Romantic getaway? I don't think so

Drama queen alert

Past tense, Mike thought as he tightly shut his eyes, only to open them a second later and put his focus on the flight attendant. He tried to disregard the word that she used, but it was pointless. Meant. My friendship meant a lot to her. Meant.

The evil drum kept playing its tune and he wanted to mute it to some appropriate level, if not shut it out entirely. He couldn't; the words were still there as a permanent reminder of so many things that went wrong in their relationship.  

It was clearly over between them. If she didn't want to say that he meant a lot to her, she wouldn't have said it. She said it. End of discussion. He noticed that she was shaking. He remembered that she told him that she was afraid of planes landing and rising. He promised himself at the airport that he would take her hand and try to ease some of that fear. Now he lost the desire to do it.

He stood up and went to the bathroom without saying a word. He washed his face with water and saw his reflection in the mirror. He looked exhausted, and it had nothing to do with the lack of sleep. Why am I putting myself through this? Why did I say yes? Why does she make me feel so weak, he wondered.

He knew that Anya and Dominic wanted him to be happy, and that they had his best interest at heart by sending him to Prague. Well, at least Anya did, which is more than he could say about Dominic. But they were wrong. The relationship between him and Michelle tormented him to the point of throwing up. He couldn't sit next to her, knowing what she thought of him. A knock on the door startled him. 

"Yes?" His voice was barely a whisper. He cleared his throat and tried again.  

"Is everything all right, sir?" 

"Yeah. I'll be out in a minute." 

"Sir, I'm sorry but I'm afraid that you have to come out right away. We are landing in a minute and you really need to go back to your seat and fasten your seat belt." 

You're acting like a little girl, Mike, snap out of it, he told himself after seeing his tormented face once again in the mirror. He wiped his face with a paper towel and unlocked the door, sighing. He gave a weak smile to the flight attendant and dragged himself to his seat. He felt physically ill, even though the cause was an emotional one. He reached for a book in front of his seat in an effort to avoid looking at Michelle. 

He couldn't read for long because of the turbulence, which unfortunately meant that he was aware that Michelle was doing her best not to shake in fear next to him. He tried to ignore it. He tried to be as cold and inapproachable as she was, but his instincts told him a different story.  

Don't give in, don't give in.... And he didn't. In fact, he was strong and determined not to look at her or react for the first fifteen seconds, but then he heard that her breath is getting shallower. Of course, she could be simply pretending to be afraid in order to get him to touch her, but why would she do that? She didn't love him any more. Her fear might as well be genuine.  

Ah, the hell with it, he thought. He couldn't let her be afraid of something for no reason at all. He would gladly kick himself down the stairs for being such a wimp and give in so easily, but for now there was really nothing he could do but to react. He checked his seat belt once again and then, not even looking at her properly, grabbed her hand and held it firmly.  

She tightened the grip of her hand over his. He didn't allow himself to give any special meaning to it, other than a simple 'thank you' without using words. After all, she was afraid. He looked at her and gave her a short, encouraging smile. He held her hand until they landed, and then he let go of it and turned on his phone. He didn't have to wait at all.  

"Mike!" 

"Hey baby, how are you?" 

"I'm great. Is everything all right?"