Page 53 of Fly with Me

OLIVE

It’s not rational.

She watched for the tiny typing bubble, but it didn’t appear.

It would be best to go out and act like a professional. Acting giddy over a couple of text messages was the least Olive thing ever. Somehow this had gone from Olive making a fool out of herself to the most addictive kind of witty banter?

As she caught sight of her face in the reflective surface of the blanket warmer, she noticed her mouth doing this incredible bizarre thing.

Smiling.

No, she had important nurse shit to do. Olive took out her notebook with her to-do list and began checking things off.

She had to have a few long conversations with underperforming team members, and go in with Joni to give some extremely bad and emotional news to a patient. Then ten people all came in at once for a fender bender, all of them acting like they were in a gruesome wreck for the amount of attention they demanded.

It was nine hours into her shift before she sat down to eat lunch—leftovers of the food she’d made for Stella. She had forced Stella to take the rest of the cake, and Stella had only barely argued. She’d glowed and said she couldn’t wait for her dad to taste it.

STELLA

Giving birth to conjoined twins.

OLIVE

I mostly date women, so I feel like that would change those odds.

STELLA

Dying falling off a ladder

OLIVE

If the point is to also make me afraid of ladders, you’re succeeding.

STELLA

Did you know that cows kill way more people than sharks every year?

OLIVE

What does this have to do with flying?

STELLA

Just thought it was interesting how often fears don’t make sense.

OLIVE

Next time I see a cow, I’ll make sure I run in the other direction.

OLIVE

Glad we had this talk

STELLA

I’m a veritable smorgasbord of useless information.

OLIVE

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