Expect Nothing Less [Tom Daley Love Story]

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

By the time we were seated, Kate had been distracted by the good looking flight attendant, who was now demonstrating several safety procedures to the business class cabin. 

‘Omigod, he is so fine,’ she whispered. 

‘You know, maybe you should listen to the instructions instead of checking him out. What happens if we hit bad turbulence and you don’t know what to do when the oxygen mask drops from above us?’ 

‘Hello? I’ll just copy what everyone else is doing.’ 

‘Yes, because that will be so easy when you can’t breathe.’ 

We hadn’t taken off yet. I figured we were waiting for a missing passenger. Some of the other passengers near us were getting restless due to the delay. So was I. 

The flight attendant had blonde curly hair and blue eyes. Kate stared at him, transfixed as if learning how to blow up a life vest in case the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean was the most interesting lesson she had ever learnt. Then the flight attendant finished his demonstration, much to Kate’s disappointment. Another flight attendant came over to him, whispered something in his ear and pointed to us. 

‘Why are they pointing at us?’ I whispered to Kate. 

‘Oh no. Maybe he noticed that I was checking him out. Am I in trouble? There’s no rule against that though. They can’t kick me off for the plane for that, can they?’ she said in rising panic. 

‘Of course not!’ 

‘Omigod, he’s coming this way!’ 

The attendant comes over and explains to us that two first class passengers haven’t turned up and that since I am a VIP passenger, if we want to take their seats before takeoff, we can. 

‘I could escort you two ladies to the first class cabin right now,’ he said with a wink. 

‘Oh we’d appreciate that,’ Kate replied, also with a wink. 

‘Well, you’d be very welcome, miss,’ he said in a voice that had suggestive undertones. 

Kate giggles at him. He winks yet again. 

Pass me a barf bag. 

Oh wait. I’m on a plane. I already have one. 

‘I’m fine here. I think we’ll stay,’ I told the guy. 

‘What? You wanted those seats,’ Kate snapped. She grabs my arm, forces me to stand up and pushes me into the aisle before I can protest further. The attendant opens up the overhead compartment and gets our bags out. 

As we walk down the aisle to the next class, Kate turns to me with a confused look. I read it and whisper my answer. 

‘Tom Daley is in first class.’ 

‘So?’ 

‘I’m embarrassed. He’s probably already labeled me ‘hostile juice girl’. He’s probably told his mom about it.’ 

‘You made that up. Besides, this may come as a shock but the world doesn’t revolve around you. Get over yourself.’ 

‘Hey, are you mad at me?’ 

‘You were rude to the hot guy. He was trying to help us.’ 

‘I was not rude. I just said I didn’t want to move.’ 

We followed the attendant into first class, to our new seats. They were at the very front. I just looked straight ahead and slid into the seat pointed out to me, which was the aisle seat on the right block. The attendant put our hand luggage in the compartment and then went away. But not before smiling at Kate. 

‘Oh, he’s not mad at us. You are forgiven now,’ Kate said. 

‘But, I didn’t do anything.’ 

‘Hey, this is the first time a guy has looked at me first instead of you. You always get the attention. Let me enjoy this moment.’ 

She has this look on her face as if she is meditating. 

‘O-kay then.’ 

‘For your information, Daley is in Row 4, middle block, aisle seat. He looked at you when we walked by.’ 

‘He did not.’ 

‘How would you know? You weren’t looking. You’re chicken.’ 

‘I’m not chicken.’ 

‘Yeah, and he can’t dive,’ she countered, her words dripping in sarcasm. 

‘Very funny. You should try stand-up one day.’ 

‘Have a look.’ 

‘At what?’ 

‘HIM, you moron.’ 

‘How? We’re in the front. I can’t look back without being completely obvious.’ 

‘Do it.’ 

‘Okay!’ 

I tried to move my head as subtly as possible. To anyone watching, it was probably a really suspicious action. Like in those action movies where the bad guy needs to scope out the scene to see whether he has the all clear to…hijack Air Force One, for example. I’m not a big Harrison Ford fan so that movie did nothing for me. I changed tact, and tried to act natural. 

I glanced behind me as if wondering when we were going to takeoff, and then looked back at Kate. 

‘The guy with the Adidas hoodie?’ 

‘Yeah. What, can’t you recognize him?’ 

‘He didn’t have the hoodie on before. Besides, when you think about it, it’s kind of hard to recognize him fully clothed.’ 

‘WHAT???!!!’ Kate exclaimed very loudly. I bet you even the pilot could have heard her. 

‘Ssssshhh! I meant, without the speedos, without being in a pool or on the top of the diving platform. Get your mind out of the gutter!’ I hissed in a hushed manner. 

The old ladies in the seats adjacent to us were looking at us weirdly. Then they shook their heads at us. Then they started muttering to each other about the youth of today and how rude we were. I didn’t actually hear them saying that but it was a pretty safe assumption. I’m sure a few other people behind us were wondering what was going on too. 

‘Oh, I get it now. You said that SO wrong, Ivy.’ 

‘You didn’t have to yell out.’ 

I glanced behind me to see if any other old ladies or flight attendants were frowning at us. I scanned the rows closest to us, but no one was looking our way. Then I glanced at the fourth row. 

Tom was looking in my direction. He now had his headphones on and he was tapping his fingers to the beat of the song. 

Our eyes locked. A look of recognition came over his face. He smiled at me. The he mouthed ‘hi’ to me. I mouthed ‘hi’ back. 

Then I turned back around because I didn’t know what else to do. I realized I had been holding my breath, so I exhaled slowly. Omigod, omigod, omigod. I tried to act nonchalantly. I would’ve physically slapped myself and told myself out loud to ‘get a grip’ but obviously I couldn’t do that without looking mental. This would've been a good time for that oxygen mask. Instead, I tried to occupy myself by reading the in-flight magazine. 

But I must’ve looked shifty, because Kate turned to me with a ridiculously smug look on her face. 

‘Looks like Tom Daley has a new superfan.’ 

Indeed, he does