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“That’s a lot on your chest.”
Arianna took a moment to process that meaning. “Nobody knows, Ms. Sparrow. It has to stay that way. I don’t need undue attention on me while I do my job. I may be working for a more progressive company now, but most of my colleagues are from my culture. Some people still don’t understand. I like to keep my private life to myself, anyway.”
“You don’t have a girlfriend, though.”
Ah, there was the blush Elle had already come to miss. It matches her lipstick perfectly. “What makes you say that?” Arianna asked.
“Because you wouldn’t be having dinner with me if you did.”
“I was under the impression that this was a friendly dinner.”
“It can be if that’s what you want.”
“You’re someone I know from work, Ms. Sparrow.”
“Elle. Please.”
Arianna sighed. “I can’t fraternize with passengers. Especially someone I see every other week on my routes. If someone catches a whiff of it, at best I’m on another, worse route, or… I’m out of the game entirely.”
“I’m aware that we shouldn’t be seen together.” Elle didn’t mention why that was good for her as well. “Why do you think I chose this place away from your hotel? We could have met at the restaurant in your lobby, but I didn’t want people seeing us together. I don’t want anyone to get in trouble.”
“Yet you’ve asked me on a date.”
“Is it a date?”
Arianna pressed her hand to her mouth, only lowering it when her ginger ale arrived. She gave the meekest thanks to the waiter and asked for a few more minutes to decide on dinner. She hadn’t even read the menu.
“Did you ask me to dinner with the intent of a date?”
“Do you always sound this formal?”
“It’s the kind of English I learned for my career.” Arianna switched to Mandarin, which instantly caught Elle by surprise. “Do you prefer I sound like the girl others meet in a bar?”
“Well, now, that depends.” Elle likewise switched to Mandarin, although her accent would never match the euphonic harmony of Arianna’s tongue. “Do others get to meet the you who takes down her hair?”
Arianna tilted her chin downward before saying, “Absolutely not,” in English.
“Why?”
Arianna looked at her as if that were one of the dumbest questions anyone had ever asked a successful flight attendant. “Everything I do, say, or consider when I’m out in public reflects on my job. That’s true for a lot of careers, but especially something like being an Asian flight attendant. We are held to a standard that, quite frankly, a lot of Western employees are not. I admire the rights and benefits a lot of my American counterparts fought for. I’m not saying we haven’t benefitted from that as well, but… it’s different. The culture is different. From the moment I decided to become a Singapura Girl, I knew I would be scrutinized in ways other women are not. If I keep my hair up, my makeup right, and my spine straight when I’m out and about, then nobody can say I’m not projecting a good image for the company. I was in commercials, you know…”
“Really? No, I didn’t know.”
A nostalgic visage graced the table. “It was a long time ago. When I was younger.”
“Are you not young now? Certainly, you’re a good bit younger than me.”
“Now, that I find hard to believe.”
“I’m older than you believe, yes. Anyone under thirty is quite young to me.”
“May I ask how old you are?”
Elle shrugged. “I’m either a year above or below forty. Guess that’s why I’ve become brazen about asking women out. I’m not afraid of rejection anymore.”
“So you did ask me out on a date…”
“I figured my odds were good. We’d been getting along quite swimmingly.”
