The Expansion of the Universe

Interlude

"Hey, beautiful."

Liza's eyes snapped upwards, and she blinked at the man in front of her. He was probably her age, or perhaps a few years older, but what brought her up short was the pilot's uniform he wore.

"Hi . . ?" She greeted, exchanging a quick, bewildered glance with Tim.

What was going on?

"Saw you walk in," the pilot continued, "and I thought that maybe I'd come introduce myself. Name's Mitchell."

"Okay." Liza said, still confused. "It's nice to meet you."

The man flashed a wide grin, settling an arm against the overhead luggage bin and leaning forward until his face was uncomfortably close to her own.

Liza raised an unimpressed brow, realizing that the man was flirting with her, of all things!

"Do I get your name in return, beautiful?"

"No," was her flat reply as she crossed her arms over her chest and huffed.

"Damn," he whistled lowly. "You don't give in easy, do you?"

"And you don't know how to do your job, do you? Shouldn't you be up front flying the plane?"

He waved his other arm dismissively, which only made Liza's opinion of him drop further.

What an asshole.

"I'm not a rookie, darling."

"I'm not your darling," Liza hissed. "Please leave me alone."

The man, Mitchell, rolled his eyes. "No need to get so riled up, sweet cheeks. Just sit back, enjoy the ride, and maybe I can give you a different kind of ride later on."

Liza's features screwed up with disgust. "I'd rather drink my own vomit, thanks awful much." She heard Tim stifle a chuckle with a cough, and she had to fight off her own grin. "Can you go fly the plane now? I hope you're better at that than you are at flirting."

Mitchell eyed her up and down slowly, his grin lecherous. "I'm good at quite a few things. I'll tell you about them in a bit, alright, sexy? Just wait for me right here." He shot her a wink before finally leaving, and Liza waited only half a second before whipping to eye Tim incredulously.

"What a dick," she grumbled, and he snorted.

"You can say that again."

"What a dick."

He laughed louder. "Truly." Mitchell turned around when he reached the spot where the flight attendants were getting snacks ready and passed Liza one more large grin, sending a shudder up her spine.

For once, she was not glad to be sitting near the front of the plane.

"Hey," Tim started, seeming to recognize that she was uncomfortable and didn't appreciate how little distance sat between her and her new admirer, "do you want to sit in the back? There are a lot of empty seats back there, and I can join you once I finish going over this stuff with Minna."