Page 92 of Come Fly with Me

“I understand that this is boring and sometimes it’s even hard, but as you go through programs to become pilots, no one will cut you any slack in this department. You don’t want to give anyone a reason to choose someone else over you.”

I walk the girls into the hangar where Charlie already has a Cessna opened and ready for us. It’s the plane we use for training and everything has been removed and placed for us to all have access.

“Do you know what the biggest obstacle female pilots face is?” I ask the group, because what we’re learning here isn’t just how to be a good pilot, but how to overcome any issues we’ll face.

“Men,” Sofia deadpans without any delay. It causes me to let out a small laugh, shaking my head, but understanding where she’s coming from.

“No, but good joke,” I tell her. “It’s lack of money for training, but we’ve got that covered already.” I wink at the girls, knowing that we’re building the bridge to that obstacle right now. “How about the second thing? This should be easy.” I wave a hand in front of the Cessna and all its random parts.

“Mechanics,” the girls all echo together and again I nod my head.

“Exactly. Lack of experience with and knowledge of mechanical systems and lack of map-reading experience. That last part will be our next lesson because today we break down the mechanics of how a plane works.”

I was lucky enough to grow up with a mechanic father, so this part came easier to me than most, and it’s why I always set aside time to review this. It’s also why Charlie and I spent countless hours raising money to purchase more simulators and when we couldn’t find any decent online tutorials, we created our own.

It’s another part to this whole program that was recently purchased by Aviation Online, a massive company that specializes in online tutorials. They saw the benefit to our program and instead of creating it from scratch, they approached us about partnering. It’s just another cog in this whole amazing system.

“Will anyone else be helping out today?” Sofia asks, and I can already hear the apprehension in her voice. She knows something and she’s waiting for me to respond. She’s intuitive, even more so than most girls her age.

“Nope. It’ll just be me today. You get to spend enough time with Charlie when I’m not here.”

“What about Jake?” someone asks in a singsong voice, and there’s a giggling from the group of girls.

“Nope,” I respond again. “No Jake.” Just hearing his name causes my heart to race, a nervousness spilling out in the tone of my voice as I try to control the shakiness.

“They broke up,” Sofia announces to the group and I close my eyes at her words. “But it’s okay. It’ll pass. I mean it’ll pass more like a kidney stone, but whatever.”

It’s hard not to laugh at her. She’s cheeky as hell and completely right. Far wiser than she should be, and I take her words to heart.

“We didn’t break up. We’d have had to be dating in order to break up,” I respond, attempting to defend myself to a group of pre-teen girls who aren’t buying what I’m selling.

“Yeah, right,” one of them quips. “We saw the way you were when he was here. You totally had a crush on him. We ship you guys hard.”

Oh my god, this isn’t happening. I am not having this discussion with them.

“What does that even mean?” I ask, confused by her “we ship you” comment.

“It means that we all like Jake, and we want him to be your boyfriend.”

I’m getting it from every direction. I’ve got Carrie and Charlie pushing it, Dean telling me to give him another chance and now the girls, my girls, have turned on me and are siding with Jake. He’s managed to charm the pants off everyone within a ten-mile radius.

“Well, that’s not going to happen,” I shoot back, my tone firm now. “We’re here to work on mechanics and not talk about the mechanics of relationships.”

“Come on, Taylor,” Sofia replies back just as firmly. “We get it. You’re a strong female, and we all think you’re super cool, but we also think Jake is cool too. Besides Charlie, he was the only guy to come in here and help us without talking down to us or acting like working with us was a chore.”

Suddenly, everyone is chiming in and sharing their support of Jake, and I bite down on the side of my mouth to quell the feeling that’s growing in my throat. Crying isn’t my thing, but it’s coming.

“What happened to Jake passing like a kidney stone?” I ask, trying to lighten the mood and stop myself from having a breakdown in front of these impressionable young girls.

“I was trying to support you, but we like Jake just as much,” Sofia says, shrugging her shoulders with a look of sorrow on her face.

I let out a heavy sigh, my shoulders practically sagging with defeat and as much as I want to clue these girls in on what really happened, I can’t. I can’t ruin their impression of Jake with something that is far beyond their understanding.

“We need to move on,” I say, motioning for the girls to disregard this digression and continue with why they’re here. “But I’ll say one thing, trust your instincts, girls.”

“Then give Jake a second chance,” Sofia chirps, a smirk on her face.

“No more last words,” I tell her, snapping my fingers and shooting her a death stare, but hell, that girl is going to be a force to be reckoned with someday. And just so she knows I’m not mad at her, I give her a wink.

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