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“Yes, babe, I believe you,” Amy said, reassuringly. She leaned over and gave Sally’s cheek a quick kiss. “As if you would ever date someone named Ainsley!”

Sally nodded.

“I know, right? God, that name!”

Sally decided to leave out the fact that despite the pretentiousness of Ainsley’s name, the woman herself was actually quite charming and sweet. Oh, and sexy as fuck.

“Oh, Ainsley! Oh, Ainsley!” Amy exclaimed, mimicking a woman in the throes of sexual passion. She even put her feet up on the dash with her legs spread open and thrashed about a bit in the passenger seat. “Don’t stop, Ainsley! Oh, Ainsley, I’m coming!” She shuddered and put her feet back on the floor. “Brrr! It just doesn’t work!”

Sally was laughing and had to slow the BMW down until she got control of herself again.

“What’s her middle name?” Amy asked.

“No idea. Probably something equally pretentious, like Penelope.”

“Well, anyway…you will never find out because I am deleting these messages from Ainsley Penelope, so say ‘bye-bye.’”

“Bye-bye, Ainsley Penelope!” Sally said.

Chapter 41

This time, Amy insisted Sally take the vibrator-that-could-be-mistaken-for-a-pipe-bomb out of her carry-on bag and put it inside her checked luggage once they reached LAX.

“I know, I know,” Sally said when they stopped just inside the terminal so that she could transfer the toy from one bag to another. “Season two, episode ten.”

After checking their luggage and making it through security, Amy was sitting with Sally in the boarding area at the gate, her legs crossed, her hands folded in her lap, tapping her foot nervously.

This was the right decision, she considered. Getting back on a plane was the right decision but goddamn if she wasn’t jittery about it. She chastised herself silently, telling herself to stop being silly. What had happened on the

previous flight had been a fluke and unlikely to repeat itself.

Fine, that was true but it was doing little to help.

She took another glance over at the gate agent’s station. On the wall was an LED sign displaying their flight number and destination along with a handy-dandy countdown clock showing the time left until boarding was going to start. It currently read 31 minutes.

Amy let out a puff of breath. 31 minutes. And once more, her and Sally would be among the first passengers to board because, yet again, they had bought first-class tickets, which meant they’d be sitting on the airplane that much longer before takeoff.

Sitting. Sitting and waiting. Sitting and waiting and wondering. Sitting, waiting and wondering if the hexabolt thingamajigs which keep the wings attached to the plane had really been manufactured to the highest standards; or if the flight control software in the cockpit had been programmed by some loner dweeb who was having a bad day.

This isn’t helping!

“Fuck!” she muttered.

“Hey,” Sally whispered. “Why don’t you work on something? You have your laptop back.”

Amy shook her head, still tapping her foot.

“Good idea, but I can’t concentrate on anything right now. Aren’t you nervous?”

“Of course I am,” Sally whispered, placing her hand on Amy’s leg. That simple gesture was like a magic soothing balm which lowered Amy’s heartrate instantly and sent a surge of strength through her entire body.

“Fuck, that’s amazing!” Amy exclaimed, her eyes closed as she enjoyed the sudden calm.

“What is?”

“Your touch. It instantly calmed me down! You’re magical…”

Sally chuckled.