Tom walked down the passenger terminal with hurried steps. He knew he would be arriving slightly late to the departure gate and hoped that he would catch his transfer flight on time. His last flight from Paris had landed to Chicago late by more than 45 minutes and it had recessed his change time to only 30 minutes. It could be an impossible task, but he hoped to prove it wrong. As always, he was travelling light, with only a small carry-on baggage. Tom was glad of the few extra minutes that it gained him.
He was totally oblivious to the few admiring glances he got from fellow passengers. At the age of 25, Tom was a successful and wanted news photographer. He spent more than half of the month travelling around the world. His breakthrough picture had been a powerful picture of humanitarian aid in Africa. After that Tom had become known as a describer of small humans in middle of world changing events. He had shoulder length, slightly curly, dark blond hair and brown eyes. He was tall and lean, not very muscular but not a string bean either. All this combined with his shy appearance and slightly hippy clothing ensured that girls of certain type almost always paid attention to him.
The security controller was obviously one of those girls. She flashed a bright smile towards Tom, who was just throwing the baggage on the conveyor belt. Tom didn't seem to notice that either. It wasn't the girl's fault though. Tom had only eye to another sort of beauty. And at the moment, he wasn't even interested in any of it. He was just thinking that after this one short flight, he would be home at last. As a used traveller he was, Tom calmly walked trough the metal detector and out of the security control.
Fortunately for Tom, the gate wasn't too far away from the security control, and he managed to get into the plane on the last call.
Jimmy looked up and down the small air craft. The cleaners had just left and he was checking the results, while his colleague was up in the galley, helping to load the lunch they would be serving on the two hour flight to Memphis. Jimmy was the purser of the flight. He had always wanted to be a flight attendant and had managed to get in right after high school. He had been flying a little over six years now, and was proud of his quick progress on the career.
Jimmy enjoyed his work as much as he had hoped. He enjoyed flying the international flights in big planes, enjoyed the stop-overs at famous cities and even enjoyed the constant jet lag. But on the other hand, he enjoyed serving on small domestic flights such as this one. They had almost a private feeling to them, and had a lot less responsibilities than the longer flights.
Just as Jimmy got in the front of the aircraft, to see how Annie, one of his favourites to work with, was doing in the galley and what would be served that day, the ground officer came in with the passenger list. Jimmy had previously worked with the same officer, so they exchanged some personal talk at first.
"Your last flight for the day, right?"
Jimmy nodded at the officer, he'd already flown from Memphis to Chicago, back to Memphis and then to Chicago again that day, starting early in the morning. He asked back:
"And the last one before a weeks vacation. What about you? How many hours to go?"
"Too many, I just started an hour ago. But it seems like your last one's going to be pretty easy. There are only 10 passengers aboard, and none of them has any special conditions."
Jimmy smiled thankfully. Even though he loved the job, it was sometimes nice that the constant sense of hurry receded even for one flight. He chatted few minutes with the officer, who soon had to leave to prepare the start of the boarding. Then he checked the kitchen with Annie. His mood was even more enhanced, when he found out that they would be serving chicken breast sandwiches with green salad. The breakfast that morning had been horrible, and he hoped that the catering staff had made that up with the lunch.
Jimmy went through his mental note list. The captain and the co-pilot were already in the cockpit and had briefed him and Annie. They hadn't had anything special; the flight weather was great and also they suspected that the flight was going to be uneventful. The cabin was clean and ready for passengers and the galley prepared. The plane and its safety gears were in perfect condition. Jimmy took his place by Annie's side in the door way just as the first passengers started to emerge from the tube.
As the officer had predicted, none of the first nine passengers woke any special interest in Jimmy. A few of them were business men, and then there was a woman with about ten year old boy and an oldish couple. Less than third of the seats in the plane were full, and most of the people sat in the front part. He greeted all of them and confirmed that they were free to take a better seat than the designated ones, if they wished.
Just as Jimmy was going to think that one poor soul would miss the flight, a long, lean guy strode around the corner. He had longish, dark-blonde hair that was tied back, and there was tired look in his chocolate brown eyes that told the experienced flight attendant that he was coming straight from a tiring over-night flight. But yet there was some sort of flexibility in his moves, and that flexibility caught really Jimmy's sight.
Jimmy stood dumbfounded in his place; he couldn't have produced a sensible greeting even if his life had depended on it. If that man wasn't the single most beautiful thing Jimmy had ever seen, Jimmy wouldn't know what was. Annie had worked long enough with Jimmy to notice the symptoms of a beginning crush in him and to understand that she had to step in. Annie guided the man to his place and very friendly told him, that he could sit by the window if he wished to. Then she pulled the curtain to cover the galley and the doorway, and almost literally kicked Jimmy's ass to do the arming of the door and start the safety demos.
It wasn't the first time for Tom that he had found himself looking after a cute male flight attendant. The attendant was about as tall as Tom him self, but more muscularly built, he obviously trained often. The man's dark hair was cut quite short, but one could easily see the waves the hair was starting to make. But what Tom found most intriguing about the man was his eyes. They were as blue as the sky they were just about to fly into and the sky-coloured gaze was steadily looking at his direction.
It sure as a hell was the first time Tom thought that he would do anything to fulfil his desire. All of a sudden the boring safety demonstrations got a lot more interesting. Tom watched carefully, when the attendant demonstrated how to blow the life vest manually in case it wouldn't inflate automatically. A flash in the blue eyes of the man and a quick lick of a pink tongue on his lips told Tom that his interest didn't pass unnoticed.
Tom had planned to sleep the entire flight, but suddenly he really didn't feel like sleeping any more. The dark-haired attendant walked through the aircraft once more to check the seat belts before the take off. If Tom had had any suspicions that the attendant might not share his interests, they were soon long gone, because on his way back into the front, he crouched over Tom's seat and said with a quiet voice:
"I just had to check your seat belt."