Page 35 of Shared By the Pilots

“What? No he didn’t. He had a bow and a quiver of arrows.”

“And wings,” I insisted. “Google it if you don’t believe me.”

Dex paused to look at his phone, then hastily changed the subject. “So you don’t see a future with Luke?”

“If I tell you I do,” I negotiated, “will you let me off the hook for your challenge?”

“Nope! You need to say yes to the third person that asks you out.” He pointed a finger at me. “Unless you and Captain Sexypants become Facebook official. Then I’ll put a pause on the challenge.”

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll say yes to one more guy who asks me out.” The first passengers began coming down the jet bridge, led by a large man wearing a Sailor Moon anime shirt. After he passed, I shared a look with Dex:hopefully it’s not him.

Adam and I were responsible for the economy passengers for the flight to Nashville. He was friendly the way he had been when we first met, but there was still something about him that was stiff. Like he wasn’t a hundred percent relaxed around me.

“A little birdie told me you found a job moonlighting for Excelsior,” he said while we were descending to the runway.

Alarm raced through my body. “How did you hear about that? Was it from someone else at Gulf Airlines?”

“Relax,” he said, putting a comforting hand on my arm. “Dexter told me. Your secret’s safe.”

I let out a sigh of relief.

“How do you like it?”

“Honestly, it’s amazing. The pay is better. I don’t have to deal with unhappy customers at the gate. And the actual passengers are easier to deal with. Alcohol is free on these flights, so I just keep it flowing and everyone is happy.”

“There have always been rumors of pilots and crew doing that on the side, but you’re the first person I’ve actually known who has done it,” Adam said. “Think they’d hire me?”

I winced. “I don’t think there’s anyofficialrule about it, but based on what I’ve seen so far, I think they only hire women.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “Understandable. The rich customers only want to be served by beautiful women.”

“I never said beautiful.”

Adam shrugged. “One would assume. Sorry to hear it. If they ever change their mind, hit me up. I’ll sling tiny bottles of liquor for twice the pay any day.”

Was he trying to compliment me?I wondered while watching Adam out of the corner of my eye.Is that his way of apologizing for the way our date went? Or is he flirting with me?

I could still remember the way he felt that night while we danced. Grinding my ass against his crotch, feeling his fingers on my hips. The kiss we very nearly shared at the end of the night before he turned his lips away and kissed me on the cheek instead.

The whole night felt unfinished. Incomplete. I continued eying him sideways, looking as sharp as ever in his uniform. He was even sexier now that I knew he waspacking heatunderneath, so to speak.

And as the plane began to land, I noticed something else:hewas checking outme. Glancing at me out of the corner of his eye, admiring my crossed legs. His gaze lingered there a long moment, becoming almost hungry, before he abruptly turned away.

What’s going on with you?I wondered.

19

Veronica

The vast majority of my assigned flights were domestic, for one simple reason: the majority of Gulf Airlines flights were domestic. The company had originally serviced routes exclusively around the Gulf of Mexico—hence the name—but had eventually added one or two other routes as the need arose. One of those routes, for whatever reason, was a direct flight from Houston to Madrid, Spain. Despite the exotic location, few flight attendants requested the route; it was always an overnight, which had its ups and downs, but most crew didn’t want it.

Which made it easy for me to request it every month or so. Free trip to Europe? Yes please.

For this route, we flew a Boeing 767 wide-body aircraft, with an expanded cabin crew of five. Dexter always opted out of these routes (he complained about overnights ruining his sleep schedule) so Adam and I were joined with another three-person cabin crew for the flight.

I was paired up with Sharon, a woman in her sixties that was a veteran of the airline. The flight departed at five in the afternoon. Once we reached cruising altitude, we served dinner to everyone; this included the economy passengers, who received meals on all international flights over 800 miles. It took almost an hour just to serve the meals, which felt likeforevercompared to the simple tasks I’d had on my Excelsior flight.

After collecting everyone’s trays, and refilling drinks, the lights were turned out in the cabin so people could try to get some sleep and acclimate to Spain’s time zone, which was seven hours ahead of Houston’s. I savored the silence; everyone was either sleeping or watching the in-flight entertainment, so the only noise was the constant drone of the engines.

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