Page 108 of Fly with Me

“It’s here,” Stella squealed, pulling the glossy cover off the shelf. There was a small photo of them from the TODAY show interview at the bottom corner. Olive pulled another copy off the shelf and flipped through the pages. Her eyes scanned the words, all of her muscles tense.

It was a puff piece, but a sweet one. True to the reporter’s word, there was no mention of Jake or Olive’s family in the article. She hadn’t bothered telling her family about the interview. She’d missed a bunch of documents sent by her mother’s lawyer while she was ill, and Derek had finally insisted on calling Heather himself about it, explaining that Olive was legitimately ill and needed to rest and couldn’t manage nonurgent requests. The lawyer’s emails and calls and texts slowed but didn’t stop. A few days ago, she’d managed to catch up with everything. Yesterday, she’d gone to see Jake for the first time in weeks. His color had been a bit off, though that might have been simply because Olive hadn’t been there in a while. Maybe he’d always looked like that.

Olive shifted her attention back to the glossy pages in her hands. Stella did a good job of being an ambassador for her airline. She talked about the planes, her career, and what it was like being a female pilot. Every quote glowed with enthusiasm. It seemed to capture their relationship too. The reporter caught the witty banter between them as they recounted the story of their trip to Disney World.

Stella’s phone began buzzing in her hand. She nearly dropped the magazine, eyes widening as she took in the name flashing in front of them.

She pressed the phone to her ear. “S-Stella Soriano.”

Olive took the magazine from her, and cleaned out the rack, knowing that Stella also wanted to buy a couple of extras. She grabbed one for Derek too. He’d mock her for it, but he’d also be excited as fuck to see her photo in it.

“Thank you so much for calling, Mr. O’Halloran. Yes, I am an early riser.” A pause. “Uh-huh, we have that in common.”

Olive turned back to look at her, her own excitement growing for Stella. More muffled conversation.

“Jack, right. Okay.” A pause. “I can make that work. I’m not in the air that day. Sure. I’ll email her to schedule it.”

After a few more thank-yous and goodbyes, Stella beamed as she slid the phone back into her bag. Olive grasped her hands.

“The head of PR sent him the article when it dropped last night. He said he was impressed about everything I said about the airline and that this was exactly the type of press we needed.” She threw her arms around Olive. Her hair was in loose waves from where it had been coiled into a bun before. “He said he wants to find a mentor for me, so I can get ready to take the next step in my career.”

“Congratulations. I’m so happy for you. You’re getting everything you wanted.” Her hand pressed into the small of Stella’s back.

“Thanks to you. I can’t tell you what this means to me.”

Their eyes met. Olive tucked a loose hair behind her ear. Stella mirrored the motion, a slight crinkling of her nose the only sign of whatever was unsettling her eyes.

Stella insisted that she would cook while Olive took Gus out for a walk. She wandered the early morning streets, clutching her heavy coat tightly around her. Gus paused to sniff a fire hydrant and then sat. Gus, being a rather ancient dog, tended to need breaks on walks. Olive sat on a cast-iron bench in front of Carroll Creek.

There was a woman in her apartment cooking her eggs.

A woman she really liked.

Olive spent the last two weeks post–VickXXX VapoRub: The Porn Edition analyzing everything from many different angles. Derek had made good on his promise to stop trying to talk her out of doing… well, whatever she was doing with Stella. She’d fallen asleep more nights than not after long conversations with Stella about something and often nothing. Stella brought up Italy a couple more times, but Olive couldn’t imagine what that would look like. Her and Stella traipsing through the Italian countryside together? It was too perfect. And Olive’s life was too fucked up with the drama with her family to imagine a future like that.

Even Alyson, her trusty vibrator, had seemed less useful in the aftermath of feeling Stella’s hands on her body. Her sex fantasy life had become nothing more than a sea of images of Stella. Her imagination was out of control.

They weren’t “together.”

Olive should care about that.

Because she didn’t just want orgasms. What had haunted her dreams more than anything was the sound of Stella’s voice when she brought her coffee the morning after the Vicks massage. The sweet, sunny personality that brightened everything around her.

Friends can make out.

Given the amount of time they spent talking and texting, they were definitely real friends.

Gus interrupted her reflections by trying rather ineffectively to chase a squirrel and almost yanking Olive’s shoulder out of its socket. For an old guy he could move quick in short bursts. She checked her watch and then pulled on the leash to lead Gus back toward her apartment.

As she opened the door, the smells of coffee and peppers and onions greeted her. Such a welcoming scent. The attempt to chase the squirrel had exhausted all Gus’s energy. He went over to his bed, plopped down, and was snoring in seconds.

After taking off her coat, Olive headed over to the kitchen. “The eggs look great.”

Stella used a spatula to plate them and handed Olive a mug of perfectly made coffee as well. “Thanks. I lived on omelets in college. I can make seven different kinds depending on what’s in the fridge. Easy meal. Eggcellent meal.”

Olive groaned before laughing. “You’re like a forty-five-year-old father of five trapped in a hot lady body.”

“Puns are seriously underrated. It’s unfair to denigrate them as nothing more than dad humor. My dad is an expert at them, though.” Stella cut a small piece of the omelet off with her fork and fed it to Olive.

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