Anything but Minor - Kate Stewart Page 0,20

of do everything that way.

Rafe: Makes me curious...

Alice: Email sent. Did you know that Frozen is a fifty-million-dollar movie, and they didn’t bother to put ear holes on the characters heads?

This chick is so random.

Alice: Oh, you meant that sexually...Rafe?

Rafe: Yeah, Alice?

Alice: Just making sure you were there. Did you know that people in Japan who injure walking pedestrians with their cars have to pay their medical bills? Funerals are cheaper. Do you know what that means?!

Rafe: I can’t wait...

Alice: That they continue to run over them until they’re dead to avoid bankruptcy.

Rafe: What the hell are you doing?

Alice: I’m Googling.

Rafe: That’s a thing?

Alice: For me it is.

Rafe: Do you have ADD?

Alice: You would think that but...no. This is my normal.

And I believed her.

Rafe: Tell me more.

And she did. She spent hours texting me random things, mostly trivial movie facts, which I knew were her favorite. I laughed so hard that the couple in the room next to me pounded on the wall a few times after they’d had an extremely vocal fuck fest.

We both fell asleep with our conversation un-ended, without a goodnight, or a goodbye. I smiled as I woke up to her last text.

Alice: Do you know that at any given intersection you are likely to catch someone picking their nose, like finger deep? Gag, I’ll never look around at a stoplight again.

I coughed out a laugh as I turned on my side, trying to imagine what she would look like sleeping in the bed next to me. I imagined her waking up with the smile she gave me in my Jeep. I was hard in seconds.

So. Fucking. Beautiful.

Rafe: Morning, Alice.

I spent a few minutes imagining her alone in her bed, her phone lying on her pillow, and wrapped my fist around my thoughts.

I had to have that woman.

“Mr. Harp, that was your last chance to fly through. I’m afraid I can’t give you the green light for this aircraft.” In the cabin of the simulator, I braced myself for the inevitable as I saw the panic race through him.

“Fuck,” he said, scrubbing his hand down his face as he looked back at the screen.

“I’m afraid I smell alcohol on you, as well, and have several times throughout our sessions. I’ll have to report it.”

“What?” he said as he turned his red, pug face to me. “You can’t do that!”

“I can and I will,” I said as I threw my clipboard down between us. “Drunks can’t pilot.”

“You little bitch. You know nothing about me. I’ve been flying for twenty-six years.”

I shrugged. “And it will remain twenty-six.”

“You can’t do that. I have a wife and kids to support!” He leaned in, his posture a threat as his voice dripped with warning.

“These planes carry three hundred and twelve souls,” I snapped without apology. “If you want to call someone a little b-b-b...itch you need to point that finger inward. You have absolutely no right to gamble with the lives of that many people.”

“You don’t know me,” he seethed.

“I don’t ever want to. The level of stupidity running through that brain of yours is enough to make me run in the other direction. You will either sober up, or you won’t fly planes.”

“I swear to God I will.”

“Swear to him in treatment,” I said as I looked at him square on.

“You bitch!” Just as he lunged at me, Trey reached in and jerked him out of his seat and pinned him to the door in the cockpit.

“You’re a fucking disgrace. Go get cleaned up!” Trey hissed as he looked back in to check on me. When he saw me unharmed, he let the older pilot go. “Get the hell out of here.” Trey looked back down at me with concern. “You okay?”

“Fine,” I said with a sigh and meant it. “He’s a drunk. He slept through the whole classroom session, failed the simulation, and takes issue with me? Entitled and disgusting.”

Trey slid into the cabin next to me. “You did the right thing.”

“I know,” I said confidently.

Trey laughed as he looked over at me. “You’re something else, you know that?”

I blushed as he scoured my appearance.

“Want to go grab some dinner this Saturday?”

I knew my features were covered in shock as he went on. “I’ve wanted to ask for weeks.”

“Oh, I...” For a brief moment, I thought of Rafe. Rafe who was a self-proclaimed ladies’ man. Rafe, who I’d drawn a clear line of friendship with. Rafe whose own best friend inadvertently warned me away from him.

As those thoughts swirled