"Cabin crew prepare for landing."
Jerald placed the radio back on its dock as Richard replaced Sam on the pilot's chair.
Richard flew the first leg assisted by Jerald. While they were airborne, both Jerald and Sam slept while Richard had control. On the second shorter leg of their journey back to Manila, Sam replaced him, assisting Jerald after take off, giving their captain time to rest up.
The captain left the cockpit after giving control and didn't return until 15 minutes later, with a smile on his face showing his dimple. That got him teased by his two co-pilots who had not seen their captain this happy in all the times that they've known him. They left him alone when he took a nap, with Jerald and Sam focusing on flying their plane.
"Hey, Cap," Sam started as he got settled at the back seat and Richard got settled on the pilot's chair. "Some of the guys are planning on hitting some bars tomorrow. You should join us."
"Pass," Richard replied as he readied the plane for landing. Jerald was assisting with pre landing preps. "I already have plans."
"Ooh," Sam teased. "You and Maine are off on another rendezvous?"
"No," he replied nonchalantly. "She's spending time with her parents. She hasn't seen them in a week already. Besides, I have somewhere to go when we get back."
"Maine's not going with you?"
"Not this time. No."
"Does she even know where you're going?"
"No. This has something I need to do on my own at the moment."
"You're not meeting a secret girlfriend now, are you?"
"Why does everyone think I have a secret girlfriend somewhere?" Richard stated incredulously.
"Captain, if you hurt Maine..." Jerald started but stopped immediately when Richard gave him a pointed look, not liking what his friend is insinuating.
"When had I ever done that, Jerald?"
"There are a lot of girls gunning for you, Jase," Jerald said. "Just don't accept any drinks from anybody."
"Like how you spiked Maine's drink?" Richard said seriously.
"Low blow, Cap," he remarked. "Although I admit I deserve that, but Maine already forgave me for that. You should too."
"I would forgive you too if you had also waited on me hand and foot in front of everyone including the captain here," Sam smirked.
"She's a great girl," Jerald went on. "Valeen likes her. Well, we all like her. So, if you hurt her, Captain. You have the whole flight crew on your bad side, including Martin."
"And God only knows that you shouldn't get on Martin's bad side," Sam finished.
"I mean," Jerald continued. "Come on, Jase. You have been hiding stuff from us for years. We couldn't help but think. We know you can play but we didn't know that you write songs. And you wrote that nice song you played at that pub for 'someone special'. It's a good thing Maine didn't feel bad about that. You writing songs for someone, I mean. We didn't even know you had someone special until Maine..."
His voice drifted as everything clicked in his head. Richard just tried to hide the smirk on his face as he chanced a look at Jerald and saw realization in his eyes.
"That song was for Maine," Jerald suddenly blurted.
"You could be so slow sometimes Jerald," Sam laughed as he strapped himself for landing. "I sometimes wonder how we became friends. And I am now starting to wonder what Valeen saw in you."
"You are so lucky I'm flying this plane, Sam."
"Jase is flying the plane. You're just assisting."
Richard laughed as he just listened to his two friends banter. When both of them returned their focus back to him and asked him if he ever dedicated a song to anyone else, he became serious.
"I never wrote songs for anyone else except Maine, Je," Richard remarked. "Well, except maybe my brother. But he's a different league. I only write for Maine. Only her and no one else."
That earned him another set of teasing from the two. But the conversation ended there as they landed the plane. It was another perfect landing and the passengers outside once again clapped their hands and cheered. Richard gave his post landing announcements while the plane was taxying towards the landing bay where their plane was assigned while Jerald took instructions from the airport control tower.
When the plane finally parked and the engines were off, Richard did a debrief with his co-pilots. After the debrief, he let both Sam and Jerald leave while he double checked if everything was in order. He left the cockpit right after just in time to see the last of the FAs disembarked and Martin was left.
"That's very sweet of you to wait for me, Jase," Martin teased as he took his luggage out of the stowage area for the FAs and pilots.
"You know I always wait for you, Martin," he replied with a smile.
"You and I both know that's a lie," Martin remarked with a short laugh. "I told Maine to wait a bit. So I asked Jerald to wait with her. We have a meeting with one of the heads here."
Richard brows furrowed and said, "why did I not know that?"
"You were flying the plane," he simply answered. "I got the call from the satcom. Don't look so worried, Jase. It's not bad news."
"Is it about Tanya?" He asked.
"Yes," Martin answered. "And something else. Like I said, there's nothing to worry about. It's something that I had actually proposed to the heads before. It was only recently that they saw the potential of my proposal."
"And I need to be there because..." He inquired as they stopped by Jerald, Valeen, and Maine who were surprised when Martin took both their luggages and left them with the trio. Maine and Richard looked at each other, both with questioning looks on their faces as he let Martin dragged him away again.
"I need you for moral support," Martin answered as they approached the conference room. He knocked and was told to enter immediately. After the pleasantries, their meeting started.