Page 27 of The Woman in 3B
I heard her sigh before she motioned to the empty seat across the table from her. The other tables in the room were already occupied, so I accepted her nonverbal invitation and sat down.
“Rough morning?” I tried gently.
In lieu of answering, she tore open the foil packaging and gulped down two pills with her orange juice. She removed her sunglasses and tossed them on the table.
“I’m sorry about last night,” she opened. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “It was very inappropriate of me.”
“It was,” I concurred.
“I suppose I got my signals mixed up,” she said. “I’m sorry for putting you in an uncomfortable position.”
“It, uh—it’s not that I wasn’t interested. I’m, uh…” I couldn’t admit to her that I’d been intimidated to go to bed with her. I scrambled for a different excuse. “I-I’m on my period, so, I, uh, I couldn’t….You know…”
“Fuck,” she finished for me.
Her blunt language had me ducking my head. “Yeah.”
I pretended to be interested in a blemish on the surface of the table. I ran my thumbnail along a shallow groove that had been chipped from the imitation wood. When I looked back up, Anissa was still staring at me. Her eyes had narrowed in contemplation as if trying to decide if I was telling the truth.
She spoke after what felt like a very long time: “Another time, perhaps.”
Her reaction was confusing. Was she suggesting a raincheck on sex? I didn’t know how to respond to her words, but luckily I didn’t have to. My attention was temporarily diverted when I spotted Lara getting coffee from the makeshift breakfast buffet.
“Shit,” I swore without meaning to. I slumped down in my seat, half tempted to bolt out of the room entirely.
Anissa sat up a little straighter in her chair and craned her neck as she scanned the room. “Who are you hiding from?”
“No one.” I picked up a brochure that had been on the table and pretended to be interested in its contents. “Lara.”
“Ah—the infamous Lara,” she clucked. She continued to unabashedly stare in Lara’s direction. Her boldness made me squirm in my seat, sure she was going to get us caught. “Do you not like her or something?”
“No. Nothing like that,” I mumbled. “I probably like hertoomuch.”
“Ahhh,” she hummed as if she understood, although I had no idea if she actually did. “She’s pretty,” she observed.
“She is,” I agreed. “We kind of dated, but then she moved on.”
I didn’t know why I felt compelled to share intimate details with a near-stranger. I didn’t have the bourbon to blame anymore.
I allowed my attention to drift back to the breakfast buffet. Like me, Lara was in her airline uniform. It was a different combination than the day before—a short-sleeved blouse tucked into skinny trousers. My eyes traveled down her long legs to her high heels.
“In my line of work, we discourage fraternizing with co-workers.” Anissa’s voice pulled my attention back to the table. “It can get messy. And we in HR don’t care very much for messes.”
I slumped down lower in my chair. “Thanks for the tip,” I drawled sardonically. “Got any more professional advice?”
“Yeah. Don’t get drunk on a work night.”
“You have to work today?” I asked, amazed.
She nodded and gulped down more of her orange juice. “My boss emailed me this morning to see if I could fill in for a colleague since I’m already on the road. He’ll have to pay me time and a half since it’s technically my day off, but at least it’ll be a productive trip.”
“Maybe after this you can convince him to only book direct flights,” I proposed. “If you hadn’t had a layover, you would be home in bed right now.”
“Sure, but then I never would have gotten kicked out of a charming flight attendant’s hotel room.”
“I didn’t kick you out!” I huffed in exasperation.
Anissa grinned broadly, her hangover seemingly forgotten for the moment. “You’re too much fun to tease, Alice.”
