Page 5 of The Layover

Looking past him, I focused on Lee. She already had her head down and was staring at her phone, but she wasn’t moving. “I did see her.” And assumed she was still listening to us. “She’s stunning from head to toe, but the way she turned you down.” I mimed a mid-air kiss. “Hottest thing I’ve seen in a long time.”

Raul raised an eyebrow.

A corner of Lee’s mouth tugged up, but she didn’t look up.

With Raul’s Adventures in Flirting having come to an end, we tucked into work for the rest of the flight. There were almost four more hours until we landed at JFK International, and Raul and I had things to finalize before we got home.

We were building a tasty empire, and one restaurant was the first step. Thanks to Raul’s family connections, we’d managed to secure an abandoned church to use as our building, and the people his cousin knew in finance had helped us secure some funding.

Remodeling would be my focus when we got home—I’d be working closely with the representative our investors were sending to oversee things—and Raul was refining the menu. We worked in our own worlds on the flight, only pausing occasionally to nudge each other for an opinion.

This was only my third time in the US, and only my second flying across the continent. It still amazed me how big things were. My gaze kept drifting to the window, to watch the landscape scroll by and change so far beneath us. The attendant said we were flying at forty thousand feet. I either dropped or added a zero trying to convert that to kilometers. Twelve? One hundred twenty?

We were high up, and it was gorgeous.

When the light went darker outside my window, it drew my attention once again. We’d flown into a cloud bank.

A flash of light outside made me wince, and a crack of thunder threatened my hearing.

The plane dropped, taking my stomach with it, and leaving my laptop in the air for a heartbeat. As the computer crashed back to my tray table, several people screamed.

The flight switched from smooth to riding over a back country road with no shocks in an instant. I clutched my laptop and waited for the bumpiness to pass. I wasn’t a flying novice, but I was in the dozen-or-so-trips-in-my-lifetime category, rather than the all-the-time category, so this kind of disturbance was new for me.

Raul wrapped his hand around mine and gave me a comforting squeeze. “Passerà,” he muttered kindly.

Roughly, this too shall pass. “Certo.” I offered him a smile.

The flight attendant came over the speaker to tell us we’d encountered some turbulence, and asked everyone to return to their seats, buckle their seatbelts, and put their tray tables up.

With the plane bouncing and bucking, occasionally dropping a foot or two before recovering, the crew stumbled their way down the aisle to collect whatever drinks hadn’t already covered the passengers.

Out the window still looked stunning, but in a more menacing way, as the lights on the wings reflected off clouds and icy drops pelted the body of the plane.

This would even out soon. We’d fly through the storm. We’d be fine. I wasn’t terrified, but I was a bit anxious.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We’ve encountered the edge of hurricane Isabella. Airports between here and the coast are closing in anticipation, so we’ll be landing in Philadelphia. People at the gate can answer any of your questions, our attendants cannot. They don’t know any more than you do.”

The plane erupted in shouts again, this time of protest, as a dozen bells chimed at once for the crew’s attention.

This was bedlam.

The plane lurched again, and the sound grew louder until it was a deafening blend of terrified screams and angry yelling.

This was utterly ludicrous. Why were people so poorly behaved? The frazzled staff was trying to collect garbage and answer questions and calm people, all while they bounced around the cabin with each lurch of the plane.

An attendant stood a few feet from us, trying to talk over the PA, but her voice didn’t carry over the rest of the noise.

This was ridiculous.

I nudged Raul’s legs out of the way. He gave me a questioning look as I moved past him, and I held up a finger to indicate he’d see soon enough.

When I stepped up next to Announcement Attendant, she stared back with wide eyes.

I tended to look imposing when I needed to, and she was already under a lot of stress.

“Sir, I need you to—”

“May I?” I nodded at the microphone receiver in her hand.

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