“They’re exactly the same.” He waved her to stay put.
The attendant appeared with a glass on a silver tray that she offered to Gabriel.
“May I bring champagne? Lavender-infused lemonade? Perhaps a cappuccino?”
“Water is fine,” Luli said, pressing into her chair.
“Sparkling or Arctic glacier?”
Luli looked to Gabriel, expecting him to make it clear she didn’t deserve this level of catering.
“The Canadian spring water for now. No seafood for Luli.”
“Thank you, sir. We received that instruction and have arranged alternatives for Mrs. Dean. The pilot is ready to taxi to the runway if you are?”
“Thank you.” He didn’t correct her on Luli’s title.
The attendant disappeared and the view beyond the windows began to move.
Luli didn’t know how to bring up what had happened in his room.
Her downcast gaze landed on the bag, which she had to admit made her curious. It looked like it held black boxes marked with Gabriel’s golden dragon logo, all still sealed with cellophane along with something in periwinkle blue.
“Go ahead,” he coaxed, sipping as he watched her.
She drew out wireless, noise-canceling headphones, wireless earbuds and other accessories she had only ever seen, mostly online, never dreaming she would use them.
“A new laptop?” And a tablet.
“You’ll like it. More processing power. Better security. Consider it a thank-you for making me aware of a vulnerability in my own security program. I’ve discovered how you broke in and locked me out. Innovative, but it won’t happen again.”
Luli returned all the boxes to the bag, but kept the periwinkle clutch. It was the most buttery suede she’d ever touched. It had a tiny belt with a gold buckle. A wallet over a smartphone, if she wasn’t mistaken. Her ancient flip phone had died years ago and she had only ever held Mae’s long enough to fix settings, never needing one of her own because she had no one to call.
The attendant reappeared with her water. “I’ll be taking my seat for takeoff. May I set your bag in here?”
She touched a button on the box table next to Luli’s chair. The top popped up a few centimeters and slid back to reveal a padded storage bin beneath.
“Thank you,” Luli murmured, keeping the wallet in her lap.
“Please don’t be alarmed if you hear a noise in the rear of the plane as we ascend. Our design reduces the sonic boom to the decibel of a car door slamming, but you may still notice it. It’s perfectly normal.” The attendant closed the bin and walked away.
“Your plane travels faster than sound?”
“This one does, yes. There are laws as to where they can be used so I have others for airspaces where we have to travel subsonic.”
Others. Plural.
The passage of landscape beyond the windows became a rushing blur before it fell away without any bumps or noises to indicate they had left the ground. She listened and thought she heard the clap, but wasn’t sure.
Luli fingered the buckle on the adorable wallet, releasing it to reveal it did conceal a phone. A very feminine and pretty phone in rose-gold-colored metal with crystals embedded around a casing designed with a graceful swoop that set it a world apart from every boring rectangle out there. She wanted to draw it from its custom pocket, to examine it from every angle, but was afraid to mar its shine with her fingerprints.
A light blinked once and a modulated, feminine voice said, “Hello, Luli.” The words appeared on the screen then faded against the home screen that showed Gabriel’s logo and a handful of icons for apps.
“How—?”
“Facial recognition.”
“That’s why it took so long to take my passport photo yesterday? You were scanning my face?”
“If you don’t like it, you can change it in Settings. I don’t always want my phone to open when I glance at it so I also require my fingerprint.”
“I know you manufacture all of this technology, but it’s still very expensive.”
“Very,” he interjected dryly. “That’s real gold and those are genuine diamonds. Kindly take care of it.”
“What?” The priceless phone slipped from her fingers and landed in her lap. She scrambled to pick it up again, mortified. “Why would you give me something like this?”