Page 50 of Flight of Fancy

Kaylinn hopped off the bed, holding two mascara tubes up beside her face. “Which one is Singapura Girl approved?”

Arianna didn't have to look too closely to know which ones her sister held. “The black.”

“Booo. Live wild, girls.”

As one sister served the other dinner, they gathered around the tiny table separating Arianna's kitchen from the living area. One of these days, I will outgrow this place. Until then, she would be a flight attendant who spent half the week out of the country and didn't need a lot of space she didn't inhabit.

“Mom was asking about you again, of course.” Kaylinn's fork hung in the air, fat with fried rice, while her sister opted for a pair of metal chopsticks she found in her drawer. “She wants to know when you're going to come visit. Ever since news about you being a model hit her ears, it's all she talks about, and I think she's wondering if you've somehow dramatically changed your appearance. Because she doesn't think you're pretty enough to be a model, I guess.”

Arianna added hot sauce to her rice, careful to not let her loose hair anywhere near it. “That's conjecture on your part. She would never say that. Not even behind my back.”

“You know Mom. It's not difficult to figure out what she means behind her words.”

They ate in silence for a minute, Arianna chewing on more than her words. “You can tell her that I can't exactly travel to Kuala Lumpur right now without taking time off. It's out of the way enough I have to plan it with my current flight schedule.”

“Tell her yourself. You've got a phone, lah.”

Arianna stuck out her tongue when her sister wasn't looking. “Don't get me wrong, I love our mom,” she then said, “but I'm in no hurry to talk to her. These past few months of her leaving me alone while I work have been fairly blissful.”

“You know how she is! She wants to grill you about your personal life. Six months is plenty of time for you to get in good with the new pilots. Tell her what day the wedding is.”

“The only head pilot I fly with right now is an old, married Chinese man. Now, the new American copilot…”

“Ma will deal with an American if he's rich.”

“It's a woman.”

“Oh, well, then she'll have a hernia and die, I guess.”

Arianna laughed through her next bite of fried rice. “It's not like that with her, anyway. Besides…” She puffed out her chest. “I'm still seeing someone else. That other American who flies my route sometimes.” Arianna glanced at her sister, searching for a reaction. “She's a board member of some company. Definitely rich enough to fly down to LA whenever she wants to meet me on my layover.” She stabbed her rice. “And she does.”

“Oh, sure, brag about getting laid to your lonely little sister. It's not like I'm not out there every weekend hustling for a boyfriend.”

“Who said you had to?”

“When you discover your older sister is gay, it falls on you to be the straightest daughter your family has ever had. We have to balance each other out… from Ma’s point of view.”

“Yet again, didn't ask you to do that.”

“You might as well have.”

“Hey, do you want more cheap makeup or not? Stop being such a butt.”

When Kaylinn stuck out her tongue, she made sure her sister saw it.

“Mature.”

Kaylinn drank iced coffee from a can. “I wanna hear more about this rich American businesswoman who has you so distracted I'm fielding questions from Ma. Show me a pic.”

Arianna fished for her phone beneath her sweater that had been piled on the side of her table. “You tell me. Assuming you know a pretty woman when she's right in your face.”

Kaylinn grabbed the phone before her sister had the chance to change her mind. “Wow,” she whistled. “Older, but I dig it. She treating you good?”

Arianna sighed in a way that should have told her sister everything. “So good that I have to be careful. I might be falling in love.”

“In love! Has that ever happened before?”

“Kay, I've never really been in a relationship before. So, no.”

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