Standby (Open Skies Book 4) by Becca Jameson (popular e readers .TXT) 📕

with airport security. Renee Delgado. I can’t say if he’s dated other flight attendants or not. If you can call it dating. Did he…uh…” Heather’s cheeks turned red and she glanced away.

Shayla set a hand on top of Heather’s. “I know this is a difficult discussion. Trust me. How about I tell you what happened to me and then you can share whatever you want.”

Heather nodded. “Okay. Sorry. I’m nervous. I’ve never told anyone still.”

“I get it. I do. I’m just as embarrassed. I didn’t even tell my closest friends until a few days ago. And that’s only because I happen to be friends with other flight attendants. Libby, Christa, Raeann, and Bex noticed I wasn’t myself lately, and they heard the rumors.”

“Right. I don’t have that many close friends at work, so there was no one to corner me,” Heather murmured.

Shayla drew in a breath, deciding to tell Heather everything. “The first night we were together, we had gone out with a bunch of people after the first leg of an overnight. He and I stayed later than everyone else at the bar. He’d asked me out before, but I always turned him down. That night, I fell for his charm. I’m not proud to admit I went back to his room and slept with him.”

Heather set a hand on Shayla’s this time. “Don’t beat yourself up. I did the same thing. He’s just so…charismatic or whatever. He flirted with me mercilessly for a month before luring me to his room.”

Shayla nodded. “That’s exactly what happened.”

“He didn’t call you the next morning, did he?”

Shayla smirked. “No.”

“Same here.” Heather sat straighter, emboldened now. “A week later, we did the same thing. By then I had red flags, but I was so under his spell that I ignored the warning bells.”

“Me too.” Shayla smiled. “God, it feels good to know I’m not alone.” She leaned in closer. “And he’s a shitty lover. He never once cared about taking care of me. Just got his rocks off and went to sleep.”

Heather giggled, nodding. “Yes! Drove me bonkers. But I didn’t have a lot of prior experience to compare him to, and he’s so gorgeous and everyone loves him. I thought I was the crazy one.”

Shayla groaned and rolled her eyes. “Same here.” She was smiling broader, feeling lighter than she had in months.

Heather sobered. “Did he hit you?” she asked in a low voice.

“Yeah,” Shayla admitted, glancing down. “And I’m pissed that I let it get that far. He’d already been abusing me verbally before that night, and I knew he was different. I could sense it. It’s like he’s got two personalities or something. He got angry sometimes and would yell at me and then apologize.”

Heather nodded. “Exactly.”

“I had decided I was done. I didn’t want to go another round with him. So, I let him come to my room as I broke things off. He didn’t like that and slammed my head against the wall. That was it. The last straw. Really that was past the last straw, but after that, I knew definitively he was an asshole. Somehow the verbal abuse didn’t register fully as abuse, but after he put his hands on me…”

Heather grabbed Shayla’s palm again and squeezed. “I was a bit more naïve than you and younger at the time. I didn’t leave quite as quickly.” She glanced away and then back. “Not that it’s any excuse. It’s not. But my parents didn’t model a good relationship, so I naively thought all men lost their tempers and yelled at women. It wasn’t really odd to me.”

“How did you end up leaving?” Shayla asked.

“Like you said, the red flags were piling up. He never contacted me between flights. He never took me on real dates. And this became more obvious over the course of two months. A few times I asked him to do something outside of work with me, and he made excuses. The physical abuse started small. Little things like being too rough with me in bed and then one time he slapped me and said it was an accident.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Heather drew in another breath. “The final straw was one night when he was particularly angry. I decided to go into the bathroom for a while so he could calm down. I think he’d been yelling at a game on TV. It wasn’t even about me. But he grabbed my arm and jerked me back into the room so hard it took my breath away.”

Shayla cringed.

“Even that wasn’t really enough. I might have gone back still if my roommate hadn’t seen the bruises on my arm. She knocked some sense into me. I texted him that I wanted to stop seeing him, and that’s when he started the rumors.”

They stared at each other in silence for a few moments before Shayla spoke. “I can’t believe we both went through the same thing.”

“The rumors aren’t even different. You’d think he would get creative.”

“No shit. And you never told HR?”

Heather winced. “No. And I feel bad about that now. Maybe I could have saved you from all this pain.”

Shayla shook her head. “Don’t beat yourself up. I didn’t tell HR either. I still haven’t. I kept hoping it would end and he would stop harassing me.”

“I think I dodged a bullet when he found someone else to abuse. That was the end of his texts.”

“Honestly, I’m sure you would agree, I’m afraid if I tell HR, I’ll be the one who ends up hurt. Somehow, I’ll end up fired and he’ll be the victim. He’s got a lot of seniority with the airline. Why would anyone believe me over him? It would be a he-said, she-said. That hasn’t been going well in this country lately.” Shayla cringed at the memory of several prominent members of society who had been slandered by men like Hawke and ended up abused all over again in the court of public opinion.

“Exactly. I really don’t want my face all over the