Love At First Flight

Four Minutes

'You off to London?' She asks, watching his every movement. 'Yep, yourself.' The young woman nods in response, swivelling in the chair. 'I'm Ben, by the way' He smiles, holding his hand out between them. 'Emily.' She greets, glancing at his veiny hand before shaking it, feeling the warmth travel up her arm. 'Nice to meet you.'

'Nice to meet you, too' He returns, continuing to shake her hand, not realising how long for. 'Oh, sorry' He chuckles, awkwardly, letting go of her hand.

'I'm actually supposed to be flying already but I missed my flight.' Emily tells Ben as they sit together at the charge station. 'By four minutes.' Ben tuts, shaking his head, playfully.

'I'd say that four minutes was fate. Otherwise you'd be boring your brain out on that flight instead of chatting to me.'

'Alright big guy, calm yourself.' Emily chuckles, leaning on her hand. The pair laugh together, Emily finishing with a hard sigh.

'I was gonna go grab some food.' Ben interrupts, 'Do you wanna come with? Or is that like, a third date thing for you?' He continues making her laugh, her smiling growing larger. 'No, food would be great right about now.' Emily responds, grabbing her bag, returning the charger back to a cheerful ben.

Finding a spare table was hard. As Ben began ordering, insisting on paying for Emily's meal, Emily went off on the search for a free table.

'Over here!' Emly waves, catching Ben's attention as he walks over with a tray full of food. 'Nice spot.' Ben chuckles, looking out the floor to ceiling window at the planes below them. 'Thought you might like it.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Ben asks, passing Emily her cheese baguette. 'I dunno,' She shrugs, 'Look like that type of guy.'

The two begin eating in an awkward, yet calming, silence, taking in the busy airport around them. 'So,' Ben starts, making Emily look up from her baguette. 'You heading home?'

'What?' Emily questions, looking at him with a confused expression on her face. 'Oh, the flight? Yeah, well, I'm travelling there for work.'

'Oh really,' Ben raises his brows, placing his own ham baguette back down. 'What type of work do you do?'

'I'm an assistant.'

'Oh cool.' Ben smiles as Emily takes another bite out of her baguette, a bit of cheese falling out the bottom. 'Oh, shit!' She chuckles, picking it up from her lap, chucking it onto the tray, making Ben chuckle slightly. 'Sorry about that.'

'You're all good, it happens.' Ben grins, placing his hand into his lap. 'So, what do you do?' Emily asks before taking another bite.

'This and that.' Ben nods before looking around slightly, as if hiding something. 'You know.'

'Oh yeah, 100%' Emily jokes, making the pair laugh, Ben blushing slightly. 'Come on, what do you actually do?' Ben returns his arms back onto the table, leaning on them.

'I'm actually' he pauses for a second, 'doing this and that.'

'What? Are you like a spy or something?' Emily jokes again, returning her eyes to his, noticing something. '100%' Ben returns the joke, rubbing his nose slightly.

Emily continues to stare, her doe eyes growing wider, noticing something familiar with this stranger. In doing so, she ignores her buzzing phone, slowly falling into some sauce on the table. 'Um,' Ben distracts her from her thoughts, pointing at it. 'Think you should get that?'

'Shit!' Emily gasps, picking it up, the case covered in white sauce. 'Oh. Ew. That's nasty.' She chuckles, looking around for a tissue. 'I've got an anti-bac wipe,' Ben exclaims, reaching into his backpack, pulling out a packet of wipes. 'Here you are.' He hands one to her, their hands brushing, delicately. 'For your dirty, dying phone.'

'Thank you.' Emily laughs, wiping it off before scrunching up the wipe, chucking it on the tray. 'I've always hated airports.'

'Really?' Ben asks, his eye brow raised. Emily nods, her head lowering slightly. 'I love 'em.'

'Why?'

'I like how you're neither here nor there,' Ben starts, 'you're just in no-man's-land.' Emily chuckles, nodding. 'I know it sounds, weird.'

'No, it's lovely.' Emily smiles, widely before dropping. 'I used to love them.' She pauses, looking down into her lap.

'Go on,' Ben nods, allowing her to continue, although she doesn't really want to. 'Well, my mothers in the Navy. She travels a lot and I rarely get to see her. There was one time where she was released here and had to fly home, rather than on ship and..' She pauses, taking a breath. 'I was waiting at Heathrow for her, with my sister, and we saw them. Coming in one by one but we never saw her. Turns out her bus was shot at during the transport from harbour to airport. She was one of 7 that got injured. By the time the news got to us, we were already in the airport waiting.' Ben looks at her, a sad expression on his face.

'She's doing ok now but she's gone back out and I haven't seen her in months.' Emily finishes before shaking her head. 'Well done, Emily. What a good first impression-'

'No, no. You're all good. Honest.' Ben smiles, looking back outside at the incoming planes. 'Such a pretty sight, don't you think.'

'Yeah, it is.' Emily chuckles, wiping a distant tear from her cheek. The pair continue to look out the window, their reflections bouncing back towards each other, the sound of an announcement over the PA breaks the silence, '-to London Heathrow.'

Emily jumps up beginning to grab her things, 'Did he just call our flight?' Beginning to grab his own things, Ben races to finish stuffing various items into his bag. 'Already?' She nods as she jumps down from the high rise chair, grasping her suitcase. 'Shit, I can't miss another one.'

The couple start rushing off, Emily forgetting her backpack in the process, 'Backpack.' She points, turning sharply around. 'I'll get it.' Ben turns, grabbing the backpack from the floor.

'Thanks.' She chimes, sprinting her way towards the gate, Ben rushing up behind her. 'Woah!' They gasp as they rush past the hordes of people, serving their way through.

The pair run through the airport like two horses in a field, racing to the finish line, laughing as they do so. Ben occasionally overtaking Emily. Emily occasionally overtaking Ben.

Finally reaching the gate the pair slow down, 'Wait!' Emily shouts to the uniformed agent, stopping in front of her, taking a deep breath in from the running. 'Wait!' Ben returns behind her, catching his breath as the pair pant. 'Great. We're here. We made it.'

Taking her passport and boarding pass out of her bag, Emily passes it to the agent, scanning it before allowing her through. Ben follows, scanning his own ticket. 'Thank you.' They smile before boarding the plane, together .