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“What did I say about keeping that quiet?”

“Hmph. So, was it you?”

Elle drummed her fingers on the bartop, her other hand covering her face. “You got a problem with it?”

“Oh, no. Let the boys quake in their shiny shoes when I roll up in my pilot’s uniform and take the airwaves by storm. With some of the cutest flight attendants in the business, no less.”

“You really have a thing for cabin crew, huh?”

“I talk a good game. You know as well as anyone that I’m not all that.”

She removed her trucker hat and adjusted the snaps in the back before slapping it back on top of her flattened hair. Elle glanced at her for a second longer before sighing.

“Maybe I get ahead of myself sometimes.”

“Maybe. I know I do.”

“It’s a problem with being a woman like us, huh?”

Riley shrugged. “You tell me. I’m living my life.”

That was exactly what Elle wished she could say about her life as well. Just living it. Falling in love, having a career, and…

She didn’t know what came after that.

Chapter 15

When Kaylinn dropped her sister off at Changi Airport, she said, “And bring me back a party-size bag of Lay’s! I wanna see how big they really are!” But all Arianna could think about were the butterflies in her stomach as she ran a lint roller over her kebaya and faced the music that was her coworkers cheering and clapping when she arrived for the preflight meeting.

“There she is!” Rachel was all fake smiles as she welcomed Arianna with a shake of the hand and a bow of the head. “Our resident supermodel!”

By now, everyone knew that Arianna had been tapped for the next big marketing campaign featuring the women of Royal Asia. Already, the logo was rolled out to anything that could be changed overnight. “Queen of the Skies” had been expanded to “Queens in the Air” alongside a basic photo of a flight attendant who had a bright, pearly white smile for the camera. Soon, it might be Arianna’s photo hanging above Royal Asia’s customer service desks.

Everyone wanted to know how she had been selected, but Arianna couldn’t say – it was still a mystery to her. And everyone wanted to congratulate her, some of them with jealousy on their lips. Charmaine was the only coworker who shrieked in delight on behalf of Arianna when they entered the galley and prepared to greet passengers coming on board. Arianna was perfectly happy to not think about it and simply do her job. After all, her girlfriend would not be on the flight that day, so why distract herself with something else?

Unlike most of her coworkers, though, she would not be returning to Singapore on the usual day. Instead, Royal Asia paid for her room throughout the week, when she would then return to Singapore as a regular passenger flying Economy. Her shift wouldn’t renew until the flight after that. Instead, she was paid to be a model for a couple of days.

One day of photoshoots. Another commercial filming. Arianna was assured that she was only required to wear her usual uniform, including whatever hair and makeup was assigned to her when she started at Royal Asia. The styling department might want to doll her up a bit more for the cameras, but the director and his production crew had informed her that this was about capturing the “essence” of the flight crew, not making them out to be women that they were not. Except for the Photoshop, of course. Arianna wasn’t stupid!

“You’re going to do great,” Elle reassured her over the phone the night before the shoot, while Arianna restlessly rolled across her hotel bed with feet kicking up in the air. “Listen to the director, the photographer, and the whole crew. They’re professionals who know what they’re doing. Their goal is to make you so beautiful that you might not even recognize yourself.”

Arianna giggled. “What if you don’t recognize me?”

“That’s impossible. I think about you so much that I would recognize you even if you hadn’t washed your hair in five months.”

“That’s specific.”

“I had some weird roommates in college.”

Arianna didn’t know what that had to do with anything, but she wouldn’t dwell on it. “Are you still coming down this weekend?”

“That’s the plan. I’ll be on the final flight on Friday after I finish my business meeting up here in Seattle. You’ll have me all weekend.”

“Then I fly back to Singapore on Monday… then I get a few days off… maybe I should agree to these things more often.”

“I hope they’re paying you well to use your likeness.”

“Oh, yes! I couldn’t believe it! It’s like my entire monthly salary!”