It's Got A Ring To It (15 page)

Many passengers had tried to tempt her unsuccessfully. But then
again, none of the passengers before knew how to tug at her curiosity with
originality.
I knew t
he
wheels were turning in her head. Without a doubt, I knew she’d find a way to
get up to 2B, if only to get a glimpse of him.

By the dinner service, I stood to the side out of the way while the
three of them stocked their carts. Brooke
was
pretty quiet, but Paula and Ebony
couldn’t stop running off at the mouth. After every few words, they’d peek at
Brooke and continue. I knew they were up to something.

Now Ebony
was
a capable woman who would rarely need help with anything. But suddenly, she
asked Brooke for her help with the first
-
class service. Brooke agreed, but as Ebony
smiled back at Paula, I knew what they were doing
,
and I had no intentions of ratting them
out. Sure, 2B was in first class, but Brooke was none the wiser of their
conniving plan
, w
hich
wasn’t like her at all.

S
he took
orders and distributed the meals. After the last meal had been placed on the tray
table in the first row, she eased into the first
-
class galley.
I found my way up
there to check on her just as she busied herself, discarding empty cans and
bottles. While she tidied up, I slipped into the lavatory
. On the other side
of the door, I heard someone enter the galley.

“I don’t mean to interrupt you, but I was hoping
you got my note and that’s why you decided to work first class,” a resonating
baritone
bellowed,
every bit completing the fantasy.

 
“Don’t
worry. You’re not interrupting me at all. I’m just relaxing until it’s time to
clear everything. Drew,
was it?
I did receive your note and it was really sweet.
You seem like a really great guy, but I have to tell you that I don’t date
passengers.”
It took every bit of my willpower not to bu
r
st through the door
and yell at her.
It wasn’t the time to be sticking to her
principles.
He sounded hot from where I stood.

“I knew there’d be a ‘but.’ Brooke, I’m not asking
you to marry me…yet. I just want to take you out to dinner and get to know you.
Really that’s it. You have to eat, right?”

“Yeah.”
He had her on that one.

“Then please, would you do me the honor of
accompanying me to a nice meal, in a well-lit public restaurant, of your
choice.”

“I don’t know.”

Say yes. Say yes.

“If the dinner is overwhelming, then what are you
doing tonight after we land? We could just have a drink at the bar
in
the airport and you can call me
later, if and when you’re ready to take me up on dinner. How’s that?

Atta boy!

“I’ll have one drink with you.”

A
ha. A loophole. A
drink at the
airport couldn’t really be considered a date, so it wouldn’t technically be
dating a passenger.

“That’s all I’m asking.”

After he left, I finally eased my way out of the
lavatory and back into the galley
.
Ebony, Paula, and I were giddy with excitement, but
Brooke remained silent. Or so we thought. She looked sick to her stomach. The
non-date that was supposed to be no big
deal,
had
become a major to-do. A drink with a random hot guy wasn’t intimidating, but
fifteen minutes to an hour with a man who had his crap together,
seemed
daunting.

“Maybe, I should cancel
.
”
S
he cowered.

“Uh, Maybe you’re a whacky loon!” I scolded her, knowing she was
ready to chicken out. It was just like her to cancel on a guy with potential,
but fall all over herself for some mooching loser with a cute smile.
A
ny single
woman would be a fool to let a beautiful available man with a head square on
his shoulders, pass them by.

Just the thought of what a mistake it would be for Brooke to brush
Drew off, reminded me how I almost made the same misstep with Myles. He awaken
ed
every one of my senses.
The sound of his voice calm
ed
me like no one or nothing ever ha
d
. Just
lying
on his chest last night was like coming
home after being away for far too long. Still, I knew I needed the distance for
a few days to clear the haze.

Once the plane was fully debarked, I stayed behind to help Brooke and
the other flight attendants neaten up the seatbelts, collect trash, and ensure
the safety cards were properly stowed in each seatback. I straggled off the
plane with the flight crew before the next flight began boarding. There he was.
At the gate, magazine in hand, stealthily posted against a wall in the corner.
Quiet in his demeanor, but his presence demanded attention. Part of me knew
Brooke hoped Drew wouldn’t be there, but the spark
that
ignited as their eyes met was
undeniable. Despite Brooke’s eyes cut
ting
in my direction pleading for me not to
leave her side, I hung back to give them some space.

The two of them sat at the Hangar bar chatting and getting to know
each other, while I wandered aimlessly through the terminal.

When I returned, they were in the same spot. Already, they seemed
smitten. With thousands of people coming and going around them, it was only the
two of them. I was beginning to know that feeling. Beginning to long for the
feeling. With my mind halfway across the globe, I dug into the corners of my
purse to find my phone and disabled the airplane mode. Hinged upon the sinking
of my heart was the empty screen reflecting no missed
calls.

fifteen

Our hotel
wasn’t the Waldorf, but
it
could’ve been for all I knew. The entrance was grand with a golden awning and
vast Italian marble floors. A doorman greeted us like we were royalty. It made
me
want
to straighten my posture, and speak the King’s
English. It wasn’t my first trip to New York, but I’d never been with my best
friend and
had
all
accommodations paid. It didn’t get better than that. If we hadn’t come in on
the redeye, I would’ve made Brooke go shopping with me before we even checked
into the hotel. And by the looks of things, she couldn’t wait to unwind and
unload. On the ride over, she wouldn’t let me forget that I hadn’t finished
telling her about Myles, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that she was
already on me as soon as the door closed.

 
“Okay. Go.”

“You go first
,
Brooke, since yours is fresh.”

“No,
Laila
, we’ve been trying to finish
your story since last night and finally there’ll be no interruptions.”

“I promise
.
I’ll get to it right after you. I don’t want you to forget anything. Like you
said, there won’t be any interruptions, so it doesn’t matter if I go last.”

“Ugh, I’ll go, but only because you’re stubborn and we’d probably end
up going back and forth all night and neither one of us will get to our
stories. Ok
ay
. So
—
”

Before she could start, her phone pinged, alerting her
to
a message. Whether she
knew she was or not, she was smiling.

“Aw. He just wanted to make sure I made it to the hotel safely. He
enjoyed not going on a date with me tonight.” Another ping. “He hopes we’ll be
able to go on a date soon.”

“That’s so sweet.”

“Yeah. He’s sweet and funny.” She sighed. Not a swooning sigh, but a
sigh of exasperation.

“What?”

“This is just so not
me
. I don’t do this
whole giddy schoolgirl act. I think he’s nice, but it just isn’t going to
work.”

“Because…” I wanted her to say it aloud, so she could
hear
how ridiculous she
sounded. There was no real concern, just her nerves.

She tried to fall back on her old fail
-
safe, “Because he’s a passenger and I don’t
date passengers.”

“Good, because it wasn’t a date, it was just a drink, right?”

“Ugh. I like him, but I don’t want to like him. I used to be so good
at casually dating with no strings attached. Now, here I am at a slumber party
in cupcake pajamas picturing what it would be like to be with this random guy I
met on a plane, for goodness sake,” she said putting her other leg into the
pink pajama bottoms and shimmying them up.

“Well, at least you’re being honest with yourself for once. You
don’t
want to
like him, but you do. That doesn’t mean you have to run off and marry him
tomorrow. Enjoy his company. Savor his touch.
Geez,
let me live vicariously through you for a little while. Just stop trying to
plan every step of your life
,
and let it happen. As soon as you stop thinking about it, it’ll happen.” With
my
face
covered with a
green seaweed mask and my hair clipped up on top of my
head, I’m sure I looked as crazy as I sounded, but she needed to
hear
it. “
A
nd I like slumber parties
for your information.”

S
he fluttered
her eyelashes and poked out her bottom lip apologetically “I wouldn’t slumber
with anyone else.”

“Tell that to Drew!”

“I will,
if
I decide
to go out with him.”

“Stop stalling. Get on with the non-date first.”

“Al
l
right,
al
l
right…so, first it
was awkward. He ordered drinks for us. Two
B
ud
L
ights.”

Brooke was still rattling on and on about his pros and all I wanted
to know about
were
the cons. I refused to ask though,
so I listened for the infamous, “but.” Just as important as the checks on her
list, are the deal-breakers. I really wanted to weed out the sociopaths and
sycophants. Everyone has
a
vice, but what
was
important
was
where h
e
fell in between vigilante
and chain-smoker. To find out t
ook
a clever skill set, which Brooke ha
d
never quite mastered. The small details she
c
ould
gather in
abundance, but it
was
the big picture with which she struggle
d
. Right after she gets past looks, it
had
always been on to the
type of car, career, sense of humor
,
and finally to chemistry in the bedroom
before ever finding out the last name and intentions. It
was
just part of her—a hopeless
romantic.

Brooke’s rambling slowed down to a breezy chatter, and I knew she was
finally wrapping up all the sordid details on her brush with
P
rince
C
harming. “So we laughed at my horror stories
about the unfriendly skies. Drew couldn’t believe all the stuff we have to go
through. He even said
,
he could understand why I had a
rule
not
to date passengers
.
”
S
he giggled. “But then, he winked and hinted
that he hoped I’d make a one-time exception for him.
What’s
really funny is that I’m actually considering it. I had such a good time with
him. It was just comfortable, you know. Like we’d known each other for years.
But yeah, that’s really all that happened with us
.
” Brooke turned to me
and I knew the floor was mine.

After Ethan, I was ready to throw in the towel, but then Myles
happened. I kept telling myself to just have fun and not think about a future
that neither one of us could predict. It would have been better if it was a
one-off, but somehow it kept happening with him. “It started off innocently
enough,” I began. Even telling the story, felt like I was reliving it. At
Myles’ door, he welcomed me in with a soft kiss on the cheek and offered to
take my jacket. The house was quaint with a stylish fusion of masculinity and
modernity. From the outside, the beige color and slate trim meshed well into
the cookie-cutter design of the homes in the master-planned community. Though,
inside, my eye was instantly drawn to clean lines, black and
gray
décor,
stainless steel appliances, and pops of color strategically splashed about.
There was no mistaking that a man lived there, but knickknacks were dispersed
here and there, giving hints of a woman’s touch. I kept looking for the
telltale
signs
—
bobby pins, earrings,
lingerie
—
but my
wondering eyes only found him. Myles prowled from one room to the next, and
though it was exciting to see where he lived, I was much more enthused to be
there with him.

“So this is it
.
”
H
e opened his arms,
encircling the room. I took
a
once-over, finally
seeing it for the first time. Industrial lacquered cement floors stretched to
the ecru walls. Centering the room, a dense cream area rug outlined a plush
gray sectional facing the stone fireplace. The atmosphere could have easily
been misconstrued as cold or chilly, but there was contrasting warmth that
resonated. Symbols of life adorned every wall, nook, and cranny. And though
there was framed artwork and candid stills of family and friends
,
and
p
lants blossoming, there was a stark silence,
too. A void that could only be filled with the happiest noise that comes with
love and a full house.

Much more relaxed than I was, he welcomed me to make myself at home,
which was much easier for him, since we were on his turf. Myles sat on the
furthest end of the sectional and kicked his feet
up
onto the ottoman. Something about his
leisurely manner and confidence made me less so. His lifestyle was one that
would have been effortless to fall into. There was nothing complicated or
cumbersome about it. Still, as simple and honest as it was on the outside
looking in, it also seemed lonely. My heart ached to give him the happy noise
that he deserved, but I knew it was both presumptuous and stupid to be thinking
on those terms.

Brooke, twirled her finger in a circle, urging me to wrap up the
details and get to the good stuff, but she needed to hear about events leading
up to the big deal for it all to make sense.

“I’m getting there
.
”
I shushed her, trying not to forget where I’d left off. Myles handed me a glass
of water and positioned the portfolio between us. We were supposed to be
finalizing the photo options for Lena’s wedding. With each turn of the page, I
found myself concentrating on the muscles in his arms.
The
movement in his strong, capable hands.
The bass in his
voice, mesmerizing.
Flashbacks of us on the side of my parents’
house kept
running through my head, sending my body
temperature skyrocketing. “I was trying to keep things professional,” I scolded
Brooke, in response to her request as to why I hadn’t jumped his bones.
“Water eventually turned to wine,
and I began to loosen up.”

I tried to make a long story short. Brooke’s patience was wearing
thin. Talks of weddings and all things associated with them were long since
over. By then, barefoot, I let my toes wiggle in the thick soft carpet. Even
the blissful feeling of my hair being let down from a tight ponytail was
nothing compared to the strength and fire his fingers breathed into my
shoulders as he massaged my throbbing muscles.

“
Laila
, have you ever thought about
modeling?”

“
T
hat’s
more my sister’s thing.
I gave it up a long time ago.
”

“You’d be great for print work. The symmetry in your face is
perfect.” With his hand, he lined my face. “I’m looking to expand my business,
so I’m thinking about creating a brochure. I would love it if you’d pose for
some headshots for me.”

“I’m flattered, but
it
’s been since I was a kid,
I’d have no idea
what I was doing.”

“I’ll direct you through it
—it’s like riding a bike,
” Myles said
nonchalantly, as if having my face plastered all over the place was no big
deal.

“In that case, sure.”

We talked about everything under the sun. Politics, religion, pet
peeves and so on. Our dialogue was fluid. We were both getting comfortable
and
personal, learning about each
other and our families. We skipped further talk about our sisters’ upcoming
weddings. Then things got serious when he talked about the loved ones he’d
loss.
First his parents and then several friends on each
deployment.

You’d have to be without a soul not to feel something for a man
pouring out his heart. My instinct was instantly to nurture him. Next thing I
knew, my hands were wrapped around his biceps, stroking away at his invisible
pain. The more he spoke, the more I wanted to be there for him. My hands
betrayed my thoughts. The left one caressed the nape of his neck while the
right one rubbed his chest. I could’ve blamed it on the wine, but it was only
liquid courage, giving me the wherewithal to do what I’d been thinking of all
along. When his eyes met mine, empathy turned to lust like quicksand pulling me
into him.

Our mouths met like magnets, drawn to one another. “
Laila
,” he whispered my name and I was practically putty.
For too long in my life I’d been doing what was appropriate and expected of me,
but that night I wanted to finally do, without hesitation or second thought.
Rising to my feet, my hand led him to do the same. We stood there with our
bodies so close that they became one. I’d tiptoed on the line, but I hadn’t
crossed it yet. The feeling of his lips sent me over the edge. It was going to
be now or never, I decided.

A blessing and a curse, the timer on the oven buzzed incessantly,
like a little angel on my shoulder begging me
to
rethink my rash behavior. Naturally, its
devilish counterpart rooted for me to go all the way this time. It kept ringing
and I was going crazy. I needed time to clear my head and think. The only
problem with time, we’d lost our momentum.

At the dining table
,
he poured us another glass of wine without ever looking me in the eye.
Silently, we ate one forkful at a time. Bite by bite
,
the distance between us turned from a table
apart to miles away. And with every inch, I was losing my nerve. Then, he
reached for the pepper and slid his hand in mine, instead. His hand was easy
and familiar. More than that, it was a sign that I had to either go through
with it or live with regret. The possibility of “what if,” just seemed too
great.

By dessert, my need for him was urgent. When I could take it no
longer, it was like the gods were in my corner.
Or at least
the god of wine.
Myles’ shirt dripped with sweet Riesling and it was all
I could do not to drink from his well. Without him asking, I rose to my feet
and reached for his buttons. One by one, I was rewarded tenfold. I’d still had
yet to meet his eyes, though I felt the heat of them warming me through. He
wanted me to lead. And so I did. Gently, I hung his shirt over the chair.
Moisture still glistened on his chest and I took pleasure in tasting the
intoxicating mixture of the sweet wine and his sweet skin. Myles backed away to
the couch and allowed me to do with him as I saw fit. Knowing I had the control
only made me desperate for all of him. I removed his shoes and his pants with
the same urgency and took in the full vision of him, ready to receive me. He
didn’t shudder or cower in modesty. So confident and sure, he la
y
there like a fine
sculpture of chiseled perfection even with scars scattered about. Lightly
bronzed skin basked in morning suns.
Full succulent lips.
Masculine, avid hands, both strong and gentle.
To be
in them would be the only truth.