Mine To Lose Read Free Page A

his face. I followed his gaze to the dwindling landscape below, distant trees and open fields shrinking from sight as the plane slipped from gravity's shackles.
    It was a beautiful sight; I couldn't argue that. I would have been thrilled if sightseeing were the only purpose of this little excursion. Unfortunately, it was all too soon that Mike rose from his seat at the front, turned and began to address the lemmings, and in so doing, shattered my happy fantasy. I glanced at Jordan again and was dismayed to see a familiar, excited expression taking root on his face. It was the one he always seemed to have whenever he was about to do something incredibly stupid, or as he called it – ‘fun.’
    I knew I really should have tried to pay more attention to Mike on the off chance that he was giving some last-minute, life-saving information, but I was too busy muttering prayers under my breath. Finally, the dreaded moment came when he stopped talking and gave a smile similar to Jordan’s, and my heart dropped from my throat all the way down into my stomach as he pushed open the little door. A deafening wind filled the plane and drowned out my scream of terror.
    Jordan reached over and laid his hand over mine as I gripped the armrest and gave me a reassuring squeeze. I looked back at him, at his calm but eager smile and those playful green eyes I’d fallen in love, and for a moment I was almost calm. Jordan shouted something, and although the shrieking wind suppressed his words, I was able to discern the message.
    We'll be okay. I love you.
    I managed a weak smile for Jordan as we rose from our seats and shuffled for the open door. Mike gave each diver a few final tips, and one by one, they each leaped from the door into the open sky. Jordan and I were the third-and second-to-last in the line, and once Mike passed on his wisdom to Jordan, he turned and kissed me with childish enthusiasm.
    ‘See you down there!’ Jordan shouted, then turned and flung himself out. I barely had time to whisper goodbye before Mike pulled me to the door. I wanted to protest, wanted to bolt myself onto the plane floor and never let go, but my body was too frozen with fear to resist. I stared out into the empty blue, the dominion of the birds where humans were visitors at best, and squeaked with gut-wrenching terror. Mike attached himself to me and shouted to make himself heard.
    ‘Remember! Step off! Nothing to it!’
    I would never be sure if Mike actually dragged me out of the plane or if I simply heeded the call of the void and stepped out on my own. Whatever the case, it was irrelevant. There was no going back.
    I’d thought the wind had been loud inside the plane, but it had only been whispering my demise. Now it was screaming at me as I hurtled toward the earth, and I screamed with it. The descent was so fast, I couldn't register anything but the horror of my own impending doom, and in the back of my mind, I wondered if it would hurt. I prayed it would be over too quickly to feel the pain.
    As the ground raced up to meet us, I tried to guess how long it had been since we’d left the plane. It didn't matter, I supposed, not when I was about to die. We simply fell and fell. I forgot everything but the fear. This was the end.
    Memories overwhelmed me: my wedding day; Jordan drunk at the reception, tripping over and landing face first in our wedding cake; Jordan and me white-water rafting in America; Jordan lighting hundreds of candles in our apartment on Valentine’s Day, rose petals covering the bed; Jordan making love to me. Over and over again, the visions flashed through my mind, blinding me with one simple truth: if this was the end, I hadn’t done enough with my life.
    I’d missed something. Tears leaked out of my tightly shut eyelids and were whipped away by the wind. All I had was Jordan, and all he had was me. But was that enough? I realised with a start that it wasn’t. The only thing that would have completed us was … was … a