Jennie fastened the airplane safety belt and closed her eyes. She silently cursed herself for failing to reserve an aisle seat when she originally booked her ticket. She knew she was screwed the moment she picked up her boarding pass at the check-in counter and saw her seat assignment: 27E.
She'd just stood there in the departure hall for a full minute, staring at her ticket - willing the seat number to change before her eyes. Make it a D. That would be good. 27D. Or even 27F. A window seat, but still... far preferable to the seat assignment printed there in dark, undeniable black.
There was no changing it, of course. The flight was sold out. She was stuck in 27E - the third ring of hell. Otherwise known as a coach-class middle seat, sandwiched between a man in a suit talking on his cell phone and an elderly lady clutching a tote bag full of yarn and crochet hooks.
At least the man would have to put his phone away once the plane took off. Jennie could already tell the lady on her right was the type who'd want to talk her ear off the entire flight.
Normally she wouldn't have minded a chat, but not today. Not this flight. Not with this hollow feeling in her chest. She hadn't been able to shake it, ever since she stood at the curb of the airport drop-off zone and watched Lisa drive away.
She couldn't stop thinking about it. The way Lisa had looked, sitting next to her in the car this afternoon. Lisa hadn't even been able to meet her eyes. She could see Lisa was fighting just to keep from breaking down. It had surprised her, seeing Lisa like that. From the look on her face, you would have thought Lisa was saying goodbye forever.
"Jennie." she had said. "Is there anything I could say right now to make you stay?"
She'd been taken aback by the question. She hadn't been expecting it. She thought they had agreed - she would go back to New York at the end of the two weeks. It didn't mean anything was ending. It was just the beginning. Wasn't it?
"What do you mean?" she had said to Lisa in confusion. "I have to... Lisa, I have to be in court tomorrow. I told you."
"Right."
"I'll see you soon. You're coming through New York on tour in a few weeks."
Lisa hadn't responded.
"I'll see you then, right?"
"Yeah."
Lisa's answer came out as little more than a grunt. She'd pulled back out of Lisa's arms in order to look up at her face and put one hand on her cheek in silent question.
"Lisa?" she had whispered, watching Lisa all zoned-out before she managed to reply. "Yeah, we'll be in New York for a night. I can try to see you for a few hours after the show."
"A few hours?"
"Unless you want to come to Massachusetts. We've got another show in Boston the next day."
It hadn't occurred to her that Lisa wouldn't be able to stay longer - at least turn it into a long weekend. She'd already been making plans in her mind. No wonder Lisa looked so upset.
"We'll talk on the phone," she'd said. "I'll call you when I land."
Lisa only nodded in response.
"Lisa, I love you."
"I love you too."
For some reason, the look on Lisa's face when she said it - like she was half a second away from either bursting into tears or throwing up - Jennie felt like she had seen it somewhere before.
Recently. But not on Lisa's face, she realised now. It was Bambam. She thought back to that conversation in the hotel suite after Kendall dumped him. Bambam had sat on the couch next to her with that same look of hopelessness. "It's a piece of cake getting laid," he'd told her. "But to actually find a girlfriend? A real girlfriend who actually means it when she says she loves you? Way easier back when we were nobodies."
