~ ♥ ~
It took a second of panic over being completely blind and in what sounded like some sort of wind tunnel before I remembered the sleep mask and where I was. Once that realization hit home, another one landed: my head was resting on something. Something warm and distinctly human. That smelled like manly laundry.
I cursed in my head as I gingerly removed the mask from my eyes and confirmed my worst fear: that I was indeed sleeping on Graeme, the cute stranger beside me. My gaze drifted up and my worst fear suddenly changed to him looking down at me just as I realized I had been sleeping on him.
He grinned as I blinked up at him. “Hullo,” he said softly.
Horrified, I pushed back away from him. “Sorry,” I mumbled, still a bit stupid from sleep.
“Quite all right,” he said.
Then I realized my actual absolute worst fear ever had occurred, when my eyes drifted down to the small wet spot on his shirt. Which precisely aligned to where my mouth had been just a moment ago.
Oh. My. God.
I had totally drooled on a hot stranger that I was still stuck beside for several hours.
Now what? Do I apologize? Pretend it doesn’t exist and hope he never notices? It was dark in the cabin, but if he looked in the right spot, he’d totally see it. My mind whirled in panic as I tried to figure out the best tactic to employ in this situation.
“Something to drink?” the flight attendant whispered from the aisle just then, holding out packets of pretzels and nuts.
I looked up at her, suddenly very thankful for the interruption. She was smiling at me expectantly as she leaned slightly over the sleeping woman sitting in the aisle seat. “Water, please,” I said as I took the snacks from her.
“Same,” said Graeme.
The flight attendant gave a nod and turned to her cart, giving me a moment to put down my tray as I thought about what to do next. Still, I came up blank as to what to do about the drool situation.
As she reached out to pass me the squat glass of liquid, something in my brain short-circuited and I came up with what was probably (I realize now in hindsight) the stupidest idea I’d ever had. But still in panic mode, it seemed like the best plan of action in this worst case scenario. I took the cup from her and fumbled it, spilling some of the water down Graeme’s shoulder. Not enough to soak him, but enough to cover most of the saliva mark I’d left. Better to be seen as clumsy than drooly, like a St. Bernard, right?
“Oh crap,” I blurted. “I’m so sorry!”
Graeme’s gaze went from his shoulder up to meet mine, his eyebrows arched high. “Well. I guess that will wash out the saliva. Good enough.”
It felt like every molecule of blood in my body rushed to my face at that and all I could do was sputter. “Oh my God…I…”
He waved his hand. “Think nothing of it. I was happy to be your pillow. You smell lovely.”
As my heart stuttered in my chest, I just stared at him for a long moment trying to figure out if he was serious. The expression on his face told me he had to be; he certainly didn’t look angry.
Marry me, my brain said out of nowhere, making me have to look away from him. I swallowed, realizing my throat was very dry and that the water would have served me better going into me rather than on his shirt. I knocked back what was left in the cup and put it down on the tray as I watched Graeme drink his in my peripheral vision.
“Ahhh. Flying’s thirsty work,” he said as he leaned over and slid his empty cup into mine. As he moved back, he glanced at the watch on his wrist and then yawned again. “Still a ways to go.”
“Yeah,” I said, ever the brilliant conversationalist. I held out my snacks toward him. “Hungry?”
He made a face and waved me off. “No, thanks. So what are you doing in New York?”
For half a paranoid second, I wondered if I should tell him the truth. But there was no way he could know who I really was. “School,” I said. Which was the truth and it’s not like I was drawing him a map to where I was going. A driver was going to meet me at the airport and take me to a hotel near the school almost three hours away, so there wasn’t much fear this guy was going to tail me. “What about you?” I asked, wanting to hear more about him anyway.
“Business,” he said, smiling.
“What kind of business?” I asked, wondering what this cute guy did that had him flying halfway across the world.
He frowned.
“Sorry,” I said quickly. “I didn’t mean to get personal.” Though he had asked me, so…
He shook his head. “It’s not that. It’s just that I have a big important meeting and a lot rests on it. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I’m a bit superstitious about it.”
“Like if you talk about it, you’ll jinx it?”
He smirked and nodded. “Stupid, I know.”
“I understand,” I said, hiding my disappointment because I really did want to know more about him. Though imagining him in a sharp business suit almost made up for it.
“So tell me about your school,” he said.
I shrugged. “Not much to tell. It’s my first year there and I don’t know anyone. I’ll be the new girl”
“Brilliant,” he said.
I did a double-take but it didn’t look like he was being sarcastic. “How is that brilliant?” I asked.
“No one knows you. You can be anyone you want to be.”
I opened my mouth and then closed it again.
“Not that being you isn’t perfect,” he said with a wink.
Marry me. No really, popped into my head. “Hardly,” I said, dropping my eyes.
“Oh come now,” he said softly and it suddenly felt like too much. Sitting next to this guy was heady stuff and I was starting to feel myself getting sucked into his words. He was casting some sort of spell on me and it felt really, really dangerous.
“Excuse me,” I said, pushing myself up and maneuvering past him (most definitely not giving him a mile-high lap dance) and the lady on the aisle so I could go decompress in the bathroom for a few minutes.
Thankfully it was unoccupied, so I quickly locked myself inside. While I was there, I used the facilities and then looked at myself in the microscopic mirror as I willed my heart to stop pounding.
It’s nothing, I told myself. He’s just a nice guy. Do not get sucked into this. You will never see him after today.
I washed my hands and left the bathroom, taking a deep breath before I returned to row forty-nine. Graeme was standing in the aisle, giving me easy access back to my seat. He didn’t follow me in but disappeared down the aisle toward the lavatory, giving me a few more minutes to prepare myself for his return. As I waited, I looked out the window, but it was dark and there was nothing to see anyway, so I pulled down the shade.
Most people around us spoke in hushed tones, watched their televisions with their headphones on or simply slept. The white noise of the canned air system drowned out most of them, making it feel like we were strangely insulated in our little row. Before I had time to do much other than put my seatbelt back on and get myself comfortable, Graeme was back.
Once he was seated, he stilled and the silence felt deafening between us. I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I just smiled at him and thought about putting the eye mask back on for something to do, even though the last thing I wanted was to not have the opportunity to watch him, even out of the corner of my eye.
But as I fidgeted, he cocked his head at me. “What’s wrong?”
How was I supposed to answer that question? Uh, I’m feeling awkward around you, but I have no idea what to do, but I do want to keep talking to you, so yeah, can you carry the weight of the conversation?
Not.
I shrugged and then pushed the first words I could think of out my mouth. “I’m nervous, I guess. I’m going to this brand new school on my own and really have no idea what to expect. Maybe nervous isn’t the right word. More like terrified.” As I said it, I realized it was true. And then,
to my horror, my eyes started to fill with tears.
Do not cry, I told myself as I looked down, away from his knowing gaze. Ugh. Way to make an impression.
“Right, then,” he said and then, without another word, pulled up the armrest between us so it disappeared between the seats. As I watched, having no idea what he was about, he stretched out his arm over my head and waggled his fingers. “Come on.”
I glanced up at his arm and then back at his face, mine heating up at what I thought he was proposing, making me thankful for the dim lights in the cabin.
He shrugged and nodded at me. “I’m already wet, may as well carry on.”
“You don’t even know me,” I whispered.
“Well, yes, I know I’m a stranger, but we’re on an airplane and it’s quiet and the middle of the night and you look like you need a little comforting. Also, you smell nice.” He suddenly frowned. “But now that I’ve said it, it sounds creepy…about the smelling nice bit, so I’ll understand if you want to change seats for the rest of the flight.”
I smiled at that; maybe on paper it sounded creepy, but right here, right now, it sounded like exactly what I needed. My heart felt as if it would burst from beating so fast and hard, but it’s not like I would refuse him. It’s not like I could refuse him—something in my brain made it impossible. Actually, I think that’s what they call hormones.
This kind of stuff never happens to me, was all I could think. Never. Ever. Maybe it was a sign of things to come. Maybe I really was starting over and things would be different this year. As I thought this, I realized he was sitting there watching me and waiting, his arm still in the air.
Duh. Not wasting another second, I inched over and put my head on him as he slid his arm across my shoulders, his big palm resting on my upper arm. I tucked my hands into my hoodie so I wouldn’t have to worry about where to put them.
At first it was uncomfortable as I held my weight off him, but he must have known it because he pulled me in, forcing me to adjust. I almost died when I felt the weight of his chin on my head.
He took a deep breath in. “There. That’s better.”
Better? How about the best there has ever been? But I just hummed in agreement, afraid if I said anything, I’d wake myself up from what had to be the best dream I’d ever had.