Paper Planes by M. Jules Aedin

Author:M. Jules Aedin [Aedin, M. Jules]
Language: nld
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

I hadn’t come to any conclusions a week and a half

later when I got a text message on my phone. I was

sitting at Gate A-7 in the Atlanta airport, waiting to

board my connecting flight home from New Orleans, and

I grinned when I saw Dustin’s name on the display. I

opened the message, and my heart damn near stopped at

what I read there.

I’m on an unexpected layover tonight in Atlanta. I

switched flights with another pilot so he could get home

for his kid’s b’day party, and I won’t be leaving until

tomorrow at 2pm. You close by?

I looked around the airport as if I expected to see

him strolling up the walkway from one of the planes

parked outside the huge windows.

Are you at the airport? I typed back, holding my

breath as I hit Send.

No, already at the hotel. Kicking back with a stupid

action movie and the minibar.

I fiddled with my phone. I was already checked in

for my flight home to Charlotte. My checked luggage was

ostensibly somewhere deep in the belly of the metal bird.

Fuck, I wanted to see him, but I wasn’t sure what a great

idea that would be.

I’m on my way home from New Orleans. I don’t

know if I’ll be able to make it to Atlanta tonight or not.

I felt more than ashamed for the half lie; I felt

damn near stupid. In the Southeast, the joke was that

when you died, your flight to heaven would have a

connection in Atlanta. Dustin had to know that most of

the major airlines used Atlanta as a hub. Of course, the

ones that didn’t tended to use Charlotte, so maybe I was

safe with my tiny fabrication.

OK. Just let me know if you make it in. I’m not

going anywhere. :)

I ran my thumb nervously over the keypad. Fuck,

how hard could it be to just run outside, catch a taxi, ask

Dustin which hotel he was staying at, and let some poor

idiot on standby have my seat while I had several very

happy hours with my boyfriend?

Apparently too hard for me, because I lined up

automatically with the rest of the schmucks when they

called for my section to board. I was still arguing with

myself when I handed over my boarding pass. I hadn’t

yet made up my mind when I stowed my camera bag

underneath the seat in front of me and buckled myself

into the window seat.

Then my seatmate sat down beside me, a pale-faced,

sweaty man who looked as if the economy class seat

might have been too small to be comfortable for the size

of his frame. He looked like he was having trouble

breathing as he settled himself into the tiny chair, and I

found myself honestly concerned as to whether he was

going to be able to fasten the seat belt. He nodded self-

consciously at me, not holding eye contact for long, and I

nodded back with a smile, trying my damndest to look

friendly and nonjudgmental.

Time spent with Dustin had made me a little more

sensitive to the fact that people who are physically

different from others can sometimes experience a lot of

anxiety over how people see them, so in a way, I was

doing this for him.

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