Chapter Four
“I can’t.” Ava offered the ring back to Dex. “I’m sorry.”
It took a moment for her words to penetrate his brain. He was sure he’d misheard her. “You... what?” He hadn’t expected this outcome and wasn’t sure what his next move was supposed to be. “Is it too soon?”
Ava tucked her lower lip between her teeth, looking pained. “No. I don’t... I don’t even know if I want to get married. I mean, you’re a nice guy and all, and we’ve had a lot of fun, but—this wasn’t supposed to happen.”
He managed to return to his feet, feeling foolish and blindsided. Dex was almost tempted to fling the ring from the basket, as if this would make his proposal disappear from everyone’s memory, before thinking better of it and stuffing it back in his pocket. He threw a glance at Selah, as though she’d be able to help him with this situation. Her aviator sunglasses made her hard to read, but her lips were stretched in a line. She looked as if she wanted to disappear into the wind, and he didn’t blame her, as the basket felt much too small for three people to occupy.
He steeled himself for this next part, not wanting to give up easily. Maybe the whole thing was salvageable if he said the right words. “I... love you.”
She looked at him as though an alien had appeared before her instead of a man professing his love. “Stop. You do not love me.”
“So, you don’t love me?”
Ava sighed. “Dex. You’re very sweet and I’m very fond of you. And I know you’re very fond of me, but—We shouldn’t get married. We’re too different. I want different things. And I thought we agreed this was just for fun.” Ava turned to Selah, asking, “He’s a great guy, right?”
If she wanted to make Dex feel better, this had the opposite effect. He wanted to float away into nothingness, like one of the pink rose petals Selah dropped from the side of the basket. It was even worse when their pilot answered, “Yup,” thereby cementing this to be the worst, most humiliating experience of his life.
Dex leaned against one of the basket walls, turning his back to Ava and staring into the landscape, but his mind was spinning. “So now what?”
“I don’t know,” she responded. “I’m really sorry, Dex.”
He shook his head as he squinted into the glaring sun that was beginning to feel unrelenting. “God. I feel like a—Why were you even with me?”
Ava gave him an annoyed glance. His question clearly perturbed her. “I told you when we first started going out that I wasn’t looking for that. I wasn’t lying. I haven’t changed. I don’t want the typical marriage and kids. I don’t want to do that. I want to be free.”
“Yeah,” was all he could say, because maybe he had read too much into things, and this was what Jon had been trying to warn him against. “Okay. Well, I get it now.”
Selah’s two-way radio came to life, a static break in the awkwardness. “Sorry,” she said. He wasn’t even sure what she was apologizing for, as she had a job to continue doing. She chatted with the person on the other end, and it was clear it was getting close to the end of the ride. It couldn’t come soon enough for Dex.
Without the sound of a flame as they lowered, it became uncomfortably quiet. He was grateful when Selah at least described what she was doing and the process of landing. Before, he would have been asking a bunch of questions because he couldn’t help but be curious about it. But now he was depressed and could barely focus on her words. His whole world felt hollow, empty, and dark.
Dex was so absorbed in his thoughts, he barely noticed the basket bumping against the ground as it landed. He was snapped into the present when a sudden gust caught the deflating balloon, pulling and tipping the basket, with them in it, on its side.
Before he could react, Dex landed on his back with something soft landing on top of him with an Oof. He squeezed his eyes shut on instinct, waiting for everything to stop moving, wrapping his arms around the person who’d landed on his chest. At first, he thought it was Ava, which might explain why he’d naturally wrap protective arms around her. Sure, he was completely wrong, and she didn’t love him, but despite this, he didn’t want her to be injured. He was heartbroken, not heartless.
Except this person felt different—smaller, softer, and she had a bright sage and citrus scent. When everything stilled, he cracked an eye open. Most of his vision was encompassed in a blue glow because of the balloon fabric enveloping them. To his right was Ava, who was swearing up a storm, but otherwise was fine. He turned his attention downward and saw his arms wrapped around Selah. Dex slowly released her as she began to move, bracing her hands on either side of his body as she rose over him, her sunglasses slightly askew and a few dark curls escaping the edge of her hat.
Her own shock and embarrassment was evident as her skin flushed pink, her mouth popping open. Dex knew he was about to hear another apology, even though he didn’t need one. He understood these types of things happened with hot-air balloons, and it wasn’t necessarily her fault.
To his surprise, Selah covered her mouth, doing a short imitation of a static sound before saying, “Uh, ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. We’ve experienced a slight bout of turbulence upon landing. Please take care when getting up and be aware that your overhead pilot may have shifted during landing and could be on top of you.”
There was a brief moment of him doing nothing more than staring at her in disbelief until it hit him that this particular joke at this particular time was the most hilarious thing he’d never expected. Honest-to-goodness laughter rumbled out of him, making it difficult to think about anything else. He continued laughing and wiping away tears when the rest of the hot-air balloon ground crew pulled the blue fabric of the balloon away and was able to help them to their feet.
Ava glared at him. “What the hell is so funny? I hope you get your money back for this shit service.” This had him chuckling all over again. She’d never understand, and he had no desire to share it with her. It was something between him and Selah, a person he was kind of regretting he’d never see again.
Of course, there was a round of apologies from both the captain and crew, but Dex brushed all of these aside, because the only thing hurting was his ego, and this couldn’t be blamed on High Desert Tours. Instead, he watched as Ava snatched the offered bottle of champagne from one of the other women before announcing she’d definitely need it and was ready to go home and make a reel about this.
The day started with him in a relationship, thinking he was about to be engaged, and he was leaving with his relationship broken. The woman beside him in the High Desert Tour van was now his ex.
Life was weird.
He leaned against an armrest and stared out the van window as it pulled away from the landing spot. The people left behind, Selah being one of them, were wrestling with the deflated balloon. What an unusual woman.
She glanced up from her task and they made eye contact through the window. Selah lifted her hand in a farewell, and he returned it out of habit.
The older woman who drove the van glanced at them through the rearview mirror. “Did you kids have a nice flight? My daughter, Selah, is a really good pilot, just like her dad, you know. He was an excellent man, the love of my life.” She rubbed the corner of her eye before brightening with a smile. “Sometimes things like baskets falling over happen, but you have to look at the positives. You picked a nice day for a flight, at least. Beautiful. You know, Oregon gets about three hundred days of sunshine a year.”
A strained laugh vibrated through him as he shook his head at the irony of it all. “Yeah, I’ve heard.” He was feeling ridiculous for all those times he’d spouted the same thing. He should start keeping track.
Dex wasn’t sure he believed that claim anymore.