Chapter 2.

She was a cute brunette with brown eyes, straight hair that fell just below her shoulders, and a decent body. She looked to be in her mid 20's, while I at the time was in my early to mid 30s, and I had not gotten fat like I have now. After we got in the air I struck up a conversation. I don't remember the whole conversation, but we chatted for the next 3 hours. She had been in Vegas with her mom, they had been there for some occasion or another, I don't remember what now and it really isn't important. She lived up in the Virginia tidewater area, Norfolk I think I remember. Her name was Tara, and she had adorable braces. And those purple rubberbands.
As we talked about things, like her mom losing her credit card in Vegas, and her being a teacher for special ed back home, she would occasionally use her bobby pin to dig in her mouth, back towards her right molars. After a few times of this, I asked her if everything was ok. She, somewhat embarrassingly it seemed, said she had some food stuck in her braces. Up to this point, I had not mentioned anything about them, and was doing my best to keep my eyes looking into hers. She had really pretty eyes by the way. I still didn't say anything about them, but I asked her if I could help. She said no, when the seatbelt sign went off she would go back to the bathroom so she had a mirror to see what she was doing. I still didn't say anything about them, but I asked her if she had a mirror. She said she had a little compact in her bag, but it was in the overhead.

I asked her what her bag looked like, and she told me. Despite the seat belt sign being on still, I went ahead and stood up and grabbed it out of the overhead. I handed it back to her and she sat it in the middle seat. She dug out her compact and held it up to her mouth. She intently stared into it as she dug around. It seemed to be way back there, and it seemed her lips were getting in the way. She was not having success. But it was erotic as hell. I asked her if I could hold the mirror for her. She accepted my offer, and she used her now free hand to pull her upper lip back while she poked around. Finally she got it dislodged. Then she realized she had an issue, what was she going to do with it? She didn't say anything, but I was at least perceptive enough to realize she had an issue, and it seemed like she didn't want to be "gross". I told her "hold on" and stood back up. I grabbed a couple of tissues out of one of my bags, sat back down, and handed them to her.

I turned my head back towards the front of the plane, giving her a little privacy. I did my best to ignore her, I didn't want her to think there was some weird creepy guy on her aisle. But luckily, I do have peripheral vision. . She put the food in the tissue, sort of wrapped up in a little ball and put it in the seatback pocket in front of her. When she was done, she apologized, and then thanked me. I asked her if she needed her bag, or if she wanted me to put it back. I was hoping she wanted to put it back for two reasons. One, it was another opportunity for chivalry. And two, I didn't want her bag between us. I didn't make any assumptions, and but still, I didn't want it there.

She told me she didn't need it, so I popped up again and put it back in the overhead. While I said I don't remember the conversation, I do remember asking her if she had seen the Hoover Dam while in Vegas. She said she had not, they had spent all their time on the strip. I told her if she ever got back, and was into nerdy engineering marvels like me, she should see it. I told her it was only about an hour from vegas. I also told her about a park in boulder city that, during the cooler months, a whole heard of desert bighorn sheep frequented. I told her that were impressive. And with that I pulled out my phone to show her some pictures.

Chapter 4.

So, up to this point, I feel like we had both been sizing each other up. Well, I know I had been sizing her up. Even if I had decided she would be a good playmate the moment I noticed her braces. So, I definitely noticed the hand on my arm, but I ignored it, or did my best to. I then got to the videos I had. They were even better than the pics. The pics and video I had were from the previous September, right before sheep rut or breed. And in a LOT of the videos, some of the younger sheep with the bigger horns, young males, were "chasing" around the girl sheep with the smaller horns. Some of the other tourists there had no clue. They thought they were just playing. But, I knew they weren't just playing. No, those young males wanted dirty, sweaty, middle of the park animal love. As did I. Not with one of those sheep back in Nevada, but with the sweet smelling little vixen leaning against me.

So, I started on the first video. She thought it was SOOO cool. In the first couple of videos, all you can really hear is the wind blowing while sheep randomly walk and eat grass. And those pics earlier didn’t really do it justice, there were a LOT of sheep in the park. But in the third video, in the background, you could see one of the rams chasing after a ewe. And you could see me swing my iphone camera and focus on them as I said "no, no he is chasing a doe." I said this in response to another tourist talking about them playing. Obviously, they had no idea how deer/sheep/elk etc. breed. I didn't know if Tara did either. But considering she had moved out of her seat and was now resting her hand on me, I thought it was time to find out, discreetly mind you, if she knew.

After the third video, I explained my comment. I told her that they weren't just playing; that those males were very interested in the way those females smelled. They were close to breeding, and when they were ready the males would be able to smell it. I explained how the younger males were very eager and were harassing the females before they were ready. Then I pointed out how the older, fully mature males were just chilling out eating grass. And probably laughing at all the young rams. I told her they were acting like I used to back in the day on spring break. She laughed again. And ran the fingertips of her hand down and back up the top of my forearm.

Chapter 6.

She then told me it was not the elastics that bothered her, it was the cleats. She said they really did a number on her tongue. I told her I hated that for her and squeezed her arm just a little. She thanked me and snuggled up against me a little bit. She said it was ok, she was glad she got them just that it sucked sometimes. I loved everything about this plane ride, and her, but I didn't want it to get weird, so I steered the story in a different direction I thought she would like. I asked her about being a teacher (disclaimer, I have a little thing for teachers), whether she liked it and enjoyed teaching. This was the correct question.

I asked her if she enjoyed being a teacher. She said she loved it. She loved her kids as she called them. She started showing me pictures. I think I mentioned earlier she taught special ed. She said she loved them all, and she thought they loved her back. She said something along the lines that they were just so much more honest than what she called regular kids. She did have a story or two about kids that would have outbursts, and things like that, but she loved it. It really was sweet. She loved animals, she loved her kids. And she seemed to like me.

When the drink cart came by, we both got drinks. For snacks they had pretzels and those little Biscoff cookie crackers. Tara didn't get a snack, I snagged a pack of Biscoffs. I didn't really want them, but hell they were free, so I slipped them in the seat back pocket. Now keep in mind, I am still in my aisle seat, and Tara is in the middle seat beside me. And I sure didn't want a damn table getting in my way. As I was figuring out what do with this damn plastic glass of ice water, she flipped down the table for the window seat and sat her drink on it. She asked if I wanted to put mine on it. Very thoughtful of her.

So I leaned over to put my drink on the flimsy plastic table. If nothing else, it was a legitimate reason to invade her personal space and to see what would happen. I was in the D seat, so she was to my right. I took my plastic cup in my left hand, twisted in my seat and reached across her. The last thing I wanted to do was spill my drink on her, so my focus was on that little grey table. But once the drink was safely on the table, I turned to look her in the face. We were face to face, not more than a foot apart. She looked me in the eyes and smiled. I hesitated for just a second and turned back into my seat. Something just happened there I thought to myself.

Chapter 8.

As we taxied up, I looked at her and asked "you are going to have to run straight to your gate aren't you?" She said she was. I was heartbroken. She said she hated I couldn't buy her that lunch I had promised. The truth is, I needed to run straight to my gate too. But I would have gladly missed my flight and worried about it later if it meant buying her lunch. But, and maybe it was a mistake, I was not going to ask or suggest she do the same. If I could go back in time, I surely would. I did at least ask for her phone number. She said only on one condition. I would have to give her mine in return. “Ok, deal” I responded and smiled to her, despite my heartbreak. We exchanged numbers, putting them in each others’ phones. Finally at the gate, the seatbelt sign went off. We unbuckled our seatbelts, and I stood up. I got her bag out of the overhead first and handed it to her, with her placing it in her lap and thanking me. Normally I would have grabbed mine and put them in my seat and stood until it was time to go. But, I wanted to sit with her as long as I could so I sat back down. Once it got to our aisle to deplane, I stepped out into the aisle and back to make room for Tara to get off first. I bumped into the guy behind me in the aisle a little. Screw him. She got up and started down the aisle. I snagged my shoulder bag and backpack from the overhead in one fell swoop (I am a bit of a pro at it if I do say so myself) and was right behind her. Once she got in the terminal and out of the traffic she stopped. She told me how much she enjoyed the flight and hugged me. And then she was gone

Epilogue.

I never called her. Because I am a dumb sonofabitch. And I was busy with life, work, et al. And sadly, she never called or text me. Today, if the situation presented itself again I might walk to Virginia. But youth is wasted on the young. And good judgement is the result of past bad judgement.  And sadly, her phone number has not made it through the multiple phone changes since then.  I hope she is doing well. I hope she is enjoying her smile. I am sure it turned out beautifully.

Good story! Maybe there will be a part 2 where they run in to each other again?

As a B2B sales rep, my cell phone is the bane of my existence.  It is expected to be on 24 hours a day.  To handle problems, to answer questions, to deal with issues.  So, for the same reasons it is the bane of my existence it is also my lifeblood.  If I wasn’t available to handle all of those issues, I would not receive the money I do. 

I had just finished up a Teams meeting, an unfortunate consequence of Covid, when the text came in. When the covid lockdowns happened; many people learned all about Teams and Zoom meetings.  We weren’t traveling, but we needed to keep working.  And even now, as life has gone back to normal for most of us… what was Covid exactly…, many sales managers keep scheduling virtual meetings despite the plow horses being back in the field.  I think they have the idea, “Let’s have a meeting, even it is is unproductive”. So many sales managers now feel compelled to continue to have virtual meetings that add no incremental value to anything.  But they need to justify their existence so they can tell their boss “look what I did”.  I was sitting there when I saw a text message pop up on my cell phone sitting on my desk.

I picked it up obviously.  The first thing I noticed was it was from a number I didn’t have saved in my phone.  I did notice it was a 757 area code, which had no meaning to me.  I have no factories or customers from there, I didn’t even realize where it was from. Nontheless I unlocked my phone snd opened the text.  It said:

“Hi!  I doubt you remember me but I am Tara.  I sat beside you on a flight out of Las Vegas a lifetime ago.  But you showed me some incredible pictures of some sheep in a park near Las Vegas.  My parents are celebrating their 30th anniversary in Vegas in a few weeks, and I was hoping you could tell me where those sheep where.

Tara Jones”