Page 16 of In Flight

When we’ve landed and reached the gate, we have to wait for everyone else to deboard before we can. I’m ready to get out of here.

Maybe sharing these flights with Isaac every week won’t be as exciting as I was thinking.

He’s halfway out of his seat, waiting to stand up until the people in the rows in front of us have cleared out. His shoulders are hunched. He’s not looking at me.

He’s so tired that I can feel it radiating off him.

Despite my annoyance, it touches me. Makes my heart ache.

Traveling so much for work would really suck.

When he’s able to stand up, he gets his suitcase down and then mine. He pulls out my handle and sets it down in front of his so I can go first.

That’s it.

I open my bakery box and pull out one of the cupcakes. “Here,” I say, thrusting it at him.

He stares down at it—it’s pretty and white and topped with a pink iced flower. Very slowly he accepts it. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Try to stay awake during the ballet.”

I’ve started to walk when he stops me, handing me my phone, which somehow ended up stuck in the crack of my seat.

I slide it into my bag with a nod and keep walking without looking back at him.

We’re now one cupcake short for Raven’s dinner, but that’s okay. One of those cupcakes was mine.

That can be the one I gave Isaac.

Four

ON SUNDAY EVENING,I arrive at the airport just in time to get in the boarding line. No sign of Isaac yet, of course, but I’m not worried today that he changed his flight.

He’ll get on the plane at the last minute as always.

When I see a tiny elderly lady with perfectly coiffed hair checking her ticket and looking around, I smile and ask if I can help her find her gate.

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