Love At First Flight (Short Story)

Chapter 3

At 11:10 a.m., the woman at the gate desk calls for the passengers in groups 7 & 8. I look down at my ticket, I'm in group seven. I notice Grayson doesn't get up from his chair so he must not have a seat near me.

After having the woman scan my ticket, I walk through the terminal to the door of the plane. A flight attendant greets me at the entrance and I say hello then continue walking until I get to seat 28A. I have the window seat, so I squeeze through to my seat and push my backpack up under the seat in front of me. I have my neck pillow around my neck now as I look out the window watching the airport staff work in the cold.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see an elderly man sit in the seat next to me. I decided to introduce myself to him since I'll be sitting next to him for the whole 7-hour flight. I tell him my name and ask him what his name is.

He answers with a smile, "Edward, but you can call me Ed. Is this your first time flying?"

"Yeah, how did you know?!" I say, amazed that he guessed.

"Well, you seem young and you're a bit jittery like you're nervous."

"I am nervous, but I'm also excited for my trip," I responded, and then gazed back out the window. That's when I notice my left leg bouncing from anticipation and nervousness; that must be what he meant by "a bit jittery."

Another man puts his carry on bag in the luggage compartment above our heads. He's about to sit down in the seat next to Ed when he pauses for a moment. I can feel eyes on me, so I turn to the person standing at the end of our row. It's Grayson, he glances down at my shaking leg.

Then he says, where Ed and I can both hear him, "Grace, my darling, don't get so nervous. We've talked about this, we'll be fine and land in London in no time."

Grayson gives me a big smile and a wink as he starts to sit down slowly. I'm surprised by his use of the words "my darling" because he's never called me that before and it kind of makes us sound like a couple. It's not like he's had time to call me that in the short time I've known him, so it's just kind of weird but I also kind of liked it.

Ed speaks up and starts to get up out of his chair, "I'm so sorry you two, I had no idea that I was supposed to sit in between a couple. Here we can switch seats, young man, then you can sit next to your girlfriend."

I shake my head to deny him, "No,you're fine sir, you can sit here. We aren't..."

Ed interrupted me, "No I wouldn't want to separate the young couple when one of them needs some support and encouragement from the other."

Ed slips out of the row into the aisle, and then Grayson sits down in the seat next to me. He slips his right hand into my left hand and gives it a squeeze, both of us looking down at them. Then he looks up at me and gives me a sly smirk. Grayson thanks Ed, as Ed sits down in the seat beside Grayson. I lightly shake my head and chuckle because I can't believe Gray just faked his way into the seat next to me.

I can feel Ed's eyes on me now as Grayson places a light kiss on my forehead, and says, "It'll be alright. We are gonna land in London and have a great time together. I'm not gonna let anything terrible happen to you as long as I'm next to you."

Why would he say all that? I guess he knew Ed was watching us interact, so he decided to put on a show.

I decide to mess with Gray a bit, so I lean up and whisper in a seductive voice, "Shuuutup, HuNey. We both know you'd put your oxygen mask on before you'd put mine on for me. If this plane goes down, Jack, and I'm floating on top of a piece of debris that's obviously big enough for the both of us, I'm not letting you on it so you're freezing in the water; I'll tell you "I'll never let go," but I will let go and you'll sink to the bottom of the ocean, making me have to travel Europe all by myself."