Flight Part I

Her soft hair brushed his bare neck, her head barely reached his chin. He rubbed his chin on top of her head and kissed it gently. She sighed happily to his chest and hugged him even tighter. He held her possesively, his right hand encircled her waist and his left was around her shoulders. His eyes lit up when the fireworks began to explode in the sky. Upon hearing the sound, she turned her body halfway and rested her hand on his waist.
“Happy fifteenth anniversary, Mrs. Tobb.” he whispered to her forehead.
She smiled sheepishly to his chest. “Indeed, husband, indeed.”
One of her hand placed gently upon his chest, feeling the steady thud of his heart. Her eyes no longer focused on the firewoks, instead it was upon her simple gold wedding ring with square-cut diamond on her finger. She kept turning it around and around and around, each time she felt the engraved words inside the ring, without even peering inside she knew the words, “You are loved”.
To the people around them and to him, she looked like a woman who was nostalgic, swirls of memories passed her mind, especially when she gazed at her ring lovingly. One man knew better, though. The man, with the same height as him, was standing merely ten feet from them, gazing at her longingly. The man was holding a glass of Champagne and his parner.


“Are you ready?”
The man nodded. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Then let’s go.”
“Remind me our plane again?”
“It’s on your ticket.”
“Oh yeah, right.”
She laughed heartily and then stopped.
“What?” the man asked.
“You remind me of him…”
The man rubbed her back gently. “There there…”

The man and her arrived at the hotel around dinner time. They quickly checked themselves in. He was quite suprised when he found out they got their own rooms, with a questioning look from her, they went to put their luggages on their respective rooms after promising to meet each other at the restaurant to eat dinner together.
After showering and dressing up, she went downstairs. She greeted the man with a polite smile. They both quickly found a table and sat on the chairs at the same time. She frowned a bit, remembering her spouse always pulled out a chair for her first, but she quickly shook her head, she could not compare the man in front of her with her husband, because they are different people.
“What is it?” he asked.
She smiled briefly. After the waitress came and gave them menus. “Nothing. So, what are we going to eat?”
“I’ve never been in this restaurant actually, you pick.” he said while scanning his menu.
She nodded. “I’m going to have roast beef and ice tea.”
“I’ll order the same.” he said to the waitress.
The waitress nodded and then left them both.
“So…” he began.
She raised her eyebrows at him.
“Spill your beans.”
He looked at her with pleading eyes and she finally nodded. “Fine, but don’t ever tell this to anyone. Ever.”
“Cross my heart and hope to be rich.”
She laughed a bit. “You already are.”
“Well…?”
“Yes. Where to start? The beginning? Fine. He was my childhood crush. My first love. He was famous and I was a simple nobody. One day, one fine afternoon, when I was seventeen and he was twenty-two, I was driving my car when I was him lying there, face down. I was passionately curious back then, so I stopped my car and nudged his shoulder but he wouldn’t budge. I turned him over and he was bleeding from his head to his chest. I shook his body, I wanted to call his name but I was afraid that he would think of me as a weird stalker, which indeed I was. I decided to take him to the hospital and so I did. I paid for his charges and when I was finished with the papers, I got called to go to his room,” she took a deep breath and drank her ice tea.