Page 82 of Come Fly with Me

I get that she’s pissed off. I get she’s probably shocked and confused as hell right now, not just that I have a wife, but also that I never told her about it. But to not even give me a chance to explain? The whole thing makes me pissed and anxious and worried about how I’m going to fix things.

But more than anything, it makes me wish to fuck I’d told her about Maggie in the first place. Explained the circumstances so she never had to walk into my house and see my so-called wife sitting there.

By the time we are making our descent into LAX, I’m grateful for the forty-eight hours off that I have. Hopeful that Taylor is here too, although I have no idea what her schedule looks like now that she bailed on our flight to Tahiti.

Rick and I clear the landing paperwork and make our way toward the customs together. He’s making small talk with one of the flight attendants along the way and from their body language, I’m guessing small talk isn’t the only thing they made while we were in Tahiti.

I can’t help but stare at the wedding band he wears and the way he doesn’t even try to hide it from her. It’s disgusting the way these guys carry on and while I’ve taken advantage of the whole “isolated in a foreign country with a bunch of cute coworkers” thing before, I’ve never slept with someone who was married.

But just as I think this, it hits me that actually, I’ve been doing that this whole time with Taylor. And while my marriage was absolutely over as soon as it began, and I’ve never actually considered myself a married man, let alone taken a wedding ring off to hide it, Taylor doesn’t know any of this. All she sees now is a guy who acted like he wanted her, but also had a wife she didn’t know about.

The whole thing makes me feel even shittier than before, especially knowing how hard it is for Taylor to trust people, how badly her ex-husband treated her to create that. And how much I’ve now broken that trust.

“Fuck,” I mutter, scrubbing a hand across my jaw.

Rick turns to look at me. “Everything okay?” he asks, seemingly concerned. I’ll admit, he was a nice guy, great to fly with and if he wasn’t so open about cheating on his wife, I’d probably be happy being friends with him.

“Yeah,” I say, even as I’m shaking my head.

Rick laughs a little. “Well, cheer up,” he adds. “Salary increases kick in next pay cycle.”

“What?” I ask, confused. Although I’ve flown for Crescent for a while now, I haven’t been permanent staff for very long and I’m still getting used to how it all works.

Rick glances at the flight attendant he was chatting to before turning back to me. “Salary increase that comes with a good evaluation,” he says. “Usually eighteen percent for captains, fifteen for first officers,” he adds. “A nice bonus.”

“Does everyone get that?” I ask.

Rick shrugs. “Everyone who gets a good evaluation, yeah.”

“So…” I start, but my words are cut off by Theo Jameson walking up.

I roll my eyes as he greets Rick with a handshake, and the two of them start talking about their recent trips and what they got up to. Even though I’ve heard it all before, it’s disgusting listening to the way they talk about their fellow crew, comparing notes on who they’ve slept with, so I move away and make my way toward the customs line for pilots and crew.

After I’ve collected my car from the parking garage, I head straight over to Taylor’s, hoping she’s home. But there’s no sign of her, her car is still missing from the garage, so I head back home to my place to get changed and try and work out a plan for how to get in contact with her.

While I’m there, I check my emails and notice one from my lawyer, letting me know the divorce papers have now been filed and should be processed quickly and finalized by the end of the month.

I exhale in relief, glad this whole thing is nearly over. Just as I’m about to log off, I notice an email from Maggie too. Curious, I open it to see what she has to say.

Dear Jake,

I just wanted to let you know I got notification about the papers being filed. I won’t fight this anymore and I’m sorry if I created trouble for you. I know what we did was rash and probably not the best move, but I did truly want to make things work. I know you don’t believe me, but I never meant to cheat on you, and I’m sorry that I hurt you. I’d like to think one day we might be able to be friends.

Maggie.

I roll my eyes and delete the email, having no desire to be friends with my ex-wife and not just because she cheated on me and then made the next year of my life a living hell by refusing to sign the divorce papers.

She’s a part of my life that I want firmly in the past because she’s the one part of my life that I regret more than anything. The regret has nothing to do with her and everything to do with what we did, but I still can’t find a way to forgive her, to accept her apology and let her be a part of my life when all she does is remind me of the things I wish I’d never done.

I try calling Taylor again, but once more it goes straight to voicemail. Knowing I have only two days to try and sort this out, which might be even more impossible if she is somewhere on the other side of the world, I grab my keys and head over to the one place that might be able to give me answers.

When I walk into the main office in the hangar at the airport, Carrie and Charlie both look up. Charlie gives me a small smile and nod, while Carrie narrows her eyes at me. Neither of them are particularly hostile, but there’s definitely a reservation there that isn’t usually.

“Before you start,” I say, my hands up in defense. “Yes, I know I was a dick for not telling her about being married.”

Carrie stands, crosses her arms over her chest as she all but glares at me. “So it is true?”

I nod. “Yeah, but it’s complicated.”

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