Page 4 of Fear of Flying

He reached up to check the air vent. It seemed worse than it had been.

Zach tried to breathe evenly. Normally. However normal, model seatmate people breathed. Brothed? God, now he was making up words. His phone buzzed again.

His pulse jumped up another notch, and he was suddenly grateful that airplanes already came with a base level of “fairly loud” when it came to background noise. Otherwise, his pounding heart and his decidedly not-normal breathing would very much be bothering people.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

Zach closed his eyes and wished—not for the first time today—that he was somewhere else.

“Sounds like someone is eager to talk to you,” the guy with the great ass said, and Zach wished he had enough processing power to gauge the man’s tone, but nope.

“Heh. It’s probably just all my streaming apps at the same time, telling me what’s new or something,” Zach said lamely, giving the man half a smile but not looking up, afraid to find out if the guy was mad or... looked really hot. “I’ll just, um, I should probably put it in airplane mode now anyway,” he said, as if he needed some excuse to justify why he was pulling his phone back out. God, he was ridiculous.

Jen: What’s happening? Tell me it’s not just his ass that’s hawt!

Jen: I hope you’re ignoring me because you’re busy flirting with him!!

Jen: Buy the internet on the flight!

Jen: Pleeeease! I’ll pay for it.

Jen: I need a play-by-play of how it goes with Mr. Great Ass.

Zach: Omg stop! Right now he probably thinks I have an obsessively clingy girlfriend! Or worse!

Jen: What’s worse than a clingy girlfriend?

A nosy best friend, he wanted to type. But he didn’t because that was mean and untrue. God, he hated his anxiety, hated feeling like an asshole.

Zach: Gah! I don’t know! Just... I’m scared he’s going to look over and read the screen. I’m already acting cagey keeping my phone slightly angled.

Jen: Okay okay fine! You’ll be fine. You should distract yourself with flirting. I’ll see you when you get home. Love you.

Zach: Love you too!

Zach put his phone in airplane mode and hastily shoved it back in his pocket, only to realize that now he had nothing to do with his nervous energy other than fidget with his hands, which was absolutely no good. Fidgety people annoyed him, and he was sure the same was true for everyone else.

He spied the airline’s branded magazine in the seat-back pocket in front of him and snagged it. The cover teased articles on horseback riding in Montana and some winter-themed recipe. Without really registering many of the words, Zach flipped through the pages, hoping desperately he didn’t appear as nervous as he felt.

“I wish they still had those SkyMall catalogs,” Mr. Great Ass said, startling Zach slightly but also... God, something about the sound of his voice made the back of Zach’s neck tingle.

“R-right?” Zach managed, somehow achieving a single, intelligible word, though not feeling brave enough to look over at his seatmate just yet. “You never know when you need a $2,000 automatic water bowl fountain for your cat. I mean, I don’t have a cat, but if I did, they’d totally be getting one.” Oh god, Zach couldn’t stop himself from sounding like a rambling moron.

Mr. Great Ass chuckled. “And a rhinestone-encrusted collar too, right?”

“Absolutely, heh. Only the best for... Fluffy. God, nope. Nope, sorry, their name would not be Fluffy. I don’t know where that came from. I, um, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a killer conversationalist. So you can just”—he waved a hand emphatically, the magazine slumping before he grabbed for it awkwardly—“ignore me. I’ll shut up now.” Shit, his face was probably beet red, and he definitely felt a hundred percent warmer than he had five minutes ago.

Mr. Great Ass laughed again. “At least you didn’t say Whiskers. That would be a terrible name for a cat.”

Zach nodded, smiling, then finally risked a glance over at his seatmate. Holy... hot. This was not good. Nope. Terrible. He could feel his pulse skyrocketing and his whole body flushing with heat and the thought of... What if he had to use the barf bag this time too? In front of Mr. Incredibly Hot and Has a Great Ass? His stomach churned just thinking about it.

“Are—are you okay?” Mr. Incredibly Hot and Has a Great Ass asked.

Zach risked another look up, almost grateful to see a full but closely trimmed beard and mustache. He wasn’t a huge fan of facial hair, so that should... help with the attraction factor. He hoped. “I-I . . . s-sorry, I just... I’m not—not a fan of flying.”

Mr. Incredibly Hot and Has a Great Ass smiled warmly at Zach, making his insides melt and his theory of facial hair being off-putting fly right out the window. “Don’t worry. Statistically speaking, it’s the safest way to travel.”

Zach burst out laughing—half amusement and half nerves. “Is that so?” Oh, Jen would die for this.

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