The Facility

Chapter Three

Wednesday, October 4th, 2018
10:43 a.m. Alaska Airlines
Meredith Gray

    The suitcase thumped against one of the many aisle seats and tittered to the side, rolling on one wheel. Meredith cursed under her breath and yanked her luggage back on to its two wheels. She looked down at her ticket, 18 B, following the list of numbers up above, and walked to her row.

Meredith’s eyebrows raised the slightest when she saw the man seated next to her—he was gorgeous, had a chiseled jaw, swooping black hair, vibrant blue eyes, and glowing complexion.

“Meredith,” Adam hissed and pushed up against her back, making her go forward. “Move.” 

Stumbling out of Adam’s way, Meredith took her time admiring the mystery man’s luscious hair, and when she shuffled into the middle seat, her knees brushed against him, making her cheeks flushed. She contemplated introducing herself. Would that be weird?

Still indecisive, she gazed at him while he was engrossed in his phone, and as curiosity rained down on her, she turned to the object.

To say she was shocked was an understatement. She was disgusted. The man next to her was watching porn, and he wasn’t even trying to be discreet. She felt goosebumps rising up on her arms as she squirmed closer to Adam.

Meredith scoffed, her eyebrows raised. “How’s Grace?” she asked as casually as possible, turning to Adam and ignoring the indecent act to her right.

Adam’s smile was grim when he spoke in a hushed voice. “She’s okay. Obviously unhappy about me leaving and everything. She’s got it in her head I’ll have an affair or something; sorry that T.V. depicts secret agents as horn-dogs willing to have sex with some random woman, but real life is different. I’m different.”

With fast handiwork, Adam slipped the safety manual from the seat pocket in front of him and read over the planes procedures. “Sometimes I don’t get your sex. Like, can’t a guy just be loving and faithful? Leave it at that.”

Meredith nodded with a tight-lipped smile. “Yeah, but I understand her concerns. Luc, my ex-husband, thought the same thing.” She fixed her eyes on her hands, “but then Luc was the one who betrayed us.”

Adam jumped back in. “Well, it doesn’t help that she read something online that said men are more likely to have an affair during and after their partner’s pregnancy. Like, what kind of bullshit is that? I’m a dedicated husband and I’ll be a dedicated father. Why would I jeopardize my life for something like that?”

“I can’t say it’s not true; Luc is a testament to that.” Her throat closed at those words and her fingers tingled. Luc’s betrayal got to her like that. Everyone warned her about foreign relationships, but she called it a stereotype and married him to prove her point. She was wrong.  

“I met him once when he was working as a translator for the French Embassy. He seemed like a schmoozing ass then,” said Adam casually.

She brought her fist up to her mouth and tried to stop a giggle. “He has that effect on a few, most like him instantly. His persona was nice for dinner parties, terrible for marriage.”

“Ugh. . .” Adam let his head fall into the cover of the plane’s window; it rattled upon impact. “Why is marriage so hard?”

Meredith didn’t answer; she knew his question was rhetorical. So she let him think it over silently, laid her head back, and prepared for a nap, oblivious to the flight attendants as they began their drooling monologue on plane safety—it was lights out for her.

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Meredith’s nails raked down his smooth back, blotchy, red lines followed in her wake. Their movements were in sequence, their bodies dancing together. His heavy breaths fell where her neck and shoulder met, and hers flowed in the surrounding air.