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Chapter 19

Arianna expected her sister to cancel dinner on Sunday night, but when the hour rolled around, both sisters agreed to put the awkwardness behind them for the sake of Kaylinn finally meeting her sister’s girlfriend.

I hate how touched this is now. If the previous night hadn’t occurred, Arianna would be a lot more collected. Instead, she forced herself to not overanalyze the energy between herself and Kaylinn. Was it possible that the attention had shifted from Arianna to her sister? Was Arianna better off ejecting herself from the conversation between Kaylinn and Elle, who expressed how lovely it was to meet one of her girlfriend’s relatives?

Nothing could simply be. Everything was colored by Arianna attempting to understand what had happened.

She knew one thing, as dinner concluded and Kaylinn went to the rail station while Arianna followed Elle back to the Lion Orchard… she was not telling her girlfriend what had happened. What would I even say? That she had caught her sister at a lesbian bar, making out with a pilot from the recent flight? The whole thing sounded too absurd!

So when Elle asked her how she thought things had gone, Arianna offered a sly smile and promised that it could have gone way worse.

“She likes you,” she assured Elle as they settled into the seating area of the hotel suite. Fresh herbal tea alighted Arianna’s senses and helped her forget what had happened the night before. It’s almost like she anticipates what I like now. Herbal tea after dinner, complete with a pinch of fresh citrus juice? Arianna was in heaven, and she had nobody but Elle to thank. “That’s all there is to it, really. I mean, my sister would like anyone I was dating, because she says she trusts my modern and mature judgment…” Arianna grinned, to ensure that it was said in jest. “But yes, she likes you. I think she’s impressed that you’ve got a penthouse in Seattle.”

“Please don’t tell me that your modern and mature judgment led you to introduce me with that factoid.”

“No, but I told her at some point. She knows we met in my First Class cabin. She can fill in the rest.”

“Aria, this is Singapore. I know how the money game works. The richer I am, the easier it is for your family to swallow that I’m foreign. Oh, and a woman.”

“And since this is Singapore, you know that thirty percent of the people living here are foreign residents. Like me.”

“You know what I meant. If you married someone without a Singaporean passport, your mother would be expecting someone from Malaysia. Or Taiwan. Hong Kong. Places like that.”

“You mean Asian.”

“And with a hefty Chinese population.”

Arianna shrugged before finally taking a sip of her hot tea. “Would my mother love me to marry a rich man of Chinese descent? Duh. But this isn’t her generation, nor is it even the twentieth century anymore. Which I vaguely remember, by the way.”

“Is that a jab at me? Because I have very clear memories of the ‘90s.”

The teacup passed from one of Arianna’s hands to the other. “What I’m trying to say is that I’m not beholden to her, or my little sister. I can do whatever I want, wherever I want. I’ve got my career, my place in another country, and I like to think I have good judgment in who I date.”

“I should hope so.”

“It’s only the matter of you being, you know, a passenger on my flights. Have you ever thought about flying a different airline so I can be off the hook if we’re caught together?”

It was a joke, but based on the look on Elle’s face, it wasn’t funny. “Unfortunately, it would look bad if I didn’t fly Royal Asia,” she said. “I do a lot of work with them.”

“I think you mentioned that before…”

“I understand what you are asking, though. I wish I could say it was as simple as switching to another airline for my flights across the ocean. Which, when you think about it, is a crazy thing to say. It wasn’t until the past hundred years, if that, when a woman like me could take constant flights across the Pacific Ocean. In one day, too.”

Arianna laughed. “How do you think I feel? I do it for a living.”

“Do you miss getting to fly to other destinations?”

“There are pros and cons to the changes. I have a set schedule now which allows me to have plans and not always be on standby, but I only fly to LAX, which… honestly, isn’t that exciting anymore. Los Angeles is so spread out and car-dependent that I feel like I can’t explore. Until you, anyway.”

“If you took me out of the equation, where would be your ideal layover?”

“Hawaii, obviously.”

“Sounds like you should brownnose whoever is in charge of these things at Royal Asia and become the shift lead of the Singapore-Honolulu flight that’s coming up.”

“How do you know about that? As far as I know, they haven’t made an official announcement about it. Alaska Airlines merging with Hawaiian screwed things up for the schedule, from what I hear.”

Arianna instantly worried that the silence was indicative of her being an annoying know-it-all. There I go, rattling off random things about the airline industry. She wouldn’t have even thought about that merger if it hadn’t affected some of Royal Asia’s routes. And even among flight attendants… unfortunately for Arianna, she knew more than the usual woman.