Page 95 of Fly with Me

STELLA

I’m still thinking.

Olive chuckled and sipped her coffee, spilling a couple of drops on the third page of the survey and then hastily mopping them up with her hoodie sleeve.

STELLA

I can’t believe you put that your most embarrassing moment was what happened in Disney World. That’s cheating. Nothing you did at Disney was at all embarrassing.

OLIVE

Your adorable TikTok dances with your cousins shouldn’t count either then. Those weren’t embarrassing either. I created an account just so I could follow you.

STELLA

I figured the User1578940301 that was liking the videos was you. Or at least I hoped it was.

Olive laughed and began scribbling down answers to the questions on the back. Most of the questions were designed to make events easier, focusing on ordering choices or things that could naturally come up in conversation that would be weird for partners not to know about each other. Like secret TikTok accounts. But some just seemed random, like question ninety-one. Favorite smell? Olive’s given answer: freshly cut grass and cake batter, but not at the same time (actual answer: lilacs and vanilla). Stella’s answer: petrichor or cherry Slurpee. Who even knew the word petrichor? And cherry Slurpee?

Question eighty-one: Did you ever play team sports? Olive’s answer: veteran hospital softball league right fielder, which involved a specialized skill of standing in one spot and hoping the ball didn’t come near her. She wasn’t sure if she should mention that one time when she tried to play hockey like Jake and got a concussion in her first practice in peewee league. Stella’s answer: soccer, volleyball, and track. With a note below that Stella only joined the teams when those sports didn’t interfere with marching band. Who was this woman?

She was adorable.

STELLA

Why did you just put April 25 next to the question that asks for your ideal date?

OLIVE

Derek is going to view you asking that as a major strike against our fake relationship.

STELLA

Huh?

OLIVE

It’s a reference to one of his favorite movies. Never mind. But uh… my ideal date would be a museum or really exploring a new city.

STELLA

That actually sounds perfect. Thought any more about Italy?

OLIVE

I had one of my plane crash nightmares just a few nights ago actually.

Olive could imagine those tiny lines of frustration around Stella’s eyes. They always appeared whenever Olive talked about air travel being dangerous.

STELLA

AIR TRAVEL IS SAFER THAN DRIVING!

Oooh. She coaxed all caps and an exclamation mark from her. She must really be mad. They continued back and forth for a while about air travel. Olive sent Stella a link to a transatlantic cruise. Stella sent back a link to an article about an outbreak of foodborne illness on a ship.

Rude.

There was a lull in messages while Olive continued to fill out the other half of the survey while skimming through the pages of the thick binder.