“We can go anywhere in the world you want.” I reach into my back pocket and pull out our passports. She takes them from me, staring at me openmouthed. I press a kiss to her forehead and continue, “All you have to do is tell that pilot. He’s been waiting. Now I’m going to have to pay him extra because you took so long arguing with me in your classroom.”
She opens her mouth even wider. And closes it. I can see her mind working, and I press another soft kiss to her temple.
“I know where I want to go!” And she pulls out of my embrace and runs off to the pilot.
“Wait, where?” I call after her.
“Ha! Now it’s your turn not to know.” She pokes her tongue out at me and skips off to whisper in the ear of the pilot I’d pointed to.
“Witch!” I shout to her, running up to catch up with her, my body feeling lighter than it ever has.
“Sebbie?” She calls me by the nickname I’ve hated my whole life until just then.
“Yes, Mary?” I retaliate.
She scrunches her face up for a moment, then continues. “Push me out of the plane.”
“No.” I answer, “Anything else?”
“But I want to die.” She says surprisingly, but if I know anything about her by now, there’s a reason for it, that will come in its own good time.
“Maybe later.”
“Ok, but promise me you’ll think about it,” she pleads.
“How ’bout this? If you keep eating those chocolates and don’t leave me any, I’ll not only think about it, I’ll do it, film it and put it on YouTube.”
“YAY!” She raises her hands in celebration of her strange victory.
“Why do you want to die?” I have to ask.
“I’m just so, so happy. Everything’s gotta be downhill from here,” she explains, sighing.
My heart warms and I reach across the little table between us to squeeze her hand. “Oh. In that case, let’s just jump out of the plane together.”
“THEN who will film us?”
“We’ll post on Facebook that we’re doing it… naked… then there’ll be no shortage of people filming it.”
“Pfft, filming you maybe,” she scoffs.
“What do you mean?”
“Who’d want to see ME naked?” She snickers.
I look at her like she’s crazy. Because she must be. Right now, with her legs tucked up under her, her sweet, curvy ass in the air as she’s bent over staring out the window in our private plane, I’ve literally had to tighten my seatbelt about three times just to stop me from getting up and ravaging her in that very position.
“Hey!” I say loudly and she jumps a little, startled. “Get that sexy ass over here.”
She grins and blushes a little. I nod and she climbs off her seat and looks around.
“Don’t worry, no one’s coming.”
“Oh yeah, they’re used to your flight booty calls, no doubt.” She jokes, and then her face darkens a little, and my chest twinges a little to see it.
I undo my seatbelt and reach for her hand, pulling her towards me and she stumbles and falls into my lap.
“Hey…” I say, softer this time. “Look at me.”
Her face angles down so our eyes lock, her hair tumbles down around us, creating a curtain and enveloping us in our own private little world.
“You are so goddamned beautiful that I hired some strange man who claims to be a pilot and told him to take me anywhere in the world you told him to go and didn’t even try to get it out of you. That’s how insanely fucking gorgeous you are. And I haven’t even seen you naked yet. But I’m hoping my first time won’t be as we’re hurtling to our deaths, but if it comes to that, so be it. I ain’t dying without see that.”
“Oh, Sebbie,” she says and clutches at her heart. “It’s a good thing you do instrumental covers of love songs… because that’s the most unromantic thing I’ve ever heard!” And she falls off my lap and to the floor laughing.
“Erm.” I nudge her with my foot. “Excuse me.”
She only laughs louder as my toe pokes her in the side and apparently catches the attention of our flight attendant.
“Um, can I help you with something?” she peeks through the curtain and looks down at the cackling woman on the floor of the cabin,
“Um, just some more tonic, thank you.” I say calmly and smile at her as she glances once more at Cadence before leaving to get my drink.
“Hey! Crazy!” I get up and stand over her, one foot on each side of her hips.
She stops laughing for a moment and lies back on her back and looks up at me. Her eyes look lit up like Christmas lights and her cheeks are flushed from her laughing fit. Her neck glistens a little from a light sweat and I just want to bury my face in the carpet of soft curls framing her face.
She reached a hand towards me and I take it, letting her pull me down onto the floor with her. I lay down and she curls up against me, her leg draping over mine and her head on my chest.
“Can we stay up here forever?” she whispers against my neck, and her breath makes the hair stand up on my spine, so sweet, so sexy.
“We might have to, I don’t know where we’re going.” I run my fingers through her hair and she rests her chin on my chest, looking up at me.
“You’ll see.”
“I can wait, I’m in no hurry to be anywhere but right here with you.”
She sighs a long deep sigh. “That’s much better. See? You CAN be romantic.”
“I sure can. Now show me your boobs!” I say and reach over and squeeze her gently on the chest.
“Um,” a third voice suddenly speaks up, “I’ll just put your drink here, sir.”
And it’s ten minutes before Cadence finally stops laughing again.
CADENCE
If I were to be abducted by aliens, probed and then brainwashed by their technology and finally returned to earth after a hundred years, I would still remember the look on Sebastian’s face when he looked out the window as we flew over Uluru.
“Oh my god.” He’d sighed, and I’d had to agree with the sentiment.
“It’s nothing like I imagined it would be.” He’d finally uttered after staring out the window in awe for the minutes the pilot circled the great red rock.
I’d only nodded. The experience of Uluru is a personal and unique one, and I didn’t want to influence his in any way.
“Thank you.” He turned to me as the pilot finally flew towards the Ayers Rock airport.
I hadn’t said anything, because if anyone owed anyone a thank you, it would be me to him.
We’d just stared out our respective windows and watched the red sky sink into the red earth.
***