Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92930 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92930 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
I turned to the flight attendant. “Thanks again for your help.”
She straightened her navy skirt and licked her lips. “No problem. If you want, you can make it up to me when we land.” She smiled. “You’re adorable.”
Before I could respond, Nina appeared next to me. I nodded once to the attendant, blatantly ignoring her proposition and led Nina back to our seats.
Her breathing was becoming erratic. She wouldn’t look at me.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She barely got the word out in between breaths, “No.”
“Hold my hand, Nina. Squeeze it as hard as you need to. Breathe.”
When the engines turned on, her grip on my hand tightened. She was holding onto me for dear life, her fear more tangible this time than it had been during our elevator exercise. The fact that she’d never experienced this before must have made her reaction more intense. When the plane started to move, her breathing became even more uncontrolled, and it sounded like she was wheezing. I’d packed some small brown paper bags in case she hyperventilated. Taking one out, I handed it to her. “Breathe into this, baby.”
So caught up in the moment, I hadn’t meant to call her that. It just came out, but honestly, it was doubtful that she even heard it.
The bag didn’t seem to be helping her catch her breath, and it was actually freaking me out a little because if she really were in some kind of physical danger, there was no way to get her medical help. I had to think fast in order to get her mind off the impending takeoff somehow. Two ideas came to me: kiss her senseless or tickle her feet.
Since it would make for a sucky memory if she passed out or foamed at the mouth during our first kiss, the second option would have to be it. Nina had told me once that her brother used to torture her by tickling her feet. If I did it on takeoff, she would have no choice but to succumb to laughter. That would make it impossible for her to focus on the scary thoughts that were feeding her panic and causing her to lose her breath.
The plane started picking up speed, and amidst the sound of the roaring engines, I bent down and quickly untied her shoes. Before she could ask me what the fuck I was doing, I started to tickle the bottoms of her feet. She was wiggling, kicking and most importantly, laughing. As the plane tilted upward for takeoff, my ears started to pop, but it didn’t slow me down.
“Jake…stop!”
I looked up at her but refused to stop tickling despite her constant begging. Tears of laughter were pouring out of her eyes. The cackle of my own hysterical laughter resonated through the narrow space. When I finally came up for air, we were cruising. The old lady across the aisle was saying a rosary and giving me a dirty look for having interrupted her. We’d disturbed the peace, but it was worth it. Hallelujah.
Nina was still coming down from the laughing fit. Looking annoyed, the flight attendant who’d tried to pick me up earlier came over to us. “Is everything okay over here?”
“Yes. Everything’s just perfect.”
It was.
***
We were well into the flight, and Nina had calmed down a bit after listening to some music I’d downloaded for her.
She took off her headphones for a moment. “How much longer?”
“About a half-hour.”
“I still can’t believe you did that to me.”
I raised my brow. “Now, when people ask how you got through takeoff, you can tell them I went down on you.”
She punched me lightly in the arm and returned the headphones to her ears.
Nina had been listening to the special playlist I’d put together for the flight. In my typical wise ass fashion, I’d titled the list Crash and Burn. The songs in the beginning were meant to make her laugh, but there were a couple that I’d snuck in because they conveyed feelings that were impossible for me to express. At one point, she looked at me, and I knew one of those songs had come on.
I took one of her earbuds to hear it and smiled when I realized she was listening to Come Away with Me by Norah Jones. That song said it all more than the others. I wished I could just take Nina away some place for a lot longer than a day and not have to deal with inevitably breaking her heart after Christmas. All I wanted was to be with her. For now, this quick jaunt to Chicago would have to do. It wasn’t just about getting her over the fear of flying. The trip was also for me, so that I could feel what it was like to take her away just once.
“That’s a beautiful song,” she said. “I’ve always loved it. I love it even more now.”