Page 10 of The Law of Attraction
“No, I’m carrying it for myself. But it’s nice to be able to help people occasionally.”
“I think people should fend for themselves. If they don’t care enough to carry something, you shouldn’t be carrying it for them.”
“If that’s how you feel, don’t come crying to me when we get stuck on the tarmac for hours with no food or water.”
“That won’t be a problem because I’m in first class, so I’ll be served regardless.”
“How did you swing that?” She knew for a fact the company would only pay for C-levels to fly first class on domestic flights. She knew this because she’d reviewed the company policy thoroughly before booking her own travel.
“I upgraded with my miles.”
Right. Of course he had. He spent almost half his time in the field, so he probably had millions of miles racked up. In fact, he probably had so many extra miles that he could have upgraded her too without even missing them.
The thought of him stretching out in first class, enjoying hot towels and a three-course meal while she was crammed into coach eating granola bars out of her purse, made Olivia unreasonably resentful. But she was also relieved to know there’d be a curtain between them for the next three hours. At least it would give her a brief respite from his sparkling conversation before they were stuck with each other for the entire rest of the week.
“Speaking of being in first class,” Adam said. “I’d better go line up with the other one percent.”
“What’s your hurry? They never board on time, right?”
The gate agent was conferring with another gate agent now, and neither of them looked like they were about to start boarding.
Adam smirked. “Don’t tell me you’re going to miss my company, Woerner. We’ll have plenty of quality time together over the next five days.” They were staying through Sunday, so they could keep an eye on things after the changeover, just in case there were any problems.
“Be still my heart,” Olivia muttered under her breath.
He lifted an eyebrow. “What was that?”
She was saved the trouble of answering by the announcement that their airplane was having mechanical issues and there would be a two-hour delay while they brought in a replacement.
“Two hours?” Adam said irritably as everyone around them let out a collective groan. “Where are they bringing the new plane from? Mars?”
Olivia’s shoulders sagged in despair. “You know if they say two hours, it’ll probably be more like three or four.”
The crowd around the gate began to dissipate as their fellow travelers staked out seats or headed for one of the terminal’s several bars and restaurants to pass the delay. Olivia gazed longingly toward a nearby Chili’s, wondering if it was too early in the morning for a margarita, but Adam made a beeline for a pair of seats by the gate. She trailed behind him disconsolately.
“This is not good.” He parked his roller suitcase in front of an empty chair, but didn’t sit down, choosing instead to pace out his frustration. “We can’t afford to waste half the day sitting around an airport.”
Olivia sank into a chair and glared up at him. “If the time frame’s that tight, why did you say we could do it?”
“Because it’s totally possible, as long as nothing goes wrong.”
“But something always goes wrong. Usually multiple somethings. You have to leave a buffer for unexpected problems to crop up.”
He shook his head, still pacing. “It’ll be fine, as long as we get started at the plant today. There’s got to be another flight we can get on.” He was already swiping through his phone to call the airline.
“To Austin?” she said. “Not likely.”
It wasn’t a major hub, and there was a lot of business traffic back and forth to LA, so any flights between the two cities had almost certainly been booked to capacity.
“I’ve got to try. It’s better than sitting around doing nothing.” He walked a few steps away as he put the phone to his ear. “You should call too,” he threw over his shoulder at her. “Maybe you’ll get through to someone before me.”
Grudgingly, Olivia took out her phone and pulled up the number for the airline. While she waited on hold for an agent, she dug through her purse for a granola bar. She’d almost finished it by the time Adam got an airline representative on the phone. She could hear him talking in a clipped, irritable tone. After a minute of back and forth, he was put on hold again.
Olivia got out her earbuds and switched her phone to hands-free so she could knit while she waited on hold. She was knitting a shawl for Penny’s birthday, which had seemed like a good idea at the time, but it meant she couldn’t work on it around Penny unless she wanted to ruin the surprise. She was hoping to get a lot done on it during this trip—or a least during the travel legs of the trip. Once they actually got to the plant there wouldn’t be a lot of downtime.
As she knitted and waited on hold, Adam’s representative came back on the line. Olivia could only hear his side of the conversation, but it didn’t sound like it was going well. He grew increasingly terse, eventually hanging up with a muttered, “Thanks for nothing.”
“That seemed to go well,” Olivia commented without looking up from her knitting.
