Chapter 1

Melissa's POV

Once I left the terminal, I regained the signal on my phone.

Immediately, I received a notification that my best friend, Hailey Winters, had uploaded something on her Instagram.

"I'm in a terrible mood today. If only the entire city of Gradenburg could drown in the rain with me."

Overhead, the heavy clouds finally unleashed their burden, the pouring rain instantly drenching my uniform.

Soon, blood seeped through the gauze on my wrist. I received this injury the 98th time the flight was delayed, when a passenger hit me with their suitcase.

The scratches on my face that hadn't yet healed were from the 80th time the flight was delayed.

Then there was that time I ended up with two broken ribs after some passengers beat me up for yet another delay.

In the span of six years, the flights I was supposed to be piloting ended up getting delayed 99 times.

Every time, I would end up returning home with new injuries, and every time, Samuel Zayner, my husband, would tend to my wounds with red-rimmed eyes.

He would hug and comfort me, saying, "If worst comes to worst, you can just stop being a pilot. I'll support you for the rest of our lives."

I had clung to those words, gaining strength from them as I endured every incident, time and again.

Now, however, one single comment from Samuel, just a simple "Approved", had thoroughly dismantled my last line of defense.

I couldn't wrap my head around it. Samuel and Hailey had clearly never seen eye to eye.

Three years ago, I was trying to secure an intercontinental route assignment, but Hailey lost my evaluation documents and nearly cost me the opportunity.

Samuel got into a row with her on the spot, demanding that she apologize to me immediately.

Last year, I ended up hospitalized when some passengers beat me up. Hailey slapped Samuel right there in public as she blamed him for not taking good care of me.

How could those two possibly be together?

Still clinging to one last shred of hope, I tapped into the photo Hailey had uploaded.

Though rain blurred the image, I still managed to spot the silver airplane windchime partially captured near the bottom corner of the photo.

That was the same windchime Samuel had personally hung on the terminal rooftop when he proposed to me six years ago.

That day, he got down on one knee. "Melissa Sander, will you marry me? You just need to focus on conquering the skies. No matter how far away you fly, I will always wait for you to land."

From then on, every time I was upset about my flight getting delayed, he would take me there.

This time, I braved the rain and pushed open the door to the rooftop, only to hear Hailey giggling as she cooed in an amused tone, "Sam, don't you think you're rather silly? I simply said that I wanted some rain, and you really went and created a rainstorm for me! What if Mel's flight is delayed again?"

Out in the rain, Hailey was barefoot as she stood on Samuel's leather shoes. Samuel had an arm wrapped around her waist while he used the other hand to wipe away the raindrops trailing down her face.

Upon hearing my name, he simply chuckled lowly. "It's not like this is the first time. She's long since grown used to it, so it won't be difficult to cheer her up."

Hailey's eyes curved into crescents as she smiled. "You're right. Mel truly is so easy to cheer up. On the night of my birthday, I said I wanted to fall asleep to the sound of rain, and you really went along with my nonsense.

"Because of that, she failed her very first attempt at an intercontinental route, and she was grounded for three months.

"All we did was bring her back the leftover cake after we were done with our date, but she was beyond touched and grateful over just that!"

I stiffened at those words.

I had spent three years trying to get that intercontinental route, so upon learning that my qualification was revoked, I had cried the whole night away.

However, the next day, they came over with the cake and said that they specifically traveled across half the city just to buy it.

I hugged them tightly, crying even harder than before. I thought that I must have been the luckiest person alive to have such a wonderful husband and best friend.

As it turned out, they were already together then.

Hailey seemed to be recalling that same day, for her eyes reddened in guilt. "Sam, I sometimes feel that I'm truly such a horrible person. I clearly know how much Mel has suffered over these years due to bad weather, yet I just can't stop being greedy and wanting you to spoil me like this."

The same man who used to call me delicate for crying was now wiping her tears away with a heartbroken expression on his face.

"You're putting all the blame on yourself again. Back when she was hospitalized after getting beaten up by those passengers, you spent three whole days by her side, not eating or drinking, just to take care of her.

"If it weren't for me offering to take over for you out of worry, you would've refused to take a break.

"You've already done more than enough to look out for her over the past few years. All you want is to see the rain, so I don't want you to have to back down over such a simple and minor request."

Touched, Hailey went up onto her tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips.

"Then let me be impulsive one more time."