agree to this? I am never going to let you rope me into doing anything like this ever again. I can’t do this. I can’t.”

“Just breathe, my love.”

The two tandem guides waited patiently as Anna freaked out in front of them. She was too scared to care what they thought of her. The main guide had an annoyingly calm demeanour about him. They all looked as if they had seen this type of last-minute freak-out many times before and weren’t fazed by it. They even seemed a bit like they expected it. “Take your time, love, we can fly round in circles until you’re ready to go.”

Anna flared her nostrils as panic took over. Pure fear gripped her body. How could no one else be freaking out right now?

Hayley took Anna’s hand and walked her back to her safe space in the corner. “Squeeze?”

“No, thanks. Let’s just fly back down. Why jump out of this plane, really? What are we going to achieve by it, in reality, for the love of god what are we doing?”

“Anna. You said you like it when I push you outside of your comfort zone. You said you wanted to do this skydive. That it would be the single biggest achievement of your life bar running the Loch Ness Marathon in under four hours.”

“I must have been in an overly good mood when I said that.”

“You can be so pessimistic sometimes. But I know you. I know that you want to jump out of this plane. I know that you are going to love it and that we will remember this moment for the rest of our lives. We will tell our grandchildren that you got scared before we leapt, and they will laugh and enjoy the story even more. All you’ve got to do is let go of control. I know this is hard for you but trust me, it’s going to open your mind to the possibilities of what you can achieve when you just take a leap of faith and do the thing that scares you the most.”

“Will it.”

“You took that leap for me, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“And that worked out well.”

“Yes but that didn’t involve a life or death situation like this.”

“Didn’t it?”

Hayley had a point. They both knew that their hearts would never have been the same had they not got together. In one of their tender moments recently, they had admitted as much. “I’m listening.”

“Pushing yourself to do new things is how we grow. Hell, I had to push myself to slow down and stop taking so much on, and I’m so much happier for it. This stuff works. First step, jump out of this plane, next step, world domination.”

“Okay, okay, okay.”

“Plus it will also be the most fun you’ve ever had in your life. This is living, Anna McIntosh.”

“One way to put it.”

Anna no longer felt like she was going to be sick or faint.

“You know I’m not going without you. I will be by your side, baby. Always. We’re doing this together.”

“Stop giving such a good pep talk. It’s making me feel like I might be able to do it.”

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