Page 100 of Her Sloth

“Um—“

“You won’t need anything,” I say.

“Not?”

“No,” I say, and laugh, texting the crew we need to be wheels up in an hour and they are supposed to pre-clear everything with the FBO for us.

We’re at Teterboro Airport more than an hour later because Cass refused to drive fast with me in the car.

“There,” I say and point to the gate we can drive through.

“You’re fucking kidding,” she says as we can simply drive to the hangar.

“No,” I say as I direct her into the hangar. “Your girl can wait here for us; we’ll be back tomorrow.”

“You own a fucking plane?” she asks, completely flabbergasted.

“Yeah?” I ask, because it’s so normal in the world I come from.

“You’re insane.”

“Yeah. Probably,” I say and laugh.

“Where are we even going?” she asks as we get out of the car and are welcomed by the crew.

“You’ll see,” I say.

We sit in silence the entire flight.

It’s not awkward, but what we do—not a forced conversation, but the presence with and in each other.

She stares outside the windows. I scroll through my phone for a while until I have caught up with the latest speculation about my persona, just to be aware of what might await us in L.A.

I have to thank Lilian—or more so Kat—that everything that happened hasn’t blown up in my face so far. Whoever Lilian’s wife is, she is fucking epic.

We land.

“Here,” I say and throw Cass a key.

She catches it.

I point at my modded black Mercedes 300 SL waiting for us.

“This is yours?” she asks as she caresses the car with her hand.

“Uh-huh,” I say.

“I’ve never seen one like this,” she says in awe.

“Because there ain’t many. She is in some ways very much unique. You will see.”

We get in.

She turns the key and laughs as she hears the gurgling.

“What did you do to her?”

“Let’s just say she’d beat the hell out of your girl.”