Known Crewmember

Business as usual.

    "I'm Nora," she says. Her eyes are a little glazed over but the smile on her face never waivers. I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful sight.

    "Nice to meet you, I'm Bradley."

    "Hey man. You alright?"

     I look at my flying partner for this pairing, Captain Stuart. He's eying me and I can practically hear the concern that's flashing in his eyes. As he rightfully should. It's my leg to land and here I am daydreaming about a woman I have no business thinking about.

    I need to snap out of it.

    "Yeah man, I'm fine. Now, that landing in Las Vegas was cute but I'm going to show you how a master does it," I say as we go about following the procedures to prepare for our arrival into New York.

     When the last passengers, a family of three finally make it off of the aircraft, I give a nod to the flight attendants packing up their bags as I follow Stuart off of the plane. People respectfully step to the side as we pass trying to make our flights home and even after all these years, I'll never get over just how much influence this uniform has.

     But I hadn't used it in Vegas. I hadn't needed to. God the things that woman could do with her body should be illegal. 

    "It was good flying with you, make sure to look into that cruise. You can't beat that price and I'm sure the missus will appreciate the getaway for a few days," Stuart says, patting me on the shoulder as he makes his way pass me to head to his gate. He commutes to work every couple of weeks from Italy. The man is insane. I barely manage my commute from another state, I can't even imagine the headache of an international commute. But then again, he doesn't have a family to worry about. Just himself and a goldfish named Pizza.

     I make my way to the gate agent standing behind the desk. She smiles as she looks up from her computer and notices me.

     "Good morning, what can I do for you?" she asks. I give her the once over and return her smile. There are a few things I could think of but I'll keep those to myself.

     "Hey, I'm just trying to get home. Please tell me there are seats available."

      She looks over my credentials for a moment before looking back to her computer and beginning to type away.

      I wonder if I have time to grab something to eat before boarding. Lord knows there only so many cookies, pretzels, and chips I can eat before I turn into one.

      The machine under the counter comes to life and a moment later she hands me a ticket as she rattles off the spiel about my willingness to sit in the emergency exit row. Of course I'm willing. In an emergency what else would you expect me to do? This isn't the titanic and I'm not a captain. I'm not going down with the ship.

      "Thank you..." I glance down at her name bar. Winnie. "Winnie, you have a good day."

      She smiles. "You too, the working crew is already onboard so feel free to board."

     She doesn't have to tell me twice.

     I greet the flight attendant waiting on board. He's a tall sturdy man. His smile is friendly and I return it before making my way to say a quick hello to the pilots up front. I make my way to my seat in the exit row. There are a few elderly people making themselves comfortable in their seats and they smile at me as I pass by them. My bags go up into the overhead bin without any issue. I'm thankful this is one of our larger aircrafts and I don't have to check any of my bags. I sit in my seat with my lunch bag. Unzipping the small pocket on the side I pull out the silver band. The weight feels heavier than usual and for a split second I think of not putting it back on. 

I gotta snap out of it. The sleep deprivation is making me delusional.I love my wife. We'd been going through a bit of a dry spell in our sex life but that was mostly my fault. I'd been picking up extra trips. We needed the money but that hadn't left us much time for much else.

Her hands trailed down my chest as her soft lips sucked on my neck. Thank god she didn't give me a hickey. It's time to get back to my real life, the last thing I need to do is daydream about a woman I'll never see again. I slide the ring on to its rightful place. 

I wonder what Anna is making for dinner tonight.