“Sitting with Don. She asked to switch seats because she wanted to sleep and you were snoring too loudly.”
“Oh. Whoops.”
He shrugs. “No problem for me. I don’t sleep on planes.”
I take in his rigid posture and the way his hands are fidgeting with the book. “Wait. Are you scared of flying?”
“I’m not scared of anything,” Nick mutters so quietly that I can barely hear him above the noise of the plane.
“You are,” I say, sitting up.
“I have an absolutely normal amount of apprehension about sitting in a metal tube and hurtling through the sky,” Nick says. “That’s not fear. That’s called being reasonable.”
In a low voice, even though there’s no way she could hear us several rows over and asleep, I say, “You should tell her.”
He eyes me skeptically. “Tell who what?”
I raise my eyebrows. “Chloe.”
“That I’m afraid of planes?” he asks, his eyes darting away.
“I thought you weren’t afraid.”
“Yeah, well.” He meets my eyes again and gives me a wry smile. “Maybe I’m afraid of some things.”
“You’re in love with her,” I say, a statement and not a question.
“I’m not . . . Love is a complicated thing,” he says, rubbing his hands over his stubble.
“Yeah, well, I’m flying to New York to confess my love for Drew. At least telling Chloe how you feel doesn’t involve air travel.”
“And yet I’m on a plane right now,” he says. He narrows his eyes. “So you really like this guy, huh?”
I nod.
“Well,” Nick says. “He didn’t bring in a bunch of bodyguards who peed on the seat, and he didn’t scare Gary with a rant about fluoride, so I’d say he’s okay.”
“To be fair,” I say, “that’s a pretty low bar.”
I glance at my phone—it’s late now, and the coffee shop has been closed for a while. “Have you heard from Tobin?”
“Oh, God,” Nick says. “He probably forgot to lock up. I can’t believe I risked my livelihood on that kid.”
I smile and close my eyes, and when I open them, everyone’s putting their seat belts back on. This is it, as the great Kenny Loggins would say. We’re landing in New York City, a place I’ve never been, because I decided I had to end my romantic comedy with a dramatic run through the airport and a big grand gesture that seems more and more like a silly idea.
Nick grips my arm as the plane lands with a few bumps and skips down the runway, then pulls his hand back and clears his throat as soon as we’re stopped. “Don’t tell Chloe, okay?” he asks with a groan.
“I won’t,” I say, already imagining putting an airplane scene into my screenplay.
We disembark the plane, and one of the plus sides of traveling with absolutely no preparation or logic is that you don’t have to worry about luggage.
“Okay, so.” Chloe claps her hands together as we stand outside near the line of taxis. “Where do we go?”
“Um . . .” I haven’t thought this far ahead. “I don’t know?”
Nick blinks a few times. “You mean you—we—flew to New York and you don’t even know where this guy is?”
“I don’t know,” I mutter. “I guess I got caught up in the moment.”
And then I remember: Good Morning USA.
“What time is it?” I shout.
“Uh, it’s like six A.M.,” Chloe says. “And also chill. You’re scaring people.”
“He’s going to be on Good Morning USA!” I tell her. “That’s where I can find him!”
“Alternatively,” Nick says, “you could text him. You know, like a normal person?”
“But there’s nothing romantic about texts!” Chloe says.
“I don’t know,” Uncle Don says with a shrug. “I’ve sent some pretty romantic texts in my time.”
I am zero percent prepared to hear about Uncle Don’s sexting history right now. “You guys, focus. I need to get to Good Morning USA.”
“Isn’t that one of those shows where you have to start lining up at, like, four A.M. just to stand outside the window and wave a sign?” Chloe asks.
“Yeah, but . . .” I think for a moment. “They film outside sometimes, too. Like, they have a stage set up, and everyone stands around it.”
“So either we yell at him from the crowd while he’s on the outdoor stage, or we create an elaborate sign that will get the attention of the producers and/or camera people inside,” Chloe muses. “I suggest something with a lot of profanity.”
“Let’s go,” I say, and I march over to the first cab I see, forcing