Until the Next Flight... (unedited)

Chapter One: Flight 5741

6:27 a.m

I was in the bathroom of the LAX airport knitting my hair into a ponytail. I had an airplane face, puffy and sweaty, I tried to clean myself up, applied a little blush to try and give me a better complexion. I grabbed my bags and suitcase and walked to my next flight. I sat on the black metal seat, there was a family on the opposite row of seats. The dad was desperately trying to enjoy a cup of coffee that he seemed to need. But his young son of probably four or five was trying to grab his father's attention, while his wife was talking to him, never stopping, about things that she was reading in a magazine. When our eyes met I gave him a compassionate smile that he replied with a grateful one.

I turned my attention away from them and took my laptop out of my green little backpack. I needed to finish editing my photographs before landing in Newark. It must have been twenty minutes when the announcement was made that due to the storm coming our flight, among others, was canceled. What storm? Was my first thought, it was bright and sunny outside, as a reflex I brought my phone out to check the weather. Indeed, a big storm was passing through, probably not too bad here, but the winds might be very strong. Fuck! Was my very next thought. I needed to be in New Jersey by Tomorrow 7 p.m at the latest or I'll miss my sister's wedding, not to mention that Monday I had to deliver the photographs of Hawaii to my boss. Everybody rushed the information desk. People were screaming, pushing each other, it was chaos. I was standing back looking at the situation with dismay. From the corner of my eye I saw a young man, probably around my age, standing, watching the scene in the same state of disarray.

He caught me looking at him and smiling. " It's like a zombie apocalypse, right?" He said pointing at the crowd. I laughed, genuinely amused. It did look like some kind of apocalyptic scenario was at play here, more so than just a plane being canceled. "That, or some celebrity is at the desk!" I replied, jokingly. " My scenario is more plausible" He chuckled, loudly. He crossed the few feet between us.

" I'm Aaron, by the way!"
"Nice to meet you, Aaron. I'm Poppy!"

I shook the hand he was offering. We smiled at each other. He had dark black hair and deep brown eyes. His jaw was squared and defined, I could even make out a dimple on his left cheek under the subtle stubble. He was ridiculously hot, so much so that I ended up laughing to myself. "So ,you think we're gonna be able to know what's happening? Because I really don't want to go in there." His face showed that the simple idea was extremely uncomfortable to him.
"I'd sacrifice myself, but I have too much valuables on me right now, I literally can't. But I was just gonna go to the ticket desk and see with them when the next plane leaves." I grabbed my backpack and my bags with my cameras and optics. "Great idea, I don't fly very often, so I'm kind of out of my depth here. Do you mind if I walk with you? I don't want to bother you."
He stepped back a bit when he said that, and I noticed how close he'd been standing before. I don't know if I was blinded by his pretty face, but I didn't mind, at all. Which was kind of out of character for me, I usually hate when random people would come up to me in the street. Or anyone entering my space, really.

We walked to the ticket desk, in silence. The lady there told us that all the planes were grounded today and most of the night, so the next earliest would be at 6am tomorrow, which was pretty much twenty-four hours away. I didn't complain too much because I should have plenty of time to make it to Sierra's wedding. But it meant renting a room for the night, expenses I hadn't anticipated. They better pay me back at work. They had bought the plane tickets, in the first place. I bought the ticket for the next flight out of pocket. The airline had reimbursed us for the canceled flight, so it only cost me ninety dollars. Aaron bought his ticket too, and asked the lady if he could find a bus from Newark to Baltimore, she assured him he could.