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Her shy smile only made the mood brighter. “It’s no worry for me. I was afraid you might not come, though.”
Arianna sat, placing her purse in a basket provided beneath the table. She glanced over the menu and asked for a ginger ale. Elle refrained from making another airplane joke.
“Order whatever you like,” she told Arianna. “Everything’s on me.”
“Oh, I couldn’t possibly…”
“I insist. You always take such good care of me. Let me take care of you tonight.”
She had meant it in the friendliest of ways, but the sudden shock jolting Arianna upright before she quickly corrected her posture and reset her countenance as if she were manning a First Class flight told Elle it had been taken very differently.
“It’s my job to treat all passengers to a certain standard of hospitality.”
“You take your job quite seriously, too.”
“Of course I do. It was always my dream to work as a flight attendant.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” Arianna’s shoulders relaxed as she reminisced about her youth. “I first saw a Singapura stewardess when my family went to Hong Kong. I was so enraptured that I couldn’t help but dream about being a woman like that one day. Guess you could say it became an obsession. All I wanted from then on was to become a Singapura Girl. I studied everything about the company, carefully learning the languages they wanted and styling myself like one so I would doubtlessly make it past the interview phase. I haven’t regretted any of it.”
“You were so enamored with the Singapura Girls that you became one… yet you work for a different airline now.”
“It was a good opportunity. I have to take my future seriously, and I didn’t have many more growth opportunities at my old company. Royal Asia has many benefits I need right now.”
“Bonus points if you get to meet interesting celebrities. How did you refer to them earlier? The biggest out lesbians in Singapore?”
For once, Arianna didn’t blush. Instead, she turned as white as the napkin in her hands. “I shouldn’t have said that. It was very unprofessional of me.”
“I mean, I’m not going to tell on you. I thought it was funny that was what you latched onto.”
“W… why?”
Elle had been wondering how to broach this subject ever since she placed that note in Arianna’s hand. “Because I’ve been wondering for some time if you were like that.” She removed her eyeglasses and bit the plastic end now that she didn’t need to peruse the menu. Her contacts were in her room. The only reason she still wished she had them was so she could easily see the beautiful woman before her. “Like that couple in First Class today.”
Arianna shook her head, although guilt weighed down her words. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“I think you do.”
When those calculating eyes flitted back in her direction, Elle was cast with the worry that she might have overstepped her bounds already. Should she count herself lucky that Arianna hadn’t ordered anything but a simple drink yet?
“It’s quite unfair of you to ask me that when I am in this position.” Arianna’s chest rose and fell with heavy breaths as she fought back the flecks of panic rising in her voice. “The less people know about my personal life, the better.”
“I agree. Should I share my life story with you first? To make you feel more comfortable talking to me?”
“I don’t understand.”
Elle folded up her glasses and placed them in their case. “Until a few months ago, I was in a long-term relationship with another woman. Her name is Pamela. We drifted apart because I travel so much for work.” With a sigh, she folded her hands across her lap and offered Arianna a genuine look. “I loved her, but even I admit that it wasn’t going anywhere with so much on my plate. She deserved someone at her level.”
Arianna rubbed her arm as she held her breath. “I see. I’m sorry to hear that.”
“I do enough business in Singapore and beyond to know it’s a complicated subject. Several years ago, I had a Singaporean girlfriend when I worked there for weeks at a time. We broke up because we simply weren’t compatible, but she had never been truly comfortable in a relationship with another woman. Her family didn’t know about us.”
Like fractures in ice, Arianna gradually thawed. “My mother doesn’t know about me.” She looked away, perhaps summoning the waiter to bring her that ginger ale to settle her nervous stomach. “My sister does. She’s the only one I trust with it.”
“You have a sister? Does she also live in Singapore? You said you were from Malaysia.”
“Yes. We both live in Singapore now. She works in an office. Our mother… she is very traditional. She wants to see us both married to men of good standing. It became her obsession after my father left, but I think she’s given up on me for now. She hasn’t mentioned it in a long while.”
