Page 23 of Shared By the Pilots

Uh oh, I thought at the time.

So I was polite to her on the flight to Miami, but not too friendly. I warmed up to Dexter, but kept Veronica at arm’s length. I was on my best behavior as if I was being watched by someone from Human Resources.

Then, when Dexter and I shared a taxi from Miami International to our hotel, he sprung it on me.

“I want to ask you a favor,” he said carefully. “Ask Veronica out.”

“How is that doingyoua favor?”

He explained how picky Veronica was with men, and the agreement she had made to say yes to the first three men who asked her out.

“She’s the best woman I know,” Dexter explained. “She’s smart, and sassy, and has an amazing body…”

“I’ve seen her body, yes.”

Dexter gave me a skeptical look. “I’ve seen her naked in the dressing room at Neiman Marcus. Whatever you’re imagining, I promise you it’s better in person. And I say that as a man who is gayer than a pair of bedazzled rainbow sunglasses.”

“I don’t date coworkers,” I explained. “It always ends poorly.”

“Veronica doesn’t date coworkers either! So you’re both breaking the same rule. That cancels each other out, right? Like math? Look, the date will probably go by quickly. You two will get a drink together, and that will probably be it. And then I’ll owe you amassivefavor. I know a lot of people here at the airline, so having me owe you a favor is a valuable proposition.”

He was desperate. He must have really cared about his friend. But he was also convincing.

“Fine,” I said, surrendering to the temptation. “I’ll ask her out.”

Once the idea was in my head, it wouldn’t leave. I met an old college friend for dinner in Miami, then spent the rest of the night in my hotel room thinking about the date with Veronica. How I would ask her out, where I would take her. The piano bar to start, and then we would pop over to the Italian restaurant for food and gelato.

Even though Dexter said the date would probably end quickly, I was confident in myself. I thought I could win her over—or, at the very least, I wanted the challenge of it. It was the last thing I thought about when I fell asleep, and the first thing that popped into my head when I woke up.

When the pilots boarded the plane the next day, I noticed the awkwardness between Veronica and Captain Hendricks. Heck, I probably would have noticed it even if Dexter hadn’t told me the backstory. But at the time, I thought they were weird around each other because he asked her out and she said no. I shot my shot, she agreed to the date, and everything was looking bright.

Then the plane took off, and I heard Dexter and Veronica chatting. He was explaining that he told me to ask her out.

“I mentioned it to Adamyesterday,” he said. “Before I knew you and Captain Hendricks slept together. I’m sorry!”

I had EarPods in, but I hadn’t started playing any music yet. I lowered my phone and continued eavesdropping on their conversation, barely audible over the roar of the jet engines.

“It’s okay. I’m glad you were pushy. Luke being jealous is a delicious benefit of Adam asking me out. And there’s one other reason.”

“What’s that?”

“Now that I’ve said yes totwomen,” Veronica explained, “I’m almost done with my promise to you.”

My heart sank. She had slept with Captain Hendricks last night. And now she only wanted to go out with me to fulfill her promise to Dexter… and to make the pilot of our flight jealous.

It stung. It shouldn’t have, because Dexter had warned me about all of this. But still.

I put on a smile and spent the flight pretending like nothing was wrong. I gave her my best charm in the baggage claim area, and again when we met in the plaza. Veronica was a beautiful woman, and I was going to have a good time tonight regardless of the reason.

But then her phone lit up with a text not from Captain Hendricks, but fromLuke. I didn’t have a chance to read the message before she scooped her phone away, but the familiarity in the name on her phone ignited a fire inside of me.

So I brought it up. The fact that she was trying to make him jealous. Acknowledging it out loud would take away the awkwardness. Or, at the very least, it would prod her into giving me more information about the situation.

Veronica didn’t react the way I expected. She agreed with me about making him jealous, and then got quiet. Two songs passed without us saying anything to each other. Even though we were sitting mere inches apart, close enough that her perfumed scent was heavy in my nostrils, the tension in the air was like a brick wall between us.

I ordered a third drink, and so did she. I had a good buzz going by then, and she started leaning into me a little bit more. I wondered if she would take a selfie and post it to social media toreallymake Luke jealous.

At one point, she wrote down a song request on a slip of paper and handed it—and a twenty dollar bill—to the piano player on stage. “What did you request?” I asked.

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