"Together"

So we stood up and were herded into the boarding line. I felt awkward. What now? Dan and I were in line together for "zone 3" but we weren't "together." Did we WANT to be together? Yes, I answered to myself... at least I didn't want to say "goodbye."

"How dumb!" (the realist in me said). Why are you pondering this as if it means anything. I met a guy while waiting at the airport for over 8 hours, big deal! We were only "together" for about 2 of them.

I handed my ticket to the flight representative, she scanned it and gave it back to me. I walked down the ramp to get on the plane, checking my seat number repeatedly (as if it might magically change, or as if I had NO memory at all). "14D." - was that a window seat, an aisle, the dreaded middle?? Not sure, Leo had booked my flight.

I waded my way through carry-ons, passengers and the narrow aisle lined by arm chair rests. After several pauses, for others to try to jam all of their "carry-ons" in the overhead bins, I spotted seat "14D."

It was an emergency exit row seat (window just like I like). "Awe" I thought, Leo probably planned that on purpose. He wanted his little sis to be closest to an emergency exit + have the bonus extra leg room. :)

So I shuffled into my seat, without stopping to stuff my big purse into the overhead. I don't like being separated from my purse, I carry everything in there.

I had completely forgot about Dan with all of the boarding commotion. He was behind me in line, but I didn't see him now on the plane. Everyone was sitting now except an older couple slowly finding their footage to get seated.

Then the flight attendant came on the speakers with the usual announcements, half of which were delivered to us on the little flap-down flat screen tvs. I was staring out the tiny window when one of the flight attendants came by our row to double check that we all spoke English and were of age. She discovered that the lady sitting next to me was French and then asked for a volunteer to trade seats with her. A man behind me said "I'll move."

So the French woman left her seat to a row behind mine and then the volunteer replacement plopped down in her place. It was Dan :)

Zone 3

After about 20 minutes in line at "Best Burger", Dan and his duffle came back to the row of seats I was stationed at. He plopped down next to me this time, tossing his duffle to the other side. He sighed and dug into the floppy bag of burgers like it was a gift on Christmas morning. He handed me my strawberry shake and said "here you go - enjoy." Then he proceeded to devour about 3 cheeseburgers, shuffling fries into his mouth where they would fit... and sipping on coke to wash it all down. He seemed to be in fast-food heaven.

Finally I said, "hungry?" He looked over at me with his mouth full and just nodded, then put his finger up to signal that he needed a minute to chew before he could talk. I sipped my shake while I waited for him to swallow 2 cheeks full of food. Then Dan looked over at me and said "I haven't had fast-food in 6 months, I've been overseas, this is my first day of R&R." Dan could tell I didn't know what R&R was so explained, "R&R is my halfway point in my deployment... I get 2 weeks then have to go back to Afghanistan after that." "I see," I said..."so you have family in Houston?"

We were interrupted with a "BING! BING!" signaling the flight representative's monotonous announcement "attention passengers flight 240 to Houston, we are now boarding zone 1." Dan crinkled up his burger wrappers and stuffed them back into the empty bag. He said "yeah, my parents live in Houston" as he rolled the bag of trash down. Then he glanced over to me and said "what zone are you Dee?" I paused a minute... and then - DUH - realized I needed my ticket to answer him. So I spent a short forever riffling through my giant hobo purse to find my ticket, peaked at it and said "Zone 3." I looked up at Dan, blushing now... he smirked and kinda chuckled "me too."