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“It’s a lot to take in.” Arianna sighed, having yet to touch the cocktail her sister insisted on ordering her. “I’m in my late twenties. Why do they want me to model? Who the hell is Ollie Chen-Richards, and what does he know about me? They say someone recommended me to him, but Rachel claims it wasn’t her. No way would they listen to my manager about that.”
“Maybe your name comes up when passengers complete surveys at the end of the flight?”
“Maybe… but why me? Why not Charmaine? She’s younger and cuter than me. Biggest smile on the whole aircraft.”
“I don’t know who these people are, sis, but you’ve gotta stop putting yourself down! Who says you’re not the perfect fit for the vision? They want to pay you to have your face broadcast all over TV! In magazines! In online ads! You’d have to be crazy to turn that down.”
“Maybe I’m crazy, but it feels like something weird is afoot.”
Kaylinn rolled her eyes. “Can’t take a good thing for face value, huh?”
“Do you think it behooves me to be a model? What if passengers recognize me in the future? It could disrupt my whole job.”
“Sis, come on.” Kaylinn leveled such a gaze at her big sister that Arianna was almost stunned speechless. “They didn’t pick you out of a lineup.” Kaylinn jabbed her finger in Arianna’s arm. “Someone saw something special in you, and it would be more offensive to turn it down than to, I dunno, go and indulge? Think of the extra pay. Think of the cool experience that so many women never get to have! Do you think my job is going to poach me for a marketing campaign? No! They’re hiring real models! Like you could be!”
“The only reason they want employees to model is because of the kind of job it is. Image is everything.”
“And you’ve got the image, don’t you? Why won’t you believe in yourself, huh?”
As much as Arianna was loathe to admit it, her sister had a point.
She made the excuse that she needed to get to sleep early that night and that she would see her sister the next day for the drive to Changi Airport. To be fair, I do have to get to sleep earlier on the night before I fly out. Even though the flight wasn’t until the evening, Arianna was still adjusting to the kind of consistent time changes that wrecked less experienced women.
Except she wasn’t the least bit tired. Nor did she accept her sister’s offer for an escort back to her flat. If anything, Arianna was hopping the next MRT that would take her to the Lion Orchard, where Elle had told her to meet her in the lobby before taking her up to the suite.
Elle was in the middle of packing. When she wasn’t with Arianna that weekend, she was in meetings or out shopping for friends and family back home, much like Arianna often did in LA. Except she now recognized some choice shopping bags after recommending certain stores over others to a discerning woman like Elle. Arianna was a local, after all. Much like Elle told her the best place to get Kaylinn’s favorite brand of makeup – and it was closer to the hotel Royal Asia liked to use, too.
“Something happened at work?” Elle pushed a half-closed bag out of the way and covered up the takeout delivered to her room.
Arianna slumped in a chair by the window, hand in her hair. “My employer wants me to star in a commercial and ad campaign. As the featured Asian cabin crew member…”
Elle was almost concerningly stoic as she turned around, sizing up Arianna’s ability to complete that kind of contract. “Is there some catch to that I’m not picking up? Why would you make that sound like it’s a bad thing?”
A light spritzing of spring rain pattered against the window. Arianna had made it inside right on time. Her sister probably was not as lucky, since she lived farther away from this part of Singapore. She’s cursing herself right now. Tipsy and wearing her favorite heels, Kaylinn was no doubt rushing through the rain with her bag over her scalp.
“I don’t think it’s bad.” Arianna couldn’t look up as Elle sat across from her. “I don’t understand. Why me? The man at the head office said it was a ‘higher-up’ who selected me. Who could that be? Who is looking for me in a crowd?”
Elle’s hand covered her mouth as she shifted in her seat and gazed out the window. “Well,” she chipperly said, “do you know who the higher-ups in your company are? Surely, you’ve met some of them before.”
“No way. Charlie Pheng at the head office is as high up as it gets for cabin crew like me. Everyone between him and the board of directors is the faceless administrators who run things behind the scenes. You know, like accountants and the marketing people. Even when I worked in Singapura, I never met most of the people above me. Why would I? Outside of the company president and CEO, there’s no one to know about.”
“Suppose you’re right. Who’s the CEO of Royal Asia, again?”
“Karl Isaacson.” His picture hung on a few walls around the offices, but for the most part, Arianna only saw the half-American, half-Singaporean man in the airline booklets passengers flipped through when they were that bored on a fourteen-hour flight.
Elle nodded as if that name meant anything to her. “You know, sometimes, there are plants on a plane.”
That made Arianna double-take. “What do you mean plants?” She imagined the First Class cabin transformed into a veritable flying rainforest, complete with tropical foliage and birds flying between the windows. She garnered that was not what Elle meant.
“A plant is someone the company or other related entity sends undercover. They’re there under an assumed name purely to keep an eye on things. Or steal information, but in this case, I’m guessing Royal Asia would use a plant to get a feel for the customer service. And maybe scope out the cutest cabin crew around.”
Arianna gasped. “You really think so? Someone like that could have flown on my plane?”
“Sure. All it would have taken was one trip for someone to notice you.” Elle grinned. “Worked on me. Now we’re sleeping together.”
“I… had not thought of it like that.” Because her girlfriend had a point. If Arianna could catch the eye of the lesbian most frequently flying in her cabin, then it stood to reason that someone working for Royal Asia had flown under her care. Maybe more than once!
“You okay?”
