Against All Odds

Chapter 38

KILLIAN

Was she seriously pretending that she didn't see me? I knew, with a certainty that could have been branded across my forehead, we made eye contact about two seconds ago.

"Stella?"

That did it. Her wide, panicked blue eyes found mine and a discernible blush splotched her cheeks and neck. She looked casual and comfortable in a pair of black leggings, her standard chucks, and a large dark blue cardigan buttoned loosely closed over a faded grey... hey! That's my t-shirt. I'd recognise the faded Red Hot Chilli Peppers logo on the front any day. Where did she steal that from?

"Oh!" she said, fumbling over her words. "Killian! D-didn't see you there!"

Liar. She wobbled forward as the line of people heading into the economy cabin moved down the aisle some more, her backpack that was hanging over one shoulder bumping into another passenger seated in one of the seats on the other side of her. "You're on this flight too?" I asked and felt stupid for it. Where the fuck else would she be? What a halfwit question.

She was jostled forward some more and moved past my seat. "Yeah," she shot over her shoulder, pausing in the aisle and causing the line of people behind her to stop too. "Heading to the Maldives for a piece. And you?"

"Excuse me, ma'am," one of the finely attired attendants had spotted the disruption Stella was causing and had moved forward, gently touching her on the arm and indicating the direction towards the other cabin behind me, "but you need to keep moving, please."

"OK, OK," Stella gushed, shuffling a step or two forward more, before she spun on her heel and dipped into the space between the passenger behind me and his leg space. The man grumbled something and huffed a breath, but Stella ignored him, leaning over the back of my headrest. I tilted back, amused and perplexed at her disruption, and met her gaze with a question silently raising my brows. "Killian, where are you going? Dublin, right?"

In the commotion she had caused, I had been distracted. I hadn't latched onto her answer before, but it registered now- late, but blasting through my frontal cortex with the force of a headache. The amusement dropped from my face. "Wait, you're going to the Maldives?"

"That's what I fucking said!"

"Ma'am," the same attendant said, coming forward and sounding more firm now as she urged Stella to move away from blocking the other passenger's very important view of the airline's adverts on the screen before him. "You have to keep moving. You must go to your assigned seat."

"OK, dammit, I'm going!" She moved back into the aisle, merging with the flux of people none too smoothly, her frown pinning me in place. "Killian, where are you going?"

I blinked at her as she moved further away from me, completely blown away at this unprecedented bout of fate. It took me a while, but when she was about to enter the other cabin, I managed to croak out loud enough for her to hear, "Maldives."

Fuck.

Stella was going to the Maldives.

Before I had seen her step onboard the flight, I had been seconds away from a panic attack. Now, I was conflicted with numerous emotions, but her presence had diverted me. I clutched at those thoughts, at the knowledge that she was here onboard with me, because if I didn't I'd become overwhelmed with memories that triggered my anxiety.

I reeled at the odds of her being on the same flight as me, even less predictable that she was heading to the same final destination. There was no way she could have known I had booked the resort when I was with Amber all those months ago- I hadn't told anybody about my intentions to see the holiday through rather than cancel. But the chances of Stella staying at the same resort as me? I doubted it was likely.