I settle into my seat, waiting for the flight attendant to finish her spiel and the captain to allow the use of electronics on the sparsely packed flight to Vegas. My 28 year old brother Jamie is getting married to Kimberly, his fiance of three years, on Sunday, and I am flying in late Thursday night, having had work to finish up earlier in the day. The silver lining of course being that there aren't too many people on the flight. The only person within three rows of either direction of me is a woman sitting in my same row across the aisle.
I sit in the middle of the three seats, with all the elbow room I could want. I figure if I get tired during the 6+ hour flight, I can stretch out across all three easily enough for some rest. I pull my laptop from my case, setting it up for use when the FAA deems safe.
The flight attendant passes by, pauses and leans in. "Good evening sir. Please wait until the captain gives word before you start using your electronics. It should be any minute now." Her gorgeous green eyes speckled with gold catch me off guard and I stammer for a moment.
"Uh, oh, of course. I'm sorry. just getting situated. My bad, no worries. I won't. I'm... er, thank you."
What the actual fuck? I'm babbling like an idiot! Get yourself together man.
"Sorry, I swear I know words and how to use them, haha. My apologies. I will wait."
Lovely peals of laughter emanate from the beautiful woman. "It's okay, it happens to all of us from time to time. I will be back by in a few minutes if you need anything. My name is Devon. See you soon."
As the flight attendant turns away, I notice how ridiculously hot her body is, even covered with the usual uniform. A snicker breaks me from my study of the fantastic backside walking up the aisle. I look over at the woman sharing the row with me, and notice for the first time how absolutely beautiful she is as well.
If this is normal, I have got to take more late night flights!
She giggles again, leans over and whispers conspiratorially, "I get it, she is gorgeous, but you might want to keep your eyes and tongue in your own flight path."
Only slightly embarrassed, I sheepishly grin. "Was I that obvious? Damn, she's going to think I'm the biggest creep. Eesh. Well, best behavior now!" Laughing, I try to save face. "Hi, my name is Cretin, also known as Perv and often confused with but not the same person as Stalker."
My flight partner laughs and extends her hand over the aisle. "Hello, Cretin. I'm Amanda. She is beautiful, I'm sure she is used to it. Maybe just try not to leer, lol. Given, that will be as difficult for me as it is for you. Did you see her eyes? Pure heaven."
We both laugh as I internally groan.
Oy, two beautiful women. I'm a creep to one and the other is batting for the same team as I am. Maybe I can kick someone's puppy and win the trifecta.
Shaking her hand, I introduce myself properly. "How are you Amanda? I'm Donald, or Don. My friends call me Donk."
Tilting her head, in an amazingly cute way I should add, Amanda looked at me with a question in her eyes. "Donk, really? How's that?"
Realizing that I threw my nickname out to a complete stranger, I hastened to explain.
"Ok, so, when I was a kid, I was infatuated with the classic books. You know, The Three Musketeers, Swiss Family Robinson, that kind of stuff. When I was young, I read the kid friendly condensed versions, then when I got older the full versions."
Right then, the captain chimed the intercom and gave us all the usual info about weather and arrival, and informed us intrepid travelers that we are now allowed to move freely and use our electronics. The beautiful nightmare of my earlier moments, Devon the flight attendant, came down the aisle and leaned over to me.
With the hint of a smile in her eyes, she asked, "The food and beverage cart will come through in about 15 minutes. If you are able to speak at this point, is there anything I can get you in the meantime? A pillow, blanket? Headphones perhaps?"
"No, I think I'm good for the moment," I reply. laughing. "I would like to say I'm sorry for earlier. I just got a little flustered. You know, the proverbial kid getting admonished by the person in charge. You scared me into shock!"
"No problem sir. Sometimes our tongues get tied when faced with a dominant figure. As I said, it happens to all of us sometimes. Me especially." With that, she turns to the other side and speaks to Amanda. As I'm trying to, shame on me, ogle Devon's nylon encased legs disappearing under the tight, couple inches above the knee length skirt, I see Amanda glance over the attendant's shoulder. Her eyes crinkle at the edges, then she leans back as Devon turns to leave.
"I saw that."
"Huh, what? You saw what?"
Amanda giggles again. "You lech! I saw you leering at her again. I get it, I do, I was checking her out when she was talking to you!"
With that admission, I pointed at her. "Hey, I thought your name was Amanda, not Eyes McGee! You can't say anything to me, you're just as bad!"
We laughed, both looking around to see if Devon or any other passengers could hear us. Thankfully, she was in the galley getting the cart ready, and the passengers close to us were already settling in to sleep or had headphones in.
"Okay, Donk, what's the story with the name, the books, whatever? What's going on with that now? I'm an inquiring mind, I need to know."
Sheepishly, I look away. "You really don't want to know. It's dumb. I find that I bore people with the story, and you seem too nice for me to do that to you. I don't want your memories of us to be that creep with the lame story about his lame name." I grin, knowing she's hooked.
Suddenly, Amanda stands from her seat, comes over and sits next to me. "Listen buster, scooch over." I shift to allow her room to sit comfortably, but not so much that we don't have some contact. Hey, she's gorgeous and sat down next to me. Who am I to push her away!?
She continues, "As we've established, you're no more of a creep than I am, I like background stories, and you don't have a monopoly on dumb nicknames. I'll tell you mine when you tell me yours."
"Tit for tat huh? Okay, but I at least need to hear your nickname first. If it seems too normal, then all bets are off!"
She tosses her brown hair over her shoulder and with a defiant look in her eyes, answers, "Oranges. My nickname was, and to my sister still is, Oranges. That good enough for you?"
Arching my eyebrow, I respond to her with a lofty tone. "Oranges eh? Color me intrigued. Very well, my story you shall have. Gather around, this tale may only be told once."
Amanda snorts and lightly punches my shoulder. "Okay you dork, out with the story. Wait, the object of our affection is coming. Tell me after."
Devon with her amazing eyes stops at our seats, a bemused smile on her face. "I suppose since there is no one to be bothered, seat jumping is allowed at this time. Can I get either of you anything? We have snacks, sodas, beer, and wine."