Claimed for Christmas

Chapter Eight

After I board the aircraft, I try not to look too smug as I turn left rather than right for the first time ever. Moving along the row, I find my seat number, stepping into the roomy lag space, and sitting down. I wriggle my ass experimentally against the padded cushioning, wow! Is this how the other half live? This is nothing like the ceder blocks that they call economy seats. I lean forward, tucking my bag by my feet before picking up either side of my seatbelt and clipping them together and settling back into the ridiculously comfy chair underneath me.

‘Good morning sir, can I interest you in an orange juice? A glass of champagne?’ a voice asks beside me as I turn to find a stewardess holding a tray of drinks, smiling down at me.

‘Oh um, Champagne please’ I reply, taking the glass offered a little tentatively as the young woman moves on to the next passenger. I take a sip, my gaze moving around the small cabin space, watching my fellow passengers placing their bags in the storage bins above and taking their seats. My eyes meet with a man on the other side of the plane, his hands stilling as he lifts his bag up, his gaze connecting with my own. It’s the douche from the check in and the look of shock makes me feel vindictively happy.

I lift my glass to him in salute, ‘I know right’ I call over to him, ‘it seems that they let anyone in here, I’m as shocked as you are.’

The businessman’s cheeks flush a little as he looks away, hastily shoving his bag into the bin before taking his seat.

I grin as I take another sip of my drink which suddenly tastes even better than it already did.

‘Ladies and gentlemen welcome on board, the captain has informed me that he’s just doing his final checks and we should be ready to push back in the next few minutes. Please could I ask that you stow your loose items either in the bins overhead or under the seat in front of you before taking your seats and fastening your seatbelts. Once we are airbourne and the captain has turned off the seatbelt sign, you will be welcome to move around the cabin and your flight crew will start our onboard food and beverage services. While we manage our final departure preparations, please could you direct your attention to the front of your cabin for the safety demonstration.’

I look toward the front where I cute male in his late twenties is now standing, a fake life vest and mask at his feet. He is tall with a slim build, purple eyeshadow dusting his eyes that make his deep blue eyes pop. He glances my way, giving me a smile as his gaze flits down the part of my body he can see and back to my face again. I return his grin, doing the same to him, even though he’s unfortunately not my type. I’ve always preferred my partners a little more muscly but even if I’m not intending to shop, there is nothing wrong with appreciating a nice window display.

I half pay attention to the safety demonstration as another stewardess comes round and takes my empty flute back from me, checking my belt is secured before moving on.

Finally, as the two flight attendants gather up their props, the airplane starts to slide backward. I don’t even realise at first because it’s so smooth, until the walkway we came down to reach the plane slides by my window.

I turn to face the small portal, looking out at the people outside who are working around the huge planes, loading luggage and food cages and refuel the aircrafts.

We turn, the plane rolling to a stop for a few minutes before we’re on the move again, past the other passenger jets and out, toward the runway.

‘Good morning ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking, and welcome aboard this flight to Denver Colorado. Our flight time today is approximately four hours and ten minutes, we have got a small queue in front of us before we can take off, but we should be on our way in the next ten minutes or so, so feel free to sit back and relax.’

I do as he says, settling into my seat as I play with the screen built into the side of my chair that I can’t swing out until after take off. I scroll through the movie options, favouriting anything that appeals until the engines start to roar outside. Abandoning the screen I stare out of the window as we start to move, quickly building speed. My hands grip the arm rests as I’m thrown back into my seat, the outside speeding past until the front tips upward.

‘S.hit, s.hit, s.hit’ I hiss, my fingers digging into the leather of my seat. I’m not a bad flyer but I have ever enjoyed take off or landing. You know that most aviation accidents happen in the first or last five minutes of a flight don’t you?

I continue to swear under my breath as we hurtle through the air, trying not to think about fiery deaths and mangled corpses strewn across an open field next to wreckage that has gouged a hole in the earth until the plane levels and the pull on my body eases.

Slowly I open my eyes, releasing the breath I was holding as I prise my fingers from the arm rests.

‘Nervous flyer?’ a wavery voice asks from my left, and I look over my shoulder to find an older woman in the seat behind me, smiling as she leans forward over the partition between us.

I smile back at her weakly, ‘not so much a fear of flying, more a fear of falling out of the sky’ I reply.

The woman chuckles, oh the chances of that happening are very slim dear’ she states, ‘more chance of being hit by a bus than dying in an airplane crash, doesn’t stop you going to town on one though, does it?’

‘I don’t really understand the whole fear of flying myself’ she continues idly, ‘I mean, if we are going to crash, we are all going to have very little time knowing about it before the big fireball engulfs us all. Plus, if it happens, there will be nothing we can do about it anyway so why waste time fretting about it?’

I stare at her bemused as she continues to smile at me for a few seconds before the ding overhead informs us that we can take our belts off.

‘Oh wonderful! I’ve needed a tinkle since we had to sit down’ she states, unbuckling herself. ‘Old age dear, I don’t recommend it! Bladder the size of a walnut now, I’ll be needing those adult diapers soon if I’m not careful. I tried those pelvic floor exercises? The ones they show you on social media? Almost threw my hip out!’

She giggles as I laugh, shaking my head as she waves at me before moving out of her set and heading to the front where the lavatory is.

After watching her disappear into the small space at the very front of the plane that is hidden by one of those curtains that remind me of shared hospital rooms, I turn back to my screen, pulling it out of it’s housing and angling it so I can see it without any glare before I scroll through my favourites and choose a film. Pressing start, I settle back into my seat, losing myself in the action on the screen as we fly at speed toward my home town and my family.