Flight Of Discovery

Linda's POV

I stare at my husband and my heart pounds in my chest.

“Wh-what are you doing here?” Chris asks, swallowing hard as if he was just caught stealing a cookie from a cookie jar.

“Uh…” I dragged the word, gripping my suitcase tighter.

“Passport, please…” the lady behind the desk interrupted our conversation. She was very beautiful.

But she had a look of impatience painted on her face.

I turned away from my husband and handed my passport to the lady while mumbling, “here.”

She took it, opened it and stared at the information before looking back at me. She did it one more time and then handed it back to me before flashing a smile.

Instead of holding up the line, I got out of the way and waited for Chris to present his passport.

He looked jittery and tried his best not to look in my direction.

Why was he acting this way?

If anything, I should have been the one behaving like that. Because I was literally running away to Iowa just so I could live a quiet life for a few months.

“Thank you,” he said to the lady before stepping out of the way for the others to present their passports too.

“What are you doing here?” He asked in a stage whisper as he gestured for us to walk towards the loading bridge that led to the entrance of the plane.

I avoided looking him in his eyes and smiled nervously. “It’s complicated.”

“Complicated? You should be at home, Linda. But here you are boarding a plane to New York.”

“I’m not going to New York, Chris. It’s just my first stop, and I will board another plane to take me to Iowa.”

“Iowa? Why?” He twisted his face in confusion.

We were now in the huge plane, walking down the aisle. It was dark outside already.

I sighed as we came to a stop at our seats. We were not seated far from each other. In fact, we were right next to each other.

Another lady sat at the window side though. She looked young and very beautiful.

She could be a model, honestly. People like that made me feel very self-conscious of myself.

“As I told you, it’s complicated,” I replied to him as I placed my suitcase up in the overhead bin.

“Make it uncomplicated.” He did the same with his small black suitcase. Then he sat next to the girl.

With the way the girl was staring at him, I did not like that at all. It was like she was trying to flirt with my husband.

I sat down and as I did my seatbelt, I explained, “I’m sorry because I was not going to tell you. But I had planned to go to Iowa and live there for a few months.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t understand…”

I then went on to explain it all to him. I told him about how I have been feeling and how being a housewife just does not feel like me.

“Oh…” he replied coldly. “And you weren’t going to tell me?” I could sense some hurt in his voice.

“I was!” I was quick to reply. “I was going to tell you! But eventually…”

He sighed and then held his forehead as he closed his eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

“Mm-hmm,” he mumbled while nodding. His eyes were still closed. Until a girl walked up to us and spoke.

“Excuse me, that’s my seat,” the girl said, pointing towards where the model-looking girl was.

Chris opened his eyes and when he saw the girl speaking, his eyes widened but he tried to mask it.

I could see it though. I could literally see the worry in his eyes. And it intrigued me.

“Oh, really?” The model-looking girl replied, checking her boarding pass. She then lifted her eyes from the pass. “I’m so sorry, you’re right.”

She got up and was careful as she got out of the sitting area and went to look for her actual seat.

“You believe how dumb people can be?” The girl asked, chuckling as she sat to her seat, fastening her seatbelt right away.

Almost everyone was in their seats. The few that weren’t, the flight attendants were helping them out.

“Yeah,” Chris chuckled the word out nervously as he scratched behind his neck.

He really was not being himself.

“I hate that we didn’t use your private jet, it was much more peaceful the last time.” The girl explained, talking to my husband.

I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to mentally chew on what I had just heard.

“Meghan…” he said to her what I think is her name in a hushed tone.

“What?” She shrugged. “I’m just being honest. I want to be able to be alone with my boyfriend, not with a hundred strangers.”

Chris sighed in defeat.

Did I just hear her right? No…tell me that this is not true. Tell me I’m dreaming.

“Excuse me?” I laughed the word out in a dry and cold way.

“Oh, dear. I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to my boyfriend, Chris.” She tried to give him a kiss on his cheek but he pulled away.

“Your boyfriend?” I raised one of my eyebrows. I then turned to my husband. “So wait, you have a girlfriend?”

“Linda, I can explain…”

“That’s why you’re on this flight, aren’t you? To fly somewhere and have a jolly good time with her for Christmas?”

I could feel my heart bleeding. This had to be a f*cking dream. It had to be.

No, a nightmare. It had to be a nightmare.

“Is she…?” Meghan asked, putting the puzzle pieces together.

“Yes, Meghan. F*ck yes, she’s my wife!” He raised his voice at her, annoyed.

A few passengers looked our way but I did not care. Normally, I would have but I was so high from the adrenaline right now.

“Look…Linda…I can explain.” He pleaded with me with his eyes.

“Explain what? That you have been playing me?” I scoffed. “Gosh, I’m so stupid.” I tried to unfasten my seatbelt. I did not want him to see me cry.

“Linda, Linda…” He tried to stop me. “The plane is already moving, sit down.” He touched my arm.

And that was the exact moment that something in me snapped. I lost it, and I mean big time.