I remember the takeaway coffee cup hot in my hand. In the other was Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. It was eleven o-clock on a Friday night and where was I spending it? Inside a god forsaken airport! I perch the novel, open and face down, on my legs and shift myself higher into my airport lounge chair. "Why can't I ever get comfortable?" I mutter irritably to myself.
"Beg your pardon?" A lady inquires. She's sitting several seats down, on the row facing inwards to my row of chairs. She appears about mid thirties, wearing the usual ensemble of tight, dark blue jeans and a floral print shirt. Combined with her straw blonde hair and glasses, she would look at home roaming around a farmer's market or inner city bookstore. Pretty in her own unique way, yet not my normal type. Besides this woman, there is practically no one else in this part of the airport at this hour - except for a cleaner about 700 metres away, with his multi purpose trolley, and a middle aged gentleman slumped in the corner of the lounge, attempting to sleep.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just talking to myself." I reply.
"Oh, ok."
Once more I lift up my book and attempt to read. However I can't seem able to absorb the words on the page. All I can think about is how the chair is digging into my back and arse, and how my eyes feel so sore. With a sigh, I replace the bookmark, return the book into my overnight bag, then lean my head back and close my eyes.
"I simply cannot believe that I was convinced to make this trip. Especially at this hour, at such short notice." The lady states, obviously in my direction. I smile at the absurd thought of the cleaner having a shouting conversation across several hundred metres of airport with this woman. Reluctantly I tip my head down, open my eyes and attempt to engage with her.
"Oh, why is that? Where ya going?" I ask.
"I'm going to visit my sister. She is six months pregnant and has just kicked her fiancΓ© out of their house for martial indiscretions. She needs, "moral support". Whatever that is supposed to mean."
"Martial indiscretions?"
"Yeah, she believes that he is sleeping with his secretary. Highly original, I realise. In truth I think it has more to do with her hormones being thrown around from the pregnancy and a desire for attention. However, she was willing to purchase the airplane ticket, so at least this trip is not costing me anything."
"Hmmm..." I respond, lacking anything insightful to reply with.
"So why are you travelling to Singapore?"
"Business."
"Really? What sort of business would that be? Multi-national mergers, hostile takeovers, or maybe illegal drug smuggling?" She replies teasingly.
I laugh. "Hardly. I work for a large transport company, and we're interested in business deals with a consortium there. You know, expand our connections."
It was at this time that an announcement was made over the PA system for all passengers of KLA 170 to board the plane. Both she and I extract ourselves from the chairs and begin collecting our carry-on luggage. Then we walk up to the gate, give out our tickets to be processed, then proceed to board the plane. During all this we stand near each other, but not too close. We both appear torn between not offending the other by ignoring them completely, nor wishing to stay too close and invade each other's personal space.
Although our seating were allocated, there was plenty of seats available. Hardly surprising really, considering it was almost midnight on a Friday night. Most people travelling overseas allow plenty of time to arrange all the details, such as choosing a more suitable hour to travel. Which left a small minority of people, like us, who were forced to travel for reasons outside their direct control. This all made for quite a dreary and sullen group of passengers.
Following my female companion down the isle, I quickly found my seat, and discovered that her allocated seat was quite some distance away.
"Well, this is me." I say, displaying a tired smile.
"Oh, I see." She looks at me, then further down the plane in the general direction of her seat.
I sigh a little internally and say to myself, well, at least she could be a small distraction from such a long flight. "Hey, look. The plane is barely half full. How about you join me, and we can keep each other company? I doubt that I'll be able to sleep tonight, so we can get some drinks and chat."
A smile sprang to her face, showing off small dimples in her cheeks. "Sure, I'd like that."
With that settled, we stow our luggage about the seats, and scoot across inside our seats. I hold out my hand and introduce myself.
"Harry."
"Jessica."
"Well, its nice to meet you Jessica."
The rest of the boarding and initial takeoff of the plane was uneventful. We were informed that the cabin crew were going to serve us a light meal and offer us drinks, before turning the interior lights down so passengers can sleep if they desire. Jessica and I chose to skip the hideous airline food on offer, and instead ordered some drinks. One of the benefits of international flights were that they tend to ply their customers with plenty of alcohol, to keep everyone in a more compliant mood. It was certainly working for us.
Jessica and I went through the typical questioning strangers begin with, or as I like to think of it, the Big Four. Family, Childhood, Work and Martial Status. I quickly found out that she was a middle child, with a sister several years older, and a younger sister approximately 1 year younger. She was a marketing coordinator for a large non-for-profit organisation and was single. In turn, she discovered that I was an only child, single and Jessica already knew what I did for a living.
The conversation then moved to topics such as celebrities that scared us, movies we loved and our long term life goals. It was almost 1 am by this point, and the cabin crew had just turned down the lights. I was sipping another bourbon and coke, probably my fourth, and Jessica was on her third white wine.
"So, we have several more hours of flight left, what do you want to do?" Jessica whispered, seemingly because she did not want to wake up anyone else around. This struck me as strange, because there was basically no one within sight let alone ear-shot of our seats. But I was happy that it afforded her the chance to lean closer to me.