It scared me to think of what she might be running from at this point.
Did she have the baby and feel guilty over giving it up?
Fuck.
The urgent need to know what happened was making my skin crawl.
Kendall had been talking to one of the passengers when she suddenly began to make her way down the aisle toward the back of the plane.
She spoke to one of the other flight attendants. “I need a bandage for the passenger in 6C. Where do we keep those again?”
“I’ll grab it,” her co-worker said.
She happened to look in my direction while she was waiting for her colleague to fetch the Band-Aid.
Our eyes locked, and there was no turning back.
Looking like she’d seen a ghost, Kendall grabbed the back of one of the seats for balance. We just stared at each other for the longest time. The look on her face gave me the impression that if we weren’t thousands of feet in the air, she would have run away from me, not toward me. Actually, it looked more like she was debating whether to jump.
Even though she was right in front of me, she seemed miles away, far from being ready to face me. Perhaps, she truly thought she would never see me again. I’d often wondered if that would be the case myself.
“We need to talk,” I said in a low voice before silently mouthing, “Later.”
Before she could respond, the other attendant returned. “I’ve got the bandage.”
Kendall didn’t move. She was still looking at me, blinking, flustered.
The woman waved the bandage to garner her attention. “Kendall…”
Breaking her stare, Kendall cleared her throat and took it. “Oh, thank you.”
Her walk back to the front was slow and almost wobbly. She held onto the back of each seat as she made her way down the aisle. I knew my showing up would be a shock, but clearly it had really done a job on her. Sweating profusely, I was in no better shape.
By the time the plane landed, I’d had no further interactions with Kendall.
Her voice came over the intercom once. “Please remember to take all of your belongings before deplaning.”
I waited for all of the passengers to empty out of the aircraft before slowly walking toward where she was beginning to clean up. I stopped short at the sound of the Captain addressing her.
“Kendall, you feel like getting a drink with us downtown?”
My fists instinctively tightened. I knew all too well what he was up to. He was a fucking snake. This was the pot calling the kettle black, of course; I was a viper myself at one time.
“No. Thank you. I’m kind of tired. I’m gonna head home.”
Home?
Was she living in Boston?
She wasn’t looking at me as I passed by them to the exit. With everyone’s eyes on her, I couldn’t risk causing her to break down here in the plane. Instead, I simply walked with a lump in my throat down the jetway to the terminal and waited.
Ten minutes later, Kendall emerged, flanking the two pilots and the rest of the crew. She was rolling a small black suitcase. When she stopped, the Captain turned around.
“Are you sure I can’t convince you to come?”
“I’m sure. See you next week.”
“Alright.”
I gave him the evil eye. When they were out of earshot, Kendall finally turned to me.
Sucking in my jaw, I stood there facing her, still barely able to breathe let alone talk.
I managed to say, “Hi, Perky.”
Her eyes slowly filled with tears that didn’t fall. “What are you doing here?”
“What do you think? I needed to see you.”
“You should’ve left well enough alone.”
I took a few steps closer. “I needed to know you’re okay.”
She stepped back a bit. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
“How did you find me?”
“I’d stopped looking, and then it happened.”
Understandably, she looked confused. People were passing us by, but we just stood motionless in the same spot.
“I need to know what’s going on with you, Kendall.”
Shaking her head, she cried, “Well, I don’t want to know what’s going on with you. Because I can’t handle it.”
I raised my voice. “You can’t handle the thought of my fathering a child with another woman because you still love me.” Inches from her face now, I said, “I hate to break it to you, but you left for nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“The baby’s not mine. He’s not mine, Kendall! A DNA test confirmed it. She was trying to trap me.”
“Whose is it?”
“Fuck if I know.”
Thinking about that whole situation was making me incredibly angry all of a sudden.
She lifted her hand to her mouth. “Oh my God.” We were quiet for about a minute straight as a woman’s voice rang out over the intercom to announce that someone was lost.