Loyal Lilac #4

It was 8am and already I was having one of “those” days. Those days where everything goes wrong and you feel like at any moment, something tiny could push you over the edge into a screaming fit of rage or uncontrollable tears.

I had already changed twice. First, I spilled coffee all over my white blouse, and then after changing, my egg and cheese slipped off the muffin and went all over my pants. I’m such a klutz.

But things were looking up. The guy in seat 2A was cute. His blue eyes glistened as he squinted from all the sunlight pouring into the cabin. He brushed his brown hair out of his eyes as he opened his Wall Street Journal. I melted.

“If I have to wait on him,” I thought, “this seventeen hour flight might not feel so long.”

It wasn’t my usual route. I was based in LA, but the only international flights I worked were to Asia. And now, here I was, exhausted and miserable, doing a favor for a friend and flying LAX to Sydney.

At least I got the first class cabin. I’d been flying for only seven years, so I was almost always stuck back in coach.

He was young. I couldn’t stop looking over at him. I figured he wasn’t older than 35.

No ring. I always check. I’m 31 and still single. A young, handsome man flying first class to Australia . . . I HAD to check. Not that anything would ever happen.

I began serving drinks.

“Orange juice or champagne?” I offered our first class passengers. “Juice or champagne?” I forced a smile.

I got to him.

“Juice or champagne, sir?” He looked up and shook his head. Not even a verbal response. I tried to hide my disappointment.

“How about you, sir?” I offered the older man seated beside him.

“Champagne.”

I handed him a glass and turned to walk away.

“This champagne is disgusting!” He screamed.

I quickly turned back around. We were always told to keep our first class passengers happy no matter what.

“I’m sorry sir, is there a problem?” I asked in my sweetest voice.

“This champagne has gone bad. Here, you try it.” He handed me the glass.

“That’s alright, sir, I’ll take your word and get you a new glass.”

“No!” He yelled. “You MUST try the champagne, I had to try it, now you do, too.”

I was turning bright red because of how loud he was yelling. Other passengers were turning to stare.

So I did what I had to do, I took a sip of the champagne. Right there. On the job. In the first class cabin of United Airlines, flight 839.


The cute guy in 2A was James. After the guy next to him made such a scene with the champagne, we ended up talking. Here we are, two years later, in seats 2A and 2B on that same United flight, to Sydney, for our honeymoon.