L O G A N

Looking back, Bali probably wasn't the best choice.

Two full days of your vacation are spent on a plane (one day to and one day from) with complete strangers. You quickly learn which people annoy the fuck out of you, which ones are loud, which ones snore, which ones talk in their sleep, which ones don't sleep...

The first flight was okay, bearable. It was as soon as it landed that this became one annoyingly intolerable.

I never thought for a second that Em was selling a spare ticket. Perhaps Tricia mentioned this and I wasn't listening because my mind was too focused on the crying blonde that plowed into my chest. I thought I was buying her ticket, that I was doing her a favor.

No.  Instead, I am stuck with this girl that, I will admit - I find attractive, but also find to be the most stubborn, opinionated, pain in my ass that there ever was.  But the thing is, that's the part of her that's also making me laugh. Her making comments about me pretending to be a doctor - I could have lost it right then. I'm fairly certain she broke her ankle, but again - she's stubborn and won't listen to me.  Fine, let it hurt.

She's in a piss-poor mood. I'm not sure if it's because of the pain of her ankle or because a friend obviously could not take this trip with her, but she is a goddamn grouch. The entire first flight she bit my head off for everything I'd say or do, leading is to ignore each other through the airport and entire beginning of this second flight. We haven't even exchanged introductions, which is odd for traveling so long together. Thankfully, once this flight is over we will go our separate ways until the flight home.

But now, now she is being tolerable.  She was watching Bad Boys II on her laptop and fell asleep.  Which, I don't know what kind of girl can fall asleep to this movie with earbuds in, it's actually one of my favorites and completely loud and action-packed.  I suppose I was taking her for a cheesy chick-flick kind of girl.  The Notebook looks more her preference.

That's besides the point.  The point is, that now her head has dropped to her left and is lying upon my shoulder as she sleeps peacefully. 

I can't help but to like this, solely for the fact that I can't wait to see and hear her reaction when she wakes up.  She clearly has no patience for me; yet, she feels comfortable enough to fall asleep on me. 

She is curled up on her seat, covered in a blue, complimentary airplane blanket, head resting comfortably on me with small silent breaths that I can feel tickle the hairs on my arm.  Twice her blanket has fallen and I've head to maneuver my foot to pick it up without waking her to put it back.  She may be bitchy, but she did mention yesterday that she was having a terrible week so I can't help but to take a little pity on her. It was obviously bad enough that it had her crying yesterday. We've all had our share of bad times and she's obviously having one.

I give a small chuckle when she nestles in closer to me, bringing her dainty hand to my arm and setting it on top of it, almost in a clutch. She's cuddly, that's for damn sure. I want to adjust my position in this seat so badly. My back and neck ache from maintaining my stillness. She's been sleeping like this for almost two hours.

When I hear the aisle cart coming behind me, I take my opportunity, shifting slightly with its noise, just enough that I get a little relief and feeling my back pop in the process. Fuck, I feel old.

She stirs a little, but grabs my arm tighter.

"Would you and your partner care for dinner?" A male flight attendant stops at my side and motions to pictures of menu items on the side of the cart.

Partner?

Now I do begin to laugh and turn to sleeping blonde. I suppose we do look like a couple right now. Lord knows, we act like one. I've barely known her twenty four hours and we argue more than not. She doesn't even know my damn name.

I set my free hand down on top of hers that is grabbing my arm and give it the slightest shake to wake her up. She hasn't eaten anything today; I know she hasn't. She's been downing only wine, and lots of it.

When her eyes begin to flutter open, I squeeze her hand jokingly. "Honey," I tease, watching her eyes grow wide when she realizes the position she has us in, "this nice man wants to know if you'd like some dinner..."

She quickly pulls herself back from me and mutters the word "salad," followed by a clearing of her throat and the rouging of her pale cheeks.

"I'll take the burger," I laugh again, watching her squirm in her seat. This is fun.

Two plastic containers are handed off to me; I hand the salad to the embarrassed girl at my right and also order two bottles of water before the attendant proceeds to the next aisle.

My mouth waters at the sight of the burger, even though I know it's going to taste like complete and utter shit.  It's better than the obnoxiously tiny bag of pretzels they keep handing out.

"You could have pushed me off or woken me up."  She stabs her Caesar salad with a plastic fork as if she's picturing my face beneath it.  Her eyes never leave her salad as she attempts to hide her embarrassment.

I have to fuck with her a little bit...

I pull the plastic lid off of my burger before tearing open a packet of Heinz catsup and squeezing it onto the patty.  "What's the fun in that?  You're a very gropey stranger, you know that?  I mean shit, you could at least ask my name before hitting second base."

She drops her fork, turning to me with her mouth hanging open and scoffs adorably.  "I am not!  And didn't your parents ever teach you not to talk to strangers?"

"I think we are past being strangers, honey."

"You know nothing about me!" She scoffs again and picks up her fork to continue stabbing her food.  Honestly, that hostility she's rocking is being taken out on that poor lettuce.  She hasn't even taken a bite, she's just forking it to death.

"And you know nothing about me!" I counter, followed by a large bite of burger.  I was right, it tastes like plastic.  I toss it back down to its tray and recover it.

"What makes you think that I want to know anything about you?" Stab, stab, stab. "Everything out of your mouth could be a lie!" Stab, stab, stab. 

"You're right.  It could be."  I continue to watch her completely butcher her greens and can't help but to begin laughing at how batshit crazy she seems right now.  "Maybe I'll just make up false identity to tell you.  That way you'll already know I'm lying and I don't have to worry about you showing up at my house and stabbing me like you are with your dinner. Seriously, what did it do to you?"

She drops her fork again, looking at the completely mutilated food.  "Lied," she mutters and pushes it further away from her before turning to the window.

I'm fairly certain vegetables don't lie.  Again, she's nuts.  However, she no longer looks pissed, or embarrassed; now there is a frown that she is trying to hide from me. 

"Well, I'm not going the entirety of this plane ride without being able to call you something.  I mean, you've cuddled me for Christ's sake.  So, make up an identity so I can at least tell my family that I didn't spend fifty hours of my flight time with a person that I never learned their name."

Her lips curl upwards and her shoulders shake with a small laugh.  Victory.  She does have a sense of humor.

"Fine," she giggles and then purses her lips, tapping them with the tip of her finger while deep in thought.  "I'm..." she pauses and looks to me with those bright teal eyes.  "Emmy."

"Emmy?" I repeat.  I thought we were making up names.  Tricia definitely called her Em yesterday.  That much, I am certain of.

"Mmhmm," she chuckles.  "Annnnd - I'm a Veterinarian with... four cats," she cringes.  "I live alone with them in a bungalow."

I feel my own mouth curve into a smile.  I shake my head at her, knowing that last part is definitely not true.  The way she said it makes me think she doesn't even like animals, especially cats for some reason. 

"You're a shit liar."

"Yeah," she agrees with giggles.  "What about you?"

I run my hand down the stubble on my face, attempting to think of a name to tell her.  I'm not going to let on that I knew her name before this.  She wants me to think that's not her name. 

"I'm... Hodge."  If she's going to use her name I guess I can use mine.  She won't know it's my last name.

"That's an odd name," she says before I can even make up a profession. 

"Odd parents," I nod.  Another truth.  "I'm a - pool boy."

She bursts out laughing, smacking her knee with her hand and then using it to cover  her face.  "A pool boy in Minnesota, eh?  I bet you're super busy during our Midwest winters."

"Terrible choice," I shut my eyes and groan.  "So let's say that's my summer job.  I'm a college professor the rest of the year."

"Bet the girls love that."  She picks up her fork and, finally, I see her eat something for the first time today.  "Hot teacher all year and shows up as their pool boy during the summer?  That's some cliche romance novel shit, if I've ever heard it. Damn."

She continues eating her salad but I'm hung up on the fact that she just told me I'm "hot."

She's apparently not going to catch on to what she just said, so I'll let it slide.  I could be a complete dick about it and rub it in her face that she admitted to finding me attractive, but I've embarrassed her enough tonight and I finally have her talking.

I glance down to my watch, seeing that I only have four hours left with her until we go our separate ways in Bali for the next two weeks.

"Well, Emmy, vet and lover of cats, it's nice to meet you."  I hold out my hand to her.

She once again drops her fork and covers her mouth to finish chewing her food.  Once finished, her hand graces mine and she smiles.  "Likewise, Hodge; pool boy and educator."

I give it a little shake and then she pulls it away slowly.  Well, I guess with her I'll take what I can get.  At least the next time I see her during our plane ride home it won't be as awkward, even if we currently have fake identities.  It's not as if I'll see this girl outside of a plane or airport again.  What would be the chances of that?  Slim to none.