30. Jake
Thirty
Jake
“Hey, Jake, right?”
I nod. “Yeah, Captain Reece Cook?”
The guy, who can’t be more than five years older than me, smiles. “That’s me. Nice to meet you. I think we’re flying to Miami and Puerto Rico together.”
“Cool,” I reply, glad that I’m flying with someone decent for a change.
After we run through all the pre-flight checklists, Reece gets us airborne before switching on the autopilot and pushing back in his seat.
“So, how are you liking flying at Crescent?” he asks. “You’re relatively new, right?”
I shrug. “Sort of. I flew reserve for a bit. Got a permanent gig a couple of months ago.”
Reece nods but says nothing more, the two of us sitting silently in the cockpit as the lights of L.A. fade into the distance behind us, the memory of what I overheard in the airline lounge still rolling around inside my head. Taunting me with the possibility that it might be true or whether it’s just her ex-husband being the prick we both know he is.
Eventually, I can’t hold it in any longer. “Can I ask you something?”
Reece glances over. “Sure, what is it?”
“You’ve done your evaluation for the year, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And it was good?”
“Uh huh,” Reece replies, a confused look on his face as I imagine he wonders where this conversation might be going.
I take a deep breath, knowing it could go one of two ways; the direction I need it to go or right up shit creek. “So, you’re getting the full salary bonus this year?”
Reece nods. “Yeah, why? Has something happened with yours?”
I shake my head, knowing that’s not what I’m worried about. “No, but have you heard about Taylor Patterson?” I ask, as my stomach now ties itself into a million knots.
Reece smiles. “I’ve heard she’s a kickass lady and one hell of a pilot, yeah.”
I nod, partly in agreement and partly because I’m relieved he thinks this about her. “So what if I told you she wasn’t getting as much of a defined contribution as you, despite her excellent evaluation?”
Reece stares at me for a few seconds, as if he isn’t quite sure what I’m telling him. “You sure?” he eventually asks.
I shake my head. “No, not really,” I admit. “But I overheard some of the other pilots talking in the lounge,” I continue, realizing how ridiculously like high school this sounds. “They were saying that she wasn’t getting anything, but all of them were. I was wondering if it was because of…well, because…” I trail off, unsure how to finish the sentence.
Reece narrows his brow. “What? Because she’s a woman?” he asks, clearly shocked.
I shrug. “Yeah,” I admit. “She is the only female captain at the airline, so…”
“But that would be…I don’t know,” he says, pausing. “Illegal, wouldn’t it?”
“I don’t know,” I reply. “Maybe because no one talks about it, they think they can do whatever they want.”
God knows there are enough stories out there of women getting paid substantially less for doing the same job as their male counterparts. I’m pretty sure it happened back in the military. I mean, fuck, there were some jobs women weren’t even considered for. Were flat out not even allowed to apply for or do.
Reece looks away, his gaze focused now on some spot outside the window on the distant horizon. We’re heading into the sunset, chasing the night as it descends on us.
Eventually, he turns back to me, a strange look on his face as he says, “Give me a sec?”
“Okay,” I say, not sure exactly what I’m giving him a second for.
I watch as he wordlessly gets on the airline email we have in the cockpit. It’s the way we communicate with other Crescent Airways pilots without it being broadcast over the main comms. It’s usually reserved for non-official chatter and to communicate some non-crucial piece of information that’s generally unrelated to a flight update or weather or whatever.
Reece types away for a few minutes, his gaze focused intently on the screen, his brows narrowing with each line of text that comes back at him.
“Shit,” he breathes out. “I think you might be right.”
“What?” I ask, leaning over to have a look at the messages.
It’s all there. Line after line of green letters spelling out the worst.
Yeah, I’ve heard it’s true. Taylor misses out.
Meh, she slept her way to the top. Who cares.
I’m getting mine. What do I care if she misses out?
Reece, are you fucking her or something? That why you care?
“Fucking hell,” I mutter, shocked at the level of callousness. “Do you think anyone gives a shit about this?”
Reece scrolls back up through the messages until he gets to the top before gesturing to the screen again.
It sucks, but yeah, it’s true.
Yep, I’ve heard this too…I can’t believe they can get away with it.
Someone needs to do something. She’s an awesome pilot.
I feel myself exhale, letting out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. I’m relieved that not everyone I work with is a misogynistic arsehole like her ex-husband or that fuckwit Theo Jameson.
“Where do you fit in all this?” I ask.
Reece chuckles a little before clearing the screen. “I think it’s shit, Jake. Gender shouldn’t even come into it.”
I nod, as that idea I had floating around in my head back at LAX now slowly starts to take root. “So, if I asked you to help me do something about it, would you?”
Reece glances over, a smile on his face. “So, it is true?”
“What?”
He laughs. “You really are into her?”
I swallow hard, unsure how to answer.
He laughs again. “Don’t worry, gossip runs through this business faster than shit through me after a vindaloo curry. Everyone knew you were together, I guess most of us just wondered how real it was, given…everything.”
I take a deep breath, ignoring his reference to Taylor’s reputation. “It’s real,” I answer, even if I have no idea if it actually is anymore. For all I know, Taylor could have forgotten me already, could be filling her bed with someone else.
But almost as soon as I think that, I want to punch myself in the face because I know that’s not who she is, not anymore. And despite the way she yelled at me and walked away, changing her plans and refusing to take my calls, I know that what we had, what I hope we still have, is real.
Reece nods. “Okay, so tell me what you want to do?” he asks.
I outline my plan to him, nervous to know what he thinks because it’s really only just an idea at this stage. An idea that I’m winging on the fly and one that could spectacularly fail and in doing so, hand me my arse.
When I’m done, I watch as a slow smile spreads across his face. “Yep, I like it,” he says. “I like it a lot.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he says, nodding. “And for the record, she’s fucking lucky she’s got you in her corner.”
I fight the urge to tell him I’m not in her corner anymore, that I’m barely in the fucking ring. But I don’t, instead turning the conversation back on him as I ask, “Why are you so happy to help? What’s your connection to Taylor? Have you… have you slept with her?”
It’s the first time I’ve actually come right out and asked someone. And while it’s true that I don’t care about who Taylor has slept with in the past, I do worry about Reece’s motives now.
But Reece throws his head back and laughs loudly. “Christ, you are new, aren’t you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ah shit,” he says, still laughing as he turns to face me. “No, Jake, I haven’t slept with Taylor, and actually, you’re more my type,” he says winking at me before laughing again.
Well fuck, I did not see that one coming.
The rest of my trip passes surprisingly quickly. Reece and I work on the plan I’d come up with, roping in support from other pilots at the airline. I also catch up with a couple of old Air Force friends when I head to Vegas, and for a few hours, I manage to forget the shit storm my personal life has become.
I still continue trying to contact Taylor, but as usual, my calls go straight to her voicemail. She never picks up; never returns my calls and I’m beginning to suspect she’s deleting the messages I leave her, too.
When I eventually get back to L.A., I try her one last time before giving up and calling the flight school.
“Girls in the Sky, Charlie speaking.”
“Charlie, hey, it’s Jake. Is Taylor there?”
“Hello to you too,” he says back sarcastically.
I shake my head, shoving a hand through my hair as I stand from my seat, gathering my things from the cockpit. “Hey, sorry,” I say. “I’m just…I haven’t heard from her still, and…”
“She’s still away,” Charlie says, interrupting me. “She’ll be back tomorrow, and I know Carrie’s expecting her to show up here sometime in the afternoon,” he continues. “I’m pretty sure she was gonna text you and let you know.”
“Pretty sure?” I ask, even as my heart starts to pound at the idea that I know exactly where Taylor will be, and I’ll finally get to see her.
Charlie chuckles. “Meh, she kinda goes back and forth a little on that,” he says. “On the one hand, she thinks Taylor owes you a chance to explain.”
“Yeah,” I say quickly. “I just want the chance to do that.”
“And on the other hand,” Charlie continues, “she knows Taylor will be pissed if she finds out we set this all up.”
I feel myself smiling, unable to stop because I know just how true that is. Taylor, my beautiful tough girl, who hates being told what to do, let alone put in a situation she has no control over.
“Yeah, she will be,” I admit. “But I promise I’ll take the heat for it.”
“Man,” Charlie says. “You really do have it bad.”
“You have no idea.”
With twenty-four hours to kill until I get to see Taylor again, I message Tyler to see if he’s free for a catch up, knowing we bailed on him early the other week when Taylor and I came to see his band.
Luckily, he’s in town and free, so after going home to unpack and take a shower, I head over to El Segundo to catch up with him.
“Hey, twice in a month, this must be a record!” Tyler shouts as I walk into the dingy bar near the base.
I shake my head, even as I’m smiling. “Whatever, just remember you do as much traveling as me.”
Tyler rolls his eyes and gives me a quick embrace before we grab a couple of beers and take a seat in a booth in the corner. “Where’s your girl then?”
I let out a long exhale before taking a sip of my beer. “Away,” I tell him. “Gets in tomorrow.”
“Uh huh,” he says. “And why are you so unhappy about that?”
I glance over, and Tyler cocks a brow in my direction when I don’t answer.
“Dude,” he says, chuckling. “We’ve known each other for ten years. We’ve flown combat together, got drunk together. I know when you’re pissed about something. And I know when something is bothering you.”
“Fuck,” I mutter, shaking my head a little. “She found out about Maggie.”
“What?” Tyler asks, his voice loud. “You hadn’t told her?”
“No, I was trying to sort…ugh, fuck, I don’t know, it just didn’t come up.”
Tyler laughs now, but it’s without humor. “Um, Jake,” he says sarcastically. “Exactly how does the fact that you were married not come up in conversation?”
I let out a long exhale as my head falls to the table with a thump. I hear Tyler’s muffled laugh before he nudges my beer closer. Lifting my head, I take a long pull before saying, “I’m an idiot, okay? I know that.”
Tyler nods his head. “Ya think?”
I roll my eyes at him as I finish my beer. “It just, I don’t know, it’s hard to explain okay, but it never came up, never felt like the right time and fuck, Tyler, you know I haven’t considered myself married since…since…”
“About five minutes after it happened?”
I let out a short laugh. “Yeah, pretty much.”
“Still shoulda told her though.”
“I know, I know,” I say, nodding. “And of course she found out when she came over and Maggie was at my house, sitting in my kitchen.”
“Fuck,” Tyler says, laughing a little. “How’d that go down?”
I cock a brow in his direction but say nothing.
“Okay, so what, are you guys broken up now?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. She won’t take my calls, she bailed on a flight we had together, she’s just…gone.”
Tyler lets out a low whistle before muttering, “Handed you your ass.”
“You have no idea,” I say, smiling a little. “She’s fiery this one. But she’s strong and stubborn and opinionated and she fucking fights for what she wants.”
“Sounds like a real firecracker.”
I nod. “She is, she’s…”
“Jake,” Tyler says, cutting me off. “I get you’re into her, seriously,” he continues, his gaze meeting mine. “And it’s good, really good. This is so much more than Maggie ever was and I’m happy for you. She seems great.”
“But?” I ask.
Tyler laughs. “But what the fuck are you gonna do about getting her back?” he asks.
Now it’s me chuckling. “Yeah, about that,” I say. “I have a plan.”