Page 7 of First Comes Marriage
Holy shit, what if I die today?
“Sabrina!”
Sebastian’s harsh bark pulled her attention, and she jerked her head towards him, but she didn’t see him. Not really.
You are not going to die today. You arenotgoing to die today.
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered. He took her hand and pressed it to his chest. “Breathe,” he ordered, and then began counting, a slow chanting of “one two three four five” over and over.
As her breathing slowed and air rushed into her lungs, embarrassment crept in. It had been months since she’d had a panic attack. Maybe she should have listened to her therapist about the inane, happy mantras instead of ones that included words like “death trap” and “fiery blaze.”
“Everyone alright over here?” the cheery voice of the flight attendant asked from the aisle.
Baz kept his eyes locked on Sabrina’s, waiting for her to answer.
“Y-yes,” she stammered. “I’m fine.”
The flight attendant’s plastic smile flickered towards Sebastian, looking for confirmation.
“Fine,” he grunted.
“Alright,” the flight attendant said with a smile. “Then please fasten your seatbelt, ma’am. We’ll be taking off in a few moments.”
She reluctantly pulled her hand away from the heat of Sebastian’s chest. Her fingers were clumsy as they fumbled with the belt buckle.
“Christ’s sake,” he muttered, reaching over and buckling her seatbelt with a metallic clang.
“Thank you.”
The plane jolted as it started down the tarmac and, before she realized what she was doing, she reached over the arm rest and grasped his hand in hers, clinging to him.
I can’t die today. I can’t die when Sebastian thinks I ruined his life.
He stared at their interlocked hands and she knew she should release him, but she couldn’t.
“You are not going to die today,” he said in a low, deep voice.
“What?”
“You said, ‘I can’t die today.’”
Her heart sank into her stomach. She’d said that out loud?
“You’re right. You are not dying today. You said it yourself. You can’t die while I think you ruined my life.”
Oh fuck. Stupid mantras.
With his free hand, he replaced his earbuds, then closed his eyes and leaned back as if he’d go to sleep. “And you did ruin my life. So obviously you cannot die today.”
***
“Check again.” Baz gritted his teeth and used every ounce of his self-control not to reach across the concierge desk and throttle the poor sap who had the misfortune of checking him into the hotel.
The baby-faced twenty-something wiped a bead of sweat away with the back of his forearm before typing furiously, each clack of the keys twisting his face into a deeper grimace. “I’m sorry, sir. Both of your names are in the system but there’s only one room. Whoever booked your reservation—”
“Fuck!” Baz slammed his fist down on the desk, causing thekid to jump.
He spun away, raking his fingers through his hair. It wasn’t this kid’s fault that Norm was a cheap asshole. He pulled his phone from his pocket and fired off a text to the President of the Merchants’ Association, staring at the screen in stunned silence as the status changed from ‘delivered’ to ‘read’ and still no reply came.