Romantic Fanatic

His WIFI

I think he's going to ask for my number! Could it be as easy as that? Could it be?
He pauses as we wait for the announcement to end. The intercom crackles and we sit in silence. The awkwardness of the situation pushes me to say something.

"Were you going to-" I start.
"Yeah" he chuckles nervously "could I get your number."
We lock eyes and I can't help but break into a smile.
"Yeah" I say as I pluck his phone from his hand. He grins, his smile is so precious. His eyes sparkle and his teeth shine, making my heart do a double backflip into a pool of roller coasters. I type in my digits and write my name in the contact. I debate putting a heart by my name. That's obnoxious, right?

"I'm going to text myself so I can get you as a contact." I say as I exit out of contacts and click on the message icon. The screen opens to a text thread with a selfie of a woman holding two plastic grocery bags and the caption "I'll see you tonight <3". My heart drops and I quickly exit out to start a new thread with my contact instead. My mind is filling with questions and I can't think of what to type to myself. I absentmindedly send a text.

Who is that girl? Is she his girlfriend? Maybe his WIFE? What's in those bags? Why doesn't he seem concerned that I saw that? My phone dings and I hand back airplane boy's phone to him.

He doesn't seem at all fazed that I saw his girlfriend's picture. Our fingers brush and I feel a pang of guilt. Is he a cheater? Why is he flirting so openly with me if he has someone waiting for him at home? I look at my one notification and realize what I texted from his phone.
"Girl"

I am taken aback by how absolutely weird that message is. Especially for the first thing "he's" ever texted me. Honestly, I don't care if he finds it weird though, because you know what's weirder?! Cheating on your insanely hot girlfriend with some crazy chick you met on a plane. That crazy chick being me, of course, but still.

And I guess, he technically hasn't done any real "cheating", but I feel like he likes me.
I come back to my senses and look over at airplane boy. He's starting at me, obviously concerned. I realize I had just been staring angrily at the chair in front of me for a long time while I was lost in thought.

"You okay?" He asks tentatively
"Is that your girlfriend?" I point to the phone.
"What?" He looks at his phone like he's never seen it before. He navigates back through his texts to find the picture of the girl with grocery bags.
"Ohhhh, no, no." He lets out a sigh of relief. "She's my childhood friend. I asked her to get my groceries for me because I haven't been in my flat for weeks. She's just doing me a favor because I let her crash there while I was gone."
Relief washes over me and all the conspiracy theories suddenly seem so foolish.
"Oh ok, just wanted to ask up front, you know" I confess sheepishly.
"Makes perfect sense" he agrees.

Learning he actually DIDN'T have a girlfriend meant more to me than I had realized. I really, really wanted him to be single. And now I had his number. There was no denying he thought I was cute, right? I mean that's why people ask for people's numbers. I slowly turned my head towards him.

He was facing forward with his headphones on.  He noticed me and took one headphone out of his ear and leaned close to my face like he was going to tell me a secret. He was so close to me I involuntarily backed up an inch or two. It seemed like he was going to say something but he just stared into my eyes, then looked down at my lips and back up to my eyes. I imagined him leaning in to kiss me, but he just grinned and sat back forward and popped his headphones back in.

I suddenly recognized his faint music. Lover. Could he be trying to tell me something... could it be?