Chapter 1

"Excuse me, sir ... I have a message for you."

He looked up from his email to see the Delta Red Coat looking at him with a smile. In his hand was an envelope.

"Thank you. Do you have any idea what this is about?"

"I think it has something to do with the equipment change on the flight today. I know I have a couple of these to pass out. I was told to make sure that I gave you yours first, though."

"Thank you very much."

"My pleasure, sir. If there's anything else I can do for you, please let me know."

"I certainly will."

He sat back into his seat. He was spending more and more time here in the Sky Club in Hartsfield's E-Concourse. But that meant that he was going to Europe more and more. He didn't mind the trips, because he enjoyed traveling ... he was getting the wanderlust now, in his early 40s, that most people went through in their early 20s...

He was flying to London today—to work with a couple of his company's offices in the UK. He thought back, briefly, to the last time he flew to London ... it had been a couple of months previously. A smile fluttered across his face, remembering the flight ... and then his face turned dark, and his eyes turned icy blue ... Remembering that it had been with –her-.

She had decided abruptly, a couple of weeks after they got back, that she no longer wanted anything to do with him. He had no idea what had happened, and he was doing his best to move on. It was hard sometimes. He'd only been with her for a short time, but it was an absolutely amazing time.

But enough about that, he thought, looking down at the letter that had been in the envelope. Long story short, they were changing the aircraft for his flight today, and he'd been assigned a different seat. They were shuffling everyone around, and trying to fit everyone with their preferences.

He took a quick look at SeatAdvisor to see what his new seat was—and was rather happy that it was next to a crew rest seat at the back of Business Class. That way, the person next to him wouldn't be very talkative, and he might be able to get some work done. He had a lot to take care of on this flight.

At the bottom was a neatly handwritten addendum to the note. "If there's anything I can do to make your flight more pleasant, please let me know. --Danielle"

Something about the note flickered in the back of his mind, but he wasn't quite sure what it was. Whatever it was, it was quickly forgotten as he went back to the work at hand. He had a ton of emails to finish before the flight left. At least they were now on an hour delay due to the aircraft change, so he had an hour longer to finish things up.

He looked around the lounge and realized just how desolate it was. Most of the folks had already left for the day, and there were only a handful of passengers left. His flight should be boarding any time now, he thought, as he walked towards the door.

He boarded and got settled into his seat for the flight. There were a lot of tired looking faces boarding, due to the four-hour delay. A lot of them were grumbling about the one-hour delay that got extended ... and extended ... and extended again. It didn't bother him anymore. He had been in the Sky Club, working, and it didn't really bother him. He was used to it.

The flight attendants working the flight were younger than normal, he noticed. He was used to seeing older crew on these intercontinental flights due to their seniority. There was one, in fact, that looked familiar. But he couldn't quite place the beautiful brunette. He could have sworn that she winked at him when he got on board.

The takeoff went smoothly, and the dinner service began. As the brunette (her nametag said "Danielle") placed his tray in front of him, she said, "Good evening, Sir. I hope you're doing well this evening. If you need –anything-, please let me know." She over-emphasized the "anything", he thought.

Dinner was over fairly quickly, as most people had sleep more on their minds than food. He wasn't planning on sleeping on this flight—he never did, and that's how he fought jet lag ... he wouldn't sleep on the way over, and he'd be fine the following day. He'd done it so many times before.

Danielle came down the aisle with a coffee pot, pouring coffee to a few passengers here and there. When she got to him, he asked for a cup. She knelt down next to him and quickly slipped a sheet of paper under his cup. She whispered "Coffee, tea, or me?" in his ear, and then moved on after pouring his cup.