Page 55 of My Secret Bandit

Taking a much-needed break from the luggage that made me nauseous every time I looked at it, I dialed her number.

She picked up on the second ring. “Hel-lo, my newly deflowered friend. How are you feeling?”

“Not great.”

“What! Why? What happened?” Shock sounded through the phone, and I instantly realized my mistake.

“What? No! Last night was great.”

“So… what’s wrong then?”

“I’m going to Atlanta, apparently.”

“Ahh! The paralyzing fear of flight. Well, you know these boys get super geeked about playoffs. I can see if someone wants to take the series so I can go with you.”

Sierra—better than anyone—understood the turmoil I felt. Sheforcedherself to fly home to visit her parents. Now she says she’ll gladly take the three-hour flight over the nine-hour drive any day.

But for me, the idea of flying was significantly worse than a road trip. If your car breaks down, you pull over and call for help. Up in the sky, what do you do? Pray your pilot aced emergency landings and hope there’s a field full of all the world’s lost socks to crash into? Yeah… I never wanted to chance it.

“I’ll be fine; thank you, though,” I said through a reluctant breath of air.

“You know I’m here if you need me.”

I stayed quiet as I walked into my room and saw the bag laying there, half packed only to make a U-turn and head for the couch.

“Hey… so,” she started to change the subject. “Don’t you have a certain stud’s birthday to start planning for?”

“Shit,” I gasped. “What am I gonna do?” Flight forgotten, I had a whole new worry to cloud my brain.

“No worries, sister. I got you!” Her octave increase put me on instant alert. But as my best friend, I put a lot of trust in her and she hasn’t failed me yet.

“Feel like sharing?”

“Later. Lemme get some things situated first. All I’m gonna tell you right now is to get your squat game right.”

“Jesus, Sierra,“ I groaned, immediately thinking the worst. Like aerial pole dancing or something just crazy enough to be on Sierra’s mind already.

She laughed. “You’ll befine.”

“We’ll make that determination when we get there. Thank you, though. I’ll talk to you later.”

We said our goodbyes, and I went back to packing. The anxiety lessened as I tried to guess what plans Sierra had.

Mateo called as I crawled into bed.

“Hello,” I answered.

“Hey, beautiful. You all right? You sound… different,” he said.

“Just tired, I guess.”

“You sure? I have a couple minutes if you need to talk.”

“I’m fine, Mateo,” I replied with a little more snip than I meant. I didn’t want to divulge the truth of why I sounded like death warmed over. I knew my anxiety would cause him to worry, and I didn’t want that burden on him while he readied himself for the game.

“Okay. We’re boarding now. I’ll let you know when we land. Get some rest, baby.”

After saying goodbye to him, a fresh wave of panic hit me.

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