Flight SQA016 (The Flight Series)

by A. E. Radley

  “No.” Emily chuckled.

  “Seeing someone? Given up romance for lent? Straight?” Simon guessed in quick succession.

  “No, no, and no.” Emily laughed. “If you must know…I…I like her but there’s other things to think about, you know?”

  “This is about her really mean streak when it comes to online Scrabble isn’t it?” Simon shook his head. “So competitive.”

  Emily threw her cocktail umbrella at him. “No! It’s…it’s work,” she sighed. “I can’t get involved with a passenger. I’ll lose my job. Not to mention a billion other reasons.”

  “A billion, huh?” Simon smiled.

  Emily sighed and indicated her head towards Henry who was busy slicing up fruit on Simon’s touchscreen phone. “Some people are already very attached; I don’t want him to think of her as part of his life if she’s not going to hang around. He is my number one priority.”

  “Why do you think she won’t hang around?” Simon asked curiously.

  “Because I know the kind of woman she usually dates,” Emily said pointedly.

  “What, like that kind?”

  Emily looked over to where Simon was indicating with the tip of his cocktail umbrella and saw a buxom blonde waitress carrying a tray of drinks to a table.

  “Exactly,” Emily said as she turned back to face Simon.

  “Fair enough. I have a question for you, though. Do you think she’s the kind of person who would get involved with someone with a kid when she could get what she wants from women like her over there?” Simon asked.

  “Well, no,” Emily admitted.

  “So, maybe she’s a bit more serious about it than you think?” Simon shrugged.

  “You have all the answers, don’t you?” Emily shook her head at him with a wry grin.

  “I dunno, I might have. What are the other reasons?”

  “Well, I might lose my job! That’s a pretty big one.”

  “True, but isn’t sneaking around fun?” Simon waggled his eyebrows.

  “Oh my God, did I actually ask you for advice?” Emily snorted.

  “Come on, you’re adults, you can keep it professional at work,” Simon said in a theatrically serious way. “And then fool around on terra firma.”

  “Simon!” Emily balked and then burst out laughing.

  “What?” Simon giggled.

  “I’m cutting you off if this is what you’re like after one multi-coloured cocktail.” She shook her head.

  “You like her,” Simon said with an accusatory stare, pointing with the end of his umbrella.

  “Give me that.” Emily snatched the umbrella out of his hand and put it beside her, out of his reach.

  “You do!” Simon’s eyes went wide and he grinned. “You like her!”

  “Of course I like her,” Emily hissed back quietly. “She’s gorgeous and smart and kind and funny and great with Henry.”

  “What?” Henry looked up at his name.

  “Nothing, sweetheart,” Emily smiled and he went back to his game.

  “So, who kissed who?” Simon asked with an excited grin.

  Emily felt her cheeks begin to flush and Simon snickered.

  “Well, the first time we were interrupted—”

  “Whoa, wait up.” Simon held up his hand. “The first time?”

  Emily ducked her head. “It…happened twice.”

  “And who instigated it the second time?”

  Emily raised her eyebrows and looked pointedly at him. Simon let out a small laugh and grinned.

  Emily rolled her eyes. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t.”

  “Oh, I’m not going to do anything,” Simon said. “You’ll do it yourselves. You don’t need any help from me.”

  “Oops.” Henry looked up at Simon with wide eyes as he held the phone out.

  Simon looked at the phone’s screen and smiled knowingly.

  “Looks like you answered a call with all your mad fruit-destroying skills. You better say hello!”

  Henry nervously held the phone with two hands to his ear and said, “Lo?” His face lit up with a smile. “Olivia!”

  Simon looked at Emily and spoke quietly, “Did you ever consider that your number one priority might think it’s worth taking a chance?”

  Emily glanced over to where Henry was animatedly speaking with Olivia.

  “I had an omelette but Simon said it was a tortoise.”

  “Tortilla,” Simon added helpfully.

  “And then I ate a shrimp!” Henry fidgeted in his seat as his excitement grew. “But it was yuck so I spit it into Mommy’s hand. But I liked the ham and the cheese in the crunchy things. And the bread.”

  Simon smiled at Henry’s enthusiasm. “Yeah, the shrimp in the hand was a personal highlight for me.”

  “Just wait, you’ll have children one day,” Emily said.

  “They put everything in tiny bowls,” Henry continued his conversation with Olivia. “It was okay, I’d give it a seven and a half.”

  With a sigh, Emily lowered her head to the table.

  CHAPTER 25

  Olivia was sitting on the sofa reading a book when Emily and Henry returned to the suite. She clipped a magnetic bookmark in place and set the book aside. “Did you have a nice dinner?”

  Henry shrugged out of his coat and let it drop to the floor for his mother to pick up as he dashed across the room and climbed up onto the sofa beside Olivia.

  “I splatted fruit!”

  Emily picked up Henry’s coat and smiled at Olivia. “On a game on Simon’s phone.”

  “Do you have games on your phone?” Henry asked Olivia as he crawled closer and examined at the book she was reading.

  “No, my phone isn’t like Simon’s,” Olivia told him.

  “I ate chickpeas,” Henry told Olivia as he laid on his back and put his head in her lap. “They look funny.”

  Emily looked at the sweet scene before her and desperately tried to fight the small amount of alcohol she had imbibed.

  “They do,” Olivia agreed as she regarded boy who was making himself comfortable.

  “Can you draw giraffes?” Henry asked her with a thoughtful frown.

  “Henry, Olivia is busy,” Emily said as she hung the coats in the closet.

  “No I’m not,” Olivia told Emily before smiling down at Henry. “I don’t know. I don’t remember ever trying to draw a giraffe before.”

  Henry looked shocked and slid off of the sofa to run towards the bedroom. Olivia stared curiously after him and then at Emily with a questioning raise of her eyebrow.

  “He either needs the bathroom or you’re about to draw a giraffe, or both. I’m going to get a drink; can I get you anything?”

  “Could I have some water?”

  “Sure,” Emily said as Henry came running back towards the sitting room with some loose sheets of paper and his pencil case.

  Emily smiled at Olivia’s flustered look and called out as she walked into the kitchen, “Focus on the head and work your way down.”

  Emily returned a moment later with a small glass of milk for Henry and a full tumbler of water for Olivia and placed them on the table.

  Henry slapped the paper onto the coffee table, knelt in front of it, and patted the floor beside him as he opened his pencil case. When Olivia didn’t move, he looked up at her and patted the floor beside him again.

  “Come here, Olivia,” he told her. Olivia nodded and knelt on the floor, adjusting her knee length skirt as she sat on the carpeted floor.

  He handed her a green pencil. “Draw the body,” he ordered.

  Olivia took the green pencil and frowned. “This is green.”

  Henry stared at her as he struggled to see her point.

  “Giraffes are brown and yellow,” Olivia told him.

  “Draw the body,” Henry repeated, clearly not understanding Olivia’s concern.

  “Don’t let him boss you about.” Emily said.

  Henry was fidgeting anxiously from side to side and Emily looked at h
im. “Henry, do you need the bathroom?”

  “No,” he whispered.

  “Henry, go to the bathroom. We’ll be right here when you get back,” Emily tried again.

  “Draw the body,” Henry told Olivia as he got up and ran towards the bathroom. “Please,” he added as an afterthought.

  “Remember to wash your hands!” Emily called out.

  Olivia held the green pencil in her hand and was poised over the paper.

  “Is this your first time drawing giraffes?” Emily sat beside her on the floor.

  “I’m finding I can’t even remember what a giraffe looks like,” Olivia said with a nervous smile.

  Emily regarded Olivia casually. “Want a hand?”

  Olivia nodded and Emily shuffled closer and took the pencil from Olivia’s hand and quickly sketched out a giraffe body in a few seconds before sliding the paper towards Olivia.

  Olivia looked impressed. “I can see you’ve done this before,” Olivia grinned.

  “On an off, about fifty times a day for the last six months.”

  Olivia smiled as she sat waiting for Henry’s return. “I’m sorry I disrupted your meal.”

  “You didn’t,” Emily replied. “We were getting ready to leave anyway.”

  “Oh,” Olivia nodded and gave a tight smile as her hands drifted together in her lap.

  Henry came running back and Emily looked up at him. “Henry, hands!”

  The boy grumbled as he turned around and ran back towards the bathroom again.

  “May I read Henry his bedtime story tonight? If he wants me to, that is,” Olivia asked while staring intently at the piece of paper in front of her, seemingly avoiding eye contact with Emily.

  “He’d love that and, yeah, you’re more than welcome to do it.”

  Olivia smiled. “I’m enjoying his company; the suite is usually very quiet.”

  Emily understood and nodded her head. She looked up as Henry ran back into the room and excitedly skidded to a halt by the coffee table. He fell heavily onto the floor and grabbed the paper from Olivia. A heavy silence filled the room while Henry assessed the drawing before he nodded and picked up another blank piece of paper, putting it in front of Olivia. “Draw another one.”

  Henry started to colour the giraffe outline Olivia had provided for him.

  “Henry,” Emily warned.

  “Draw another one, please. Sorry, Mommy.”

  “We’re working on demands,” Emily explained to Olivia. She noticed Olivia’s panicked look at the blank paper in front of her.

  “Can Olivia and I just do some general colouring by ourselves?” Emily asked as she reached across the table for a piece of paper and a pencil.

  “Okay,” Henry agreed.

  The two women set about doodling random drawings with different colours. As they did so, Olivia told Emily about the eccentric client she had visited that day.

  “So, he’s completely obsessed with pig ornaments?” Emily chuckled. She reached across to pick up another colour pencil, making sure to brush her hand against Olivia’s as she did.

  Olivia caught the movement and grinned. “Yes, every time I go to visit him, I make an effort to get a new, cheesy pig ornament for his collection.”

  Olivia changed her position so she was sitting closer to Emily, their arms brushing against each other as they doodled on their respective pieces of paper.

  “A millionaire pig farmer who likes cheap pig ornaments, wow. You must meet some characters.”

  “I do,” Olivia nodded her agreement. “But Michael is the one I enjoy spending time with the most. We see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. He likes that I cut to the chase.”

  “I suppose you told him how ridiculous it is for a man who spends his life,” Emily looked towards Henry before whispering, “Slaying pigs to collect pig ornaments?”

  “Yes, the first time I met him,” Olivia acknowledged. “Actually he was driving me from his farm to his father’s farm and he stopped the car to show me some piglets in a field and how cute they were.”

  “I can picture your reaction.”

  Emily looked at the cartoon pigs that Olivia was drawing, reached over, and drew a crown on the top of one of the pig’s heads. Olivia stared open-mouthed at Emily as she joked, “You dare to deface my pig?”

  “I was improving your pig,” Emily corrected with a wink.

  “What’s terra ferra?” Henry suddenly asked while adding pink spots to his girl giraffe.

  Olivia and Emily looked at each other in confusion as they tried to figure out what they had been talking about that might have a similar word.

  “Where did you hear that?” Olivia asked.

  “Simon said it,” he said without looking up. “To mommy.”

  Emily’s eyes flew wide open as she realised he had been listening to their conversation, clearly picking up on Simon’s suggestion that she and Olivia fool around on terra firma.

  “Um, nothing, sweetheart, don’t worry about it,” Emily said.

  “But Simon said you should fool—” Henry started.

  “Drink your milk, Henry,” Emily said quickly, cutting him off mid-sentence.

  “Fool terra ferra?” Olivia looked at Emily with a chuckle. “I thought you said you had one cocktail?”

  “I did,” Emily agreed. “But clearly Simon’s and my private talk about adult things was being overheard by someone with big ears.”

  “Oh,” Olivia frowned before quietly whispering. “What were you talking about?”

  Emily grinned. “I so cannot tell you.”

  Olivia looked at Emily with interest. “Why do I get the feeling I really want to know?”

  Emily regarded Olivia seriously for a moment before leaning in close and positioning her mouth next to Olivia’s ear, softly whispering, “There was a suggestion that you and I could fool around on terra firma.”

  “And,” Olivia coughed to get her voice back to a normal tone. “What did you conclude?”

  Emily smiled, picked up a pencil, and continued to colour on her piece of paper. “Well, there wasn’t any conclusion exactly. But I find myself warming to the idea more and more.”

  Olivia grinned. “I see.”

  “Henry, ten minutes until bedtime,” Emily announced. “You might want to finish up.”

  “Okay,” he said distractedly as he ran the coloured pencils wildly across the paper.

  “Do you want Olivia to read to you tonight?” Emily asked with a sideways glance at the boy.

  His eyes flicked up and he grinned as he looked from Emily to Olivia and nodded.

  “Not the cat that went to space,” Olivia said as she put some finishing flourishes to the calligraphy lettering she had been fine tuning since her pig was ruined. “That was just ridiculous.”

  “Okay,” Henry shrugged.

  “If you think that’s ridiculous just wait until you read about Nibbles the hamster running for president,” Emily said.

  “Nibbles!” Henry cried out with excitement.

  “Ah, yes, President Nibbles,” Olivia laughed to herself.

  “You know Nibbles?” Emily asked incredulously.

  “Not personally,” Olivia admitted with a grin. “When we were on the plane, I asked Henry who lived in the White House and he told me Nibbles did.”

  “Ah,” Emily said knowingly.

  “And now it all becomes clear,” Olivia replied.

  As it turned out, Emily allowed Henry an extra five minutes of colouring time while she permitted Olivia to giggle at her admittedly bad attempts at drawing a number of other zoo animals. It was eventually declared that, while an expert giraffe drawer, Emily was not so talented when it came to any other animals, causing much amusement as Olivia and Henry attempted to guess what the various four legged blobs Emily had created actually were.

  Noticing the time, Emily stood up and told Henry that she would be supervising his getting ready for bed procedure that evening as she was convinced he was not correctly brushing his teeth.

&nbs
p; The dramatic sigh and lowering of his head indicated that Henry knew he was busted as he dragged himself to the bedroom.

  * * *

  Olivia looked into the bedroom and saw Emily sat on the edge of the bed, whispering soft words to him that Olivia couldn’t make out. As Henry’s eyes drifted towards Olivia, Emily turned and smiled. She stood up, gestured the edge of the bed, and handed Olivia a large book with a hamster in a suit on the front cover. Olivia fought hard to prevent herself from rolling her eyes as she looked at the book.

  Emily headed for the door. “I’ll put the coffee machine on,” she told Olivia before blowing Henry a kiss and drawing the door closed behind her.

  Olivia sat on bed and pushed herself up against the headboard, stretching her legs out in front of her and was surprised when Henry nuzzled up to her.

  “Olivia?” Henry asked as he cuddled into her side.

  “Yes?”

  “I don’t wanna go home,” he whispered.

  “Why not?” Olivia frowned.

  “I wanna stay here with you and Mommy, forever,” he said as he wrapped an arm around her middle and held her tightly.

  Olivia looked up at the closed door and swallowed as she debated what to say to that. “I’m…sorry, Henry. It’s just not possible.”

  “Why?” Henry asked as he strengthened his grip around her.

  “Because, well, because you need to go home to your own room and your own bed. You miss your own bed, don’t you?”

  Henry gave a small nod.

  “And your toys? Don’t you miss them?” Olivia said, remembering what Emily had told her and hoping that it would ring true.

  “We can bring them here,” he told her.

  “But your mother has to work,” Olivia said gently. “And so do I. And that means you have to be at home where Lucy can look after you.”

  “But what if I never see you again?”

  Olivia paused, she knew it was a real possibility that she may never see Henry again if she and Emily had a disagreement. She also knew that this was exactly what Emily had been worried about when it came to potentially dating someone. Now, when she could see the sadness in Henry’s expressive eyes, she could palpably feel Emily’s fears.

  “I…don’t think that will happen,” Olivia said carefully. “But we really must read about Nibbles now.”