that the woman from Business Class might report the incident to my airline. I half expected a gate agent to be waiting for me at the end of the jet bridge.
There was someone waiting for me, but it wasn’t another airline employee.
It was Anissa.
My steps halted when I saw her. She held her cellphone in one hand and the handle of a roller bag in the other. Kent and Gemma noticed how I’d paused. They looked to me for an explanation, but I wasn’t ready for that.
“I’ll catch up with you,” I told my friends.
I knew they would expect a full report from me later.
I sucked in a breath while I waited for my friends to leave. I didn’t know why I felt nervous—even guilty; I hadn’t done anything wrong. I didn’t even really know what to say.
“Hey,” I settled on.
Anissa dropped her eyes to her phone and swiped her fingertips across the screen. “Excuse me, Miss. Could you help me with something?”
I didn’t know what game she was playing, but I found myself going along with it: “Of course,” I said cautiously. “How can I be of assistance?”
Her eyebrows pinched together as she continued to scrutinize the cellphone screen. “I’m trying to find a feedback form for your airline, but I can’t seem to find it online.”
“Was something dissatisfactory about your recent flight?”
She looked up from her phone. “Just the opposite. I wanted to commend the service of a flight attendant who stood up to a bigoted passenger in my defense.”
I swallowed hard. I’d thought her noise-canceling headphones would have canceled out that interaction. “You heard that.”
A small smile played on her generous lips. “You weren’t exactly whispering.”
I rested my hand on the wall of the jet bridge. My stomach felt slightly nauseous, like I was experiencing vertigo, and I didn’t trust my legs. “I-I don’t know what came over me. She just … she made me so mad,” I said, replaying the interaction in my mind. “I’m never like that with passengers.”
Anissa gently touched my forearm. Her hand was solid and reassuring. “Thank you,” she said softly. “Not many people would do that. It really meant a lot.”
“It’s not a big deal,” I dismissed.
“It is,” she insisted. “Let me buy you dinner. On purpose this time.”
“You think you can fit me into your schedule?” Ice crept into my tone, but I couldn’t help myself. Her recent rejection still stung.
Anissa frowned. “I probably deserved that.”
“You do.” I wasn’t going to pull any punches.
“How much time until your next flight?” she asked.
“I have to be at my gate in two hours.”
Her lips pursed in thought. “That should be just enough time.”
I was almost too stubborn to vocalize my curiosity, but I asked anyway. “For what?”
Anissa and I walked down the terminal, not speaking, with our wheeled luggage rolling behind us. She passed up the typical food court options without notice. The various terminals were anchored by sit-down restaurants, but nothing very fancy. I knew from experience that the food in those places was typically flavorless and overpriced. Most travelers didn’t have time for such meals unless their flights had been seriously delayed.
I wanted to break the uncomfortable silence with idle chit-chat—
commenting on her extra carry-on luggage perhaps—but Anissa walked with purpose and it was all I could do to keep up.
When Anissa finally stopped walking it wasn’t in front of a fast food kiosk or even in front of any of the anchor restaurants; she’d stopped in front of one of the in-airport hotels.
“I thought you were buying me dinner,” I questioned.
She turned to me, features impassive. “Trust me, okay?”
I hovered in the background while Anissa spoke to the man working the hotel’s reception desk. I watched them exchange a few words before she produced a credit card and he handed her a plastic room key. She still didn’t explain herself as she gathered her work bag and her wheeled luggage. She rolled over to a bank of elevators and I followed.
The glass elevator ride provided a birds-eye view of the terminal. It was still early in the afternoon and we were the only ones in the elevator. We might have been the only people in the airport hotel. In the exposed glass box, I couldn’t help but feel like everyone’s eyes were on us.
The elevator paused at the next floor and the doors open. Anissa walked into the hallway, and I continued to dutifully follow behind. She fumbled slightly in balancing her workbag and wheeled luggage while she used