It did not.
Lena appeared behind me without speaking. She had heard enough to understand what was happening.
Ryan noticed her.
His shoulders dropped.
"Fine," he muttered.
He returned to 2A.
Lena waited until he was seated before looking at me.
"You okay?"
"No."
"Good answer."
That almost made me laugh.
She handed me a bottle of water.
"Drink. Then breathe. Then go be terrifyingly competent for another hour."
I did exactly that.
Ashley came to the galley twenty minutes later.
Unlike Ryan, she stopped well outside the work area.
"Can I speak to you?"
Her voice was quieter than I expected.
I looked at her properly for the first time.
She was beautiful, yes. Ryan had always liked women who looked finished, as though no part of them had happened accidentally. Ashley's makeup was precise despite the long day. Her dark hair fell over one shoulder in glossy waves. She wore a cream jumpsuit, gold earrings, and sandals that probably cost more than the first month's rent I had paid after college.
But up close, she did not look triumphant.
She looked sick.
"If it's about service, absolutely," I said.
"It's not."
"Then this is not the right time."
"I know. I just..." She glanced toward row two. "I need to ask you one thing."
I said nothing.
"Did you know he was filing for divorce?"
There are sentences that hurt because of what they reveal and sentences that hurt because they reveal how much effort someone invested in deception.
That one did both.
"No divorce has been filed," I said.
Ashley's face changed.
Not dramatically. Just enough.
"He said you had attorneys."
"We do not."
"He said you had been sleeping in separate rooms since January."
"We have one bedroom. He slept in it last night."
She closed her eyes.
The aircraft seemed to hum around us.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
I wanted to hate her.