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Then,I go back to staring at Charlotte. I study her unique features, like the tiny mole that’s just above the left side of her nose and the oval shape of her face. Everything about her looks sensual and perfect.
My hands itch tobrush back her hair from her face so I can study it more clearly, but I keep them on my lap. Hours go by and I just keep staring, unable to get enough of her. My laptop is long forgotten as I count the minutes until she opens her eyes.
I must have dosedoff too, because the slight shake of the plane jolts me awake. I open my eyes to see a terrified looking Charlotte, wide awake. The sight of her like this puts me in an immediate panic.
“Are you okay?”I demand as my eyes quickly search every inch of her body for signs of pain or discomfort. When I see none, I return my gaze to hers. “What’s wrong?” I ask, a bit gentler this time.
Charlotte shakesher head and I watch as her hands grab unto the handles of her seat while her fingers painfully dig into them. “I… the plane…” she manages to get out and I immediately understand what she means.
“It’s just a little turbulence,okay? Everything will be settled soon, the pilot has it all under control, I promise.” I try to assure her, but she isn’t calming down. So, I think of the next best thing that could distract her. “I went through the application you submitted; it says you’re from Georgia. What was it like growing up there?”
Her eyes flickerfrom side to side and it’s obvious that she’s still nervous, but she replies to me anyway. “Pretty conservative, you know?” She whispers, then clears her throat. “My mom was always trying to enter me into one pageant or another. I think she was a bit disappointed to know that I wasn’t crazy about them, unlike the other girls. She may not admit it, but my mom always wanted a girl she could doll up and brag about how pretty she is to the other moms.”
I smile slightly,rubbing a finger across my lips as I try to picture her pulling at one of the many dresses her mother tried to force on her. “You didn’t like the pageants or the other girly things. What did you like then?”
Finally,she grins and relaxes a bit. “Science,” she says. “I’ve always loved science. The idea of discovering why things are the way they are has always appealed to me. I much preferred rolling around in the dirt, trying to capture bugs into a transparent jar so that I could observe them, to dressing up in fancy ball gowns and dancing.” Her smile grows wider as she leans forward, the slight turbulence long forgotten. “One time, I stuffed a handful of bugs in my gown and they scared off my date to one of the founder’s balls my mom insisted I attend. Christ, she was so furious.” Charlotte throws her head back and laughs so hard and infectiously that I soon join her. She doesn’t know it, but every time she speaks, she intrigues me more and more.
I listento her talk about her other experiences as a child, each one more interesting and fascinating than the other.
“I thinkit was in my junior year that I made the decision to come to New York and study to become a Microbiologist. Like with every other decision I ever made, my parents were utterly furious. Their plan for me had been to find a nice man, settle down with him, and give them beautiful grandbabies like all the other girls.” She shakes her head sadly. “They still didn’t understand that I wasn’t like any of those girls and I didn’t want to be like them. I like science, art, and music and I don’t know if I ever want to get married or have children. I just want to go places, see the world, and make an impact in the field of science, you know? But sometimes, I can’t help but think I’d have a better relationship with my parents if I followed the path they wanted for me.”
“Then you’d bemiserable and you’d end up resenting them and everyone else around you,” I tell her. “I learned a long time ago to never put anyone else’s desires above my own. I do what I want when I want it and I make sure to put in my best because at the end of the day, that is all that matters.”
She opensher mouth to speak but the turbulence hits again and all the blood drains from her face. “Oh god, oh god, oh god,” she mutters with her eyes tightly shut.
Shit!I grasp at something, anything that can keep her distracted. “You know, I used to be really fat as a teenager.”
One eye comesopen while the other remains shut. Charlotte snorts, looking me up and down with that one eye. “That’s a lie.”
I raise a brow.“You don’t believe me?”
She opensboth eyes this time. “Are you telling the truth?” A chuckle escapes my mouth and I shake my head. She smirks. “I knew it.”
“I could have been though, you don’t know.”
She tiltsher head to the side slightly and peruses me once again before giving quite the definite answer. “Nope. I just can’t see it.”
“Okay,so maybe I wasn’t fat, but I was a troublesome kid.”
Charlotte nodsas she smiles mischievously. “Yeah, that I can see,” she says and I roll my eyes even though her response has me amused. “Why though? According to the media, you were born to the most generous parents on earth. They had money and they weren’t shy about giving to those who needed it.”
Memoriesof my childhood flash in my mind and it’s almost like I’m back with my parents in that gorgeous Victorian-style house my mom always did her best to maintain. I shrug. “I think I was just being an adolescent, a very entitled one at that. My parents had the money so I somehow got it into my head that I could do whatever I wanted without facing the consequences.”
“Ooooh,” Charlotte exclaims in a low register.
“Yeah,”I huff. “They got that idea right out of my head in no time though.”
“How? What did they do?”Charlotte leans forward with curiosity written all over her face.
I smile fondlyas the memory of that day fills my head. “I got into a bit of trouble with a couple of my classmates… I don’t think I would call them friends, especially not when they threw me under the bus for everything that happened. We had been silly, trying to trespass into a really expensive vacation home, but the alarm went off and the police were on us in no time.”
“What did your parents do?Did they bail you out?”
“No,”I reply and release a short laugh when Charlotte gasps. “They left me there for at least twenty-four hours. According to them, it was important that I experience what being in jail would be like if we didn’t have money. At first, I threatened and raged at the cops. But after several hours passed with me in that cell, I thought long and hard about my behavior. Then, I realized that wasn’t who I wanted to be and I left the police station a changed person.”
“And look at you now,” Charlotte smiles with approval shining in her eyes.
“Yeah, look at me now,”I smile back.
