Ex's and Oh's

II. Family, Colleagues... and then some

"Long flight, huh?"

"Hm?" I turned my attention away from the slow moving traffic of downtown Charleston to the man beside me.

For a few seconds, he stared back at me with a pair of bushy eyebrows lifted, waiting patiently for an answer, before setting his eyes back at the road.

While he made sure that we weren't getting too close to the car in front of us, moving bit by bit, I thought to myself, "Wow. He's still the same old cautious driver that he was when I first met him."

After ensuring that we were good, Steve, the man who fetched me from the airport, deftly tapped me in the arm. "You okay there, little bird? You look dazed. Did something happen on the flight? Did the male attendant hit on you too much again? Do you need my team to report him to HR? You better tell me his name or we'll have to do background checks on all those male crew on board your flight. Remember, I have your flight details."

I rolled my eyes, then attacked him with multiple small pinches on his side, grinning as he squirmed on his seat.

Steve Marshall could sometimes be overprotective. He and his three other fifty-year-old buddies were an Academy team you wouldn't want to mess with. Three strikes and you'd find embarrassing photos of yourself caught mid-sneeze printed on a Christmas card sent to all the Academy members, all over the country. And they wouldn't even need to hack your camera feed, risking Academy expulsion. They'd always be at the right angle. At the right time. Best spies ever.

"Don't do that! Like ever," I told him with a face-splitting smile on my face. "My flight was good. Nothing to worry about." I combed my hair away from my face and tucked the loose strands behind my ears, my fingers ending up on my earlobe, caressing it. A habit I picked up from a guy I used to date. It was something he did whenever he felt nervous. "It's not the flight, it's the destination," I confessed.

The people closest to me could sense my true feelings, and I tried to be as honest as I could when I knew they'd want to support me in any way.

Labeled as a Ghost Bird after my first week in the Academy had been confusing for my 16-year-old self. Steve and his team had been one of the three teams who had managed to get me through my Academy training. Despite being busy with their own assignments, they found time to support me whenever they could.

And now, even if we had only seen each other a handful of times since my graduation three years ago, he still insisted on driving me whenever we were together. "I swear, one day you're gonna piss off some prick on the road just because you're the better driver," he used to say all the time.

***

After about an hour of being stuck in traffic, it took another hour to arrive at Mrs. Rose's place where we'd arranged to have lunch.

"Thanks again for picking me up at the airport." I unbuckled my seatbelt as he parked on the driveway of a two-storey condominium. Being a 49-year-old woman, I never thought she'd want to move in this type of housing. Then again, Mrs. Rose does like her modern gadgets. Woman can take better instagram pictures of her garden than I ever could.

"I tell you. I could've easily gotten my private jet over to wherever you had your insanely short amount of vacation and land us right on top of the Academy hospital," he said. He may not be the best driver on the road, but he sure had his flying skills to make up for it.

"Completely unnecessary, but I would've loved to see you getting told off by the directors and Mr. Buble for yet again playing around with your expensive toys."

"Psh. Playing around? Jack doesn't faze me. That brat can just suck it up."

My jaw dropped open and I was left speechless as he cut the engine and got off the car.