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Central International Airport This choice: Justin decides to study his briefing documents. • Go Back...Chapter #4Flying High by: Unknown Justin lugged the heavy briefcase out of the overhead compartment, trying not to bump the passenger's head in the seat in front of him as it swung down. He sat down and pulled out his laptop, placing it on the drop-down tray in the seat back.
Trying to get comfortable in the cramped space, he slid his right leg into the aisle, keeping it out of the way of passengers and flight attendants who passed by. "Pretty soon these planes are only going to fit little people!" he griped to himself. He settled back and began reviewing the documents, making notes his legal pad. He was so absorbed in his work that he didn't notice the surreptitious looks the woman in the next seat was giving him.
Suddenly, the passenger in the seat in front of Justin reclined his seat, jamming the drop-down table with the laptop on it into his belly and jamming his left knee into the seat back. "Oooomph!" he grunted as he attempted to untangle himself. He extricated the laptop and closed the drop-down table. He sighed deeply as he found himself gazing into the bald spot on the top of the passenger's head, and to make matters worse, the passenger began to snore.
"Great. Just great." he muttered to himself. He opened his briefcase and stuck his laptop inside, growing more irritated by the moment. Its not bad enough that the airlines try to save money by cramming every last seat they can into the plane, he thought to himself, but making the seats recline is just ridiculous! He huffed out a breath and settled back into his seat, trying to relax.
"Sometimes it seems worth it to pay more for a first class ticket, doesn't it?" commented the woman next to him, with a friendly smile, indicating the passenger's intrusion into Justin's space. Before he could answer, she stuck out a hand with long, elegant fingers and immaculately manicured nails. "Hi. My name is Taffy." She deliberately shortened her name to avoid recognition. Justin, startled, looked at his seat mate and once again noticed that she was one of the most arrestingly beautiful woman he'd ever seen. He gazed into her warm brown eyes and took her hand in his, and they shook politely. Her skin was warm and soft.
"Justin here. Nice to meet you." he told her with a polite smile. Justin felt a blush creeping up his neck and into his face. Silently he cursed the fair skin that accompanied his red hair and freckles, and caused him to blush like a schoolboy at inopportune moments such as this.
"I hate to sound cliche," he said, trying not to stare, "but don't I know you from somewhere?"
Taffina smiled and withdrew her hand from his. She said casually, "No, I just have one of those faces." She hoped he wouldn't pursue it. The last thing she wanted was some star-struck fan slobbering all over her during this long flight to Honolulu. Hopefully he wouldn't make the connection that she was one of the top models in the world. When she traveled, she wore no make up, and while she was still beautiful, she bore only a vague resemblance to the lacquered and air-brushed photos in the magazines.
Before he could pursue further conversation with his beautiful seat-mate, the flight attendant stopped at the row in front of Justin and was taking food orders, awakening the man in front of him. Justin breathed a sigh of relief as the man straightened his seat, giving Justin some much-needed breathing room.
He sighed. As much as he'd like to chat with Taffy some more, he needed to prepare for tomorrow. Resignedly, he pulled out his laptop and powered it up. As it was booting, he pulled out his pen and legal pad.
Taffina returned to her magazine, regretting the interruption to her conversation with the handsome Justin, he of the cute freckles and endearing blush. TO Taffina -- who was used to jaded playboys, gay male models, and groupies who only wanted a chance to brag that they had "made it" with Taffina, the hottest model around -- it was refreshing to just be "normal." As much as she loved the lavish, jet-setting lifestyle, with all the money she could need and more, sometimes she briefly wondered what her life would have been had she taken a different turn, with husband, children, and a white picket fence.
With eight years in the business, at age 24 she was well aware that in the modeling world, she was on the cusp of being "old", and she was squirreling away money for the day in the not-too-distant future where she would no longer be in demand. By the ripe old age of 30, she would be well past her expiration date. She sighed.
Justin was peripherally aware of Taffy's sigh as he powered through the documents he needed for tomorrow's meeting. He wondered briefly what a beautiful young lady such as Taffy, who appeared to not have a care in the world, could be sighing about in such a world-weary manner.
Abruptly, his attention was brought back to his laptop, as he frowned at his computer screen. Those figures didn't add up! He looked at his notes, and back at the screen again. He pulled computer printouts of those same accounts from his briefcase that were printed last week. It took him awhile, but he found the transaction, buried in the communications with Ararat. He puzzled over this development and its implications. Something niggled at the back of his brain, but he couldn't quite grasp it. He decided to ignore it for now, knowing that the more he tried to think about it, the more elusive it would be. Justin put that document aside, and continued to review other documents, leaving the anomaly for another time.
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