Love & Lies

Chapter Thirty-three

The passengers began to grumble everything Jessie had been complaining about in her head as the time on her phone upped to 9:41 pm.  "How in the hell do we manage to board on time but aren't even moving?" a man a few rows up asked his wife.  "The weather is clear and they don't seem to be looking at anything on the plane."

"Perhaps there's a piece of checked luggage that doesn't match any passenger on here," the wife suggested unexcitedly and resumed reading on her Kindle.

Jessie threw her head against the back of her leather chair completely abandoning her half an hour round with Bejeweled.  As thankful as she was that as of forty minutes ago there was no latest development on the news of Jessie's relationship with Jordan and at this point the worst thing about today was having to pay an extra fee for overweight luggage, she was just as eager to leave as everybody else in first class.  

"United fucking sucks ass," the young man a row over to her right grumbled as he fastened his Beats over his ears.

Drumming her fingers against the empty seat next to her, Jessie ran through her mental completed to-do list for now the third time since she boarded.  While John seemed to possibly be ignoring Jessie's calls, the only person she was able to reach in the UK offices was an air-headed intern who kept insisting everybody was either out or in a meeting.  While the girl jotted down her request for transportation, she had wished she called again to double check she actually would be picked up once she was in Heathrow.  

You gave a courtesy call to Steven who apologized for letting his phone die as he ironically was only blocks away having dinner with his wife last night, she thought.  While she was thankful for his availability to drive over to the Marriott to stay with her until she had to leave, she declined figuring it was safe to just stay in the room all day and pay for the extra day.  Lauren has your key, Jenny will take care of the co-op....for the millionth, time you've covered everything.  Why do you think you're missing something?

Jessie woke up her phone when Jackson's curved expression from her wallpaper made her realize what she overlooked.  "In the midst of the craziness, I never told my family I was coming home early," she whispered to herself.  What made her feel even worse was that everybody else seemed to know what was truly going on but them.

Before she could harp on it even more, a looming figure coming off the corner of Jessie's eye made her immediately turn to her right.  Jessie watched as a flight attendant stood ready to assist what appeared to be a woman nearly covered head-to-toe in winter garments sliding down slowly into the seat beside her gripping a plain brown cane.  "We are so sorry we did not detect the overbooking sooner," the attendant apologized in his slight Portuguese accent as he held her cane.  "We will gladly store this for you and if at any time you want it to get up or need anything at all, please let us know."

"It's quite alright," the woman answered in a familiar British accent.  "First class is certainly better than my coach class boarding pass!"

Not in the mood for being social especially since this person probably was the reason for the delayed flight, Jessie gave in to another round of Bejeweled on her phone being certain to put it on airplane mode first.  She knew it was not the person's fault, but all she wanted to be doing right now was watching the whole video on what to do in emergency on her personal television screen while the flight attendants stood around with toothy smiles followed by the pilot's usual pre-takeoff speech.

When Jessie's wish finally came true and the plane began taxiing, she looked at the darkness from her window with some twinkling buildings in the distance.  "Cheerio, America," she whispered fervently and began to fiddle on her personal television screen in search of a good movie so she could perhaps get a good night's sleep then afterwards.