Fly with Me: a novel by Andie Burke

chapter 24

The woman beside Stella in the photo was gorgeous. Sleek chestnut waves framed an elegant face with a perfectly straight nose and green-sea-glass eyes. Sure, her kind of pretty was rather generic for Olive’s tastes. She had that influencer look with her perfect contouring and lashes. Fuck, Olive was being an asshole. The woman was a knockout.

Could this be her ex Nadine? Or the other one? What was her name? Laura. Oh god, what if this was Laura?

They were both knockouts. Sitting together at a table with wineglasses and candlelight. Both perfectly polished, looking like they were in a gay dating website advertisement or an episode of The L Word. This is what Hollywood-acceptable queer women looked like. Hot like Aubrey Plaza in that problematic Christmas movie where Kristen Stewart definitely should have dumped her semi-closeted manipulative girlfriend.

Olive scrolled to the caption.

Embry-Riddle class reunion. #WomeninFlight

Well, she’d used the hashtags they had discussed. And they had talked about Stella doing this whenever she was with other pilots. Maybe that was all this was? But she was still having dinner with a gorgeous woman, and Olive had no idea who it was.

Didn’t Stella say Nadine dropped out of school? Then it couldn’t be her … If it wasn’t, who was it? It could be Laura. Stella hadn’t mentioned Laura’s job, and it wasn’t tagged.

Or it could be a date with some other random pilot? Stella said she wasn’t in a relationship—couldn’t be in a relationship—but was she seeing other people? Casually?

Olive hadn’t thought to ask. She swallowed against the acid burning the back of her throat. Stella could be sleeping with other people, even exes. They’d never discussed monogamy. Especially given that they weren’t having sex with each other, what right would Olive have to stop Stella from sleeping with other people?

Stella hadn’t texted much since the hike. Was it because she was hooking up with someone else? Fuck.

Why hadn’t Olive asked any questions about this?

Why would Olive ever think that someone as gorgeous as Stella would want to be with someone like her? Just like Lindsay said. Just like Heather said. No one thought Olive was good enough for someone like Stella. They were right. It didn’t make sense. Olive was a loser who was afraid of flying and estranged from her family.

Her breaths sped up faster and faster. Pressure built in her chest.

She covered her head with her hands and intentionally slowed her breathing. It had been months since she had a full-on panic attack. After Jake’s accident she went a few months where she had them every single day.

Gus hopped up on the couch and looked up at her with a perplexed expression. Olive dragged her fingers through his fur several times. Petting a dog was supposed to give endorphins. She needed endorphins. Like Elle Woods said, endorphins make people happy.

And happy people don’t feel raging jealousy after seeing a random Instagram photo of their fake girlfriend having dinner with some green-eyed aviation goddess.

Even after minutes of petting Gus, she wasn’t happy.

She was panicked, rethinking all of her choices. That ugly voice that spoke so loud on her bad depression days was making her fixate on every doubt. Every negative thought.