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.”
“I didn't know how to tell you-”
“You fucking tell me,” he cut me off. He glanced around to make sure none of the other passengers were listening, but everyone was fully engrossed in their headphones and electronic devices. “You should have just told me.”
“You say that now, but you weren't exactly in a listening mood earlier.” I glared at him. “I never know how you're going to react and I really had no idea how you were going to react to this.”
“Allie, you should have told me.” He sounded so sure of himself that for a moment I almost believed him.
“Right. Okay,” I nodded and then crossed my arms and looked at him. “How would you have reacted if you had seen that picture on my phone?”
“Better than this,” he snapped.
I rolled my eyes and pantomimed looking at my phone. “Just scrolling through my pictures- oh, hey- there's Tessa making a duck face, a picture of you onstage, and oh... what's this?” I lowered my voice and glanced around making sure no one was listening. “A positive pregnancy test after you just finished fucking me without a condom. Yeah, that's going to end well.”
James' mouth tightened. “I fail to see where this is my fault, Allie. You're not being really fair right now.”
“You're absolutely right, it's not fair,” I said, exasperated. “But, that's where I was. You wanted to look at my phone, and I wasn't ready for you to see that. I wanted to tell you the right way, and I know that this isn't it, but neither was that.”
James let out a slow sigh and ran his fingers through his hair. I could tell it wasn't the first time today he'd made the gesture.
“It is yours, though. In case you were wondering,” I offered. “I haven't been with anyone else.”
“Good,” was all he said.
I thought of how I had imagined telling him. Something cute. Something when the two of us were alone and I could make it special. He'd gasp and take me in his arms, telling me how happy he was. How he'd always wanted this. We'd kiss and then go make sweet love and celebrate the life growing inside of me.
This was about as far from that dream reaction as I could get.