Page 18 of January (New Orleans #1)

“W e’re at an airport,” Kyle noted.

“We are, yes,” she replied, taking Kyle’s hand as they got out of the shared-ride car and started walking.

“ Why are we at an airport?”

“I thought about how, by now, you’ve seen a lot of the city, so I was trying to think about where to take you tonight that you haven’t already been to. There’s a ton of stuff outside New Orleans and throughout Louisiana, but I didn’t think you’d want to travel far.”

“So, you brought me to a small airport?”

Melinda laughed and said, “Yes. But there’s a reason.”

“Okay. I’ll trust–” Kyle stopped talking and walking at the same time, pulling Melinda back since their hands were joined.

“You guessed it, didn’t you?”

“You’re not… You didn’t?”

“I did,” Melinda said. “It’s waiting for us, so we should get over there.”

“You booked us a helicopter tour?” Kyle asked.

Melinda tugged on her hand and said, “You don’t have a fear of heights, do you?”

“No, but I’ve never been in a helicopter before.”

“I’ll protect you,” Melinda said, squeezing her hand.

“You can fly a helicopter?”

“No, but the pilot will handle that part if there’s an emergency, and I’ll handle you .”

“How will you do that?”

“I’m thinking hand-holding and probably just kissing you until we’re safely on the ground. ”

“You’ve done this before?”

“A few times over the years.”

“Mel, I don’t want to do something you’ve–”

“There’s nothing like seeing the city I love from above, Ky. Trust me, this is not a hardship.”

“But I’m sure it’s expensive. I should–”

“It’s not. I sent our pilot two groups just last week. He owes me a favor.”

“So, you didn’t have to pay an arm and a leg?” Kyle asked.

“Just an arm,” Melinda replied, joking with her. “Are you ready?”

“I guess I am,” Kyle said.

They approached where their pilot was waiting, and he gave them the instructions along with headsets and vests in case of emergency. Melinda kept Kyle close and squeezed her hand repeatedly, reminding her that she was there because Kyle had gone a ghostly pale. She wondered if this was a bad idea, but she thought Kyle would get some color back when they got into the air.

“Where are the others?” Kyle asked when she took her seat and buckled in.

“Others?” Melinda asked back through the headset as the helicopter started up.

“The other people on the tour.”

“Oh, babe… It’s just us,” she replied, smiling. “It’s a private tour.”

Kyle smiled wide, and Melinda had no idea how it felt like she’d known this woman forever when they’d only really just met, but it was there, the feeling like they’d always held hands and taken sunset helicopter tours of the city because Kyle had always been here and would always be here. Melinda swallowed at that last thought because, yes, it was true that Kyle would be here for a while, but she’d been unclear as to how long exactly that would be. If the fact that she had a contractor at the garden house earlier that day and a crew removing things so that the work could begin was any indication, the work she was staying for wouldn’t take all that long .

“Are you okay?” Kyle asked as the helicopter lifted.

Melinda barely heard her over the sound of the helicopter through the headphones, but she nodded.

“I’m amazing. You?”

Kyle looked out the window at her left and removed her hand from Melinda’s to place her own on Melinda’s knee. She squeezed it before she turned back to Melinda and smiled wider than Melinda had ever seen. Her color was back now, and so was her hand inside of Melinda’s.

“Mel, you want me to play the thing?” Jeremy, their pilot, asked.

“Ky, do you want the whole audio tour experience?” Melinda asked her.

“Can we?”

Melinda nodded, so Jeremy started up the recording, which introduced New Orleans from above.

“Welcome to your above-the-city tour of New Orleans, Louisiana. Tonight, we will fly over Jackson Square, the French Quarter, City Park, and Lake Pontchartrain, among some other landmarks, and I’ll be your guide as we take it all in, so sit back, relax, and enjoy your view of the beautiful New Orleans as the sun sets around you.”

Melinda had been up here before, and she hadn’t lied to Kyle: this view would never get old. She’d take in some of it tonight, but for now, she was more than content to watch Kyle taking it all in for the first time. Kyle continued to stare out the window, and a few minutes in, she pulled out her phone and began taking pictures. Melinda pulled her own phone out and took a few of Kyle, wanting to capture the memory for her for later. When Kyle turned and slid over toward her, Melinda was surprised, but Kyle cupped her chin and kissed her sweetly.

“Thank you for this. This is…” Kyle looked over Melinda’s shoulder out her window. “Amazing. The best thing I’ve ever done. I…”

Melinda kissed her again and said, “You’re welcome. Now, keep looking because this isn’t an all-night kind of tour. ”

When Kyle laughed in response, Melinda could hear it clearly through those headphones, and as Kyle continued to look around, Melinda held up her phone, and they posed for a picture together, smiling wide.

The tour was short, only about thirty minutes, but normally, they were only about twelve minutes, so Jeremy had more than doubled their time in the air. When they were on the ground, Melinda thanked Jeremy, and they removed the headphones and the vests, leaving the pilot to take care of his next tour group. They were safely at the entrance of the airport when Kyle pulled Melinda into her arms and kissed her hard, shocking Melinda at first until she melted into the kiss, letting Kyle press her against the side of the building. Melinda kissed her back, letting their tongues play for a bit before she heard the glass doors next to them open.

“Well, we should go on more helicopter tours,” she said, catching her breath.

“I can’t believe I was just in a helicopter,” Kyle replied, pressing her forehead against Melinda’s. “Thank you.”

“Thank Jeremy. He did all the hard work. All I did was take pictures and watch you look completely in awe.”

“I was in awe. I’ve been on a few planes, but there, you’re so high up most of the time that you can’t see anything. I can’t believe I got to see the whole city up close but also above it at the same time.”

“It’s a beautiful place,” Melinda said, kissing Kyle’s nose. “Now, I’ve got a reservation for us, so we should order a car.”

“Reservation?”

“You and Jolie didn’t take me up on Commander’s Palace when she was here, so I thought we’d go there tonight. Do you have anything against turtle soup?”

“Sorry. What?” Kyle asked, looking confused.

“You can try mine,” Melinda replied, pulling out her phone to order them a car since the small airfield was too far away for them to have walked. “And after dinner, if you want, we can grab drinks at Pat O’Brien’s. It’s inside a courtyard with a fountain that has a fire going through it. It’s touristy, but it’s cool, and you can order a Hurricane big enough for both of us. It’s a New Orlean’s standard.”

“You guys have a drink called a Hurricane in a city that has hurricanes every year?”

“We’re kind of known for it. We’re ironic or masochistic. I don’t know.” Melinda chuckled. “Or, we can go to one of the gay bars, if you want. It won’t be any quieter, though.”

“Can we have a drink somewhere else?”

“Name it,” she said, confirming her car.

“I still have those beers at the house. Though, there’s not much else there.”

“They didn’t leave anything?”

“They removed most of it in a few hours. Most of the furniture was cheap and easily taken apart, apparently, but they left the kitchen table and a couple of chairs.”

“What about that beautiful record player?”

“Packed away safely. But I do have a phone that plays music,” Kyle said, looking hopeful. “I was thinking that I’d rather be alone with you in a place where I can hear you than be in a bar where we’re likely to have to yell, or one of the million people you know here might spot us.”

Melinda smiled and said, “You know I have a nice apartment, and there’s beer there, too.”

“I know. But you don’t have my garden,” Kyle replied, taking her by the hips. “I also have blankets, and we could lie out under the stars for a while.”

“ Your garden,” Melinda asked, liking the sound of that.

“It will soon be filled with tourists, so we should enjoy it while we can.”

“Whatever you want,” Melinda said, trying not to think about tourists taking over a house that she now considered Kyle’s.

As they got into the car, she worried that when she’d be giving tours of the Garden District after Kyle returned home, she’d walk by this house, and her heart would hurt because Kyle wasn’t in it. Melinda wanted her to always be there, and as Kyle took her hand in the back seat, she wasn’t sure how she’d deal with her being gone, whenever that happened.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Kyle said softly.

Melinda turned toward her and replied, “Not really thinking about much.”

That was a lie, and she hated it, but they were in the back of a stranger’s car, so now wasn’t the time for her to bring up Kyle’s impending departure.

“I doubt that.” Kyle winked at her. “So, besides this soup with turtles in it, what else should I order at dinner?”

“How about you read the menu, and if you can’t decide, I’ll give you a recommendation? Everything there is delicious. You can’t go wrong.”

The car pulled up at the light-blue-and-white striped building across from Lafayette Cemetery No.1, which was where they’d gone on their cemetery tour that seemed so long ago now. Melinda gave her name at the podium, and they were ushered into the dining room that felt formal but not at the same time.

They started their meal with citrus-braised pork belly, and Kyle got the soup 1-1-1, which meant she got smaller portions of three different soups to try them all. Melinda ordered the romaine salad and watched Kyle explore the cuisine of her city and, seemingly, enjoy the turtle soup. Kyle then ordered the hard-cider veal, and Melinda ordered the steak, giving Kyle a chance to try that and the French potato puree Melinda had ordered with it. Despite being completely full, they still ordered and shared a dessert, which was a Southern Style Pecan Pie à la Mode, one of Melinda’s favorite desserts in town. Kyle seemed to enjoy everything. Melinda loved the food, but she enjoyed their conversation even more.

She pushed the thought of Kyle leaving out of her mind once again as they paid the check and walked hand in hand out of the restaurant. Due to it being in the Garden District, they decided to walk toward the house and enjoy the night air.

“So, since the shelves are built-ins, the books are still there. They’ll just cover them with a tarp or something, I guess. Want to pick something out, and we can sit outside and read by lantern light?” Kyle asked.

“What is your obsession with me reading in that garden?” she laughed.

“It’s stupid. Never mind.”

“No, Kyle; tell me.” Melinda leaned against her. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have laughed.”

“No, it’s not your fault. It’s weird. I know.”

“But you have some reason to bring it up twice, right?”

“You know how I’ve been reading my grandmother’s journals?”

“Yes.”

“I’m still going through the older ones, but she mentioned that she was lying outside in the garden, reading a book, when she met my grandfather for the first time.”

“Oh, Ky…” Melinda let out, understanding now.

“It’s silly. We met on a tour, and you’re not my future wi–” Kyle stopped herself. “Anyway, ever since I read that and we’ve decided to do this, I’ve had this image in my mind of you being in the garden, lying on a blanket, being taken away by a book or something, and it felt good picturing that. It felt kind of right.”

Kyle had been about to say that Melinda wasn’t her future wife, which was probably a good thing since this was only their second date, but Melinda thought about it, and while it scared the crap out of her, it also felt oddly right.

“What if we do that another day when I wouldn’t have to read with gas lanterns behind me and probably end up with bad eyesight? Tonight, we can just sit out there on that blanket under the stars and talk. Is that okay?”

“Was what I just said too much?” Kyle asked.

“No, Kyle. It was pretty perfect, actually.”

“You said you’ve done too much too soon before, and I–”

“Babe, we’re right on pace, okay?” Melinda interjected. “You don’t have to worry about going too fast or doing too much with me.”

“I don’t want us to…” Kyle sighed .

“I think I went too fast and had too soon with the wrong people, and that’s what made it feel wrong or how I got my heart broken. Kyle, what we’re doing now and how you’re talking doesn’t feel wrong to me, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Kyle replied.

“You didn’t happen to go shopping for a toothbrush or anything today, did you?” Melinda asked when they arrived at the front porch.

“Not today, but I brought over some stuff from the other house since I was going to be here all day, and I might have stolen one that Jolie got from the hotel because she forgot hers. She didn’t end up using it. We just bought one at a store. Long story to mention that I have two toothbrushes here. Why?”

“I was just thinking about how nice it might be to sleep outside under the stars and a whole lot of blankets with you,” Melinda said.

Kyle looked over at her in surprise, but then she smiled, and Melinda kissed her on the cheek.