Page 14 of On the Power Play

"Hey, you know how bleak it is out there." Both of them had been on and off dating apps for the past couple of years, and neither had much to show for their swipes.

They moved into line as their boarding group was called, then joined the herd in the tunnel and boarded. Tony winked as they passed his seat, but Kels was already resting with a donut pillow around his neck.

"Don' mind us, govenah, just makin' our way back to steerage!" Mary announced, and Tony nearly choked on his coffee. Delia started laughing and couldn't stop since Mary had been loud enough to attract the attention of half the plane. Thankfully, her blotchy cheeks and squinched expression only did more to obscure her face, and by the time she'd taken her seat, nobody besides Fleece Pants Lady had come close to recognizing her.

"And this is why we travel at five in the morning," Mary whispered as she dropped down into her seat. At least IndieLake always purchased the whole row so they wouldn't have to sit next to a stranger. That was worth the extra cost.

Delia leaned in. "Why, so we can be obnoxious while nobody has the energy to speak up?"

"That and . . ." Mary motioned at the passengers in the opposite row. Two out of the three already had their blackout masks on.

"Speaking of which." Delia grabbed her mask from her bag and fished the Xanax she'd stowed in the pocket of her joggers.

Mary stroked her hair. "Go righ' t' sleep, love. I'll wake ye if the ship goes down!"

Delia laughed and shook her head. "I appreciate your commitment to this bit, but can we not talk about 'going down' right now?"

"Sorry, I thought ocean liners were safe for fodder."

Delia yawned. "Kate Winslet would say otherwise."

"Whatever, she lived. Leo's the one who should be complaining."

Delia arranged her blanket and travel pillow and settled in against the window. She pushed in her earbuds and closed her eyes, then pressed play on the meditation track she always turned to when she flew.

As waves crashing on a beach drowned out the hiss of air in the airplane cabin, Delia drew a deep, cleansing breath. She gripped her armrests during takeoff, but by then, the medication was kicking in. Delia slept and didn’t wake until they were two hours into the flight, which was better than she could've hoped. Now she only had to survive the descent and landing, which was formidable but not nearly as nerve-wracking as takeoff. She hated any turbulence, but at least if it happened at the end of the flight, she knew they were getting closer to the ground, which was where she wanted to exist.

She was about to distract herself with the Ryan Reynolds movie where he lived inside of a video game when Kels appeared in the aisle next to them. Mary's head leaned straight back, her mouth open wide enough that Delia could've peered in and spotted her epiglottis.

"I don't know how flight attendants resist the urge to drop a sandwich in there."

Delia sighed. "Probably the fear of jail time."

Kels handed her a tablet. "Tony wanted you to look over the contract."

Delia frowned. She stared at the white screen filled with text, and suddenly it clicked. She lowered her voice. "For the thing. With Jack Harrison." Since Tony had put the guy on her radar, she was seeing him everywhere. On the front pages of newspapers, reels and stories in her social media feeds. His name was even popping up in conversations between announcers on the radio.

Kels raised an eyebrow. "The thing. Correct."

Delia rolled her eyes and took the tablet, and Kels returned to his seat. Her head was still blurry, and it took her a minute to fully focus on the words in front of her. She scrolled past the introduction, then tried to read through paragraphs outlining terms regarding public appearances and social media posts but kept losing her place. Then something made her pause.

Public Displays of Affection:

The Parties hereby consent to engage in a mutually agreed-upon level of public displays of affection (PDAs) to portray their status as a romantic couple to onlookers convincingly. Such displays shall include, but not be limited to, the holding of hands, the exchange of brief, non-prolonged embraces, and the occasional kiss if both parties consent beforehand. These acts of affection shall be performed in good faith during public appearances, social events, and any outings where the legitimacy of their partnership might be subject to scrutiny or question, all in an effort to fortify the perceived authenticity of their bond.

She imagined Jack reading through that and wanted to shrivel up and die. Was she really doing this? Forcing someone to hold her in a “brief, non-prolonged embrace?” Delia dropped the tablet in her lap and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

She thought of her mom. Her incessant cough. Her late work hours. Dr. Kemp’s insistence that the only way for her to have a longer, better life was to slow down.

This was what she needed, wasn't it? But what had Tony offered Jack to make this worth his while? She could get Dion, serial philanderer, to go out with her, but Jack? He was Canada’s golden boy. He had to have a million prospects.

Thoughts about the meeting that night and her impending humiliation eclipsed any anxiety over the plane landing. It helped that it was the smoothest landing she'd ever experienced. By the time she’d noticed her ears were popping in their final descent, their wheels were touching down on the runway.

_____

Delia and Mary showed up to the Jukebox, and there were already a handful of people waiting outside on the street for the box office to open. As their car pulled around to the back of the theatre, Delia shifted in her seat. She didn't have to say anything for Mary to know precisely what she was thinking.

“You want to go out and do selfies?”

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