A Flight of Love

Chapter 7 - First Stop Dubai

Abhimanyu felt the presence of someone hovering over him. He opened his eyes to see the flight attendant was standing right beside his seat.

"Sir, we will be landing in about 2 hours. So we are beginning our pre-landing meal service."

"Yes, thank you."

"And for Ma'am too?"

"Huh what? Yeah sure," Abhimanyu replied drowsily, unsure why the flight attendant was asking him about Akshara's meals. Why didn't she ask her directly?

The flight attendant opened up his tray table and placed a tray of food in front of him and did the exact same for Akshara as well.

"For drinks sir?"

"Orange juice."

She nodded her head and placed two glasses of orange juice, one each on both their tray tables before moving to serve the passengers behind them.

Abhimanyu pressed onto the bridge of his nose to rid himself of the tiredness when he felt a nudge on his shoulder. He turned his head to see Akshara pressing her nose into the curve of his neck. Since when had she been resting her head on his shoulders? Why hadn't he noticed? Is that why the flight attendant had asked him regarding her meal?

He had no many questions but not enough answers. As he stared at a silently sleeping Akshara, he couldn't help but admire the peaceful smile on her face. An angel sent from heaven. As cheesy as that line was, it was the only one he knew that truly captured the essence of what was in front of him.

A smile formed on his lips as he memorized the outline of her tiny nose, the long eyelashes, the perfectly carved brows, the way her smile lines settled around her mouth. Mesmerized. At ease. Content. That's what she made him feel.

A strand of hair fell onto her face, blocking his view from her face. Abhimanyu gently swept the strand of her hair away from her face and tucked it gently behind her ear. Perfection. Absolute perfection.

Akshara awoke to a small nudge to head. She opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She noticed somewhere along the few hours she had been asleep she had found her way to Abhimanyu's shoulder and used him as a pillow. No wonder she had slept so comfortably.

But she still couldn't believe she had taken the liberty to use an almost strangers shoulder to fall a sleep on. A claim she would have denied happily had it not been for the small amounts of drool that lined up perfectly from the corner of her mouth to the shoulder of his shirt.

Embarrassed, she began to apologize. "I am so sorry! I did not mean to rest my head on your shoulder. It just happened. I am also so sorry for the drool on your shoulder!"

Abhimanyu laughed, "It's okay. Nothing to be embarrassed about. Eat your food. We're about to land soon."

"Oh right! Thank you!" Akshara nodded her head in gratitude before eating her food. For some reason she was famished.

The remainder of the flight was spent in silence. Abhimanyu, because he couldn't believe he was having such unwarranted feelings —feelings he normally ran away from, didn't entertain and never expected to have. Akshara, because for the first time in her life, she felt unsure of herself, her choices, and because for the first time in her life, ever since her parents passed away, she finally felt comfortable with someone else.

"Hello everybody, this is your captain speaking. We are now beginning our final descent into Dubai. The night skies are clear so we should not have any turbulence on the way. Please remain seated as you can see the seat belt sign has been turned on. We should be landing shortly. Crew, make preparations for landing."

As the plane began to descend, he could see the Dubai lights shining below and the small ant like cars began to look bigger and bigger with each passing minute. He wondered if this was the last time he would ever be seeing Akshara.

They were just two passengers on a plane —a journey where neither of them were aware of each other's destinations. Maybe this was the end of their journey. She would go her way and he, his. Maybe never to meet again. For some reason he did not like that thought. The thought that perhaps he would never see Akshara again.

Akshara tried very hard to ignore the sinking feeling that maybe this was the last time she would see Abhimanyu. Yes, he got onto her nerves and he annoyed her, but he also made her feel alive. He made her feel comfortable. He made her feel...home.

She did not know what his destination was or if she would never see him again. Maybe these were the last 30 minutes they'd be spending together. But for some reason she was not ready to say goodbye. Not yet at least.

As Akshara felt the plane's landing gear release, her heartbeat started to pick up. No...no...not again. Not another panic attack. Her knuckles started to pale in colour as clutched the armrests to calm down her raging heartbeat.

She was jolted out of her misery when she felt a hand rubbing small circles on her knuckles. She looked over to see Abhimanyu's large hand covering her tiny one while his thumb rubbed circles over her hand in an effort to calm her down.

She let out a small smile, her eyes full with gratitude for his unspoken gesture. His gaze met hers and he just nodded his head in understanding, in acknowledgment before facing straight ahead. She could feel tears building up in her waterline. No one, no one had ever cared her like Abhimanyu had. And he had just met her, not even 12 hours ago.

Akshara didn't even realize when the plane had come to a halt at the terminal. She had even skipped all the announcements because had been too busy thinking about Abhimanyu, his kindness, and the fact that this was the last time she was going to be seeing him. Why was her heart shattering into a million little pieces? Why?

The seatbelt sign turned off and it came time to deplane. As always, business class deplaned first. This was the first time Abhimanyu wished that he had bought economy class tickets. But that so mean that he may not have met Akshara then.

He stood up and began to unload his carryon from the bin above. He then stepped back and made way for Akshara to stand up and deplane before him. She stood on her toes, trying to get to her handbag which got pushed to the back, clearly struggling while Abhimanyu held himself back from again making snide remark on her unwillingness to ask for help.

"Do you need me to grab your bag for you?" Clearly he had no self control when it came to her.

"No. I got it."

Abhimanyu watched as Akshara struggled for a few more minutes trying to reach her bag.

"Can you hurry up please Miss?" The passengers behind them were clearly ready to get off this metal box and were letting their frustration show.

"Sorry. Just a second."

Abhimanyu had had enough. He reached above Akshara and dragged her handbag out and placed it in her hands.

"Here you go. You can ask for help you know. It won't harm you." He said and held his hand out, gesturing for her to start walking.

"Thanks," Akshara said softly, unsure if Abhimanyu had heard or not.