The Woman in 3B - Eliza Lentzski Page 0,59

wore. “Where are you flying to today?” she asked.

“What day is it?” I was only partially kidding. The last two days had been like a time warp where only Anissa and I existed.

“It’s Monday.”

“Monday, Monday,” I sighed. “Today I’m boomeranging to Seattle and back. How about you?”

“No flying for me today, but I have some distance meetings and online trainings to facilitate. But at least I get to do all of that from home.”

“Lucky.”

“Do you want to shower here?” she asked.

“No. I’ll do all that stuff back home.” I glanced at the clock on my phone once more and sighed again. “I should probably get going before traffic gets bad.”

Anissa sat quietly in bed while I changed out of the pajamas she’d let me borrow. Even in the dark, I could feel her eyes on me as I pulled on my clothes from the Saturday pool party.

“I guess that’s everything,” I announced.

I was a little disappointed that she hadn’t tried to get me to linger in bed longer or hadn’t tried to convince me to play hooky with her. I would have resisted and still have gone to work, but it would have been nice. Instead, she solemnly nodded and got out of bed herself.

Her silence continued as she padded down the stairs and led the way to the front door. The sudden lack of dialogue concerned me, but it wasn’t yet dawn, and she might not have been a morning person.

Anissa flipped on the front porch light and stepped outside with me. She immediately began to run her palms over her bare arms. There was a slight chill in the air outside, and a light dew had settled across the front yard. The neighborhood was silent, still sleeping.

“Thank you for bringing me my tablet,” she said, breaking the morning’s silence.

“You’re welcome,” I routinely replied. “When can I see you again?”

Her lips drew into a smile. “I’ll see you on Wednesday, won’t I?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “But can I see you away from the airport?”

Her teasing smile lost some of its brilliance. “I travel a lot. And my schedule isn’t very flexible.”

“Neither is mine,” I pointed out. “But we made the past two days work, didn’t we?”

I heard her quiet sigh. “I’m not very good at relationships, Alice. I’m used to having my own space and not having to think about anyone but myself. I’m pretty set in my ways.”

The corner of my mouth twitched. “You could have just said no.”

“I’m sorry.”

I held up my hands to stop a longer, more drawn-out apology. “It’s cool. I get it. We had fun, but now that fun is over.”

“Alice,” she sighed.

I turned around abruptly on my heels, nearly tripping down the front concrete stoop in my haste to leave. I held my hand in the air in parting, but I didn’t look back.

“Alice!” she called out my name again.

I ignored her. Saying my name loudly wasn’t going to be enough to get me to stay a little longer.

I hadn’t been expecting anything when I’d first dropped by her house to return her tablet. I hadn’t even expected anything from her when I’d stayed the night for the first time. But I’d given her one of my Golden Days. I’d invested time, which to me was more valuable than money, and that was saying something. I didn’t have much money, but I had even less time. I hadn’t been asking for forever; I hadn’t even asked for a commitment. But she could have had the decency to go on a proper date with me.

I started up my car and stared straight ahead. I rolled my shoulders and tried to ignore the sting of rejection. I was used to goodbyes, I told myself. I said it about six hundred times a day when passengers deplaned.

I forced myself not to look back at Anissa’s house. It would hurt too much to know she’d gone back inside before I’d even left. And it would hurt too much to see her still standing on the front stoop.

It hurt too much, period.

+ + +

I wasn’t looking forward to the following Wednesday’s flight. I even considered trying to get someone to switch with me, but I couldn’t avoid Anissa forever. There was a Wednesday every week. My bruised ego would simply have to get over it.

I readied beverage service while the passengers in First Class boarded the plane to Philadelphia. Typically I started handing out water and taking drink orders from the back of my section and worked my way