Take a Chance on Me

One

Back to the Past

"What are you reading?" he asked as I sat there, uncomfortably, between him and a businessman on my flight from New York to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California.

I actually really enjoy flying, especially to a favorite destination or back home to Southern California. I had just visited one of my best friends, Amy, that recently moved to New York and I was coming home after a long week of walking around the big city and staying up all hours of the night. They call it the city that never sleeps, so it made perfect sense that I didn't either.

"Oh uh, it's called Normal People," I mutter, caught off guard that my seat neighbor was sparking up a conversation. When I fly alone, I usually keep to myself, whether it's reading a book or watching a movie on the screen behind the seat in front of me. Apparently the movie service on this flight was malfunctioning, so I settled for a solid five hours of reading.

I noticed that he was still looking at me as I turned back to my book, so I folded the page as a bookmark and looked back at him. "So are the people in that book 'normal'?" he asked, pointing to the cover.

"I mean, that's a hard question. I don't really think we can define what normal is, so how can we decide if someone is normal or not?" I answer.

He returned a smile. 

That was by far the quickest five hour flight I have ever been on. I guess when you're absorbed in a fun conversation with the cute guy next to you, five hours turns into five minutes. Once the plane landed, we both knew that we would be seeing each other again. We had to.

-

What I would do to go back to that flight. To ensure that he would be with me today. I would do anything to make us, Leah and Alex, work out, because he is the type of guy I always imagined myself ending up with. 

The first time we met up after the flight I was able to notice all of the small details that made me fall for him. 

-

The plane roughly hit the runway below it and we both knew that our time together was up. 

"Here, add your number so we can catch up sometime?" he asks as he hands his phone to me.

I quickly grab it and type in my number under the name "Leah <3" and hand it back. 

"Cute," he says as he flashes a bright white smile my way and then looks back down at his phone to type something. My phone pings and I see that it's from a random number. I wonder who this could be.

"Alex" it reads with the heart eyes emoji. I can't help but laugh and give him small smile in return. I feel my face start to heat up and it is clear, to both of us, that he knows his way with girls. He for sure has me cast under his spell. 

As the entire flight of passengers manages to squeeze their way off of the plane, I find myself standing next to Alex at the gate. I just met him and I know it's crazy to have these feelings already, but I don't want to leave him. Not yet. 

"See you soon?" he says, giving me a reassuring glance that he is actually serious about this. 

"Soon," I say as I grab my suitcase and we both start to head off in different directions. 

A few minutes later I am sitting outside, trying for the life of me to figure out how to find the shuttle that leads me to the cheap parking lot I parked in. I'm reading all of the signs with no sight of the company I used. I remember that they gave me a flyer with their information on it, so I dig through my purse, through all of my junk to find a crumbled piece of paper with the information on it. Finally

I start to punch in the number on my phone when my phone starts vibrating and is directed to a new screen. The name "Alex" with heart eyes pops up and a smile is immediately plasters across my face. 

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Alex."

"Hey, Alex."

"We agreed to hang out soon, right?"

"Yes, I remember agreeing to that."

"Well, it's soon. Want to grab a coffee at the Starbucks across the street?"

"Where are you?"

"Turn around."

There he is, with all of his luggage and his phone pressed to his ear. 

As we sit across from each other at a table for two at Starbucks, I can really see him, look at all of his features. It's hard to do that when you are sitting side-by-side on a plane. Every time I tried to look up at him, it was clear that I was staring, but now in Starbucks, sitting the way we are, I have no choice but to stare straight out in front of me, at him.

He's tall. Really tall. Maybe around 6'4. I first noticed that as we walked into the shop and he looked down at me to get my order. 

"On me," he said as he handed the cashier his card. 

Sitting down, I notice just about everything else. First, his hair. It's blonde. Not platinum blonde, but the kind of natural blonde that lightens every summer from the sun. The blonde that shows that he spends a lot of time outdoors, maybe at the beach, maybe on hiking trails, maybe both. 

His eyes. I've never seen anything like them. They look blue whenever the sun casts light through the window next to our table, but once the sun hides away, they look like a steel grey. I hope that I will have more time to figure them out in the future. 

His smile. Have you ever seen those brochures at the dentist? Or on TV when they show someone's teeth before and after Invisalign? I'm pretty sure his have been used on both. They are perfectly straight and pearly white. Every time he flashes a smile, which is pretty often, I can't help but smile back. It's never for show. It is always genuine and a genuine smile will always force a genuine smile back. At least with him it has never failed. 

"So is this home for you? Southern California?" he asks, sipping his coffee.

"Yeah, always has been, hopefully always will be. I'm from Costa Mesa but I am currently living in an apartment in Newport Beach. You?"

"Laguna Beach. I grew up there and after I moved out, I couldn't help but get a house of my own there. I love it too much to leave. I couldn't live without the beach right down the street."

Laguna Beach. Of course. He looks like he surfs there every day. So I've figured out a small portion of the puzzle. The hair is caused by his time spent at the beach. 

"Wow. A house in Laguna. Just yours?"

"Kinda. I bought it, but some of my friends moved in as roommates. It would be hard to afford that place all on my own, especially after just graduating college." 

I always knew that if one wanted to live in Laguna they had to be rich, but to have your own house at such a young age? That's impressive.

"I just recently graduated too. Where did you go to school?" I'm curious to find out how he can be making so much money this early on. I'm barely scraping by in a shared two bedroom apartment on the border of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

"NYU, for business. My dream is to open my own custom surf shop here in Laguna. As of right now I have started shaping and selling out of my garage. It's not much yet, but I'm hoping it will turn into something."

So that's why he was in New York. He must have been moving out. Luckily for me, he wants to stick around here for the foreseeable future. 

Could he be any more perfect?