Moving Forward (Completed)

Chapter Thirteen

The Southwest flight from New York to Atlanta was scheduled to leave at one thirty five and arrive at four ten. Katherine was glad she had let Rafael's assistant book the flight because all she had found were ones that had either two stops or one stop in Houston, either way she was looking at a seven hour flight minimum. Carman had managed to get them on a direct flight at a reasonable time and Rafael somehow managed to get them checked in so they had spots A1 and A2 for boarding.

"Do I even want to know how you managed this?" Katherine said, lifting her boarding pass for him slightly so he knew she was referencing their position for boarding.

"I just checked us in as soon as I could. I like being in control of where I sit on a plane." He shrugged.

Katherine did that too, but still ended up A15 or so... one time she managed A7, but only once. Still she let it go. "You prefer the front or the back?"

"What do you think?" He smirked.

"The front... so you can get off faster." She chuckled.

"You know me well."

The flight attendant scanned their boarding passes and they followed the small group that qualified for assistance, mostly families with small children, down the hall to the plane.

Rafael picked the second row so Katherine would have a place to put her backpack under the seat in front her. He offered her the window, but she declined. "I get claustrophobic on planes... I like the aisle."

"You know the nice thing about traveling with someone is you don't have to worry about who you'll get stuck sitting next to." Rafael grumbled as they both settled into their seats.

"Not a fan of flying?" She chuckled.

"I'm fine with flying, it's the people I have a problem with."

"You really are a snob." Katherine teased.

"I'm serious, just watch them board."

Katherine humored him and observed the other passengers entering the plane, receiving a nudge to her side from Rafael when a man wearing a suit tried to type as he carried his laptop in his arms.

"What could he possibly have to do on his computer that's so important it cant wait until he sits down?" Rafael whispered.

Katherine quietly chuckled and shook her head.

"Oh, or this lady..." he whispered again, gesturing to a woman dragging a bag that most likely wouldn't fit in the overhead bin, "she will attempt to get that stored, convince some man nicer than I am to help, only to have the flight attendant take it to be checked after stalling the line of people behind her... and..." Rafael paused as he watched her make her way down the center aisle, "she'll do this toward the front of the plane." He huffed a little when the lady stopped not ten rows back from them, the exact senecio he described following suit.

"Are you going to complain the whole flight?" Katherine giggled.

"Only if I can hear someone's life story or I see someone's feet." Even Katherine made a face at his feet comment.

Once the plane took off, Katherine pulled a deck of cards from her backpack and taught him how to play Gin Rummy. They played a few practice rounds where she showed him her hand as she talked through why she chose to discard or keep certain cards and then they started to play as they chatted.

"Who taught you how to play Gin Rummy?" He asked, almost poking fun as he expected her answer to be a grandparent or something.

"Erin, my best friend growing up." Katherine smiled.