July 11, 2005 Los Angeles, California

She was still looking out the window and hadn’t noticed the strange man standing in the aisle of the plane staring at her. The man in the aisle seat had noticed though, and was staring at Nick curiously through a pair of black rimmed frames.

“Hi,” Nick flashed a friendly grin at the man, which was not returned. Either the guy, who was clearly flying somewhere on business judging by his sharp black suit, thought he was crazy or thought he was hitting on him, “I’m sitting a couple of rows back and was wondering if we could switch seats so I could sit next to my girlfriend?”

Though his eyes were still on the man Nick heard Tina’s sharp intake of breath, making it apparent that she had noticed he was there. The man turned and gave Tina and questioning look as if trying to make sure that she actually wanted this weirdo next to her. When she didn’t protest the man reluctantly agreed, vacating his spot in exchange for Nick’s seat in the sixth row.

With complete disregard for what brought him into the aisle and up to the front of the plane in the first place Nick eased himself into the aisle seat, staring at Tina’s surprised face. They were quiet for a moment, just taking each other in before Nick finally collected the gumption to speak.

“I have to admit I’m a little confused,” he told her quietly, not wanting to draw attention from anyone else in the plane. He could feel his heart beating quickly, pounding hard enough he was sure his shirt was bouncing against his skin. He didn’t know why he was so nervous, but knew it had something to do with the uncertainty of why Tina was on the plane.

“Nick, I--”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he spat, wide eyed. He ran both hands through his hair and tipped it back to lean against the headrest, “Seriously, why are you on this plane?”

“I-I just,” Tina stammered, reaching out to pull his hand out of his hair, her hand tightening around his forearm, “I needed to talk to you.”

He looked down at her hand on his arm and turned in the seat so he was facing her, “What’s going on? You just jump on a plane to Los Angeles? How did you know where I would be?”

“I didn’t,” she admitted with a shrug, “I had some time to think and...I was going to find you...talk to you and tell you that...that...”

She had been in the middle of planning her grand speech when he had suddenly appeared in the aisle. She had herself so convinced that he had been on the flight that already left that she hadn’t even considered looking around for him on the plane. Of course he would have been in first class, but it didn’t even occur to her that he could be just a few rows away. Now that he was asking for an explanation she was dumbstruck. At that point she knew her best bet was to just speak from her heart and say whatever came first to mind.

“I want you to take me on a date,” she stated, still holding on to his forearm tightly.

Nick laughed, but quickly let his chuckles die when he saw the deflated look on her face, “Sorry, I’m just surprised that you were going to follow me to LA so you could ask me out.”

“To be honest I don’t know what I’m doing on this plane,” Tina admitted with an exasperated sigh. She motioned down to the black yoga pants and green tank top she was wearing, “I don’t have anything but the clothes I’m wearing, I don’t have money in my bank account and I was scared out of my mind about what I was going to do when the plane landed but for some strange reason I’m here. I got a ticket and got on this plane because I had to see you.”

“Baby,” he let out a heavy sigh, his eyes drawn into his lap, “I’m so confused--”

He was about to ask her what her intentions were with following him to California. He was going to tell her that she needed to stop messing with his mind and jerking him in different directions. He wanted to say that he loved her but wasn’t going to wait for her anymore. He didn’t get to say any of those things though because he was blinded by pain when a drink cart suddenly smashed into his knee which was just hanging slightly into the aisle. He cried out in pain and grabbed his leg, rubbing the spot where the corner of the cart had nailed him.

“Oh. I’m sorry,” the same flight attendant from before was back and from the look on her face Nick could tell she was not impressed with seeing him sitting with another woman after leaving her waiting in the bathroom.

“It’s fine,” Nick panted, still rubbing his leg. Tina’s hand was on his back and she was looking at him with a concerned expression.

“Can I get you a drink?” blonde and busty asked, her voice void of emotion.

“Can we get some water?” Tina asked but Nick quickly refused, muttering a quick no thank you. He had a bad feeling about what might happen if the flight attendant was armed with any projectiles.

“Sure,” she said with false sweetness and what he could only describe as an evil smile. In first class there were no small plastic cups. You paid more to get things like real cutlery and glasses made of real glass. Nick watched the flight attendant pull out a high ball glass, and fill it half with ice before reaching for a water bottle.

“That’s fine!” he spoke hurriedly, “I can pour it myself.”

“Oh no,” busty told him, “I’ll do it for you. I feel terrible about your knee.”

“Really, its okay,” he protested, watching her pour more and more water into the glass until it was nearly overflowing over the top.

He knew it was coming and braced himself before she had even had the glass raised in her hand. He didn’t try to shy away or deflect it, merely closed his eyes as a cascade of water and ice came flying in his direction. The water hit him like a slap to the face, splashing all over his clothes and the seat, and even a little on Tina.

“By the way,” the flight attendant addressed the woman in the window seat who had jumped back from the wave of Aquafina, “You may want to look for another boyfriend because this one was just about to fuck me in the bathroom. Asshole.”

The flight attendant walked away angrily, pushing the cart down the rest of the aisle. They had attracted a fair amount of attention from other passengers in first class so Nick made sure to avoid looking around so as not to be recognized. He didn’t have a towel or anything he could clean himself up with so he just started wiping as much water off his pants as he could, surprised when he felt Tina brushing back his shaggy wet hair so it wasn’t sending rivets of water down his face.

“I kinda feel like I might have just cock blocked you,” she admitted sheepishly, pushing his hair behind his ears.

“It was my fault,” Nick explained, wishing his available dry clothes weren’t five rows back in the overhead compartment, “When I asked that guy to switch seats I called you my girlfriend, she must have overheard.”

“I’m sorry--”

“Don’t apologize,” he interrupted, turning to face her, “It wasn’t what I wanted. I thought maybe joining the Mile High Club might be a way to stop thinking about you and what a terrible weekend I had. If I hadn’t been following her up the aisle I would have never seen you and we wouldn’t have the next three hours to talk. I’m glad it happened.”

Tina smiled despite the bit of jealousy she felt. She knew deep down that she didn’t have a right to be jealous but here she was, flying to the other side of the country to try and work things out with him and he couldn’t even make it on a four hour flight without getting laid. She used the awkward moment to go back to Nick’s original seat and grab his carry on from the overhead bin. He always carried a change of clothes in it in case the airline lost his suitcase and soon he was at least dressed in a dry shirt even if his jeans were still soaked through.

“Have you ever?”

“Have I what?” he asked as she watched him put the sweatshirt that had been in his bag down on the seat so he wasn’t sitting on a wet spot.

“You know...” she blushed, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink, “The Mile High Club?”

Nick chuckled, “Uh... yeah.”

She couldn’t keep herself from asking him when. She knew it could have likely been within the last three years; after all he was on planes all the time because of work and from going back and forth to see the kids. He didn’t answer though, instead he looked the other way and it gave her an uneasy feeling.

“When we were together?” she wondered aloud, trying to keep her voice confident. She knew he had cheated on her early in their relationship, it was something she had been aware of long before she’d left and admittedly was an influencing factor into leaving.

“Not that it matters but... yeah; it was while we were together, it’s happened since then too by the way but only a couple of times.”

Tina sighed, “It does matter Nick it matters a lot. You were willing to cheat on me before, how can I trust that if we get back together you won’t do it again?”