Chapter Nine: The Flight Home
628 Words
Chapter Nine: The Flight Home
Katherine
The flight home was supposed to feel easy.
After the rooftop dinner, something between us had shifted — gentle, unspoken, but real.
I could still hear his laugh in my head. Still feel that quiet understanding that had passed between us like a secret no one else could touch.
But by the time we reached the airport, Andrew was back to his usual self — crisp, unreadable, perfectly composed.
“Good work in Los Angeles,” he said as we boarded. “You handled the presentation well.”
Handled. Presentation.
The words were so formal they stung.
I nodded. “Thank you, sir.”
The “sir” slipped out on purpose. If he wanted distance, I could give him miles of it.
We took our seats — him by the window, me by the aisle. Silence stretched between us, filled only by the hum of the engines. I stared at my tablet, pretending to read, but my thoughts kept circling the same question: Was I foolish to think that night meant something?
Halfway through the flight, Andrew’s phone buzzed.
He glanced at the screen — then froze.
I didn’t mean to look, but the name flashing across the display made my stomach tighten.
“Melissa A. – PR.”
She was the head of Public Relations back at the firm — beautiful, sophisticated, and very rumored to be “close” to Andrew.
He answered in a low voice. “Yes, Melissa. I saw it.”
Pause. His tone hardened. “No, I don’t know how it leaked. I’ll deal with it when we land.”
When he hung up, his jaw was tight. I waited, but he didn’t say a word.
Finally, I whispered, “Something wrong?”
He turned to me, eyes shadowed. “Someone leaked photos from the trip.”
“Photos?”
He nodded. “Us. At the restaurant. Headline says, ‘CEO and Secretary: The Real Power Couple Behind Austin Enterprises.’”
My stomach dropped. “That’s insane. We weren’t—”
“I know.” His voice was calm, but his hands were clenched. “But the board won’t care. Optics matter.”
I leaned closer. “Andrew, I didn’t do anything wrong.”
He looked at me then — really looked — and for a heartbeat I saw the conflict burning behind his eyes.
“I know you didn’t,” he said quietly. “But this… this will make things difficult.”
He turned back to the window, shutting down the conversation as completely as he’d once shut me out.
I sat there in silence, staring at the clouds outside. The warmth from Los Angeles faded, replaced by the cold truth that no matter what we’d shared, his world could swallow me whole if it wanted to.
And right now, it looked like it might.
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Andrew
The headline had hit just hours after the meeting — some photographer must have followed them. One picture: him leaning toward Katherine, smiling. Another: her laughing, eyes soft.
Innocent moments, twisted into a story.
He wanted to protect her, but every decision came with risk. If he defended her too loudly, it would only feed the rumor. If he said nothing, she’d bear the shame alone.
For the first time, control felt like a cage.
He glanced sideways. Katherine was staring out the window, pretending to be composed, but he could see the tension in her shoulders.
He wanted to reach for her hand. To tell her it wasn’t her fault.
But instead, he whispered, “I’ll fix this.”
She didn’t look at him. “You can’t fix everything, Andrew.”
Maybe she was right.
But he was going to try.
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(End of Chapter Nine)
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