The moment Jake and Brenda stepped onto the plane, she knew she was in for a long flight.

They found their seats—12A and 12B, right by the window. Brenda took the aisle seat, determined to avoid being trapped. Jake, of course, took the window, already pressing his face against the glass like an overexcited five-year-old.

“Look at the wing,” he whispered dramatically. “Brenda… what if it falls off?”

Brenda rolled her eyes. “Jake, I swear—if you start again, I’m switching seats with the baby three rows back.”

Jake turned to her with a mischievous grin. “What? I’m just saying. What if the screws are loose? What if this is the one time the wing decides it’s had enough?”

She shoved him lightly. “You’re not funny.”

“Oh, come on,” he said, wiggling in his seat and pulling the safety card out of the seat pocket. “Let’s read this together, in case we nosedive into the ocean.”

“I’m literally going to pretend I don’t know you,” she muttered, putting in one earbud.

But Jake wasn’t done.

As the plane began taxiing, he leaned over. “Brenda… is it just me or does that tire look flat?”

She looked out the window. “We’re already moving, idiot.”

“Exactly. We’re doomed.”

“Jake!”

Once they were in the air, things should have calmed down. But Jake kept at it.

He gently poked her arm every few minutes just to see how long it would take her to notice. He made random beeping sounds under his breath and pretended the plane was malfunctioning. He dramatically gasped and clutched his chest every time there was turbulence.

At one point, Brenda had enough. “If you fake one more emergency I will really cause one.”

“Okay, okay,” Jake said, putting his hands up in mock surrender… before immediately sticking his pretzel into her cup of ginger ale.

“JAKE!”

“Whoops,” he said innocently. “My pretzel was thirsty.”

Brenda gave him a death glare.

Finally, she managed to fall asleep with her hoodie pulled over her head. Jake took a selfie of them, her knocked out with her mouth slightly open, and him smiling proudly with a caption ready in his head: “Flying with a gremlin.”

As the flight started to descend, Brenda woke up, groggy but alert enough to see Jake hiding his phone.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing,” he said quickly, locking the screen.

“Delete. It.”

“Never.”

They bickered all the way through landing and baggage claim, but as they walked out of the airport, laughing despite the teasing, Brenda turned to him and said, “You’re lucky I like you, dork.”