“James!” I cried, maybe a little too loudly. I saw a flight attendant turn toward me, the same one that had told me I had to silence my phone. I moved to hug him, but stopped short. Just because he was here didn't mean that he was happy to see me. It didn't mean that he wanted this baby or that things were cleared up between us.
It just meant that he had gotten my text.
I swallowed hard. “James,” I repeated, this time a little more reserved as I folded my hands into my lap. “What are you doing here?”
He sighed. “We need to talk, Allie.”
I nodded, looking down at my feet. I risked a glance up at him. His face was made of stone and his green eyes were dark and angry. This wasn't exactly how I wanted to tell him that I was expecting, but I didn't feel like I had much of a choice.
A man made it to where we were on the plane and practically threw his bag up into the overhead compartment. He looked like he had been drinking all evening, and he was probably big enough that the airline would make him buy two seats. However, it seemed that they hadn't, because he sat down in our row. James made an annoyed sound as the very large man smushed into the aisle seat next to him.
“Not here, though.” he said, glaring at me. “Let's go.”
“Okay,” I replied, grabbing my bag from under the seat. Hope was starting to grow, flickering and dancing around in my stomach and chest, trying to catch fire and spread. I kept tamping it down, knowing that one word from him would send me careening into despair. Yet, so far, he hadn't said or done anything to make me think he wouldn't accept the child.
We both crawled over the man in the aisle seat. It wasn't easy. But we managed to do it and started walking down the aisle to get to the exit at the front of the plane.
The flight attendant came out of nowhere and held up her hand, blocking our escape completely.
“I'm very sorry, but you two need to sit down. We're about to take off,” the flight attendant informed us.
“We're getting off the plane.” James said, glaring at her.
“That's not possible,” she said, motioning to the doors. “The doors are closed. We're taking off in two minutes. Sit down.”
“Do you know who I am? I'm not staying on this flight. Especially not in coach.” James rose to his full height.
The flight attendant leveled her gaze at him, completely unimpressed. “I don't care if you're the President of the United States. This flight is taking off, so sit your butt down.” She was intimidating. “Sit. Down. Now.”
“You don't understand, miss...” I interjected, giving her a friendly smile and hoping that my bloodshot eyes would make her feel sorry for us.
“I don't care what your problem is, either. It's not possible.” She waved her hand dismissively at us. “Sit. Down.”
“Then we'll just move to first class,” James said, switching tactics. He flashed her his billionaire sweet-talking smile. “I'll pay whatever the fee is and also make it worth your time as well.”
If looks from this flight attendant could kill, James would have been dead and buried. I was actually rather impressed that she wasn't bowing to James. I knew I couldn't have said no to that smile of his.
“The flight is full. You see all those people behind you?” She motioned to audience behind us who was watching our every word. “They want to go home. So sit down.”
She crossed her arms and I knew that she wasn't going to bend on this, no matter how charming James' smiles were.
“But-” James tried one last time. The flight attendants look darkened and I was fairly sure she might murder us right there if we tried to argue again. She was tiny, but scary. There was no way we were getting off this flight. James' shoulders sagged as he relented. It wasn't worth the publicity or a fight right now. It was just a flight. “Yes, ma'am.”
We sheepishly retreated back down the aisle and crawled over the man in the aisle seat yet again.
“Damn,” he said as James and I put our seat belts back on. “I was really hoping I'd get the whole row to myself.” I glanced over and realized that he was half in James' seat.
“Yeah,” James agreed. “I thought we'd get the whole row too, especially when I bought both seats.”
The man snorted. “So you're the sucker that didn't show up. They sold me this seat at the last minute.”
“The airline will definitely be hearing about this,” James said. The other man had already stopped listening, though. He put on a big pair of sound-proof headphones and closed his eyes.
The flight attendants started the flight safety video and the plane started to taxi. The video barely ended as the plane lifted into the air. The flight attendant wasn't kidding about taking off in two minutes. She was correct almost to the second.
“So...” I swallowed down my nerves and bit my lip. “You got my text.”
“You're damn right I got your text,” James said. Then, he sighed. “That's not something you should put in a text message, Allie.”