“You’re just what?”
More silence.
“I don’t know,” he mumbled. “Not in the mood to entertain mental images of you and Wolfe railing in a library.”
Since when?
“Oh, come on, Daph, we fucked against that bookcase in the Common Room,” Wolfe chimed in from behind. “It’s practically the same thing!”
There was a thud.
“Ouch. You fucker.”
And another.
“Hey, Daph,” Nathem’s accent filled my earbuds.
“What the hell is going on? Are they fighting?”
“Give me back my fucking phone,” Thay growled. “Are you at the gate?”
I peered up, rubbing the center of my chest where everything was drowning.
“Yes.”
“Are they boarding?” he asked in irritation.
“Yes.”
“Thank fuck. Now, get on the plane.” I blinked. “Please.”
I closed my eyes, leaning into the scent of coffee and perfumed sweat. I had never been in an airport before or experienced what it felt like to defy gravity, but mostly it reminded me of chaos. No matter whether you were heading somewhere exotic or had spent the last sixteen hours stranded in Colorado because of snow, there was always a point in the middle of travel where home became the only thing that was real.
“I’m fine, Daph. Just tired. And this is…” he breathed.
“Shitty?” I offered.
“Yeah. That.”
“Look, Thay.” I stepped forward and handed my boarding pass to the attendant, who seemed unimpressed by my ratty NIN T-shirt and sleep shorts.
“First class has boarded,” she announced, pointing to the makeshift thruway propped up by stilts. I glanced out the window and nodded. My only time in the front row, and I was already failing. “You need to go,” she said, making a face.
I was used to people thinking I was less than. Hell, when you’ve eaten out of a literal garbage can in the middle of Seattle after rain turns everything into slop, you learn how to move past it. Still, I wondered if there would ever come a moment when I stopped wanting to be the bigger person and just throat-punched the snotty little bitch, making me feel small.
“Get her name,” Thay whispered. “So later I can shove your boarding pass up her ass!”
I laughed, stepping forward.
“Anyway, what I was trying to say,” I entered the narrow passageway that would lift me thousands of miles into the sky and paused.
Shit.
“Deep breaths. It’s cramped, but it does the job.”
“You’re right here.” The flight attendant smiled and pointed to a seat near the door. It was plush, friendly, and pissy, like the girls who shop in Bellevue and spend $250 on a tube of lipstick. I bit my lip, unsure how to fit.
“Sit down, Daphne.”