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“Sick of you?” she asked. “If anything, I want more of you.”

Amy gasped and felt her heart flutter. The truth was, she felt exactly the same way. Spending a week in San Francisco with Sally had done nothing to diminish her desire for wanting to keep spending time with Sally. It was really crazy. Even things with Annabeth hadn’t started like this. In the beginning of that relationship, her and Annabeth would often go a few days without seeing each other or spending nights together. But with Sally…Amy was already at the point of feeling that there was no such thing as too much time together with her.

Chapter 34

Sally was reading on her Kindle, Amy sitting next to her typing on her laptop. She had no idea how long they’d been in the air but it felt like it could only have been about forty-five minutes or so, which meant there was still close to an hour before they landed in San Diego.

Despite trying to concentrate on her book, thoughts of this recent change in her life kept creeping in, making her smile slightly to herself.

She was on a plane after spending a week away with her girlfriend! And it had been so long since she’d felt this happy with another woman. Who was the last one, she wondered? Not just girlfriend, per se, but girlfriend she’d felt happy and content with. It had to have been Emily, she figured. That had been her last “serious” relationship, a little more than two years ago. Unfortunately, that feeling of happiness and contentment with Emily didn’t last.

Sally could never understand exactly what went wrong with her and Emily. There wasn’t that one thing which drove them apart like cheating or mistreatment of some form. It was just…one day they were happy and nuts for each other and then suddenly they weren’t. It was as if both of them, simultaneously, had lost all motivation to keep their romance alive and fresh and exciting. Towards the end, she and Emily were both just going through the motions until finally, they tearfully said goodbye to one another.

Other girlfriends Sally had had since Emily had been fun, sure; delightful in their unique ways; but those relationships hadn’t brought her that early-Emily-like happiness. Until now. With Amy.

Were her and Amy, though, doomed for the same ending Sally and Emily had suffered? Post-Emily, Sally had discovered that the problem with not having one definitive thing to point to as the cause of the end of a relationship is that at night, lying in bed along, wide awake, a woman’s mind starts to wonder, “Was it my fault? Was it something about me?”

But Sally didn’t feel that her Amy were going to end up like her and Emily. Don’t ask her why. All she knew was that this felt different; it felt like what the movies and the lesfic books and even some TV shows wanted one to believe it should feel like when you finally discover your soulmate. With Emily, Sally had been happy and content. With Amy, Sally was happy, content and whole.

The plane suddenly rocked a bit, pulling Sally from her reverie.

Turbulence.

Sally went back to reading her book.

Then the plane rocked again. Harder.

A nervous energy now filled the first-class cabin. Other passengers were looking up from their books or tablet screens. Next to her, Amy stopped typing. The fasten-seat-belt indicator chimed and lit up. The first-class flight attendant, who had been about to deliver a drink to a passenger quickly turned around and went back to the galley.

For a few moments, nothing else happened. The aircraft resumed its smooth journey through the air. Sally shared a quick no big deal smile with Amy and went back to reading.

And then…

Wham!

It was as if the hand of a god had swatted the plane from above. With gut-lurching suddenness, the plane shuddered and then plummeted. Screams filled the cabin, mixing with the sounds of banging that seemed to be coming from the underbelly of the craft, while the whine of the engines kicked up many decibels, as if the engines were being pushed to their max.

Sally dropped her Kindle and gripped the armrests of her seat. She could feel her body actually trying to lift off the seat as the rapid descent continued, her seatbelt the only thing keeping her in place.

“Sally!” Amy called out, her voice strained, like a character in a horror movie upon seeing the featured monster.

It got worse.

Suddenly the plane banked sharply. The screams—Sally’s included—rose in volume. The lights in the cabin went out. The overhead bins burst open and Sally felt something punch her in the head but with her eyes squeezed shut she had no idea what it was. A suitcase? A duffel bag?

“OhfuckOhfuckOhfuckOhfuckOhfuck!” she chanted, pausing only to scream again when the plane lurched violently again.

She knew this wasn’t turbulence. Something was mechanically or structurally wrong with their aircraft!

Fuck!

Somehow, the plane was corrected out of the bank but now it was as if they were driving on a cobblestone road because the airplane was shaking and trembling so vigorously that Sally was certain the welds and rivets could not possibly hold and that any second now the plane would shake itself apart. Somewhere in the row behind her, she heard someone throw up. She heard children and adults crying. She heard multiple people praying.

Sally opened her eyes.

I’m going to die.

It was a certainty. She knew it.