Dedicated to Terry...
This story is based on an actual experience, and we still remain good friends years later.
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I was returning from a business trip to the Caribbean and for reasons known only to the airline industry, my flight from San Juan to Virginia had a layover in Newark, NJ. When I initially checked in at San Juan, they told me the flight out of Newark had been cancelled and they couldn't get me on another flight until the next day, so my baggage was only checked through Newark. "Great," I thought sarcastically. "Hopefully, I can find a fight out of there tonight."
The flight out of San Juan up was completely filled, but I had an aisle seat and enough legroom to stretch out, so I was reasonably comfortable. I got on the phone while we waited at the gate to leave and finally got another flight arranged out of Newark that evening through a different airline. The woman sitting in the window seat was very large which caused the woman in the middle to shade over towards my side of her seat where she had more room.
The woman in the middle was from Tennessee and was returning from the first vacation she had taken in several years. She was on the quiet side, but pleasant when she spoke and was definitely pleasant to look at. She was about 5' 5", with shoulder length yellow-blonde hair and pale blue eyes. She was wearing faded jeans and an old t-shirt that had some recreation league team name on the front. Her breasts seemed on the smallish side and I guessed around a B-cup, but the t-shirt was loose and didn't make it easy to tell.
On the other hand, her jeans were tight around her waist and butt, and she looked very nice when she stood up. Her hips were broad, and her ass was nice and round. She didn't wear any make-up and her face appeared a little weathered. The only disappointing features were the down-turned corners of her mouth and eyes which gave her a look of anxiety or unhappiness. However, she often broke into a smile when she spoke and it lit up everything around her. She wore a large diamond wedding ring which made me wonder where her husband was, but I wasn't thinking about trying to start anything with her, so I didn't ask.
I quickly found out that she was also a nervous flier. When the plane started its roll down the runway to take off, her hands were tightly clenched in the armrests. As soon as the nose rotated up and the plane gave a final thump while leaving the ground, her right hand shot out and grabbed my forearm. She looked at me apologetically but before she could say anything, the planed banked hard, did a few more dips and bounces in the air, and rapidly climbed out. Her face froze in fear and her grip tightened even more.
As soon as things quieted and the flight smoothed out, her grip relaxed and she let go. "I'm so sorry," she began. "I get very nervous during take-offs and landings."
I smiled and dismissed it. "No problem, I know others who are the same way."
We chatted off and on throughout the flight. She had a nice sense of humor and laughed a lot, but I had a hard time getting a handle on her. When we landed, we said our good-byes and headed off our separate ways. I went to the baggage claim area to recover my checked bag and then headed to a different terminal for my new connecting flight. When I got to the terminal, the woman behind the ticket counter informed me that their flight to Virginia had also been cancelled, apparently due to weather. They had me re-booked on a flight leaving at 8am the next morning and try as I could, there was no other way of getting home that night.
I called a nearby hotel to make a reservation for the night, but they were all booked. So were the next three hotels. Finally, I found one with an available room for the night and booked it. I waited 20 minutes for the airport shuttle to the hotel and when I arrived, there was a long line of people trying to check in, including the woman I met on the flight from San Juan.
When I finally got to the counter, the clerk took my name and checked her computer. Her pause and pursed lips when she looked at her computer screen was my first hint that my luck wasn't getting any better.
"I'm sorry, sir, but there seems to be a problem with your reservation. The room you were assigned isn't available until tomorrow."
"You gotta be shitting me," I thought. "Do you have another room?" I asked.
"No, sir. We're completely filled up tonight. There's a convention here and now a lot of flights have been cancelled around the area, so we are filed." She did offer to help me find another hotel, but nothing within a 30-minute drive was available. I wandered back to the lounge area next to the lobby and set my bags down while I worked on what to do next.
The first thing I wanted was something to eat. I had been up for 14 hours with nothing but a bowl of cereal before leaving Puerto Rico and a few airline crackers and a coke since then. I headed to the hotel restaurant and found an empty table to sit at. I ordered a beer and a burger, and while I waited, I gazed around the rest of the restaurant to people watch. A few minutes later, I heard a familiar voice.
"Hi! What are you doing here?"
It was my friend from the plane. We never did exchange names, so I didn't know what to call her.
"Trying to grab a bite to eat and then figure out where I'm going to sleep tonight," I answered lightly.
"What do you mean?" she asked. I told her the whole sad tale and she dutifully shook her head and felt sorry for me. "My flight out got cancelled, too. That's why I'm here. Do you mind if I join you?" she asked.
"Please do," I replied. "That would be the best thing that's happened to me this evening." She smiled and gracefully slid into the chair opposite me. The waiter came by with my beer and took her order. She ordered the same beer as me and a chicken wrap of some kind. Our food came and we took our time eating. After we finished eating, we stayed there talking and enjoying a couple more beers. Suddenly, she looked down at her watch. "Oh my gosh! It's ten o'clock already." She looked up at me. "What are you planning to do tonight?"
