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They escorted each other to the windows overlooking the runway, where a Royal Asia jet from Tokyo taxied to its nearby gate. At this point, Arianna had almost memorized every route for every day under the company’s roster. Would she ever fly one of those routes again? Only on the upcoming rehaul to the route and standby system that was carefully negotiated between multiple parties. Arianna was one of the elected employees to represent the Asian flight attendants at the negotiations held in Singapore, where she and a few others went up against the local board members (and some of the American ones) in the hopes of holding on to the system that encouraged them to bail on their old employers in the first place.

The answer was to grandfather the first wave of employees into what was now called the Premier System, and newer flight crews were assigned to either the Premier System or the newer Standby System. When Arianna was moved to the training sector of Royal Asia as part of her negotiations, she agreed to be a Premier Standby, meaning she would fill in for roundtrips to LAX if she were available. But only if they’ve exhausted other options. She felt quite clever negotiating that into her new contract because she did want to still be a flight attendant when the chance arose. Yet it was only worth it if the company recognized her worth.

Today, she would fly to Singapore as a trainer. She’d spend a few days in her old familiar city before flying back to the woman who had changed her life – for the better.

“What?” Elle asked when she caught Arianna looking askance at her.

“Thinking about the very first time we met.” She bit her lip to hold back an embarrassingly large smile. “You went out of your way to learn my name.”

“Ah, well, it was the polite thing to do.”

“When are you going to admit that you fell in love with me at first sight?”

“Never.”

“Never?”

Elle pulled her phone out of her back pocket. “Helps keep the mystery alive.”

As they turned around in front of the window to take a selfie together, Elle kissing Arianna on the cheek, it was only natural to think back to that day. I was on top of the world. Arianna stuck out her tongue for the second picture, destroying her corporatized image. Then this woman came and brought me back to Earth.

As it so happened, Arianna loved being grounded as much as she loved having her head up in the clouds.

THE END