Chapter 13
“You’re sure your passport is up to date, right?” Maeve asked Therese.
They were in the security line at the Atlanta airport, having driven up from Savannah with Aunt Fran, who had a doctor’s appointment later that morning.
“For Christ’s sake, this is the third time you’ve asked me that today!” Therese said, so loudly that the businessman in line in front of them turned around to stare. “What about your passport? Can I see it, just to make sure it’s not expired?”
“It’s not expired, because I just got it a couple months ago,” Maeve said, fiddling with the handle of her carry-on bag, which she’d bought at a Savannah thrift store two days earlier.
“You mean you got it renewed?”
Maeve shook her head. “No. This is the first time I’ve ever needed one.”
“Seriously? Maeve Dunagin, you’re what? Nearly forty, and you’ve never left the US?”
“Yes, Terri. Not all of us have had the luxury of being world travelers. Some of us have had to hang around in the States, working a nine-to-five job and seeing after their elderly mom.”
“Here we go,” Therese said, throwing her hands in the air. “Another guilt trip.”
The businessman, who wore an ill-fitting suit jacket, turned and smirked. “She seems like a lot of fun.”
“Nobody asked you,” Maeve snapped. “Mind your own business.”
A hulking male TSA agent moved up and down the line, calling out instructions. “Folks, I’m gonna say this again. I need you to have your photo ID out and ready. Laptops out of their bags. Nothing in pockets. Everything goes in bins on the conveyor belt.”
When it was their turn, Maeve struggled mightily to lift her bag onto the belt.
“Here, let me,” Therese said. She grabbed the bottom of the bag. “Oof. What’s in this thing? Bricks?”
“My laptop. Research materials. Toiletries. Change of clothes. Meds.”
“Ugh. Overpackers are the worst,” Therese said. She easily lifted her much-smaller bag, placed it in the same bin, and stepped around her sister and through the metal detector.
Maeve’s face was gleaming with perspiration when she finally made it through the detector. She joined Therese at the end of the conveyor belt to claim their bags.
“Whose bag is this?” The husky TSA agent had joined a much younger, skinny female agent who was waving a handheld wand back and forth over a worn leather-and-canvas duffel bag. He pointed at Maeve. “Ma’am, is this yours?”
“It’s mine,” Therese replied, stepping closer to the conveyor belt. “Is there a problem?”
“It’s buzzing,” the younger agent said. She pointed at the large sign listing all the items prohibited in carry-on baggage, then looked down at the X-ray screen that showed the shadowy contents of the bag. “You got a stun gun in here? Chemical mace?”
“What? No! It’s probably just my electric toothbrush.”
“Step over here, ma’am,” the male agent said, his expression tense.
He pulled on latex gloves and unzipped the duffel.
He parted the folded clothes and brandished the offending item.
He showed it to the female agent, who guffawed.
The nosy businessman who’d been in front of the sisters leaned in to get a closer look.
“Back off!” Maeve elbowed the man and sent him sprawling onto the floor.
Therese coolly snatched the item away from the TSA agent. “Has Big Brother now made it some kind of a federal crime to travel with a sex toy?”
Maeve felt her face go crimson. She retrieved her bag and raced away down the concourse toward their flight’s departure gate, wanting to put as much distance as possible between Therese and her buzzing vibrator.
The gate area was crowded but she found a single vacant seat and pulled a paperback mystery from her purse.
Their flight didn’t depart for another hour and a half, and she quickly found herself immersed in Louise Penny’s cozy but murderous village of Three Pines.
The Canadian author’s series had always been her comfort read, and God knew Maeve could use a distraction right now.
Every fifteen minutes or so she’d raise her head and look around for her sister. Then she’d check the boarding pass on her phone, as well as the paper pass, which she’d insisted on printing out, just in case.
When the Delta gate agent approached the podium and announced that boarding would soon begin, Maeve craned her neck to make sure she hadn’t missed Therese’s arrival.
“Passengers traveling with small children or those needing extra assistance may begin boarding,” the agent announced.
As people began queuing up, Maeve stood, again surveying the area in search of her sister. She tapped out a text to Therese.
Boarding beginning. Where r u?
Five minutes passed with no response. Maeve felt her already simmering travel anxiety go up a notch.
“First-class passengers may begin boarding.” People surged past Maeve. She glanced again at her phone. Three tiny bubbles finally appeared.
On way.
“Comfort Plus passengers may now board,” the gate agent said. “Then we’ll board groups one through three.”
She tapped out another text.
Hurry, dammit.
Maeve had memorized their row and seat numbers. She’d purchased the cheapest seats available, which meant they’d be the last group to board, but that fact didn’t lessen her anxiety.
She made her way to the back of the line of passengers, silently cursing her sister and her totally reliable unreliability as she inched her way forward.
Only a handful of passengers were left in the gate area when she spotted Therese casually strolling down the concourse, chatting with a slender male Asian flight attendant, apparently untroubled by the prospect of missing the flight.
“Therese!” Maeve waved her arms to catch her sister’s attention.
“Hey,” Therese said, joining her sister in line.
“Where the hell have you been?”
“Chilling in the Sky Club with Tranh.”
Therese winked at the male flight attendant. “Tranh, this is my overcaffeinated sister Maeve, who I was just telling you about.”
Tranh bowed slightly. “So nice to finally meet you. But please don’t worry. I texted your gate agent, and you two are all set.”
“So glad I ran into you, shug,” Therese said, kissing her friend on the cheek. She held up her phone screen and showed it to her sister. “Look! Tranh not only badged me into the Sky Club, he also worked some kind of magic and got us upgraded to first class. We’ve even got the lay-flat seats.”
Maeve frowned. “Is that … legal?”
“Of course,” Tranh said, chuckling. “Lucky for you, two seats in first just opened up in the last hour. I’m not working this flight, but my roomie is.
She’s the one who actually made it happen.
And don’t worry, Glenna is gonna take good care of you ladies.
Now you better get moving, or they’ll close the doors without you. ”
He gave Therese a hug and hurried away.
“Hi, ladies,” the willowy flight attendant said, handing each of the sisters a small zippered case and a flute of champagne as soon as they were seated. “I’m Glenna. Welcome aboard! I’ll let you get comfy and then later I’ll come back for your dinner order.”
Therese sighed. “This is nice, right?” She tilted the champagne flute to her lips and emptied it in one fluid motion.
Maeve took a sip of the wine. “How do you know that guy?”
“Tranh? Honestly, it’s been so long, I can’t even remember.
Maybe we met at a bar down in Cabo when his boyfriend was living down there?
Yeah, that’s it. He’s super sweet. I mean Tranh, not the boyfriend.
He was a shitheel. Anyhow, after you abandoned me at security, I was looking for this week’s issue of People in a gift shop, and there he was!
We went and hung out in the Sky Club while you were freaking out. ”
“I wasn’t freaking out. I just didn’t want us to miss our flight and screw up the whole trip,” Maeve said.
“Whatever.”
Maeve listened intently and watched the seat-back screen during the pre-takeoff instructions. She glanced sideways at Therese, who’d inserted earbuds and donned a satin sleep mask.
“Would you please relax?” Therese muttered. “Your anxiety is giving me anxiety.”
“Can’t help it,” Maeve said, gritting her teeth and watching out the window as the jet taxied down the runway. “I was on a flight that had to make an emergency landing in Florida years ago. Ever since then…”
“Give me your hand.” Therese reached into her bag, pulled out a plastic pill bottle, and shook two red blobs into her sister’s palm. “Here. Chew these.”
“No way,” Maeve said. “Not after those brownies you gave me when I was in tenth grade. You know how I feel about illegal drugs.”
“Don’t be such a weenie. Uncle Keith sells these in the drugstore. Perfectly legal. They just take the edge off, when you’re nervous.”
Maeve’s heart was racing. “I don’t know. What exactly are these?”
“Harmless little gummies. They’ll help you sleep. I always take them when I fly.”
They’d been in flight for two hours. Therese was asleep, snoring softly in her lay-flat seat.
Maeve tried to read, but couldn’t concentrate on the plot.
She watched part of a movie on the seat-back screen, but ten minutes in remembered she’d already seen it, and hadn’t liked it any better the first time.
She tracked the plane’s route on the seat-back screen, but as soon as the computerized model showed they were over the Atlantic, her mouth went dry. She hurriedly clicked back to the movie.
Soon, Glenna was back with the drink cart and dinner menus. “Is your sister going to want dinner?”
“If she wakes up, I guess. But I’m not sure,” Maeve said, looking over the elegant script on the menu. “Why don’t you just bring us both the poached chicken breast, potatoes au gratin, and asparagus? And I’ll have a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Seems like a safe bet.”
Therese slept through dinner, which Maeve found surprisingly good. She could definitely get used to traveling first class, she decided.
After she’d sipped the last of her wine and her dinner tray was cleared, she took out the gummies and stared at them. The cabin lights had dimmed, and it appeared that she was the only one in first class who was still awake.
“Screw it,” she muttered, popping them in her mouth. She chewed slowly, then pulled the satin sleeping mask from the cute, zippered pouch and donned it.
“Calgon, take me away,” she whispered.