Love's Curtain Call

"Is this mine?" I asked, pointing to the number on the seat.

"Yeah, that's your's," Andrew said, checking my ticket.

"And I'm between you and Kirk?" The real question I wanted to ask.

He nodded. "You're sure you don't want the window seat?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," I smiled, watching him nod then get into the seat by the small cabin window, pushing his bag under the seat. Better not mention I'd never flown before...

I sat down next to Andrew and plugged my belt in, looking out for Kirk's familiar face within the crowd making their way into the plane. Andrew began to read a magazine next to me, completely relaxed. We were flying over to Britain. London, to be specific. Which was in actual fact the setting of the play itself. The first performance would be in two days time, giving us a bit of time to get over the jetlag. Not that I'd ever known jetlag before.

Kirk sat down next to me, smiling at me for a moment. He shoved his bag under his seat and buckled in. He was good looking, I couldn't deny that. I'd only just noticed it then, or allowed myself to at least. It was that natural kind of beauty. His lips were perfectly shaped, his eyes were nice to look at, and his smile was one of a kind. His hair, as well. His hair was a lovely color. It hit me then that it could have been a replicate of Ville's.

Ville. No, don't think about Ville. What's the point? My stomach tightened painfully with nerves, just thinking about having to go to Finland. But it didn't matter really. So what, some Finnish people would see the play? He wouldn't be one of them. He'd have long forgotten my name.

Kirk caught me staring at him. He smiled comfortingly. I tore my eyes off him. It had been so very long since I'd thought about a man romantically. A ridiculously long time. A date couldn't hurt, surely, I thought. I glanced at him one more time. Then I caught the last words of the air hostess, and the plane began to move. My nerves for flying finally kicked in.

Round it went, until it finally picked up speed, preparing to lift off. God, this was horrible. I gripped the arm rests, finding my left hand wrapped around something else. Kirk's hand. We looked up to meet each other's eyes. He must've seen the fear plastered on my face, as he took his hand away from under mine and took it into his gently.

"Bad flyer?" he asked gently. The plane grew higher and higher. It had left the runway. My head felt horrible.

"Uh," I paused. "Yes."

Okay, so I'd never flown before. He didn't need to know that. I'd probably turn out to be a bad flyer all the time anyway.

He smiled a little, as if he enjoyed the fact. His thumb rubbed the back of my hand gently, calming me down only a little. But the higher the plane went the worse my head felt. And my ears.

"Swallow," he said.

I looked at him. "What?"

He laughed, then pushed a sweet between my lips, carefully putting it in my mouth. "It'll help with the pressure."

"Oh," I said hesitantly, tasting the sweet, swallowing my saliva. It worked. "Thank you."

He smirked a little. "Don't worry about it." Then he looked away, resting his head back. I couldn't help but notice his eyes landed on the air hostess.

I must've fallen asleep somehow, as when I woke up again, my head was resting against Kirk's shoulder. There was a movie playing somewhere. It took me a few moments to recognise it. Bridget Jones' Diary. I sat up straight immediately, feeling embarrased. Kirk laughed a little.

"How long was I asleep for?" I asked, looking out of the window by Andrew, who was asleep, to see a blanket of white clouds below us. Through them I could see a giant stretch of sea below.

"A few hours," he replied, watching the film.

'Equally important: will find nice sensible boyfriend and stop forming romantic attachments to any of the following: alcoholics, workoholics, sexaholics, commitment-phobics, peeping toms, megalomaniacs, emotional fuckwits, or perverts. Will especially stop fantasizing about a particular person who embodies all these things...' Bridget said in the movie.

He laughed. Such a manly laugh, compared with his boy-like face. I didn't find the line funny though.

"I'm going back to sleep," I mumbled, turning away, towards Andrew. I closed my eyes.

"Alright," I heard him say. I coud tell he was still staring at the television screen.

When I next woke up it was because of Kirk nudging me gently. I opened my eyes to see him standing up, holding his bag.

"Kristen, we're here."

"Oh..." I rubbed my eyes and found my own bag from under the seat. England. Next it would be Europe. I sighed, trying to ignore the nerves building up in my stomach.