“Please,” Vronsky said. “It’s been torture not seeing you. Can’t we just focus on the now? You’re here now. We’re together now. I don’t want to waste a second. I love you, Anna.”

This was the first time he had ever told her this directly, and he would have preferred to tell her at a time when he wasn’t under duress, but it was too late for that. He needed her to understand what she meant to him, so he told her the truth. “I super love you, Anna; I super fucking love you in a big fucking way.”

Anna smiled. “Well that’s good, Alexia,” she said. “Because if I catch you checking out Claudine’s rack again, I’ll kill you myself and bury you in a shallow, desert grave.”

He laughed, surprised at Anna’s sudden change of attitude, also noting she didn’t say the L-word back to him. He knew he didn’t deserve it given the situation, but he wanted to hear it nonetheless.

“So you’ve forgiven me?” he asked.

“There’s nothing to forgive. You said so yourself,” Anna replied and then breezed past him into the idling plane. She popped her head out the door and held out her hand for him. “We need to get you to California; you’re in desperate need of a tan.”

At the front of the plane, Beatrice kept an eye on her cousin and shook her head as he and Anna snuggled next to one another in the hand-stitched custom Italian leather seat.

XXII

The plane ride was torture for Anna and Alexia. They held hands and whispered to each other in their seats at the front of the plane, ignoring the large group in the back who played a version of Marry, Fuck, Kill as a drinking game, using all the celebrities that were reported to be on their way to Coachella. Unable to stop himself, Vronsky began to kiss Anna, and soon they were locked in a hot and heavy embrace that rocked their seats in a way that became too ridiculous for the others to ignore.

“For chrissakes!” Beatrice called out. “Get a room, you two!”

Anna didn’t need to be told twice. She stood up first, holding her hand out to Alexia who grabbed it for dear life, and together they walked down the center aisle toward the back of the plane where there was a large bedroom with a California-king bed. Anna didn’t care what this looked like (though she avoided looking at her brother) and smiled when everyone slow clapped their approval. She was a single girl for the first time in her life.