Page 22 of Shared By the Pilots

“You know what? Make it two,” I said, quickly pulling out my phone and credit card. “We’ll start a tab.”

“What?” he asked me. “You’re giving me a funny look.”

“Well…” I wondered if I should say anything. But it was too late now, so I said, “When I first met you yesterday, I thought you were… gay.”

I waited for him to get upset, but he only laughed. “Believe it or not, I get that a lot.” He ran a hand through his brown hair. “Just because a man takes care of himself, people assume he’s less masculine. If it makes you feel any better, I can belch more and make sexist jokes. A blonde, brunette, and redhead are all stewardesses on a flight to Nantucket…”

“No, no,” I said, holding out a hand. “It’s actually refreshing. And I didn’t meangayin a pejorative way. Dex is my best friend.”

“Nowthatman is gay,” Adam said with a chuckle. “I was certain of that even before he started winking at me.”

“He does like to wink at handsome men.”

Our drinks arrived, looking like two glasses of radioactive blue liquid. But they were tasty, and we guzzled them down and ordered another round while listening to the music.

I had never been to a dueling piano bar, but the concept was simple. The pianists took turns playing requests from the audience. In between songs, they made jokes and teased each other. There was lots of playful banter, especially with the performers and a bachelorette party in the front row.

Adam scooted his chair around closer to me so we could both face the stage. After four or five songs, he rested his arm across the back of my chair. Every so often I caught a whiff of his cologne. It was something exotic, but nottooexotic, and difficult for me to describe. But it made my body come alive even though we were just sitting next to each other.

He doesn’t wear this cologne while at work, that’s for sure.

My phone was still on the table, and it lit up from an incoming text.

Luke: Whenever you get home tonight, text me. I want to explain everything to you.

I quickly put my phone away. Annoyance flashed inside of me for two reasons. One, I was mad that Luke had waited until now to decide to tell me what was really going on. If that’s what he actually intended to do. And two, had Adam seen the screen? Nothing ruined a date faster than getting a text from another guy. Especially one who I had slept with less than twenty-four hours ago.

“The players are really good!” I said to break the ice.

Adam nodded along. “I hope us going out tonight makes Captain Hendricks jealous.”

I felt myself freeze. “What do you mean?” I said.

“You and him are a thing, right? Or at least, you hooked up? I saw the way you two acted around each other in the cabin today. It was awkward. I hope us going out makes him jealous.”

I stared at him while he watched the piano player give an emphatic rendition of Eye of the Tiger.He asked me out just to make Luke jealous? Does that mean this isn’t a date?

“Yeah, I hope so,” I replied, all excitement draining from my body.

12

Adam

Damn you for getting me into this, Dexter, I thought as we sat at the table in the dueling piano bar.

I had a rule. I didn’t ask coworkers out. I’d had the rule since I was a teenager working at the movie theater in my home town. After working together for a summer, I asked out Tilly, one of the other concession stand workers. We went bowling, and then to see a movie. It was fun. We made out on her front porch after I walked her to her door.

But then she told me she just wanted to be friends.

The next four months working at the theater were miserable. We had the exact same work schedule, so we had to be around each otherall the time.It was awful. The fact that we were both awkward teenagers only ramped up the torture of it all.

So I told myself I would never go out with a coworker again. And over the years, it had been a good rule. I’d watched friends crash and burn with women in their workplaces. My brother co-owned a bakery in Houston with a chef, a partnership that was strictly business until the two of them dated, and then got engaged. But after the engagement was called off, the two of them couldn’t stand to be in the same room together, and had to sell the business just to get away from each other.

I had been tempted over the years, but never so much as I was with Veronica. From the moment I saw her, I knew I would need to remain vigilant in order to avoid breaking my rule. It wasn’t even that she was hot. I mean, she absolutelywasa smoking hot woman wearing the flattering Gulf Airlines uniform, but that wasn’t the main reason. It was the joke she made when I walked up and asked if they were my new crew family.

“Actually, we’re going to a cosplay convention,” she had said. “We’re dressed as extremely attractive flight attendants from the fifties.”

Nothing was more attractive to me than a sense of humor, especially if it was self-deprecating in nature. I felt myself leaning toward her as I introduced myself, pulled by some invisible gravitational weight.

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