Overhead bins slamming, seat belts clicking, a baby fussing three rows ahead, and a businessman arguing softly into his phone until a flight attendant told him to switch it off.
Then the doors closed, and the plane pushed back.
A crackle came over the speaker.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain…”
I smiled like an idiot, waiting for the standard welcome. Weather in our destination city, expected flight time, and smooth conditions en route.
But then Daniel paused.
“Before we get going, I’d like to do something I’ve never done on a flight before,” he said. “There’s a very special someone on this plane tonight. Someone who means absolutely everything to me.”
My face went hot.
I thought he had seen my name on the passenger list and that the surprise was ruined.
At the same time, my heart stumbled at the thought of being spoken about like that in front of a whole plane.
I actually started to rise from my seat, half laughing already, waiting for him to say my name.
Then he said the next words, and I froze.
“To the beautiful woman in 15C,” he said, warm and intimate in a way I had never heard over an intercom before, “you already know how much I love you, but tonight I want the world to know too. I don’t want to hide how I feel anymore, and soon, we won’t have to.”
For one second, the cabin was silent, and then people clapped.
A few passengers even let out those delighted little noises strangers make when they think they are witnessing romance.
I was glad I never got on my feet, because I was certainly not the woman he was talking about.
My ears rang. The woman he mentioned was in seat 15C.
It was not me.
