Chapter 8: Takeoff
The man of the hour was not at his desk. The VPs had pulled him into a meeting at the last minute. Lin-Lin was not going to give up easily; she left the cupcake on Jesse Broderick’s desk right beside Mei’s new proposal, with her number and a smiley face neatly written on the box.
“Don’t worry, I will make sure he knows the cupcake was from you.” Though it was never Mei’s style to chase boys, she did applaud Lin-Lin’s boldness and felt for her disappointment.
“Thanks,” if Lin-Lin’s excitement was ever deflated by Golden Boy’s absence, it only had lasted a few seconds, “I am sure I’ll see him around!”
It turned out the cupcakes were not the only thing Lin-Lin had brought. She had done her homework and did a detailed investigation on her crush, of course with the help of the company’s HR database. Despite Jesse Broderick’s much younger appearance, he was actually 29 years old, with a Bachelor’s degree in Business from Southern Oregon University and an MBA from Johns Hopkins. Before this job, he worked for a couple of small startups that specialized in Government IT contracts and helped dramatically increase their revenues within just a few years. Mei also learned that he was “hand-picked” by D&R’s CIO Mr. Carson and had just moved here from Washington DC a few weeks ago.
“Isn’t he just prefect?” Mei swore she saw sparkles in Lin-Lin’s eyes as she reported her finds. Like every 20 some year old, Lin-Lin’s dream husband is handsome, rich, and loves her to death. Mei was Lin-Lin’s age once and could totally see why she would fall head over heels over someone like Jesse.
“Yes, Lin-Lin, remember your Mr. Perfect is also my boss. So please, whatever you do, keep me out of it. I don’t want to get fired.” Mei was not joking, at this point, the last thing she wanted was to get involved in someone else, especially her boss’ love affairs.
Dan Wazowski hasn’t talked to Mei since Sunday. He texted her but has not heard back. Their last conversation ended enjoyably and gave him no reason to be concerned. He understood Mei was independent and busy with her job, and he liked that about her.
Dan never had much ambition about his career. He has been working for the IRS as an accountant for the past 18 years. He liked the stability and great benefits. Several years ago when the economy crashed and people were laid off from left to right, he was even more relieved with his choice of being a government employee. Of course the pay could always be better, but it was good enough to comfortably support him and Sarah in a nice midsized single family house just outside the city.
Dan used to think he and Sarah would raise four kids in that house and watch them play soccer or baseball in the backyard. He thought about keeping the house after all the kids go off to college so they can still come back for Thanksgiving dinners. He even had plans to convert the garage into a wood workshop someday so he could finally pick up his hobby of furniture making.
He must have been living in a bubble, because one day out of his wildest imaginations, Sarah told him she was in love with another man and wanted a divorce. He honestly had no idea what went wrong and how it happened. He cried and begged her to change her mind. It was all too late. Sarah left with the house and half of his retirement funds.
He thought about suicide, but didn’t have the courage to pull it off.
He moved to a town house and sold everything that reminded him of Sarah or his failed marriage. It wasn’t until 3 years later that he finally could talk about it without getting emotional. He never blamed Sarah; he believed everything was his fault. If only he could have been more caring, or made more money, or not been so boring, his marriage probably didn’t have to come to an end.
Dan’s turning 41 at the end of the year. He’s in the place of life that companionship became a higher priority than kids and the typical family life. One failed marriage took a hard enough toll on him that the idea of doing it again was still haunting, until he met Mei.
His profile has been hanging on Match for 2 years. Just at the point where he almost gave up hope of meeting someone who’s beautiful, intelligent, sincere, and like him back at the same time, Mei showed up. He was excited to talk to her on the phone and looked forward to their dates like a teenage boy. He knew she had brought life back in him again.
Mei’s plan of finally getting back to Dan was taken off course when Jesse Broderick informed her that the VPs have put them both on a redeye flight to D.C. for that night.
Flying was never Mei’s first choice for travel; to be exact she tried to avoid it at all cost. She grew up in a tiny apartment, on the 11th floor of an old high-rise in Beijing, with paint chips peeling off from the exterior like the dry cracking desert ground. As long as she had lived there, the building’s elevator, which she doubted ever had any inspection, would randomly shoot up or take a free fall for several floors like it had minds of its own. The technicians could never fix it so everyone started believing it was haunted. Mei remembered how for every single day of her childhood, she had to make a choice of climbing eleven flights of stairs or risking her life in the elevator. Even till this day, her worst nightmare remained about being locked in an enclosed space and falling.
The weather was not helping. The humid air that has been hanging around since the beginning of the week was finally about ready to unleash a thunderstorm. On her drive to the airport, the air was scarily stale and presented a suffocating calmness that brought Mei’s agitation to a record high.
She didn’t get much details concerning this 11th hour trip other than they were going to attend a federal IT conference tomorrow due to a last minute change in one of its presenters. She expected Jesse would fill her in on their way.
Thunder and lightning accompanied with heavy rainfall finally arrived right before takeoff. The small aircraft was designed for short distance flights, and only seats a maximum of 30 passengers.
“Are you all right?”Jesse noticed Mei was not acting like her usual self. They sat beside each other with a tiny aisle in between.
“Oh, yes. I am fine. Thank you. I am just never a big fan of flying.” Mei squeezed out a smile and fastened her seatbelt.
They waited on the runway for about 25 minutes for the clouds to open up. Finally as people started to think they would be stuck for the night, the captain received permission for takeoff.
This must have been the bumpiest takeoff Mei had ever had, the plane was shaking and dipping and rising in the rain like a wild horse being ridden for the first time. Inside the cabin Mei had her eyes closed shut and her fingernails dug deep into the armrest. Her heart was jumping so fast that she could barely breathe. Everything seemed to fade away except for the fear that had completely taken over. Just as she thought her worst nightmare was about to come true, she felt the weight of a hand, pressing down onto hers from the other side of the aisle. Without opening her eyes or giving it a second thought, she abandoned the armrest and grabbed onto it as her last hope from drowning.
