Seat 2A

by Dela

The sink’s water flow was about as fickle as a dried up waterfall, and it took me a bit of time to rinse. On my third pass I finally felt sanitary, enough to head back and face my gloom.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, sitting down next to Kendal. His eyebrows pinched together, almost in pain.

  “No more French fries. Done,” he breathed.

  I picked the flower out of my purse and handed it back to him with a chuckle. “You need this breath more than I do.”

  His face was still pale as he glanced at the flower and took it. He stared at it for a long blink when his muscles released the tightness and he laughed.

  “Best breakfast ever,” he moaned happily. He laid the stem across his lap, crossed his hands over his chest and stared at the ceiling.

  “In the worst way,” I responded.

  Kendal shot a startled glance at me. I smiled; he did too, and then we fell asleep.

  A sharp noise jolted me awake. The floor beneath tingled my feet, and then I realized it was the wheels preparing for landing. Kendal was still out with his head flopped lopsided onto his neck pillow. I started gathering my things when I wondered how he was getting to Whistler. Regina had planned for me to take the bus, but I knew there were other ways to get there. Of course, I wouldn’t tell him that I hoped we were on the same bus.

  I took a quick peek out the window. It was sopping wet outside, but at least it wasn’t white.

  Kendal eventually woke up when other passengers stood and started making noise.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked, still mortified about earlier.

  His emerald eyes locked on me and he smiled. “Never better.”

  We walked slowly off the plane knowing this was the end. I had a sudden urge to ask him for his number, but I was scared. Scared of what? Rejection? Isn’t this what Kendal has been talking about, taking crazy whims?

  “Are you taking the bus, too?” I finally asked at baggage claim.

  He reached for a bagged snowboard. “No, I’m taking the floatplane. I’m supposed to meet my buddies on the slopes today. I won’t make it if I take the bus.”

  “Oh . . .”

  “Where are you staying?” he asked, helping me with my one fat suitcase.

  “Four Seasons, I think.”

  “Good stuff . . .” He nodded, looking anywhere but at me. Then he checked his watch. “I’m at Crystal Lodge. Can’t turn down thirty-five-cent wings and large flat screens for sports.” He chuckled. “And it’s walking distance from the mountain.”

  “Nice.” No clue where any of this was.

  Say something, say something! But what? Nice? So lame. “And next time you decide to take a girl out, don’t tell her fries are dessert then feed them to her for breakfast.”

  He laughed long and hard, and it echoed around us.

  “Well good luck with the wedding.” He was gripping his bags harder and took a slow step backwards.

  “Thanks. Have fun on your . . . mancation.”

  He grinned, but it was only mild. He seemed partially disappointed. “I will. See you around then?”

  “Of course.”

  It all happened too quickly. Kendal had turned and walked out the door and I kicked myself for being a wimp. And just like that, my chance was gone. My breath caught tight in my chest. Do not cry, I coaxed myself angrily. You’re just attached because it was the first good thing since your breakup. He’s just a rebound guy. Or not. Or Mr. Wonderful, your soul mate. Mr. Seat 2A.

  When I reached into my purse for a tissue, my fingers brushed against something waxy, and I pulled out the small stem of baby’s breath. How did—when did he? I stared at it a long moment. It wasn’t just a breath. It was the start of my new life.

  I carefully placed it into my side pocket, threw my coat on, and scurried under the rain to board the bus.

  Chapter Four

  Jessie

  High-rise towers were replaced with white folds, which were replaced with granite mountains and snowy peaks, and finally three hours later, Whistler, a small, tucked-away village at the base of a skiing mountain. The shuttle pulled into the largest hotel at the end of what seemed hotel street. It was massive and spread across the land more than it spread up.

  Regina was in the main lobby screaming as I hopped out. It was just she and Jake, her fiancé. Back when I was taken, it was always just us four, so this was going to be strange. She jerked away from Jake’s hand and clutched onto me with an iron grip. I noticed how cold it was once I was inside her embrace and shivered.

  “You’re here!” she kept screaming.

  Her blonde hair flew into my face forcing me to spit it out. “Finally.”

  I squeezed her back and then withdrew. She looked thinner. Her thighs barely touched and her calves looked tiny in furry boots that looked stolen from the abominable snowman’s closet. Her down coat was the only thing that made her look big. She had blue eyes that popped with her excitement.

  “I’ve been dying to hear about Seat 2A,” she beamed.

  Jake looked like my ex, Drew. He had blonde hair and hazel eyes, but his body was softer than Drew’s. Jake grabbed my suitcase and Regina and I followed him into the lobby. “Honey, don’t you think she wants to shower first? We have to be at rehearsal in a couple of hours,” he said.

  She humored him and asked me bug-eyed, lips puckered like a fish, voice like a clown. “Do you want to shower first?”

  I laughed. “Sorry Jake. I’ll shower after.”

  “Goody! Let’s go upstairs, I’ll show you your room. You’re going to die when you see your view.” She pulled me through the modern lobby at a quick pace, slightly turning her head to Jake as we passed a long fireplace. “Honey, see you soon!”

  When the door of my room opened on the tenth floor I was astonished. It was a suite with floor to ceiling windows with a view of the slopes and a square fireplace in the middle.

  Regina fanned out onto the burgundy comforter of the bed. “Seat 2A. Where is he?”

  “He’s gone.” I kept my tone even and started unpacking to distract myself.

  “Gone? As in, he’s not coming to the wedding?”

  “Yes.”

  She spewed out air loudly. “Good grace. Haven’t you people ever heard of a telephone?”

  My body ticked irritated. That wasn’t the problem. It was my wimpy self. “Well, he didn’t ask for my number, so I felt I couldn’t ask for his.”

  “Woman, you are not my friend. What year were you born?”

  “And besides he lives in New York . . . like that’s ever going to work,” I added.

  Regina flopped onto her stomach with a sigh and rested her chin on the palms of her small hands. “So Jake’s crazy aunts are coming to the wedding after all.”

  “The one with the lazy eye?”

  “Yes,” she replied, her legs swaying behind her.

  “Who’s the other one?”

  “Her sister, fire hair.”

  “Fire hair?”

  “What? Do you want me to call her fire crotch?”

  We laughed as a song broke Regina’s laughter and she shot up glancing at her phone. “Suck it, it’s my mother. Some of the party is already arriving for rehearsal. Take a shower and meet me downstairs in the ballroom.” She paused at the door and squealed. “I’m so glad you’re here, Jessie.”

  “Me too.”

  It was dark when I returned to the lobby and entered the ballroom. I had fresh clothes, a pair of Vargas skinny jeans and a casual cotton t-shirt, and wore my hair straight which brushed against the coat I carried when I walked. I had bubblegum on my mind, which may or may not be the reason I didn’t curl my hair. The ballroom was smaller, but the light coming from the one glass wall, which carried an incredible view of the wintry courtyard, brightened the space nicely.

  Regina noticed me standing in the back door and ran to me with two swatches of fabric in her hand. “So glad you’re here. My mother-in-law is driving me nuts. Which color?”

  Both squares of cloth in her han
d were exactly the same shade of red. Or you might be driving her nuts, I thought. “Um . . . ” I stared harder. “I can’t really tell a difference. Is this a trick?”

  She giggled. “No, look here. One’s burgundy and one’s wine.”

  Only when my eyes were an inch away did I notice the slightest difference. One was slightly more purple. “I like wine.”

  “Noted.” She set them down on a chair in the aisle. “We’re going to play pool tonight at the Cinnamon Bear Bar.”

  “Someone got real clever with their name,” I bantered.

  She swung my arms up and moved them, singing. “Maybe there’ll be some real men there tonight cause you look hot!”

  “Thanks for the compliment, but I’m not looking.” I pulled away and sat down.

  “Whatever.”

  She put her eyes close to my mouth and stared. I backed away. “What are you doing, Regina?”

  “How’d you get your lips to look like that?”

  “What’s wrong with my lips?” My hand flew to my mouth where it touched my gloss lightly.

  “Nothing, they make me want to lick them. And if they’re doing that for me, I can only imagine what they do for the men.” She sniffed. “Is that strawberry?”

  I full on covered my mouth, conscious of my . . . seductiveness? “Stop it! You’re making me self-conscious.”

  Jake came up behind Regina and watched her with a smirk. “What are you doing, Regina?”

  She didn’t move, only rowed her arms for him to lower. He did. “Smell that?” she asked, sniffing again. Oh boy, he was sniffing.

  “You guys stop it.” I whispered, swatting at their faces.

  “Strawberry?” he asked.

  I rose to my feet and stepped away. “Perverts!”

  Jake stood up laughing and kissed Regina. “Ready to fake marry me?”

  “Boy, I’m going to fake marry you so hard,” she giggled.

  I followed the lip-sniffing lovebirds to the front where they said short versions of their vows and it was over. Minutes later we were eating dinner at the hotel steakhouse then hopping into a taxi.

  The dark roads were slick with ice that reflected the moon’s silvery glow all the way to the village, where the street turned warm and bright, spirited with shop lights and nightlife of passing youth. We continued past the busier part of town and soon enough the road turned dark again. As we reached what seemed the edge of town, set deep in the outer woods but still close enough to walk back to the nightlife if we wanted, I noticed we had made it to the Hilton hotel.

  Cinnamon Bear Bar was a pool lounge set in dim lighting on the first floor. We passed red pool tables centered in the posh room and teetered to a couch pushed up against a wall. Two men were sitting there trying to have a decent conversation in this noisy room. It looked ridiculous. The music was too loud so they made a lot of hand gestures and spoke with their mouths really wide open as if the other one read lips. The one that used his hands more had blonde hair and was husky; the other one, to his right, was thin with mousy hair. Jake approached them.

  “What’s up man?” Jake chortled, shaking the blonde one’s hand, then the tall, mousy one’s. “Regina these are my bros Brad and Michael. They’re my buddies from Denver. I grew up with these cats.”

  “It’s so good to put faces to names he obsessively talks about.” She reached out her hand but Brad, being the bear that he looked, drew her into a hug. His biceps swallowed her small head. It practically looked like the man was growing blonde hair from his armpits. I laughed quietly.

  Jake chuckled when she got released and had to take a big breath. “How was the flight?” he asked.

  “Not too bad,” Brad answered, and his eyes drifted to me. Jake followed his gaze.

  “Oh.” He raised his arm over my shoulder and crunched me in a brotherly way, enough to collapse my head into his crook awkwardly. “This is Jessie.”

  Brad and Michael held their hands out at the same time. “Nice to meet you.”

  I shook both their hands, one was cold and clammy, and the other hot and sweaty. Gross.

  “So who’s playing round one?” Brad asked, stealing a pole from the case near the couch and twisting chalk on the tip.

  “Girls will sit this one out,” Regina said, crossing her legs on the couch. “We’ve much to talk about.”

  And we did. As the boys played at the pool table in the corner, Regina briefly mentioned that Brad just broke up with his girlfriend, and that Michael was the horniest guy she’d ever met. I pointed out that she had only just met Michael and that she couldn’t possibly know that, but she said Jake had told her.

  “And Michael has those eyes anyways,” she said.

  “What eyes?”

  “Oh you know, you can tell when you look at him that he’s only thinking about two things: his money and sex.”

  “How?”

  “Jessie, are you blind? The guy hardly blinks when he hasn’t got that smart ass smirk on his face.”

  I glanced quickly back to Michael to confirm Regina’s suspicions. Upon my gaze his eyes did move, to me, and from playful to I’ll take you right here right now. I’ve never looked away from a man so fast.

  We moved on from horny Michael and talked of flowers and lace and cakes. I listened to Regina spill about her wedding woes, and in turn she listened to me talk reluctantly about my break up. I told her enough detail to whet her appetite. That Drew lied about where he was, and that I caught him kissing my friend Sarah at the library right before finals. I mean, how stupid could he have been? He knew I was at the library studying.

  All the Drew-talk was giving me a sour taste in my mouth so we moved on to Kendal, who compared to Drew, seemed like a breath of fresh air (pun intended). I was in the middle of explaining how he, too, hacked his breakfast on the plane when a figure stepped inside the lounge and produced a tingle throughout my body just at the sheer sight of him. My heart raced as nerves did their job and took over my calmness.

  Kendal.

  He walked in unnoticing me, surrounded by friends, all loud with equally obnoxious laughs. He stood in the center of all five, not the tallest, but thankfully not the shortest—I knew he’d still clear me in height with my thick-soled boots. He grabbed his stomach as he laughed hard, and the beautifulness made me miss our time in the airport.

  “Regina,” I whispered. “That’s him.”

  She turned lazily to the front entrance and played with her ponytail. “That’s who?”

  “That’s Kendal. The middle one with dark hair.”

  She sat up straighter, her eyes inching larger as she centered on him. “That’s Seat 2A?”

  My teeth clenched shut as I tried to act cool. “Yes. Stop staring.”

  Just then, as if he heard me say that (which would be impossible), he caught a glimpse of me and started toward us. I pretended I didn’t see him and hurriedly turned my back as my hands frantically smoothed hair behind my ears.

  “Regina . . . ohmygosh . . . he’s coming,” I rushed from the side of my mouth.

  “Brooke?” Oh that dreamy voice was sweet and full of man. I turned slowly and raised my eyebrows in shock—extra high, mouth agape for good measure—when I met his eyes.

  His morning scruff was gone, but his face had acquired a sunburn with some pretty sick goggle lines. I gulped. I think it made him sexier. And the burn wasn’t that bad. He had an almost olive skin tone, so the redness would probably be gone by morning.

  Regina arched one eyebrow suspiciously. “Brooke?”

  Kendal laughed. “This must be the bride. I don’t expect you to tell me Brooke’s true name so I won’t bother asking.”

  “You’re good,” she smiled, shaking his hand. “Regina. And that’s my real name, but you can call me whatever you want.”

  “Regina!” I cried, embarrassed.

  Kendal seemed amused with Regina by the tone of his laughter. “Nice to meet you, Regina.” He looked at me while pointing behind his shoulder. “Would you want to play
pool with us tonight, Brooke? If you don’t mind, Regina.”

  “She’s all yours, that is, if you can pry her away from those two brutes.”

  Kendal’s head followed her pointed finger to the table where Jake had been playing with his buddies. At the sight of my new, good-looking friend Jake’s brutes had narrowed their eyes, more than a smidge of jealousy rolling through those slits of confidence. Michael wheeled the chalk unnecessarily over the pool stick and Brad took a step closer. How could I be attracted to them when neck pillow was purring at my side?

  Kendal turned around to us and shrugged. “I don’t see a problem.”

  “Oh, I’m not very good. You don’t want me playing with you, really,” I confessed.

  Kendal held out a hand as the corners of his lips lifted in a grin that could get him in a lot of trouble. “I insist.”

  Regina pinched my butt to make me stand and waved incisively as we walked away. It seemed the music blared louder as we started for his friends. Kendal had to lean in closer to talk. And why were certain body parts thumping in a way they weren’t moments ago? Oh mother have mercy, I’m in trouble. If the music weren’t so loud, he’d probably have heard me clear my throat of nerves. Thankfully it was.

  “I’m beginning to think you can’t go twenty-four hours without seeing me,” Kendal said, his full lips brushing against my ear.

  I shuddered, but recovered quickly and slid my arm around his waist, lifting the pole from his hands and leaning in with a whisper so flirty it was horrible that I could say I just broke up with my boyfriend. “Do you oppose?”

  His arm around my waist tightened. I had no more wiggle room and his breath was suddenly hot against my ear. I breathed it in deeply. It smelled so much better than I remembered, with a fresh cinnamon scent. “In the worst way.”

  Mayday mayday! Swelling all around: in my throat, in my chest, in my . . . under region! Thankfully, Kendal loosened his hold and slid his fingers down my arm and into my hand. They were warm and dry, and gloved perfectly with mine.

  My mind fled for a brief moment as my heart paced. Days ago I couldn’t imagine my hand with anybody else’s but Drew’s. Now, I was holding Kendal’s, but why did it feel more than right?