Page 3 of A Perfect Fit

“You okay there?” Sarcasm drips from his tone. “Need me to press the emergency button?”

“Nope. All good.” I lean back, huffing a breath.

It’s only one flight. After the eight hours are over, I’ll hop off the plane and never see Jackson again. So what if he’s moving back? New York is a big city after all. I’ll just happily stay in my little bubble.

Satisfied with that thought, I turn on the in-flight entertainment screen and scroll through the list of movies and TV shows. When How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days shows up, I let out a tiny squeal. Have I watched this movie about a thousand times already? Yes. Will I watch something different? No.

“Do you mind toning down the excitement? I’m trying to get some work done here.”

I glare at Jackson. I wasn’t that loud. Plus, there are headphones in front of him he can use, but just like back in high school, Jackson would rather act like a jackass toward me. I suppose some things never change.

“I’m amazed your tiny, pathetic heart is even capable of comprehending excitement,” I say.

Jackson lets out a defeated sigh and gets back to working on his laptop. “Seriously? Are you ever going to stop being a pain in the neck?”

“Maybe you should go see a physiotherapist then,” I sneer.

This time, there’s a calculating gleam in his eyes. “In that case, maybe I should bill the fees under your name.”

A grumble falls from my lips. Frankly, I have a hundred better things to do than continue this conversation with him, such as getting back to my movie. “You know what? Do whatever you want. I’m done with this conversation.”

“I see a white flag of surrender here.”

“While you’re at it, you should see an optometrist, too.”

“And bill the fees under your name as well?”

I stretch my legs out in front of me. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“I thought you said you were done talking to me.”

Not bothering to reply, I plug in my headphones and proceed to watch my movie. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Jackson going back to work on his laptop. I’m not surprised. Back in school, if he wasn’t studying, he was excelling at various extracurricular activities. I shut down the distracting thoughts as if I were closing a tab on a web browser.

The next two hours go by fast, and when the cabin lights dim out, I slip on my eye mask to catch some sleep, hoping that when I wake up, we’ll have arrived in New York already.

While asleep, I dream of my first day as a freshman at my high school—Summerhurst High.

And for some odd reason, in my dream, I hear a voice inside my head telling me that something is about to begin again.

Chapter Two

ISABELLE

“Wake up.”

My body sleepy and my mind in a dreamlike state, I slowly blink open my eyes, catching a whiff of coffee and hand sanitizer. In the background, there’s the steady hum of an engine echoing in the plane.

I’m wearing my eye mask, and my head is resting against something—or rather, someone—comfortable. Beside me, there’s a man with a deep, familiar voice who’s talking to⁠—

“Wake up.” The man’s voice is clipped. “You’ve been sleeping on my shoulder for the past three hours.”

My body jerks upright faster than a lightning strike when I realize it’s Jackson who’s talking to me and that I was indeed sleeping on his shoulder.

I take off my eye mask and shoot him a scowl. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“I did, but it’s not my fault you were sleeping like a pig. It was impossible to talk to you.” Jackson’s laptop screen is bright, and I catch a glimpse of some marketing brief he’s reading. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was working the whole time I was asleep.

“I don’t snore,” I grumble, opening the flight map in front of me.