Page 38 of Friendly Skies
“Hardly.” Darius reached for Luis’ hand, clasped it between both of his, and brought it to his mouth. “She’s saying…” Darius pressed Luis’ hand to his lips, seeking comfort in the contact, and Luis reached over and ran his hand over Darius’ closely cropped hair. “She’s saying I touched her during the altercation.”
“Of course you touched her. I’ve seen the videos. You didn’t have a choice.”
“Chico…she’s saying I sexually assaulted her.”
Luis swore his entire world came to a standstill as the breath left his body. “That’s…that’s ridiculous, right?” There was no hiding the tremor in his voice, no hiding the way his hands had become blocks of ice. “You would never…never…” Luis couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Of course I wouldn’t.” Darius finally made eye contact with Luis, his gaze moving over Luis’ face as if fearful of what he would find in Luis’ expression. “It’s just…the videos.” Leaning forward, Darius put his mouth on top of their joined hands. “Chico, I’m scared. I have to go meet with the lawyers. They need to ask me questions, go over my report. They need me to go over the videos. And those videos are…everywhere. I’m…fuck…I’ve been suspended pending an investigation.”
“Shit.” Though he was trying his hardest to follow everything Darius was saying and to understand the implications for his best friend, Luis’ mind remained firmly fixed on one thing: Darius was being accused of a crime. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I…uh…I’ve got to get going.” Darius let go of Luis’ hands and got up from the bed. “I need to shower and get out of here.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
Darius paused as he headed for the door and looked over his shoulder. “Chico, I would love to have you go with me, but I don’t know what’s going to happen or how long it’s going to take.”
“Okay.” Luis tried to keep the hurt from his voice as Darius left the bedroom.
“He shouldn’t have gone alone.”
The growly voice on the other end of the line belonged to their friend Micah’s husband, Jake, who was a lawyer.
“Was a union rep going to be present?” Greg chimed in.
Luis had tried to deal with Darius’ departure and being alone in the apartment as best he could for as long as he could stand it. On the plus side, the kitchen and bathroom were spotless. On the minus side, Luis had still been a frazzled mess of anxiety.
Reaching out to Greg for support had turned into a full-on legal consultation and strategy session when Micah and Jake asked to have the call put on speaker.
“I don’t know,” Luis said, frustration riding him as he paced from the kitchen to the living room and back. “I wish I’d seen your guys’ texts before he called the lawyers back. It would have at least been a heads-up about what was coming.”
After Darius left, Luis had gone through all the text messages his friends had sent trying to let him know that the woman had gotten out on bail, retained a lawyer, and was talking to the media about what had happened to her on the flight. There were news stories from all the LA stations about the press conference the woman’s lawyer had called the night before, clips from the plane video, even clips from the swoony greeting between Luis and Darius at LAX the day before—Micah had congratulated them on finally getting their heads out of their asses in one of his texts—and the commentary only seemed to be picking up steam as the airline was slow issuing a statement.
“I’ve got to give points to her lawyer,” Jake said. “Press conference at four in the afternoon on a Friday. Brilliant move. By the time the media could contact corporate, they’d gone for the day, and the story gets played all weekend without rebuttal. I’d have done the same thing.”
“That’s very comforting,” Micah commented dryly, and despite himself, Luis grinned at the glare Micah gave his husband. Micah turned back to the screen. “We’ve contacted a couple of our friends. One’s a human rights lawyer, the other used to be in employment law, to see if they’d be able to represent Darius or know someone who could.”
“Aren’t there enough lawyers involved in this?” Greg asked.
“Darius should have someone who’s completely on his side,” Jake said. “Corporate is going to CYA. If they have to fire Darius to show they take accusations like this seriously, they’ll do it. The union rep will most likely fight for Darius and use it to leverage more protections for the flight attendants, but they can be a bit of a wild card, depending on how it affects their next contract negotiations. Darius needs a champion of his own in the room.”
Luis mostly tuned out Jake and Micah as they continued talking about their friends who they might recommend, but the names were meaningless to Luis. He hadn’t heard from Dariussince a text telling him he’d arrived at the office where the meeting was taking place, and that was over an hour and a half ago.
“How are you doing?” Greg asked. He’d picked up his phone and moved it closer to his face so he and Luis could have a bit more privacy.
“I don’t know. This whole thing…this wholeweek…it’s…I can’t even wrap my head around it.”
“I’m sure.” Greg paused. “You talk to your folks yet?”
Rolling his eyes, Luis shook his head. “I should call them. If I don’t, it’s just going to blow up in my face. Especially if my mom sees the videos of us at the airport yesterday.”
“You look good happy, Luis. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
“Yeah. But if she doesn’t hear it from me first, there’ll be hell to pay.”
“Hm. Probably. I was planning on leaving from SFO for my next flight, but I can come back down to LA if you need me for moral support.”
“That’s not necessary, but thanks. I was just spinning out today and needed someone to talk to, but Darius should be home soon.”
