Gideon never knew about the money. He knew about the boy.
He used to say, and he said it in front of people, that I collected strays.
PART 3 — WHAT WAS ON THE COUNTER
On that galley counter there were two things.
A first-class boarding pass reissued in my name.
And under it, a printed sheet.
Ilan had seen my name on the manifest the night before, because he always reads his manifest, and he had gone into the booking to see whether he could get me moved up as a surprise.
And the booking has a change history on it.
Two first-class seats were purchased on the fourth of March. Both in the names on that reservation. Mine and his.
On the ninth of April, forty-eight hours before departure, one of those seats was downgraded to economy.
The fare difference — one thousand nine hundred and forty dollars — was refunded to the card it came from, which is a card in Gideon Halloway’s sole name that I did not know existed.
He bought two.
He sat in an airport lounge two days before our anniversary and moved his wife to row thirty-four and took the money back.
And then at a check-in desk he told a queue of twenty-five people that I should be grateful I was going at all.
PART 4 — THE REST OF THE FLIGHT
Ilan Ferris did not say any of that out loud.
He turned the printed sheet face down on the counter before Gideon got close enough to read it, which I did not notice at the time and which I have thought about every week since.
What he said, in a completely level voice, was: “Mrs. Halloway. There’s a seat for you in the first cabin. Would you come through.”
And then to my husband: “Sir, there isn’t a seat for you in that cabin. Please return to eleven-A.”
Gideon said something about paying for the ticket.
And the captain of that aircraft said, “Yes, sir. Two of them,” and went back through the flight deck door.
That is all he said. Six words, and my husband did not speak again for two hours.
I sat in first class for the last two hours of that flight with a glass of water and did not touch the food.
Ilan came out once, about forty minutes before descent, and crouched down by my seat in the aisle the way crew do, and said, “You did my UCAS form.”
