Just barely caught it.

I make my way towards gate 4, when the stewardess looks me up and down in disgust. I scoff and give her my boarding pass, showing her my coffee soaked dress as a passive excuse. She hands me back my boarding pass, and shoves me off. Not was I expecting after the look i got. I make my way down the long hall and extensions towards the plane entrance. I'm greeted by a very friendly blonde steward and another blonde stewardess.

“Well darling don't you look rough! Let me see your boarding pass and tell me what happened to you!” the female flight attendant rushes to my side, grabbing my ticket and my dress. I begin to tell her my story as she hands the dress to the younger male flight attendant behind her. She waits until i'm done to turn to Johnny.

“Johnny, take this dress to sink and clean it with our laundry detergent and hang dry for as long as we can okay? Thanks.” She says to him sternly, not giving him a chance to speak before she shoos him away. “Alright sweet pea, let’s head towards your seat and ill get you a couple drinks before we take off alright? We’ll also bring your mostly dry, clean dress to you at the end of the flight.” She smiles, turning around and greeting the next guest. I start to organize myself, getting out my book and blanket from my carry-on. The flight attendant heads over to me with three vodka shots, thank god, I love first class. I pound them as fast as she places them down and I ask for a vodka sprite with a tequila shot on the side. She looks shocked but brushes it off quickly with a smile and a quick turn towards their station. By the time she gets back im already feeling the vodka, so I cuddle into my seat, put my seatbelt and begin to read my book.

I make it a few pages in when a familiar face sits next to me, Rafael. “Well hello there sexy thing” He chuckled, remembering when he saved my ass 20 minutes ago. “Oh my, please don't let that stick. How convenient were on the same flight.” I move my blanket so he can sit down. I'm already drunk and exhausted and were only just getting ready to go in the air. Rafael peers over at me and notices how sluggish I am so he asks for a water. I drink it all in a few large gulps. I look at him, and tell him that I hate flying so I was gonna sleep. He didn’t argue, as if he was expecting that response all along. I cover both of us in the blanket and fall asleep leaning on his shoulder.

---------------------------------RAFAEL’S POV---------------------------------

I’ve never been so mesmerized before, I can't stop staring at her perfect caramel skin tone. Her skin shimmer’s against the light from the window, as her golden brown hair glimmers and shines. She is the most perfect woman i've ever laid my eyes on, and I've always had women falling at my feet. As nervous as I make her, I can't get enough. Every stutter and sideways glance has my pants getting tighter and tighter. I may have finally found someone i'm obsessed with just as much as they are me, if not more. Can I really bring myself to bring her into my life? I couldn't risk her safety if the family ever finds me again.

She tosses and turns in her sleep, I grab her hand as she begins to mumble in her sleep. “Dad.. Papa… PAPA!” She jolts awake, clenching her chest with her fists, tears welling up in her eyes. She starts to heavy breathe, so I grabbed her blanket and throw it over both our heads until we're blocked away from the the rest of the airplane. I use my hand on her face to guide her gaze towards me, holding in a smirk as I notice how large my hands are on her body. “Talk to me Ava, what's going on? Are you okay?” She doesn't even seem like she's completely aware of her surroundings. She starts mumbling words only i can put together through her accent at a low whisper.

“I’ve always hated flying, it's not the height but more of the danger and unsafe aspects to it. When I was 13 I was doing tactical training with my dad, we started in a helicopter and drop onto a building and do some recon and takedowns like always. He felt that I was stronger than siblings, even if I was the youngest I had ‘potential’. Well, we were getting ready to do our regular run when our home base camp was attacked by a rival mob, the Sanchez family. They shot a missile at our helicopter, but our pilot was experienced and he managed to dodge it the best he could. It clipped our helicopter blades and we plummeted to the ground below. My father pulled me close to him and threw a backpack on me.” The words leave her mouth like an avalanche, uncontrollable and quick.

"“YOU NEED TO PULL THE CORD AS SOON AS YOU GET AWAY FROM US, YOU RUN THIS FAMILY.” He yelled at me, he was just trying to reach my ears over the roar of the helicopter blades and engine failure. I can barely hear him when he throws me out of the helicopter. I pull the cord and pull myself together, going into.. Battle.. .. mode ...” She dozes off on my arm. Did she even realize what she just told me? I’m super excited that she can’t really judge me for who I used to be, but she basically outed her family and admitted her identity to me. That's not even the worst part, my legal name is Rafael Sanchez. I changed it to Rafael Cortez when my family grew their **** and gun running business from Brazil to Columbia eventually taking over half of South America. My family killed her father..