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Derrick cringed as I settled in. “I didn’t realize they would have such a bad reaction,” he said, but his gaze was fastened on my lap. “I really don’t think you want to sit there.”
“Of course, I don’t,” I said, lowering my voice a fraction. “We both know I don’t want to be sitting here at all.”
The flight attendant began welcoming everyone to the plane as we pulled away from the terminal. This wasn’t my first flight, but the reminders of buckles and emergency exits were still a comfort as the pleasant-faced woman smiled at us and showed how the air masks worked should the cabin lose pressure.
We were jostling down the runway when I realized something was wrong with my seat. I could feel a wetness under me, seeping into my skirts, and when I looked back at Derrick he was openly cringing.
As calmly as I could, I met his gaze and asked, “Why is my seat wet?”
“I tried to warn you. That’s supposed to be my seat, but I smelled it and shifted over.”
“Smelled… it?” I asked weakly, wishing for all the world that I had the olfactory senses of a werewolf. Then again, smelling it would not have helped.
“I fear the previous passenger may have…”
I cut him off with a hand. “Don’t say it. Please don’t say it.”
He stopped talking and I closed my eyes, frozen for a full twenty seconds as reality pounded into me.
I was sitting in pee.
Skin crawling, I fumbled with my purse, desperate to get up, but the plane accelerated, pushing me back. Derrick’s hand covered mine in an iron grip and he leaned over to murmur, “You can’t get up yet, you’ll hurt yourself.”
“You’re not the one sitting in pee,” I said through my teeth.
His fingers tightened on mine, and I met his gaze. There was a hint of laughter in his eyes, and I glared up at him.
“I sympathize, I do. But you need to wait. We’ll get this sorted once we’re at altitude," he said.
“You think this is funny!”
He shrugged but didn’t deny the accusation. “I did try to warn you.”
“Try harder next time!” I snapped and then, because the cool wetness was soaking into my undergarments and I knew what it was, I gagged.
Derrick had the barf bag out and in my hands within seconds. There was the stomach-dropping moment when the plane lifted into the air, and I nearly utilized the bag, but after several seconds of breathing exercises I was able to gain a semblance of control. Derrick kept hold of me, keeping me seated in someone else’s pee as the plane climbed, still jerking and jostling around us.
Several aisles behind us, I could hear Mark losing his breakfast to motion sickness and shuddered. If sitting in urine wasn’t already gag-inducing, that sound was sure to get me, so I tried to distract myself with Derrick.
“Why aren’t you a nervous traveler?” I asked.
“Who says I’m not?”
I slanted a glare at him. “I don’t see you clutching a barf bag.”
He gave a shrug. “I suppose I’m used to it. I did have to travel to America.”
“Nothing can inoculate you better than a flight over the ocean?”
He smirked at me. “Something like that.”
There was a mellow ping, and the fasten seatbelt sign went off. Derrick released my hand and I unbuckled, ejecting from my seat with enough speed to knock into the headrest in front of me. Murmuring my apologies, I slipped into the aisle and rushed for the nearest lavatory. I ignored passengers who glanced at me as I hurried by, including Mark who I thought might have been scowling but with the uncomfortable cooling sensation happening around my backside I couldn’t be bothered to care.
I ducked into the lavatory and locked myself in. Pleasant yellow light flickered on, glowing off several polished brass fixtures positioned in the tiny room. It was difficult in the cramped space, but I managed to strip my skirts and underwear off and squished them against the corner with a toe. Splashing a bit of soap and water on a complimentary napkin, I did my best to clean the offending area and tried desperately not to think about what stranger I was having such an intimate affair with. And then I realized I was half naked in a tiny plane bathroom with nothing else to wear.
Groaning in despair, I fell forward, letting my head rest against the mirror. “Why is this happening to me?”
There was a knock on the door and Derrick’s rumbling voice, “Nora?”
