“Thanks,” Ava said to the mystery man, and she could feel her face getting warm. Drunken ex-boyfriend shouting inappropriate observations? Check. Long-ass day including her best friend’s memorial? Check. Mysterious hunk seeing her and Dennis at their worst? Mark that one off, too. Vomiting imminent? Of course! “I’m not sure I could have gotten him in.”
“Where do you have to go?”
“The Hyatt next to the mall. But we’ll be fine. I’m sure I can manage.” Her confident tone was immediately contradicted by the sound of retching from the back seat. “Anyway. Thanks again.”
He chuckled, a wonderful rumble that she practically felt, then held up a finger in the universal gesture for “give me a minute,” and sprinted away. Yeah. Sprinted. If she wasn’t seeing it, she wouldn’t have believed a large man could move so quickly. And he was back in seconds, reaching through the open back seat door and handing Dennis a …
“What is that?”
“Emesis basin.”
“Thanks, man! If my dead sister wasn’t dead, she’d really like you! She’s dead, though. So. There’s that.”
Ava tried to shut out the drunken babble and focus. “Emesis? Those things you find in hospital rooms?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you traveling with an emesis basin?”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got plenty. I don’t need that one back.”
Plenty? “Thank God,” she replied with no small amount of relief, because from the sounds, Dennis was using the hell out of the thing. Or he was being devoured by dinosaurs.
The weight-lifting track star smiled and said, “Why don’t I follow you? The Hyatt is less than ten minutes from here. I’ll help you so you can get him up to your room.”
“We’re not sharing a room,” she said quickly, because she’d decided it was important to establish that for some reason. “I mean, it’s not necessary. Don’t put yourself out.”
“I wouldn’t be, Captain Capp. I didn’t imply I would aid you without payment.”
Hey! “Hey, that’s right! How’d you know who I was? Wait, don’t tell me…”
“Belly landing,” they finished in unison. “Argh, they’re gonna chisel that into my tombstone.”
“As well they should, if the stories are accurate. In return for my assistance with your friend this evening, I ask that you allow me to buy you a drink in the hotel bar and tell me the tale of the belly landing.”
She stared at him. “I don’t even know you.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
She thought about trying to wrestle a vomit-spattered Dennis out of her car, through the parking lot, into the lobby, up the elevator—
You know what? Fuck it.
“Deal,” she said.
From the back seat: “I’m done throwing up if you two wanna bone in the back seat.”
“Jesus Christ,” she muttered, but the mystery hunk just laughed.
Six
“Of course I recognized the infamous Captain Bellyflop—”
“Oh, for—I do one interview with Buzzfeed…”
“—and had to introduce myself.”
“There’s really not that much to it.”
“I have found that when someone says that, ninety-five percent of the time it’s demonstrably untrue.”
“What, you’ve done a scientific study? Besides, it was. And it was ages ago. I can’t believe people still remember.”
“It was two and a half weeks ago. Which in news-cycle time is about forty years, I grant you.”
“Ages ago,” she insisted.
“Next you’ll tell me you were simply doing your job—”
“Well, I was.”
“—and your training kicked in—”
“It did.”
“—and it was a group effort, and thus your crew is equally entitled to the public kudos.”
“It’s true! My friend G.B. didn’t hesitate to take over the booze cart.”
They were in the Bar Urbana, but the drinks made up for the terrible name and uncomfortable chairs. The courteous/yummy stranger had been true to his word, helped her get Dennis up to his room (miraculously, Dennis hadn’t missed the emesis basin), got him to drink a big glass of water, left another for him on the nightstand, put his phone in reach, and left him dozing off to the Weather Channel.
Now they were back in the lobby, and Ava was appreciating that the dim lighting of the parking lot had not done the man justice. Two words: oofta. No, wait …
“So, then,” he prompted. “What happened?”
“Well—” She stopped, embarrassed. “I just realized I don’t—”
“It’s Tom Baker.” He stuck out his hand and, amused, she shook it.
“Good enough. Well, my friend G.B.—he’s a flight attendant—we were deadheading to Vegas. That’s when employees of an airline who aren’t on duty take a flight for free. And everything was pretty quiet right up until the aneurysm…”
Seven
Ages ago
“It sounds so … unceremonious. I can’t believe she just up and dumped you like that.”
“I can,” G.B. replied gloomily. “I knew she was an up-and-dumper and a superficial wench when we got together, but even so, I didn’t anticipate—”
“Falling in love?”
“No, you idiot. Have we met? I got used to the perks that come with the ‘Influencer’ lifestyle.”
“Wow. I actually heard the capital I. And you see the irony in you calling her superficial, right?”
“So much free shit,” G.B. moaned, ignoring Ava’s 100 percent on-point observation. “Much of which was passed on to me. See?” He held out his wrist, displaying a Power Rangers wristwatch. “She didn’t even like Power Rangers. That’s when I knew we’d never be long-term.”
“What a heartbreak,” Ava observed. “Well, you’re welcome to stay at my place while you look for a new place. You’ve still got my key from last time.”
“Thanks, and that’s another thing. I have to go from a McMansion with high ceilings—the place was basically one gigantic loft—and a pool and a home gym back to that hovel my mom’s letting me squat in.”
“The hovel would be the mid-six-figure condo at the Platinum? One of the three she owns?”
“Only one bedroom.” He sighed. “And no home gym.”
Given the excellent shape the man was in, Ava could understand his woe. For all his frivolous bitchiness when he wasn’t on duty, and all his calm, polite efficiency when he was, more than once a woman had moved her purse when she saw him approach. Or crossed the street. Or wouldn’t get on an elevator with him. A clueless coworker had once suggested G.B. not work out so much, not look so imposing. G.B. had fixed him with a cold stare and said, “They’re judging me on skin color, so I’m the one who has to change my life. Got it.”
Long story short, a home gym and free watches would induce G.B. to tolerate an “Influencer” for months. Which he had. However, to everything there was a season. Or something. “I’m pretty sure you’re gonna land on your feet.”