The flight attendant had handed her a
small box of complimentary assorted
Swiss chocolates. By the time she could
ask or say anything she had left to serve
chocolates to other people who were still
awake. From her raised eyebrows it was
evident that it was her first-time flying in
business class, and she had no idea
whether the chocolates were
complementary or chargeable like a
mini-bar of a hotel room.
She was feeling way too embarrassed to
call the attendant back and ask her about
it, but at the same time was too hungry
and badly wanted to eat them, but didn't
want to pile on any extra bills in case. So
she looked around and saw the guy next
to her ripping off his chocolate packet up
and was about to eat one.
So she mustered up some courage and
asked turning a bit towards him,
"Excuse me !!"
"Um... hi. This is my first time travelling in
business class, so erm... actually, I wanted
to ask. Um... are these chocolates
chargeable?"
Raymond was surprised when he heard
her voice. His initial instinct was to blurt
out a "What?", but he paused for a while
and said.
"No, they are complementary."
"Really!!" She exclaimed.
Before he could say a word she had
already gobbled two of them. The
chocolate melted in her mouth, and she
closed her eyes and relished it.
Raymond was shocked and at the same
time amused by her frankness. He was a
frequent traveller who always flew either
in business or first class, so he had seen
many people who acted all airy when they
were bumped up to business class. But
here she was frank to her very core,
enjoying such small things in life.
"By the way, you can ask to get you more if
you want. Just let them know." Raymond
added.
"Really!" she blurted out but in the next
second cursed herself and reminded
herself to think and then speak. She
turned her face away from him and sank
in hers eat as she started thinking - "Does
he think l am cheap?" A small frown
appeared on her face, and he could sense
that she was deeply trying to contemplate
something, before she turned towards
him again.
That's fine. I am good with this." Akira
replied.
Raymond could sense a bit of traction in
her voice. She looked hungry and had
finished all her chocolates and her fingers
were fidgeting with the wrappers.
"Here take mine. I don't like them much,"
he says and before Akira could say no to
it, he had already placed his chocolates in
her box. He gave her a sincere smile. She
smiled back and returned to gobbling the
chocolates up.
After she was done eating she stole a
quick glance to her right. He was again
busy with his work. He looked super neat.
His shirt looked quite expensive and his
demeanour was so calm and composed.
He looked like someone who demanded
authority. She again stole a glance at his
hands which were busy with the keypad.
She looked at his cufflinks which
appeared very familiar to her and then
looked at his hands which moved swiftly
from one key to another on the keypad.
Then she suddenly noticed a scalded
patch on his hand.
"Must be painful." She said.
"Excuse me?" Raymond replied.
"I mean your hand. Looks like you have
got a bad burn, Sir. I have a silver nitrate
cooling cream which helps a lot for such
burns. Ialways keep it handy." Saying so
Akira started searching for the ointment
in her purse.
"Sir?, did she really address me as sir? "
Raymond was amazed. He initially wanted
to say no, but she was already frantically
searching her bag. He sighed and
stretched his scalded hand out in her
direction.
"Found it." Before she could pass the
ointment to him, she saw he had
stretched his hand towards her.
Oh.. ok", she mumbled. She felt awkward
that she was about to apply ointment to
the hands of someone who was totally a
stranger. But the next moment she
recollected about the chocolates that he
had given. She silently thought in her
head. "Ha, this will make us even."
She took a coin size amount of cream and
started applying on his hands. She saw
him tense up a bit. There was an awkward
silence between them. The silence was
eating her up, burning her ears. So she
asked
"By the way what happened? How did you
burn yourself?"
"Well I had just bought my coffee and
some hothead bumped against me today
at the airport and this happened."
Akira's hands stopped moving, and she
turned towards him in horror.
He had a sly smile on his face.