Page 31 of Edge of Desire

I recognized that voice. I tried to take a breath but wasn’t able. Then the soothing voice spoke again. “That’s right. Take another one.”

The voice coached me along, and finally, my throat and lungs opened, and I inhaled deeply as precious air flowed in.

“Not too fast. Stay with the long and slow breaths for a bit.”

Whatever had been on my face was removed and cool air hit my mouth. I opened my eyes and saw Preston hovering over me with a paper bag in his hand.

“Hey there. You back with me?”

I kept blinking, trying to figure out what the heck had just happened. “I … I’m not sure. Where are we?”

“We’re on a plane flying to Andrews. Remember?”

“Ugh.” I rubbed my face. And then I did the worst thing possible. I started bawling. I mean the kind where snot bubbles out of your nose and runs everywhere and you start hiccupping and all that crap. He patted my back and didn’t utter a word. How could I be such a goober? For the life of me, I could not pull my shit together. My attempts at apologizing sounded foolish. The words came out like those snorting noises pigs make when they’re eating. That made me cry even harder. And then when I remembered everything that was going on, the floodgates really opened. I’m pretty sure I cried for two hours because one of those military guys came up to us and told us we were about to land and should take our seats. Preston offered me his hand and we both rose to our feet. I used my sleeve to wipe the tears and snot bubbles off. It was gross but I didn’t have any tissues.

I wasn’t proud of my absurd behavior. It made me feel like a toddler whose toy had broken. “Jeez, can this possibly get any worse?” I said it out loud, not intending to.

Preston, hearing my question, answered, “Avery, this is nothing. You should see some of the predicaments I’ve found myself in.”

Before we could make it back to our seats, the plane hit an air pocket and we both went flying. Of course, hot DEA agent recovered admirably, but not Extra-Large Avery. I landed on my ass, in front of God and everyone else. That was the whipped cream and cherry on top of the sundae. I had finally hit the bottom of the Avery barrel.

Leaving that plane was the greatest feeling in the world. I hit that ramp at a full-on sprint.

“Avery, wait up,” Preston yelled.

I paid him no mind. I wanted to get the hell out of that metal tube and go somewhere to hide my head in the sand. Maybe it would make me forget everything that happened. I doubted it. It wasn’t possible to forget being humiliated like that. I would take that plane ride to the grave.

The pounding of feet got closer and then he grabbed my arm, forcing me to stop. I was so winded I would’ve stopped any minute anyway.

“Where are you going?”

“Anywhere,” I gasped out between breaths. “Away from here.”

“We have to go inside and wait for the next flight.”

“I can’t. I want to go home. Back to Charleston. I want to wake up and know this was some crazy dream and that none of this awful stuff is real. I want my old boring and sad life back. In fact, I take back all the bad stuff I said about it. It wasn’t that bad now that I think of it. You can leave me here and I’ll get my own ride home. I’ll be fine. Really.”

His head solemnly shook. “You know I can’t do that. You have to come with me. Now.”

“Please, Preston. If those men come and get me, I’ll just tell them I don’t know you. I really don’t. I mean I only now learned your name isn’t Just Miles. Please,” I begged.

“Avery, you know I can’t.”

My body quivered so bad my teeth rattled and it wouldn’t stop. I rubbed my hands together and then folded my arms around me. My leg shook as my knee thumped up and down.

He turned me around and we headed toward the building. Once inside, I found the restroom. Maybe there was a window in there I could escape from. Then I realized Preston had my bag. I walked out of the restroom and Preston was there, waiting.

“How long before our next flight?” It was the middle of the night and all I wanted to do was sleep.

He checked his watch. “We have a few hours, so I figured we could get a bite to eat. There’s a canteen over there.” He pointed down the hall.

“Great. More chips and cookies.”

“I think this one has sandwiches too.”

Like that would make me happy. And who eats sandwiches from a vending machine anyway? Gross.

We walked inside and he began to buy all kinds of crap. Then a thought struck. “Hey, how can you use your credit card, but I can’t use mine?”

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