The New Classic

Chapter Eighteen

"Really?" I brightened up. "Could you do that? That would be wonderful."

"I'll get right on it."

"Amazing! Keep me in the loop and let me know what happens, okay?"

"Will do." She responded, her phone clutched in her hand as she lifted it to her ear before strutting out. God, I hope this worked out.

***

Here I was, two days later, sitting in an uncomfortable seat and flying economy in Delta. But I had no room to complain. Thanks to some last minute cancellations, Aaliya had managed to get the two of us seats on this airline, flying directly from Seattle to Denver. The rest of our colleagues would be joining us tomorrow. For now, Aaliya and I were the only ones attending the finance convention. A giggle from my left caught my attention as I turned to look at Aaliya, an amused expression on her face.

"You really are uncomfortable, aren't you?"

I grunted in response as I adjusted in my seat for what felt like the millionth time. These seats seemed so miniscule that I honest to god felt trapped in them. Add to that the minimal leg room and almost three hour journey and I was doomed.

"God," Aaliya laughed from beside me, covering her mouth with her hand. "How does it feel for the great Mr Neil Miller to be flying economy?"

"Terrible, so far." I said grumpily.

"You're such a drama queen, jesus." More of those little giggles as her body shook with them. What wouldn't I do to keep hearing her laugh like that? I would even continue being grumpy for her.

"I'm not a drama queen." I huffed as I shifted in my seat. "I'm just uncomfortable. That's it."

"Sure sure." A snort followed the roll of her eyes as she looked out of the window. "I'm sure you're used to flying private, hence why the whole uncomfortable thing." She said the words with air quotes as I turned fully to face her.

"I'll have you know that I do noy, in fact, fly private. I know how much environmental damage it causes."

"Oh?" Her eyebrow quirked in amusement. "An environmentally conscious CEO? Well, that's a first."

"Don't act surprised, Aaliya. You already know how much CSR we do."

"That's true." She murmured softly as her hands landed on the armrest beside me.

"Stop hogging the armrest. I have only one as it is." I leaned down to speak in her ear as the pilot's voice sounded from the system. The armrest on my other side was currently occupied by an elderly man who was dozing off with his mouth open. Great.

"I'm not hogging it!" Aaliya's voice raised a pitch as she frowned at me. "I just need space to rest my hands, okay?"

"You're annoying." I muttered, though I wasn't annoyed with her. More like I was annoyed with our situation. If Tina hadn't fucked up the way she did, we would have been sitting comfortable in first class. But I guess beggars couldn't be choosers.

"I'm annoying? Really, Neil? Who's the one whining like a kid right now?"

"I'm not whining." My lips curled up in amusement as Aaliya's lips pursed.

"Oh, I get it now. You're just trying to annoy me so that you'll get some free entertainment."

"Now why would you think that?" I fluttered my eyelashes dramatically at her as I pushed her arm off and placed my elbow on the armrest between us, placing my face in my hand.

"Do you get some sort of weird kick out of annoying the shit out of me?"

"Tsk, tsk. Language Ms Joshi." My reprimand fell on deaf ears as the pilot announced the flight would be taking off in a few minutes.