In-Flight Infatuation

“You’re in my seat.” were the first words she said to him. 

Maybe it was the domineering tone or her intimidating poise, but something had struck his heart like an arrow. Maybe that was exactly what it was.

Mandy checked his ticket, feeling so pathetic doing so; knowing it would’ve been impossible for her to be wrong. 

“It says I’m in 54A.” 

“Which would be that one.” The girl said, pointing sternly at the vacant seat next to the window.

A tale of two forbidden, basic economy lovers squabbling over who had to sit closer to the bathrooms. Our first fight, Mandy thought to himself. Sure, he hated when they got angry at each other but it was just because they both cared so much. Would it be worse if there was no fire at all? If the flame had died out and they were instead just two emotionless bodies living because they had to? Because they had nothing left to fight for?

He snapped out of his daze. What the hell was he thinking? He’d been staring up a little bit too long and hoped she wouldn’t notice how red his face was becoming.

“Fine.” He said, getting up for his new seat.

Maybe it was the sound reasonability of his decision to move without putting up a fight, or the rebellious undertone she could feel from the word he muttered in response. Or maybe it was how commandingly he stepped over the legs of the man seated in the middle – without even bothering to ask– but something had electrocuted her heart like lightning. 

For an inexplicable moment she didn’t want him to leave. Maybe they could’ve just made it work in the same seat, Grenadine thought to herself. I mean they both seemed in good enough shape; maybe one could’ve sat on the other if it had to come down to that.

No. 

It had to be like this. It wasn’t gonna work and she couldn’t continue to force these things in her life anymore. She took her seat in 54C and buckled in.

Mandy leaned back in his chair, staring rather blankly at the safety card nestled in the pocket of the seat in front of him. The bustling of nearby passengers getting situated into their seats provided a comforting white noise for him, nearly lulling him to sleep. 

“Do you mind if I turn this light on?” A voice sweet like honey suddenly said, forcing Mandy’s eyes back open. The girl was looking at him expecting a response, clutching a copy of Diary of a Wimpy Kid close to her chest. “I was hoping to get some reading in.”

“No not at all, please do I insist. Please.” Mandy responded, worried if he used too few words to reassure her.

She smiled warmly, flicking on the powerful light overhead and flipped to a page that had been bookmarked. She looked amazing while she read, Mandy thought for a second, peeking a glance while noticing what looked like annotations on the page. And she was smart too.

“Are you also a fan of Jeff Kinny’s work?” 31 year old Mandy couldn’t stop himself from asking. 

“He’s my favorite author.” 29 year old Grenadine replied almost instantly, staring directly into his eyes.

Mandy felt his brain load the record player in his head and click start. Jeff Kinney was his lifelong hero but he’d yet to meet anyone who felt the same. He turned his knees and his body in his chair to face her fully.

“If you don’t mind me asking, where have you been my whole life?” 

Grenadine’s face turned red but she turned her head in an attempt to not admit it. 

“I don’t even know your name.” She replied.

The record player came to a screeching halt. Shit! She was right. Why did he ask that? Mandy’s mouth tried grasping at words but it couldn’t find any. It was over. He’d ruined it.

The crew began a series of announcements therefore, for better or for worse, drawing their attention away from each other. The pushback of the plane to begin its taxi was usually the catalyst for Mandy’s takeoff anxiety, but for the first time in a very long time an even more devastating feeling overpowered his dread: Heartbreak.

He tried to tune into the sound of the safety demonstration in hopes of finding an anesthetic in this world of pain.

“This Boeing triple 7 is equipped with 10 exit doors; 5 on each side of the aircraft. If the doors are opened in an emergency…” 

This is not helping, Mandy thought to himself, opting to curl up in his seat and wait for whatever would happen, to happen.

The sound of the dual engines powering up fully startled a half asleep Mandy awake yet again after what had been an incredibly long journey from gate to runway. Instinctively, he clutched the armrest beside him.

Out of the corner of his eye, like two cherries on the same stem, he gasped realizing Grenadine was as well, gripping hers identically. 

“You … too?” Mandy mouthed, as he caught her worried gaze. Grenadine having gone white in the face was the only answer he needed.

The plane accelerated down the runway. Admittedly, she’d been playing hard to get earlier, but now, in the midst of her biggest fear, she felt her subconscious take over and convince her this would be her only chance.

“I want to be with you!” She cried over the roaring engine, “I don’t care what anyone says! I want to be with you!”

That statement helped Mandy understand what whiplash felt like. Just seconds ago he was convinced his life was over but all of a sudden he had everything to live for.

The plane lifted off the ground, and despite leaving Mandy’s stomach behind he managed to cry back, “I want to be with you too!”

Things were different now that Mandy was a taken man. He had obligations and responsibilities. He had commitments to keep. He had a girlfriend he still needed to learn the name of. 

“Grenadine.” She replied when he asked, coming off maybe a tad annoyed he didn’t know already? To be fair, she’d never told him. 

He looked out the window with a stupid smile on his face. They’d reached their cruising altitude to which there wasn’t a cloud for millions of miles, as if the earth was trying to provide further validation of their new romance. And were those rainbows way over there by that lake?

“Hey babe,” Grenadine said after a few minutes had flown by, “I think they’re starting the lunch service.”

“Don’t you worry about anything. I’ll pay.” Mandy insisted, fumbling around in his backpack for his wallet. 

The flight attendant eventually came around. He tried to pay for either of the only two options available on the flight, the chicken or steak, but unfortunately both were already included. He covered his head in defeated shame as some other man handed Grenadine her food.

“Hey,” Grenadine said, seeing Mandy was distraught. She reached across to put her hands on his back, massaging it carefully, “Remember when we first met?”

Slowly, he moved his face out from under his palms. He thought about the moment she’d asked him to move, the moment, 45 minutes ago, he thought he’d seen an angel. He couldn’t help but break a little smile. She always knew how to cheer him up.

“Yea and do you remember the way you told me to move! I was so scared to be honest.” 

They both laughed and reached across 54B, who (mind you) did still have a person sitting in it, to hold hands. But suddenly, Mandy let go.

“Wha–What is it?” Grenadine managed to get out, worriedly.

“It’s just…”

“It’s just what?” She cried, her lips beginning to quiver. 

Mandy took a deep breath, stood up out of his seat, and got down on his right knee.

“It’s just … earlier when I said I wanted to be with you. I meant I wanted to be with you forever.”

Grenadine gasped, taking her hand back.

“I know, I know…” Mandy muttered self pitying himself, beginning to stand up. What a complete dunce, “That’s why I didn’t wanna-”

“No, I’m sorry!”, although flustered, Grenadine reached out for his hand again.

He got back down.

“Grenadine, since the moment I first laid eyes on you, you were a light in my very dark life. I never thought I’d feel this way for anyone but here I am, with only one thought in my–”

“Yes!” She shrieked, jumping up, “Yes I’ll marry you!” 

And the two soul mates hugged over the legs of the man seated in between them, engaged in a gushing competition of who loved who first and why. Their passionate and devout expressions of admiration for each other started to turn a few heads their way. 

“I’m really sorry I need to go to the bathroom right now.” She choked out after some time, to which they both laughed.

He let go and she hurried away, saying it’d only be a minute. He joked he didn’t know if he could wait that long.

Although, now that he thought about it, it was a bit of an odd time for her to go to the bathroom. During their engagement?

He decided to pull out a timer on his phone just to make sure, setting it for one minute. As each second ticked by, he became increasingly more agitated, wondering why the hell she was trying to push his buttons so far. By 3 minutes, he was pulling hair out. By the 6th minute, she was better off finding some other guy to call babe.

Six minutes and 37 seconds later, Grenadine returned to her seat, looking way too damn refreshed for his liking.

“Where were you!” Mandy growled. Grenadine raised her eyebrows at him, taken a bit by surprise.

“In the bathroom like I said.” She snapped back.

“What were you doing in there?” 

“I was using the bathroom, what’d you mean!.” Grenadine crossed her arms and faced away. 

“You said you’d be back in a minute. What the hell were you doing in there?” Mandy demanded, pivoting to try and get back in her line of sight.

“Leave me alone you freak!” She shouted back, pushing him away.

“Freak?” He cried, looking around both ways to see who she could’ve been talking to, “Who you calling a freak?”

He absolutely couldn’t stand it when she lied to him. If she’d just tell the damn truth they could move on from this, but she was choosing to be selfish.

Grenadine stared at the aisles on the other side in a rage. She refused to look at that heartless, controlling loser. She could barely remember what it was like anymore but she found herself longing for the days she didn’t feel this kind of suffering. 

“I don’t think I can do this anymore…” She muttered. 

“Wait what?” Mandy’s heart dropped, his demeanor changing from stern and commanding to that of a kid begging not to get their Xbox taken away.

“I said it’s over!” She replied firmly, putting her hand up as a partition between them, essentially blocking him in real life.

The hours they weren’t together were the worst of Mandy’s life. As they flew over the Atlantic, he sat deep in his seat, rotting away. He was being tortured by the memories of their past, stuck replaying their split in his head over and over again wondering where it all went wrong. He didn’t hear when one of the stewardesses passed by asking if he wanted a drink. He didn’t feel it when the plane went through periodic moments of rocky turbulence. He didn’t register the clouds filling the air around them as he stared lifelessly out the window.

He paced the aisleways, occasionally considering using the restroom only to be too scarred by them to do so. 

Grenadine remained in her chair, trying hard to look unbothered while reading but every word cut deep into her heart, reminding her the way they used to appreciate these words together. When Mandy had finally left, she closed her eyes ready to fast forward off this plane and into a world where he didn’t exist.

“Grenadine.” 

Grenadine groggily opened her eyes to make out a figure leaning slightly over her. It was Mandy, holding a package of Biscoff Cookies in his right hand. 

She immediately became more guarded, sitting upright and checking her phone to see how long she’d been out.

“Grenadine, I wanted to apologize for my outburst earlier.” Mandy said. 

“Hm.” She muttered. 

Mandy sighed. 

“These last few hours I’ve been really thinking. The whole time, I kept thinking about what I’d do next. How I want to open my own business. How I want to explore the world and try all the different foods in it. How I want to learn a new language. How I want to one day have a family.”

Grenadine sat there indifferent.

“How none of any of that matters if you’re not in my life to be there for it…” Mandy whimpered like the lead of a cheesy romcom, “I don’t care to have any of those things if I can’t have you.” 

At first, Grenadine continued to act like she didn’t care. But she made the mistake of catching his glance for just a second. Every moment – every passionate loving moment – came flooding back into her mind like a waterfall. She couldn’t keep her eyes from turning red and puffy.

“Please take me back!” Mandy cried, and as the two fell into eachothers arms bawling louder than the babies on board, the poor man seated in 54B prayed to anyone out there powerful enough to do anything about it for this flight to be over soon.

The engagement was back on, and the two of them sat as together as they could with someone in between them, holding eachothers hands and laughing about nothing for a while.

“Oh my god!” Grenadine suddenly cried, “I almost forgot!” 

She whipped out her phone and unlocked it.

“I still haven’t told my parents.”

“You’re right.” Mandy got up and looked at the reflection in his own phone, quickly making some last minute adjustments to his hair. He was about to meet his fiance’s parents and he figured it’d be best to look the part for it.

Her mom picked up almost instantly and for the first few minutes they caught up and talked endlessly about their days. Mandy grew increasingly anxious, practicing quietly to himself what he would say when it was his time to come on.

“Hi there! Hey there! Uh No… What’s up! No…” He shook his head. He could always just address her respectfully.

 “Hey there Mrs. … Hey Mrs. … hm…”. He realized he didn’t know Grenadine’s last name. So obviously that wouldn’t work. Maybe he’d just play it cool then or – 

“Mandy!” Grenadine snapped, who was holding her phone out towards him.

“Oh my god!” Mandy leaned in towards the middle so the pair could both be in frame, “Hi! So nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard great things”

“Oh really? I’m sure.” Her mom laughed, “So you’re the new guy my daughter wants to marry huh?” 

New? Mandy thought to himself.

“And you guys just met today?” She followed up, as if that was weird or something.

“Yea, but she’s the one Mrs. … Miss. She’s special.”

“Uh huh.” Her mom replied, laughing awkwardly before squinting and looking in closer, “And who's that guy?”

Mandy and Grenadine turned their heads to look at the guy who’d been sitting in between them the entire flight. The man in 54B.

Mandy felt the floor give out beneath him. Metaphorically thankfully.

“Yea who is this guy?” He said out loud, eyeing him up and down angrily, wriggling his fingers concerningly. 

The man got up and excused himself to use the restroom uncomfortably, deciding he’d dealt with enough. 

Grenadine took her phone back. 

“Mom, that's just the guy seated between us.” She said as the two of them continued to talk. 

But Mandy drowned their voices out. He sulked back into his spot silently, all kinds of awful thoughts going through his head. After a while, Grenadine finally hung up and confronted him angrily.

“Why’d you just disengage like that!” She pushed, “You embarrassed me!” 

“Who the hell is that guy!” He shot back in a rage, “Huh?”

“Mandy I don’t freaking know that guy, I –” 

“You’re a liar. You always have been.” Mandy cut off, “I see the way you look at him. You think I’m stupid?”

“Mandy! I don’t need to explain anything to you!” Grenadine shouted back, heated, “And in fact, I don’t need to explain anything to you ever again. I’m through!”

“No, I’m through with you!” Mandy yelled getting up.

“To hell with you, I break up first!” 

A flight attendant came rushing over in an attempt to de-escalate the shouting match that everyone on the plane was now watching. With tears in both of their eyes, they each were pulled away and escorted to different seats far apart, shouting vile awful things in the process. 

The man in 54B returned to his seat. To his glorious surprise, the two psychopaths beside him were gone and instead their places completely empty. He could finally have peace.

“Flight attendants, please prepare for the cabin landing.” The pilot said over the intercom. The man sighed. He was never flying basic economy ever again.