Page 57

“Oh, no. I just ate. With a… friend.”

“That was some hesitation there.”

“English isn’t my first language.”

That seemed to satisfy Riley, who backed off from teasing Arianna. “I didn’t mean to bother you. Only wanted to say hi. This is kind of a lonely city, isn’t it?”

“Is it all that different from LA?”

A laugh louder than anyone else in the hotel echoed in that corner of the bar. “No! But it’s a lot cleaner, that’s for sure!”

Arianna had to keep going, but not before she politely said goodbye to Riley and announced they’d see each other again on Monday. I can’t believe this is the backup hotel for Royal Asia… How? Who would recommend it, when it was so expensive compared to the usual travel hotel at the airport? And so far away, too! Crew members in uniform usually took taxis to and from the airport as opposed to the MRT simply to avoid the stares. Then again, Riley was probably getting stared at anyway…

“You’ll never guess who I just ran into here,” Arianna texted her girlfriend once on the rail platform. “One of the pilots from our flight! Is this the Royal Asia layover hotel? We should be careful. She could have seen us having lunch together.”

The train soon approached. Arianna put that encounter out of her mind to focus on touching base with her sister, who would soon be meeting Elle.

With a hand clamped on Riley’s shoulder, Elle asked, “Enjoying your layover?”

To her credit, Riley didn’t leap out of her barstool, nor did she choke on her lunch. “You’re the second person from the flight to say hello to me. Saw one of the cute flight attendants buzzing by a few minutes ago.”

I know. The whole reason Elle turned around and reentered the hotel was to see this for herself. It wasn’t until she saw Riley sitting at the bar, bored out of her mind, that she remembered casually recommending Lion Orchard to the man in charge of layover accommodations. Of all the weekends for them to have to be sleeping here…

“Hopefully you’re not giving them too hard of a time.”

“I’m not gonna lie, I’d love to give some of them a hard time. Have you seen them?”

She better not be talking about my Arianna. Of course she was. Riley loved every femme woman to cross her path, and she had a killer gaydar that had probably pegged Arianna in one meeting. They met at the photoshoot, didn’t they? All three of Elle’s recommendations had been invited, which should have been a lovely ego stroke, but only caused issues now that Elle was secretly dating Arianna. Her girlfriend was right. They had to be careful, and they were sloppy.

“Be careful with flirting with flight attendants. You never know which one might slap you and cause problems far enough up the ladder that it reaches me.”

“Didn’t realize you were one of my direct bosses. That’s some guy named Ray or Roy or Ray Roy.”

Ray Wallace, VP of Pilots. That was the man who made the direct decisions that affected the pilots and copilots under Royal Asia’s watch. While it was true that Elle wasn’t his boss, she knew a man on the board who was.

Not that it affected things… for now.

“Then again,” Riley mused. “You could always be the one giving me the hard time.”

Elle had every desire to knee the bottom of Riley’s stool. “You must be desperate if you’re half-coming on to me. It wasn’t like we rocked each other’s world.”

“Uh, says you. I’ve got some fond memories, Ms. Sparrow.”

For the first time since going by that moniker on the passenger manifest, Elle hated it. “If you spread around that I am flying under an assumed name, I will make your life hell.”

“Whoa, whoa, okay. I was joshing with you. I think it’s funny. How has no one on the crew made you yet? Do they not check the website?”

“My picture isn’t on there.”

“Guess not. Anyway, forgive me, boss, for lightly flirting with you. But know that as long as we’re single it’s always a possibility.”

“I’m not single.”

“Oh?” Riley arched her brows. “Neat. Good to know, and congratulations.” She looked like she was about to say something else but refrained. “She’s a lucky lady.”

Elle looked at her watch, realizing that she was now officially running late. “You know, there are gay bars in town you could hit up. With your oozing charm, you’re bound to find a lucky lady to bring home tonight. It’s legal here.”

“Why you gotta say it like that? It’s legal?”