the aisle handing out black cloths to us. “When you board the airplane, please be seated with your spouse. You will be instructed to put on your blindfold after the flight takes off.”
Blindfold? Great. Being blindfolded next to my spouse is probably a recipe for disaster, considering the fact that he just. Tasted. Me.
We get our bags and board a jet. I take out my book, and I’m struggling to load my backpack into the overhead bin when Luke effortlessly shoves it in.
“Thanks.” As I sit next to Luke, I notice his hands tighten on the armrests. He has his earbuds in, as they let us keep our phones, but they blocked data, Wi-Fi, texting, and calling. I decide I’ll put mine in, and maybe we won’t have to talk. But then curiosity gets the best of me. “You don’t like flying?”
He smirks at me. “Never done it before.”
“Seriously?” Somehow that makes me feel better. Braver. “It’s nothing to worry about.”
“Never said I was worried.”
“Your body says it enough for you,” I say, mimicking his voice as I point out his grip on the armrest. I’m careful not to touch him.
His fingers loosen. He starts to twist the plastic MDM ring on his finger. “You fly a lot?”
I nod. “I’m from Cape Cod.” Not that I go back there much.
“Where’s that?”
“Massachusetts.”
“What’s a Yank like you doing down south?”
I smile. “Wanted to get away from my family, I guess. Came down here and had no interest in ever going back. I’ve lived here eight years, getting my undergraduate degree, my master’s, and my doctorate.”
“Holy shit. You’re smart.”
“I suppose. I also have a very good memory. That helps.”
“Jeez. Fuck. My parents disowned me when I was sixteen. That’s when I dropped out of school. Thought about going back for my GED, but fuck it. I hate tests. Never was good at school. But you? You’re every parent’s wet dream. You’re seriously telling me your family gives you shit? For what?”
“My father wanted me to go to Harvard Law and follow in his footsteps. But it never interested me. He basically told me that if I wanted to follow him, he’d pay for it all. If I didn’t, I was on my own.”
He stares at me, impressed. “That takes some balls, girl.”
I shrug, though I feel a surge of pride. The tough guy thinks I have balls. “Well. I’m either brave or stupid, because I have a lot of student loans. But you have to be true to yourself. Right?”
The plane starts to taxi down the runway. He cranes his neck over me to see out the oval window. He’s not saying it, but I think he might be nervous.
“What about you?”
“I own a bar. Or . . . the bank owns a bar. I need the money to pay it off.”
“Oh. Which one?”
“You don’t know it. I doubt a sweet, pure thing like you’d ever go to my neighborhood. It’s a dive.” He touches the book on my lap. “You get a lot of stuff in your big old brain from books?”
I nod. “I love Baudelaire.”
“Baude who?” He takes the book from my hands and flips the pages. “Holy shit. It’s in another language.”
“French.”
“And you can read that?”
I nod. “I spent my summers in Paris when I was growing up.”
“Holy . . . fuck.” He clears his throat. He’s still absently paging through the book. “I mean, holy . . . fudge. That’s strange as hell. I haven’t even picked up a book in . . . who the hell knows?”
I shrug. “Le bou est toujours bizarre.”
He gives me a look. “Le what?”
“The beautiful is always strange.”
“Ah.” He points to my earbuds. “What’re you listening to?”
“Mussorgsky. Pictures at an Exhibition. You?”
He pulls out an earbud and hands it to me to have a listen. I’m not sure I want to trade, considering that seems almost intimate, sharing something that’s been in his ear. But I take it, then hand him one of mine.
All I hear is a headache-inducing bang of drums from some rock band whose lead singer sounds like he’s screaming in pain. I wince and hand his back to him.
When I look up at him, he’s so close I can see the amber flecks in his green eyes, which are piercing me. He’s still listening to mine, his lips curved in amusement over the fact that I clearly didn’t like his. “You’re a classy girl, aren’t you?”
“I appreciate classical music,” I say, tugging the earbud away from him and returning