9, 10, 11... here! Row 12
. Leila points at the middle seat to a young man who's joined her on team "grey sweatpants and hoodie." His long form squeezes up and out of the aisle seat to let her in. "Take your time," he says. A jostle behind her bumps her off balance and he shoots out his arm for her to grab onto and stabilize. She flashes an apologetic smile and slides into the middle seat.
Just as he's about to sit back down, there's a grunt of frustration from behind them. A woman who can't be more than five feet tall is trying to heave her carry-on into the overhead bin. Leila's seatmate turns and reaches up to help. "Mind if I...?" he asks, waiting for her nod before lifting the bag. It's a bit awkward but he manages to wedge it safely into place. When he finally settles into his seat, he just offers a vague, embarrassed head gesture and becomes absorbed in adjusting his headphones.
The soft roar of jet engines fills the cabin of the Los Angeles to New York red-eye, a white noise that seems to pull passengers deeper into their ungraceful slumber. The plane's interior is dimmed to a gentle blue twilight, broken only by a few reading lights and screens where insomniacs wage their lonely war against exhaustion. Most of the passengers have surrendered to sleep hours ago, their bodies contorted into unlikely shapes around armrests and neck pillows, faces slack and drooping in the dark.
A man three rows up from Leila has been snoring steadily for the past hour, at times rivaling the engines whir. Flight attendants have retired to their posts after their last service. Empty coffee cups and half-eaten bags of pretzels litter the tray tables, abandoned as sleep claimed their owners somewhere over Kansas.
Leila was up. She sipped on her ranch water while a trashy romance novel played through her earbuds. Really it was erotica, veiled with just enough of a story to scratch that scholastic itch. She smiled, it's amazing the things you could get away with in public, especially if you had a pair of earbuds. Leila should know. She was a model and "content creator for a subscription based platform." Her agent told her to call it that.
Speaking of... That fucking agent, had to book a red-eye back from my Palm Beach photoshoot and couldn't even spring first class? She wasn't stuck up or anything but c'mon! A middle seat?
Her fellow passengers wouldn't have guessed that she was a model and sex worker. Sure, her Middle Eastern ancestry had blessed her with dark brows, lashes, and hair that popped on camera - she could get away with no mascara - but that's about where it ended. Her groutfit was hiding... well, not much of anything! A logo of a bunny being pulled out of a hat lay flat across her chest and her similarly branded sweats were held up by the drawstring, not by any hip structure.
Leila was finding that the tequila was a great pairing with her book. The light buzz from her drink was meeting the gentle waves rising from her groin. Right when the sexpot governess and hunky widower were about to get it on, her snoring sleepmate shifted and slid over the armrest, his head dropping firmly onto her shoulder.
Ugh, middle seats
, thought Leila, giving a soft but exasperated sigh. She opened her eyes and looked over to assess the situation. Still fully asleep and...
Oh! Someone's having a good dream
... Leila's eyes landed on the unmistakable imprint of the man's partially-turgid dick in his sweatpants. No, this is what she might call a "hog." Leila could see its full, sizable journey from its root, across his lap, and up and over his hip bone. Leila glanced around to the nearby passengers. All were asleep. Flicking her gaze between his face and her prize, she traced a deep-purple acrylic nail lightly across its length. Her nail-tech called the color "eggplant." The humor was not lost on Leila. A sly smile appeared at the corner of her mouth. She was in a generous mood... and oh so horny... and she admired his earlier chivalry... but mostly she was just horny. She shot back the rest of her tequila and started rummaging for a few supplies in her bag.
From his slumber, the man felt a tap on his shoulder. And then a more insistent tap. He opened his eyes to that woman sitting in the middle seat. He hadn't thought there was much to look at before but seeing her face up close, he realized she was quite pretty. A mildly aquiline nose sat in the middle of her heart-shaped face. The heart was accentuated by sleek black hair spilling down and past her shoulder like a warm scarf. Lashes that bordered on cartoonish framed large, almond eyes, their dark brown irises flecked with gold. Her unblemished, medium skin also had an undertone of gold. He realized she'd asked him a question. "Huh?" he said.