My Summer Affair

Chapter 2: Journey to London

“Why did we go out last night?" Jackie whines and pushes up her glasses as if the fluorescent lights of the airport are giving her a migraine. She drops her head onto my back and we shuffle forward together in line to board the plane.

“Tradition," I remind her.

“My head is killing me," Margot says with a whine. She and Natalie are also leaning on each other. “They do serve coffee on this plane, right?'

“Hopefully. Why did we have to pick such an early flight?" We shuffle forward as the group in front of us slowly boards.

“We have to catch the connecting flight in Chicago, and we only have like 55 minutes to run from gate to gate. This plane better not be late," I grumble. “Also, it's only 7:00 am. We should have just driven to Chicago yesterday and spent the night at a hotel, then we could have slept in and gotten good coffee. Not airplane coffee." I hug my backpack to my chest once we are on the plane, and push past first class to find our seats back in economy.

“Do we have better seats for the long haul to London?"

“Nope," I respond grimly.

“Great," is all Jackie says before she pops a pill that should knock her out or at least make her groggy for the majority of our journey. Great indeed.

Luckily, our first leg of the journey lands on time and after getting a couple of cups of coffee on the plane, we are awake enough to make it to our next gate with a few minutes to spare. The second leg of the journey, an 8-hour plane ride, goes just about as smoothly. Once I drop a drowsy Jackie into the window seat, I plop down next to her and tug on the complimentary sleep mask and immediately fall asleep.

“Ten hours later," Jackie says as we once again shuffle along to get off the plane. She's much more energetic now, after sleeping for most of the ride.

“I can't believe we're finally here!" Margot squeals, which makes my head throb. Halfway through the flight I woke up and scarfed down some airplane food. Jackie must have finished my food because the next time I woke up, the flight attendant was clearing my tray of the empty kosher meal. It wasn't bad but I did have to wash it down with a few mini bottles. The cheapest ones, of course. I can't spend all my money on the plane ride over. “I'm so excited to see everything! Where are we going first?"

“The luggage claim," Jackie says and points to the sign guiding us in the right direction. The airport is a bit crowded today so we huddle together and push through to get to our bags.

“Got mine!" I exclaim and yank it off the conveyor belt.

“Mine too!" Natalie uses both hands to hoist her bag up and over her shoulder. Her knees buckle a bit and she takes a few steps to regain her stability. “Whoa, I may have brought too much."

“I may have shoved some of my things into your bag," Margot makes a fake apologetic face then giggles when Natalie rolls her eyes at her. “Hey! You can use them too. We'll just have to make sure we find a laundromat at some point."

“Oh, Jackie! There's your bag!" I cry out watching it pass around the end of the belt. “I got it!" I run after it, pushing back people and I reach for it at the same time another hand reaches for it. We both grab it but unfortunately, the other person is stronger and I go flying when the bag is pulled from the belt.

“Whoa there!" A deep voice chuckles and strong arms catch me before I fall completely on my face. “Are you okay, Miss?"

“Yeah, sorry. I think you took my bag or my friend's bag," I say and gesture to the bag he's still holding. I look up and see an amused look on a very handsome face and brilliant green eyes. His thick eyebrows are raised high as he looks down at me. I must be staring longer than expected because his eyes dart around and he pulls down the glasses that were on his head.

“I apologize but I think you are mistaken," his voice rumbles through my stomach and makes my heart flutter. His accent and the tone of his deep voice make me reconsider but I look back down at the bag and see a pink boot-shaped luggage tag dangling from one of the straps.

“Ah no," once again, I point to the bag, this time specifically to the pink book, “it's definitely my friend's bag."

“Yes, it seems I was the one who was mistaken. I do apologize, Miss…" he trails off like he's searching for my name. I smile and take the bag from his hand.

“Thank you," I wink at him then turn and return to my friends.

“Who was that slice of heaven?" Jackie nudges me when I give her bag back to her. I give her a look because of the weird saying and she just shrugs. “What? Like I'm wrong? So, did you get his number?"

“We literally just landed, I am not going to fall for the first boy I see," I help the girls load our bags on a little dolly then start out to find a taxi.

“That's a good philosophy. He was stunning though," Natalie sighs and takes one last look back at the striking man before the crowd blocks him from view.

“He was," I agree and the other girls nod in agreement as well. “But! He was the first and if that's the first boy? I can't wait to see the rest of them!"

The girls all burst out giggling and I join in. A cab pulled to the curb in front of us and we all pile in while the driver loads our bags into the trunk.

“Where to, ladies?" The driver asks and I tell him the address then we speed off.