Chapter Twelve

 

Mitch walked outside, turning back once. I still hadn’t managed to pick my jaw up from the floor. Why did he open the red box? I had hidden his gift in my drawer… and in my haste to slam my clothes into the bag, it must’ve fallen out. Damn. And his name was on it, along with a tag that read Happy Anniversary so why shouldn’t he open it? Double damn.

“Ah, Miss?” The older woman called out to me, and I collected my wits to focus on her.

“Yes, sorry.”

“There’s no mechanical issues, are there?”

“I can assure you the plane you’ll be riding in is a fine piece of aeronautical engineering. Let’s get you all set up and ready to go.” I led them back to the counter and inputted the info I needed into the computer, tagged their bags, and added them to the trolley behind me.

“Your Captain will be out in a few minutes and your flight will be taking off as scheduled. In the meantime, why don’t you have a seat over there and help yourself to any drinks?”

Once they gathered their personal items off the top of the countertops, I headed over to the water cooler and poured myself a paper cup’s worth and tipped my head back, chasing it with two more.

Between processing the passengers, I paced between my desk and the door to the tarmac, wearing an imaginary line in the concrete floor. I should’ve felt relief that Mitch knew, and it should’ve been my first reaction, but as the day dragged on, the tension built in my achy shoulders and my head pounded with a raging headache. Probably didn’t help I’d been grinding my teeth all day.

However, the worst part of my day hadn’t even hit me between the eyes yet. Eric had just returned from his cross-island flight and was refueling his plane when she walked into the building.

At the end of her arm was her child – Mitch’s son – dragging his suitcase.

“C’mon, Jackson.” She sounded exasperated and worn out.

Jackson wore a sleepy expression and fought to keep his eyes opened.

“Hi,” she said, putting her purse on the counter. “We’re heading to Seattle.”

I assessed the look she gave me, but I was sure she only saw me as the ticket agent and nothing more. There was nothing in her eyes leading me to believe she knew I was with Mitch. Was with Mitch.

“I’ll just need your information and your bags.” I walked out from behind my desk and over to Jackson. “Can I take your bag? Do you have your Mr. Fluffy?”

“You remember that?” Jasmine asked.

Normally, no, I wouldn’t be able to recall past information about a passenger, but she was different. Guess I knew back then there was something about her I needed to store in my memory bank. “Of course. All our visitors are important to Cheshire Bay.”

“I could use someone like you on my team.” She winked, and pulled her head back to take me in. “Wait, you look… You’re Mitch’s girlfriend, aren’t you?”

I swallowed, more audibly than I expected, but if I answered, it was all going to be lies. There were pictures of Mitch and I all over the apartment. Clearly, she’d spent more time there than I realised.

“I’m so pleased to finally meet you. Mitch said you were visiting a friend, so I’m sorry we didn’t get to meet and hang out.” Her face lit up as if we were old buddies and had simply missed out on seeing the other, rather than me avoiding her like the plague. “Jackson, honey, why don’t you go and have a seat on the couch?”

He nodded slowly and lumbered over, climbing onto the long couch, and resting his head on the armrest.

“Is he okay?” I flipped my gaze between Jasmine and Jackson.

She lowered her voice. “I gave him some Gravol. He doesn’t travel well, and this way, he’ll sleep for the flight and shouldn’t get sick.” She threw her hands out to the side. “I don’t know where he got that from. Mitch, maybe? Does he travel well?”

Hell no, but it wasn’t my place to say anything.

“That’s okay, you don’t have to answer.” She sighed and offered me a small smile, her voice rich with understanding and acceptance. “I’m sorry if my being here has caused any tension between you and Mitch. He speaks so highly of you and how much he’s in love. He’s a great guy, and I’m happy he’s found that special someone to share his life with. He was never as happy when I knew him as he is with you.” She leaned over the ledge of my desk and squeezed my hand. “I promise, we’re not going to be a pain in your sides, and Mitch already knows I’m not after him for any form of child support. I’ve even offered to have papers drawn up where he’ll give up any parental rights to Jackson. I have a fabulous job with outstanding benefits, so I don’t require anything from him, other than these documents signed because his name is on the birth certificate.” She patted her bag while maintaining deep eye contact with me. “But like I told Mitch, and the same extends to you, you can be as involved or uninvolved as you want to be and whenever you come to Seattle, you have full use of my guest suite.”

A lump formed in the back of my throat. “Thank you, that’s very kind.”

The printer produced her boarding passes, and I handed them over. I didn’t know what else to say and thankfully, I didn’t need to worry much longer as another group of people walked into the building.

“Have a safe flight.”

“Thank you.” A genuine smile greeted me as she backed away and headed over to her son.

Mitch was right. She acted like a decent person, and much more receptive to me than I was to her. To her, I probably seemed like an ice princess, but how should I have reacted? There was no way I was going to embrace her and welcome her into my life. That idea was just plain ludicrous.

 

 

Before I left work for the day, I needed to make amends as my heart was heavy with guilt, and I was tired of fighting the insomnia. Taking a deep, pained breath and closing my eyes, I picked up the phone and put in a call to my boss who answered on the second ring.

“Hey, Mr. Tyler, it’s Cedar Ratzloff from Cheshire Bay Airport.”

“Good afternoon, Miss Ratzloff. What can I do for you?”

I twisted the phone cord in my hands. “Well, sir, I wanted to let you know that there was a data breech in the system last week.”

“A data breech? When? We’ll need to get IT on this.” He was twitchy, and his voice was jumping all over the place.

“You won’t need to get IT on it.” Sweat burst in my armpits and nausea settled over me. “It was me, sir. I logged on.” I grabbed the nearby calendar and mentioned the date and approximate time. “IT would be able to confirm it. I accessed a passenger’s personal information for non-emergency reasons.” I held my breath, expecting to be fired, and deservedly so. Tomorrow I’d be out looking for a new job, any job, to make sure the bills were paid.

A sigh of relief crossed over the line. “That’s all?”

“Yes, sir.” I nodded my head, not that he could see it.

“Just the one time?”

My breath hitched, and there was a thickness in my throat as if I were being strangled. “My screen showed the information for less than five seconds.” I gave the passenger’s name as well.

“Five seconds, eh?”

“Yes. I’m so sorry.” I twisted in my seat, curling deeper into myself.

“You sound pretty guilty, Miss Ratzloff.”

Guilty wouldn’t even be the right word, but it was a start. There was also shame, remorse, and a ton of self-loathing mixed in.

“Let me confirm this with the IT department. If it was, as you say, less than five seconds, then I would say your guilty conscience is strong enough that you would not make that mistake again.”

My body started shaking, and I rolled up to sit a little straighter. “No, sir, I most definitely would not, and I know I should not have accessed the information to begin with.”

There was a hum over the air, and I swallowed. In the background, I heard the rapid clicking of the keyboard.

“You’ve been an outstanding employee, Miss Ratzloff, with several written compliments and letters on your record of service. I will take into consideration the fact that you informed me first, rather than us discovering this. Until further notice, you are hereby on probation.”

What? That was it? Probation was easy. I expected I’d lose my job and be fired instantly.

“Thank you, sir. That’s more than generous.”

He bid me adieu and hung up.

I sat perfectly still for a few heartbeats as an inability to formulate an appropriate response washed over me. I wasn’t fired. I still had a job, although that possibility could still be forthcoming once Mr. Tyler got IT involved. But I’d told the truth and owned up to my mistakes. If I didn’t end up fired, it was a damn miracle, but I’d work doubly hard to make sure I remained as he put it – an outstanding employee.

I breathed a sign of relief and hung up the phone still dangling in my hands.

Mitch entered the building off the tarmac. “YQQ is off. She’s gone now.”

The phone went back into its cradle. I still couldn’t believe my dumb luck. “Okay.”

He waved a hand in front of my face to completely grab my attention. “Hey.”

“Oh what? Hey.”

He tipped his head and stared at me. “You okay?”

My thoughts were all over the place, but slammed back into me all at once. Mitch wanted to talk.

“Are you finished work soon?”

“Umm, yeah.” I clicked on the keyboard and sent a few things to the printer.

“Great. Can I pick you up from Amber’s place in an hour?”

“But I have our car?” We shared one, and when I left that night, I took it with me. “I can pick you up.”

“Please.” There was an edge of firmness to his tone. “One hour.” Without another word, he sauntered into the attached hanger through a side door.

I logged out and raced to my friend’s place. For some reason, the butterflies were swarming in a mad tornado-like spin, and I was looking forward to spending time with Mitch, even though I was still mad at him. He was a hard guy to get over.