Page 91 of Come Fly with Me

Tyler laughs. “But what the fuck are you gonna do about getting her back?” he asks.

Now it’s me chuckling. “Yeah, about that,” I say. “I have a plan.”

Thirty-One

Taylor

With Dean on my side and my focus on something other than Jake, I’m ready to take on anything. I was shocked to know that most of the pilots that work at Crescent Airways knew nothing about my raises or their lack thereof. Only learning about the whole thing when I had it out with my supervisor. At least this time around, the gossip about me has worked in a good way.

It’s interesting to me what overshadows what’s important because for all these years, my reputation was what people remembered about me and no one cared at all about the inequity in the industry. It just takes one person to start the fire and all I can hope is it spreads.

I’m happy to be back in Los Angeles with the sunshine and the clear skies. New York was great, but the weather is just not the same, and when I pull up to the hangar at the Santa Monica Airport, it feels even better to be back.

I stroll into Carrie and Charlie’s office and find them both sitting behind their desks, their eyes hitting mine as I greet them.

“Hey. How’s it going?”

“Hey, Taylor. You’re in a good mood,” Carrie simply states as they both continue to look me over. I’m sure she expected me to be falling apart by now, but I’m not giving Jake that satisfaction. Even if it’s something he may never know, I still won’t let it happen.

“I am. I’m back here with you guys, good things are happening, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let Jake Campbell dictate how I deal with shit in my life. If anything, he’s pushed me to do something I should’ve done a long time ago.”

Neither says a word, their faces impassive as my smile fades. They know something, something that has to do with Jake.

“What?” My hands are on my hips as I swallow hard and wonder what the hell I’ve missed out on.

“Jake came by after…” Carrie pauses, choosing her words wisely.

“Taylor,” Charlie cuts in. “He’s a good guy who made a stupid choice. I think, we think,” he motions between himself and Carrie, “you need to hear him out.”

“When did you stop being my friends and become his?” I question, that feeling of anger over everything returning.

“Why would he go to all the trouble to come here and ask us to help him find you if he didn’t truly care about you? No one is that big of an asshole to keep some ruse going after it’s all blown up.”

Carrie’s words cause me to take a second, and as much as I want to believe her, I’m still struggling. She’s been with me for as long as I can remember. She was with me through my divorce, when I’d call her crying in the middle of the night. She’d talk me down when I would jump into a relationship only to find I’d been cheated on once again. She stood by me when I finally swore off men, but she also forced me to make a list of what I wanted out of a partner because she insisted he was out there.

Jake was everything on that list.

“I don’t know, Care, but people are assholes.”

“He’s not an asshole.”

“I can’t do this with you right now. I have a group of girls who are counting on me not to be a huge mess and the longer we keep talking the more likely I will be.”

“This conversation isn’t over yet!” Carrie calls after me as I walk out the door. “And I love you!”

And even though I’m totally annoyed with her right now, her words make me smile.

The girls are all lined up and waiting for me and before I can even reach them, I hear sassy Sofia’s voice call out, letting me know I’m five minutes late.

“Today’s mechanics!” she yells, and I can’t stop the chuckle that falls from my mouth. This kid is a piece of work, but she’s going to change the world someday. Even more than that though, I can’t let her see that despite my hard exterior, I’m literally dying inside.

“I know, I know. You gotta cut me some slack, I’ve been all over the place the last few days. The beautiful state of Alaska and its horrendous time change haven’t been kind to me,” I joke back, walking up to the line of them.

I stretch my arms above my head and fake a yawn, Sofia rolling her eyes and hitting me with her best steely glare.

“All right, are we ready? Hopefully everyone’s been studying because today we’re diving into aircraft systems.”

A collective groan falls from all the girls and I know exactly how they feel. This is the part where most women pilots get lost. Men have this advantage because they tend to be more mechanically inclined. But not my girls; they’ll stand out for all the right reasons.

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