Belle of the Ball

Chapter Twelve - Time to Interrogate

After lots of napping, hand holding with Ryder...and champagne drinking, the flight was finally over.

Since we were first class, we got to exit the plane first.

Obviously.

I didn't think I'd ever be this happy to be on solid ground, but I was ecstatic as my feet hit the pavement. Immediately I could feel the sun shining on my back, and the warm weather made me feel like I had to take off my jacket.

One by one, the first class passengers came off the plane and I watched as a sulking Jeremy, and a moody Katerina came down from the long ramp. I could just tell by their body language, they didn't have that good of a flight—not that I knew for sure because the only person who was remotely visible to me in first class was Ryder.

"Where's Nancy?" I asked, once we were all crowded in a little circle.

"And Jackson?" Ryder added.

"Jackson?" I continued. "Who's Jackson?"

"He's my driver. I thought he'd like a free trip too. He's a good guy; he was on our flight as well—he just didn't feel comfortable with me purchasing first class for him. He must've gotten to the airport late because I didn't see him until I was on the plane."

"Oh, so he was in coach with the rest?" I asked.

"Yeah." Ryder replied.

"Jackson going to be here?" Katerina interjected suddenly, and her face seemed to pale at the name.

I wondered why.

Soon more and more passengers finally started coming off the plane, and eventually I saw Nancy who was rushing off.

She must've been glad to be in hot weather, because back in New York she was freezing cold in those shorts, but now she was practically rolling them up even more.

Trailing behind Nancy was a guy, who looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't remember where I'd seen him. Maybe Nancy had gone out with him before?

I shook my head, she would've told me if she was inviting a guy.

"Nancy!" I yelled, and then she saw us, grabbed the mans hand, and raced to us.

"Hey guys!" Nancy said smiling.

"Hey everyone." The mystery man said, while smiling and making his dimples pop—then pushing one of his thick dreadlocks out of his face.

"Jackson! Hey man, how was your flight?"

The mystery man, Jackson apparently, smiled and then nodded his head. "It was very good man, thanks for inviting me."

"Ryder. You told us only these two would be here—you never said him too." Katerina said, but her voice was shaky, and not confident like how it normally was.

"Oh sorry, I invited him last minute. Hope you guys don't mind." Ryder continued.

"You know I don't." Jeremy said finally, while pulling his own shades down from on top of his forehead to cover his eyes.

"So Carla, doesn't he look familiar?" Nancy said, and she had on her sarcastic smug face, so I was curious where she was going with this.

"Yeah, why?"

"Because he looked familiar to me too. I saw him when I was chasing down a particularly, snarky flight attendant, and I ended up talking to him the entire flight."

"Okay..."

"And I think we saw him in that restaurant we ate at a few days ago...remember?"

Then realization hit me.