38. If I am sitting next to her on the plane?
There was a couple on my flight last night, who maybe even weren’t a couple. He kept touching her touchscreen for her, ordering Seagram’s ginger ale and Pringles and she leaned in towards him and laughed and pushed her half-cup of soda closer to his tray and there is nothing more obviously flirty. It was like watching a really good first date with every excuse to listen in because where else was there to go?
I remembered the best people I’ve sat next to on planes: the Sufi with the rose oil who wanted to ‘anoint’ my forehead on the way to South Africa. A few months ago it was the American on the flight from Bangalore to Dubai that offered to let me plug my headphones into his jack since my tv wouldn’t work, requiring that I turn my body to his and crane my neck close to his shoulder to watch the shows I thought may not have too much subtext for so little shared space. When the attendant bumped me to business class, she apologized that there was only one seat.
Proximity isn’t license here; it’s how you use it, without imposing on her. Flirting in the sky is the safest kind. You’re trapped together, but only for a few hours. And who knows what real world love is waiting for her at the baggage claim. You can really walk right by him. He won’t mind. Besides plane blankets are too scratchy these days to get too exciting under.
