Page 49 of When Javi Dumped Mari

“No, thanks. I read last night that you shouldn’t eat or drink anything that can make you nauseated. Besides, my tolerance for anything but beer is nonexistent.”

He draws back. “Aren’t you a bartender?”

I laugh. “Part time, yeah. It’s one of life’s great ironies.”

“ Interesting ,” he says, tapping his lips with his index finger.

He shoves the backpack under his seat and fishes out his phone.

I tilt my head and study him with suspicion. “Aren’t you going to take a shot?”

“Oh no,” he says, his gaze fixed on his phone screen. “I need to keep my head on straight for the jump.”

“So why’d you offer me a shot, then?”

He gives me a once-over, then grins. “Because you’re a first-timer. To loosen you up.”

“Huh, I see.”

I’m not buying it. But whatever. I’ll be in someone else’s hands, not his.

***

“Javier, you’ll be riding in tandem with Alex,” the lead instructor, Mason, says during the safety briefing.

I swallow. Hard. “Excuse me?” I ask, trying to blink away my confusion.

We’re in a small building outside the air hangar where First in Flight Skydiving runs through the protocol for each jump. I now realize why Alex has been so buddy-buddy with the staff: He knows them.

“That’s right,” Alex says, throwing his arm over my shoulder. “I was an instructor here during law school. I still do jumps on an as-needed basis too.”

“What about them?” I ask, jutting my chin in the direction of Joel and Ramón.

“They’re both experienced,” Mason says. “You’re the only newbie.”

I turn to Alex, letting out a deep, heavy sigh. “So you’re trained for this?”

“Yep,” he says, grinning at me. “Licensed, certified, and up- to-date. Plus, I have over seven hundred jumps under my belt. Trust me, you’re in good hands.”

Well, that’s unfortunate. “Ever had an accident?”

“Not one…though there’s a first time for everything.”

My eyes bulge, and he lightly punches me in the stomach. “I’m just messing with you, man. You’ll be fine.”

Alex’s cousin chooses that moment to stick his phone in my face.

Shit, they’re recording this too? I give him a thumbs-up, although I’m anything but okay.

The waiver alone, all four pages of it, isn’t helping to calm my nerves either; it may as well have said you will die, and it’s no one’s fault but your own .

“Hey, Mason,” Alex says. “We should let Javier practice on the creeper board. Give him a sense of positioning.”

Mason angles his head, his lips pursed, then says, “We could just show—”

“No, no,” Alex says, staring at him pointedly. “We should get him on the ground.”

What the hell does that mean?

“Ah, all right,” Mason says, jutting his jaw out. “I’ll go get them.”

I’m pacing when Mason returns with a jumpsuit and two contraptions that remind me of those rolling boards mechanics use to get under the body of a car.

“Here’s your jumpsuit,” he tells me. “You can go behind that dressing curtain and put it on over your clothes. Then, when you’re ready, we’ll get you on the creeper board and show you how it’s done.”

I shuffle away, wondering what decisions got me to this point.

Why did I let bravado talk me into this situation?

I puff out short breaths in the dressing area as I tug on the jumpsuit.

A quick inspection in the mirror gasses my head up, though.

Now that I see the entire outfit, though, I’m actually impressed.

I look legit. I just need theme music, a badass turbojet, and a cool call sign like Papi Chulo .

I reenter the training area and put my arms out at my sides. “Ready.”

Alex nods, his foot on one of the boards Mason brought in earlier. “Here you go,” he says, kicking the contraption my way. It slides over the distance between us, and I stop it with a tap of my heel.

I look down at the board, then lift my gaze to him. “What am I supposed to with it?”

“You lie down on it, Javier. It’ll mimic your horizontal position in the air. Helps you practice how to hold your arms and legs in a starfish stance during the jump.”

My gaze swings between Alex and Mason. “Is this necessary?”

Mason remains silent, while Alex sighs.

“Don’t you want the jump to be a success?” Alex asks.

“Of course I do.”

“Then get on your belly and practice.”

So I do. Reluctantly. The position is odd, and for a fleeting moment I wonder what I look like from everyone else’s perspective, but then I start moving around on the board, my legs bent at the knees, and my arms out to the sides, and I can picture how this will be useful for the actual jump.

“You’re getting all this,” Alex asks his cousin.

“Sure am,” he replies.

Alex rests his foot on my back and shifts me from side to side. “Keep your head tucked to protect you from that initial blast of air.”

“Got it.”

Mason kicks the other creeper board in Alex’s direction. “You’re an instructor. Show him.”

There’s a gruffness to Mason’s tone, almost as if he’s annoyed, although Alex doesn’t seem fazed by it.

In fact, Alex doesn’t hesitate to take Mason’s suggestion, dropping on his haunches and extending his body as if he’s surfing.

“Now, it might get choppy out there,” he says to me, “so I’ll help you get used to that. ”

I’m unsure what Alex means, but then he grabs the edge of my board and spins me in a circle. My hands fly out, trying to keep my balance, but I’m completely disoriented.

“Okay, I think I’ll be able to handle it,” I squeak out, trying not to get dizzy.

Except he doesn’t stop and instead spins me even faster, his laughter echoing off the walls of the training room.

“Uncle!” I cry out. “Uncle!”

“What’s up?” Ramón asks.

“No, not you, uncle. I meant—”

Fuck this.

I press my hands against the ground and propel myself over to Alex like a sea turtle on crack, and then I grab his arm and push him with all the strength I can muster, sending him crashing into a folding chair.

“That’s enough, children,” Mason says on a chuckle. “Let’s get everyone on the plane.”

I roll off the creeper board and jump to my feet. Which is a mistake. Because I stumble around, trying to regain my equilibrium, and run into the mobile privacy screen, toppling it over.

After I recover, Mason stands in front of me, inspecting my face. “You didn’t drink before you got here, did you?”

“Just water, I promise.”

Joel and Ramón laugh their asses off. Alex rubs his elbow. And I glare at the man who’ll be responsible for bringing me back to earth from fifteen thousand feet in the air.

This is a disaster.

***

“This is going to be fire!” Joel shouts, jumping in place. On a plane. Why would someone need to lift themself in the air when they’re already at ten thousand feet and climbing?

Damn, I think I’m getting lightheaded.

I tap Alex on the shoulder. “When do I actually get attached to you?” I yell over the sound of the plane’s engine.

He whirls around from his spot near the plane’s door. “You don’t. Just hold on to me as tight as you can.”

I stare at Alex in a daze. That can’t be right, but my central nervous system is shutting down, and I’m not able to tell what’s real anymore.

Ramón laughs good-naturedly. “Stop messing with him, mijo. He’s a good guy.”

Alex smiles sheepishly. “Fine, I’ll strap you in now. We’ll be jumping soon.”

My stomach drops, but there’s nothing I’m willing to do about it. I’m going to see this through even if it kills me—literally.

The door of the plane lowers, and I hang onto a bar to get a closer look.

The first thing I notice is a kaleidoscope of blues blanketing the sky.

The air appears hazy, the clouds close enough to touch.

The peaks and valleys seem richer in texture from this vantage.

Up here, the deep green of a tree line stretches forever and parts of the terrain resemble a jigsaw.

The wind’s also smacking the shit out of my face.

Alex walks behind me and attaches my harness to his at four different points. There’s very little space between us, and if I’d known yesterday that skydiving would require Alex and me to be literally attached at the hip, I would have pretended to be felled by a bout of dysentery to get out of it.

“How does that feel?” he asks against my ear.

“So good,” I say in a seductive whisper, trying to get my mind off what’s about to happen.

He smacks the side of my head, then pulls it back to rest against his shoulder so I don’t block his view. We watch Joel and Ramón jump out of the plane as if they’re walking out the front door of their homes; they make it look that easy. And then it’s our turn.

I squeeze my eyes shut, say a quick prayer, and blow out a deep breath.

“Let’s do this,” Alex shouts, and then we’re marching forward in unison, looking like discount stormtroopers, I’m sure.

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.

I grab the plane’s doorframe in a last-ditch effort to delay the inevitable.

“Let go,” Alex yells, peeling my fingers off the plane.

Before I can even brace myself, he’s pushing us forward, and we’re jumping out of the plane together. Fifteen thousand feet from the ground.

I’m weightless. A speck floating in the air high above the great big world below.

It’s surreal—and unsettling. It reminds me of the time my brothers got me drunk while my parents were away for the weekend.

I was only sixteen, and the cheap liquor they snuck into my cup overloaded my senses.

I hated that feeling, and I’ve been queasy about alcohol ever since.

Pushing that memory away, I try to focus on the here and now.

Before long, I regain my equilibrium and can’t help taking in the wonder of it all.

I’m suspended in the earth’s atmosphere. How cool is that?

And then there’s pressure, as if I’m being pushed upward and might never land.

They told us we’d be free-falling at one hundred twenty miles per hour, but other than the flapping of my cheeks as the wind hits them, I can hardly tell.

This is unlike anything I’ve ever done before, and I wish Mari were here to experience it with me. She’d love it. Maybe one day we could do this together.

Alex spins us around a few times, then says, “I’m going to release the parachute now. You’ll feel a bit of a jerk when I do.”

The soundlessness in the sky contrasts starkly with the roar of the plane’s engine moments ago, so Alex’s voice permeates the quiet, yanking me back to reality just as harshly as the jolt from the parachute’s release.

That’s when I remember: Mari and I won’t be going skydiving now or in the future.

She’s getting married in two days—to the guy strapped to my back; as exhilarating as it is out here, my heart still sinks.

I’m so wrapped up in my thoughts, I almost miss that we’re steadily making our descent. The wind is smacking my face, my stomach’s churning, and the ground is coming at me fast. Seconds later, I land on my ass and bounce three times before Alex topples over me, halting my forward momentum.

After he helps me up, he slaps my back. “You did good. And the video’s going to be hilarious. Marisol’s really going to get a kick out of it.”

This is all one big game to him. What a jerk.

Panting, I give Alex a thumbs-up. Then I chuckle to myself while I make plans in my head. I’m going to wipe the smirk off this man’s face if it’s the last thing I do.