She'd Left No Forwarding Address

"I had no idea."

"I'm very surprised to see you here. I was pretty sure you'd be a division president somewhere by now---at the very least."

"A long story, Jim, maybe we can chat in LA and bring each other up to date. How's your wife?"

"She's fine, I suppose - on her third husband, last time I checked. We've been divorced for nine years. The kids are both in college; Jeff is nineteen and Jen is twenty-one."

"I'm sorry things didn't work out...for you and...?"

"Mandy. It was a foregone conclusion---would have happened sooner if we hadn't had young kids. It was acrimonious at first but settled down pretty quickly. As the years have passed, we seldom talk and see each other even less often. So...are you married?"

"No...not now, not ever...never met Mr. Right, just a string of 'Mr. Right Nows' who were decidedly...wrong."

"I'm sorry...I always saw you with...children."

"Yeah...so does my mother. My Father---you met him---died suddenly right after you and I...were promoted."

"I'm so sorry, Lisa. I know you two were very close."

"Thank you."

Are you flying on to Hawaii?"

"No, I'm flying back to Atlanta tomorrow. You're getting a new cabin crew for that leg."

"Well, that's unfortunate. I've got a layover in Hawaii, then on to Singapore the following day. Where are you living, Lisa?"

"South of Atlanta, thirty minutes or so...near Peachtree City."

"Small world! I used to live south of Atlanta but since I'm flying trans-Pacific almost exclusively, I recently moved to Malibu...near the beach...a block away...just a bungalow...fortunately I made a little money on all those corporate moves. When are you going to be back in LA?"

"Uh, I'll have to check my schedule...sometime next week...why?"

I'll be back in LA in five days...I was hoping we could get together..."

"Get together?"

"Lisa...you disappeared...left no forwarding address...I looked for you...you left the company...you moved...vanished...left no forwarding address."

"You looked for me? Frankly, Jim, my life hit one of its low ebbs. My father's death... it devastated me...I quit...moved to Florida...took a series of dead end jobs...did AA...you're looking at an alcoholic...a recovering one, at least...wanted a job without the pressures...something I didn't have to think about."

"I guess I thought by now you'd be living in suburbia, juggling a career and a couple of kids."

"No such luck. I swore off men around the same time I swore off alcohol."

"Good for you! Well. At least the alcohol part! I've been there---not the twelve step thing but certainly the too many late nights and too many doubles. I don't drink anymore...can't afford to...don't have time...even during my down time."

"What do you do...during your down time, I mean?"

"Surf, dive...read...putter...try to write...you?"

"No ocean in Atlanta...garden...read...try to write."

"Well, I guess we both need to get back to work. It's so great to see you...I missed you. Listen! I've got a couple of hours in LAX, maybe we could grab a bite to eat and talk about old times?"

"Sure...that would be nice."

As Lisa worked her way back to the second cabin, her number two approached her.

"So, it would appear that you and our Captain have some history?"

"Very ancient, Rebecca. We worked together back in my corporate days. Actually, he was my boss."

"I know Captain Jones from my previous stint with a once proud and now defunct flag carrier. I was a young 'stew' when he came on board as a young flight engineer."

"Any history there, Rebecca?"

"Not a chance---not that I wouldn't have. He was a Boy Scout---guess he still is. He's aged well---better than I have, that's for sure."

"So...he's not a...player?"

"Never has been, now or then."

"He's a handsome man. I'm surprised someone never bagged him after his divorce."

"Many have tried, none have scored. He's a straight arrow and an amazing pilot."

"How so?"

"He's dealt with more than one in-flight emergency and come through with flying colors. Lisa, I know you well enough to know you never give flight officers a second look. Any chance that your perspective is...evolving?"

"Jim's an old friend...the best boss I ever had...a true mentor...a good friend...nothing more."

"Well, none of us are getting any younger and if I know anything about men---which I probably don't---he's more than casually interested in you."

"It's just an old friendship...nothing more."

***

"So, Captain, sir, what was that all about? I've never seen you give a flight attendant a second look but you certainly gave Lisa suitable attention---good taste I might add. She's a striking woman."

"Ancient history, Bob. We worked together during my hiatus from flying...a good friend...great gal."

"More than just an old friend?"

"I was married...but yeah...she was...different...special."

"Yeah, I get that! Everyone who works with her---or so I've been told---figures out that she's special but to my knowledge, no one gets past the 'admire from a distance' phase."

"She's a special lady...if things had been different...who knows?"

"It's never too late, old buddy."

"Food for thought."

Lisa and Jim had no chance to chat during the flight to California. In her role as the senior flight attendant, she lingered after her charges had departed, arriving at the front exit just as Jim completed his responsibilities.

"Do you have time for dinner?" he inquired.

"Sure. I'm off the clock until tomorrow---how about you?"

"I've got a couple of hours before I need to get back to the flight deck. What's your pleasure?"

"Meat and potatoes. I'm basically a Midwestern farm girl."

"Works for me. There actually are a couple of places in this zoo of an airport that grill a decent steak."

"Lead the way, Captain, sir."

For most of the next two hours Lisa and Jim brought each other up to date. It was the most pleasant two hours she had spent with a man in longer then she could remember. She felt a tinge of regret when it came to an end as his schedule mandated his return to the flight deck.

"So! Lisa! Where are you...let me see...next Tuesday?"

"Let me check...yeah... I've got an early flight....I'll be back in LA by...a little after noon? An overnight and then back to Atlanta the following afternoon."

"Perfect! I'll be back in the US about an hour or so earlier. What do you say we get together?"

She paused. What was he suggesting? Where was this going? She'd become so jaundiced when it came to men---and so direct.

"What did you have in mind, Jim?"

Had he read her mind? He took her hands in his and forced her to stare into those big blue....sweet...such sweet eyes.

"Lisa...what happened between us...what we did together...not exactly the way I would have planned it...wrong---at the time---on so many levels. I'd never done anything like that before...in spite of a dead end marriage...I'd never...fooled around. I missed you more than I sense you know...so much! I guess I don't really know ten years later if we had something...if there was more than...whatever there was...but not a day goes by when I don't think about you...fondly...wish I could have tracked you down...after my divorce...wanted so much to find you...find out if it was more than..."

"Fucking?"

"Well, I guess that's one way to express it. Look, we were friends before we were...whatever. I had tremendous respect for you and thought you felt the same way about me. I believe we connected on some level...our last night together..."

"Jim. I'm not trying to be difficult or play hard to get. I've had a string of loser relationships and frankly have pretty much dropped out of the dating scene or whatever it's called. I'm not looking for a fling...hell, I don't know what I'm looking for...if anything. What are you looking for?"

"A chance to get to know someone I hardly knew but felt a genuine affection for. The opportunity to spend time with someone I cared for...still do. Look! I'm trying to be subtle and cool but I never was very good at that. I don't have anyone in my life, Lisa...other than my kids. If you do and I'm barking up the wrong tree, then you need to set me straight.

"If not, then what do you have to lose? I've never been unkind to you. Had things been different ten years ago...who knows? I missed you....more than I could ever have imagined. You cut it off---even the phone---and you were right to do so. Time has passed. Are you really willing to blow this off? Pass on the opportunity to find out if it...if we..."

"Were something more than a foolish affair?"

"In my heart I always believed that...the timing was just all wrong. Look, ten years ago I wasn't willing to leave you hanging out there waiting for me to get my shit together. By the time my divorce was final and things with my kids settled down---you were gone. I looked for you, Lisa. There wasn't any Internet 'People Search' back then---not that it would have helped much since I had no critical vital personal data.

"I've since visited your college---and grad school---alumna web sites more times than I can count---but you didn't stay in touch. After your father died, your mother moved abruptly. I drove to where she and your father had lived...found their house...knocked on doors...but no one knew anything. Thanks to the Internet, I've since discovered that you have one of the most common names on the planet! Well, so do I, I suppose. I spent a couple of years making a fool of myself...calling women named Lisa Evans all over the northeast...and after one too many awkward conversations...I gave up. I decided it was not supposed to be."

Life had given Lisa Evans a thick skin but as the absurd reality began to sink in, her face grew pale, her throat dry and her eyes filled with moisture.

"Wait a minute! You...you...stalked me?"

"Not at all an accurate appraisal---since I never could find you! If I had, I certainly wouldn't have stalked you...I would have...found you...told you..."

"Told me...?"

"What I told you our last night together. What, all thing considered, I can't blame you for ignoring and blowing off. I said those words, Lisa...albeit in a moment of passion. I've spent the last ten years wondering if it was real...wishing I had the opportunity to find out if you might in a million years feel the same way. And now...and now...I'm absolutely terrified that if you walk out that door---or more accurately, if we don't walk out that door together---I'll never see you again...I'll never know....you'll never know...we'll never know."

"I can't! You're going to Singapore...tomorrow, I'm supposed to take a hop back to Atlanta. I'm not going to vanish, Jim...I'll be here...when you get back."

"Do you have your passport with you?"

"Of course! I occasionally get diverted to an international flight....Canada, the Caribbean...Mexico..."

"Good! Actually, I'm going to Hawaii, laying over and then on to Singapore the following day. Come with me."

"I can't! I have an obligation to the airline...I..."

"I'm going to call your bluff! My senior flight attendant on the hop to Hawaii is absolutely desperate to get to Atlanta...a love interest, it would seem---I already text messaged her. She'd swap with you in a heartbeat. In case you missed it, this airline is an employee owned venture---and I'm damn sure one of those founding employees. No one is going to cross me on this. Don't sweat the small stuff!

"Look, I'm going to make it easy for you---I hope. I'm as sure as I've ever been of anything in my life that I know what I'm feeling...have been feeling for the last ten years and your reappearance in my life is no damn accident. Take my hand, Lisa...listen very carefully...look inside you heart and look into my eyes...listen:

I love you. I've loved you since before we ever fucked---and well before that last night during which we made love and I said it and I'm damn sure you almost said it! You owned my heart the first day we ever met. Please---dear God---don't fight me on this! Don't leave me again! Tell me you know we were meant to be together! I can't lose you twice in the same lifetime, I..."

"Yes! Oh, my God, yes!" she said, as the flood of tears flowed down her face, as ten years of pain and regret came flooding out...escaping....abandoning her tender body and soul, freeing her heart for the first time since her father had left her. "Oh, sweet Jesus---yes! Say it again...don't ever stop...say it again so I know it's real."

"I love you, sweet Lisa...I've ached for you for so long....been incomplete without you....and now I've found you again...I love you and will until I die."

They were in each other's arms to the abject amusement of the other diners, murmuring those magic words in each other's ears over and over. Only the stark realization that they both had a flight to catch broke the moment.

"I don't suppose you can find someone to take your place?"

"Sadly, no. I'm the only pilot on station qualified for this leg and it's a packed flight."

"Marvelous."

"Hawaii is absolutely amazing this time of the year, and there is no waiting period, there are no blood tests, no state residency requirement---even cousins can get married! Not that it applies to our situation, of course."

"Was that a proposal?"

"Well, not a very good one, I suppose...I just wanted you to be fully aware of the possibilities."

"I'll take it under advisement."

"But if I asked you...to marry me, I mean...is there a chance you might say..."

"Yes?"

"Yes."

"A very good chance."

"I'll try to find a more suitable moment. I don't have a ring...not with me...didn't know you were going to walk back into my life...actually, I do have a ring...I bought it years ago...I..."

"You have a ring?"

"At home, but we don't really have time to go fetch it."

"You have a ring."

"I have more than a ring...I have a ring with your name engraved on it---just in case you ever have any doubts that you are the only woman I've thought about for so many years but if you don't like it, I'm sure we can find something more to your liking."

"I'm sure it's more than fine...perfect in fact. So, am I to understand that I should expect a more formal proposal in the near future?"

"Well, I would say you can count on it."

"Good! Because I want to be more than your girl...more than your fling...more than your friend...more than a good fuck."

"Thank God!"

***

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain, Jim Jones, speaking. Welcome to Trans-Global flight 1654, non-stop to Honolulu. This is a nonstop fight because there isn't anyplace to stop between Los Angeles and Hawaii. I could give you all the boring details but suffice to say we're going to fly high and fast and arrive about twenty minutes early thanks to prevailing tailwinds. Since Hawaii is such a special destination, on this particular flight leg we have configured the cabin with only one level of seating so everyone has equal accommodations.

"Your exceptionally talented cabin crew is under the stellar leadership of your senior flight attendant, Miss Lisa Evans. That would be the tall, leggy, exquisite and hopefully grinning from ear to ear blond babe working her way down the center aisle. I intend to meet her at the end of another shorter, but far more important aisle as soon as we arrive in Honolulu. I plan to change her status from miss to missus at the earliest possible opportunity.

"Now, folks, I sort of half-assed proposed to her not long before we left LAX but I promised her a more formal and public proposal. I've been in love with the darn woman for the last ten years, thought I had lost her and to my delight found her again just a few hours ago in Atlanta. So let me get on with it. Now I can't hear a darn thing up here, so you all are going to have to tell me her answer. Here goes:

"Lisa, I love you like no man has ever loved a woman and I promise to love, honor and cherish you until I breath my last breath. Marry me and make me complete. I promise to bring you nothing but joy and happiness for the rest of your life.

"Okay, folks! If she said yes, I need to know! Yell, scream, clap or pull your call bell!"

Two hundred and seventy six call bells were activated almost simultaneously. If Jim had any doubt, the flight deck door burst open and the prettiest girl he had ever seen in his entire life, after ensuring that the first officer was at the controls, wrapped her arms around his shoulders, nuzzled his neck and whispered the most important word he would ever hear in his life...yes.

A few hours later as the very recently married couple held on to each other's naked bodies for dear life in the absurdly expansive bed of Honolulu's best bridal suite, a thought haunted the newly minted Mrs. Jim Jones. It had nothing to do with the sex: the sex had been sublime, better than anything either of them could have ever dreamed of. It had nothing to do with the absurdly short engagement or the impromptu wedding.

Time would prove that Jim and Lisa were made for each other and their love would grow with every passing day. There would be children, new homes, career changes, puppies and gardens and everything that makes life special and magic for a man and a woman. She had no idea why the thought popped into her head.

"Whatever happened to my cotton panties?"

"Okay...well the answer to that question is a little embarrassing. They're...in the pocket...in my uniform jacket pocket. They've been in my pocket or under my pillow every since the night you...lost them."

"That's a little weird...but kind of sweet in a sort of....sick way? I suppose you never...washed them?"

"Oh, not a chance!"

"I see. They were my favorite panties...my lucky panties...I've missed them."

"Well...I suppose I could give them back to you...since I don't need them anymore...since I have you."

"Good answer! But if the need arises...I do have others. Wait a minute! I'm sensing a Cinderella moment! Would you care to..."

"Put them back on you again....just to be sure you really are Cinderella?"

"That has all kinds of possibilities...a special page in our wedding album?"

"We have one of those?"

"We'll order one from room service."

"Well, of course, then as soon as you put them on me...it'll be time to remove them again...won't it?"

"I certainly hope so."

Edited by Techsan