Page 31 of Flight of Fancy

“Hey, I’ll give it to you for free. No credit necessary.”

“That means it’s a bigger turd than what my cat left in her box this morning.”

“Ollie, darling, I think you’ll find I’m a creative genius myself when I’m properly inspired.” And she had been, ever since she checked out of her LA hotel and replayed every second with Arianna in her mind. “Do you want to hear it or not?”

“Fine. What is it?”

Elle cleared her throat. “‘Royal Asia,’” she announced in a professional commercial narrator’s voice. “‘Queen of the Skies, Queens in the Air.’”

He was silent.

“And we would showcase some of the most amazing women we have on our staff. Female pilots, ground crew…” She hesitated. “Flight attendants. From both sides of the big Pacific pond. I even know some off the top of my head.” She would lead with a specific American pilot that she knew to throw Ollie off when she inevitably named a couple of flight attendants from a certain Singapore to Los Angeles route.

Because Elle would be damned if the whole world didn’t know about the beauty that was Arianna Song, the real queen of the sky.

Elle was not on Arianna’s next flight to Los Angeles, but she was not left bereft. She liked the return to normalcy for a few days, and besides, she now had a convenient woman to converse with on her phone. They never chatted by voice. Not only was the time difference too out of sync to make that happen, but Arianna preferred they keep it to text while they were apart. She was conservative with the photos she sent Elle, choosing to only give tours of her apartment and neighborhood. Elle followed the same vibe by showing Arianna the view from a high-rise Seattle apartment and what the closet of a hardworking businesswoman looked like.

“What do you think I should wear to my boss’s dinner tomorrow? I don’t have a cocktail dress, and a suit seems much too formal for that group.”

Arianna was huddled under her covers as she enlarged the photo of Elle’s closet and picked a lavender blouse that would tuck nicely into a pair of dress pants.

A few hours later, she had a bathroom selfie of Elle’s finished look. Arianna’s grin lit up the darkness beneath her covers.

“I’m meeting the American crew at a mixer today when we arrive in LA,” Arianna texted Elle while waiting for the plane at Changi Airport. “It’s in the Royal Asia lounge and we all have to wear our kebaya. Can you believe it? After working for sixteen hours I have to meet people!”

“That sounds rough. Remember, they’re as nervous to meet you as you are them.”

“Do you think so? They’ll be so much more refreshed than us. They’re flying to Tokyo after the mixer. I don’t know the last time I’ve been to Tokyo…”

“I haven’t been there since a work thing a year ago. Maybe we’ll go together one day.”

That was so casually suggested that Arianna couldn’t help but be surprised. Suggesting we travel? So soon? Did Elle think their paths were going to cross somewhere? Besides on the route between Singapore and LA?

They couldn’t chat while Arianna was in the air, and when she landed, Elle was at work. By then, she was so distracted with deplaning duties and making her way through immigration for the second time that month that she almost forgot about the mixer until Charmaine shrieked about it while they wandered toward customs with their roller bags.

“What do you think they look like, huh?” she chipperly asked her coworker as they strolled down the moving walkways. Both before them and behind were other cabin crew who might overhear anything they said, but the main topic of the day was the mixer the pilots and flight attendants were excited to attend before heading to their hotel. “The American crew that flies to Tokyo. I bet they’re beautiful!”

“Even the men?” Arianna gently chided her younger friend. “They have more male flight attendants than we do.”

“I bet the men are beautiful too.”

“Try not to flirt too hard when you’re around them.”

“I could say the same thing to you, Miss Song.”

Me? Flirting? She couldn’t even flirt with the woman who would be her girlfriend. Over text. Every time Elle tried to coax some flirting out of her, Arianna either grew cold feet out of fear of being caught or was more determined to stay on topic. Like what Elle should wear to a business meeting with a bunch of men she said, “Barely know I’m female.”

It was the first and only time Arianna saw her in a dress. A very fashionable, very pretty dress that highlighted the curve of her throat and the bounce of her short but feminine hair.

“Just kidding.” Charmaine jogged ahead of Arianna, her bag fumbling behind her as she struggled to catch up to Boss Tan. “I know you’re a frigid ice cube, Aria!”

Arianna shook that comment off her shoulders. She knew Charmaine was only teasing, but it was those kinds of observations that served Arianna well when she was thinking about sleeping with a passenger again.

They were allowed to store their bags in company lockers before being escorted to the Royal Asia lounge near the gate. Arianna steeled herself to meet new coworkers while Charmaine continued to titter like a girl on the first day of school. To be fair, it's that kind of feeling. Mingling with cabin crew from other airlines was a day in the life for Arianna, who had good acquaintances in Korea Air, United, and British Airways. Not all of them are Asian, either. Every once in a while she texted a British woman who had long since retired from the air and had opened a plant shop in the South of England. She sends me pictures of the English countryside, and I send her the Singapore skyline.

This was different. This was fellow Royal Asia crew who lived a very different life from the regular crew who flew from Singapore to Los Angeles. For the past few months, the American crew had been flying between America and Japan, as well as the domestic commuter flights. There were talks that as soon as Hawaii was made a hub, they would be handling the international flights out of there. This is a great opportunity. Arianna was currently happy with her route, but that might not always be the case. If she ensured her English was at the level Royal Asia required for American destinations, she could have any route she wanted… assuming there was an opening.

I could become the In-Flight Manager of the Singapore-Honolulu route… That was exactly the kind of thing she yearned for.

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