Meet Cute

the time on the airplane

"When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew." - William Shakespeare

Our story begins with a seventeen year old boy named Arthur Morgenstern, graced with good looks but not the ability to do anything with them.

It's five seventeen am and Arthur is currently slouched in an uncomfortable metal seat in the airport waiting room, piano music drifting through his earphones. His fingers, long and calloused from playing the keys too much, fiddle with the wire.

Slowly, his eyelids flutter shut, unsurprising given the current time. Sleep has just begun to reach him when a loud noise somewhere between a beep and a bell ringing sounds, startling him back to consciousness. He flinches, eyes flashing open, and looks around.

The lounge, which had previously been brimming with people, is almost empty.

"Last call for flight 0530 to Vancouver International! All remaining passengers, please prepare to board!" A voice blasts from the speakers dotted around the room.

Arthur leaps up and joins the end of the queue, shuffling forward until it's his turn to show his passport and boarding pass. The bored looking young woman scans them both, then nods and passes them back.

"Have a nice flight," she says, holding his gaze for a moment then winking.

Arthur coughs, nods and shrugs all at once. "Uh, I will, thanks."

♡

There are many things that frighten Arthur (wasps; roller-coasters; indeterminably deep expanses of water; people, most of the time) but thankfully air flight is not on this list. He settles into his seat, content, and plugs his earphones back in. Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata begins playing, which makes him simultaneously smile and sink further into his seat, exhaustion taking over.

Once again Arthur shuts his eyes, this time knowing he has hours in which to catch up on some well needed sleep.

Cue our next character, Arabella

"Excuse me, you're in my seat." The voice that forces Arthur from his rest for the second time that hour is stubborn and sharp.

He opens his eyes and pauses his music, preparing to commence in an argument, and sees her, partially silhouetted by the bright airplane lighting. She's staring down at him, mouth fixed in a tight line. In her hand is a boarding pass bearing the name Arabella Pannone.

Arthur shakes his head. "Actually, this is my seat; I'm row D seat 4."

"I'm row D seat 3, so I should be sitting there actually."

As it turns out, Arthur is in the wrong seat. But he doesn't realise this until they've been arguing for a fair few minutes. (If firing "You shouldn't!" "I should!" back and forth can really be classed as anything other than immature, that is.)

Eventually, he gives in and shifts across to the seat by the window, mumbling that it's whatever, he likes window seats better anyway. Arabella sits down triumphantly.

With a sigh, Arthur hits play on his phone and music floods through his earphones again. Frustratingly, he's become too worked up to go to sleep. And, even worse, the girl next to him has started prodding at his arm.

Arthur yanks the earphones out and twists in his seat to face her. "What?"

"You need to turn your phone off," Arabella tells him.

"It's on flight mode."

She shakes her head, persistent. "No, it has to be switched off. They announced it."