AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ready?” Arianna asked again as she smoothed out her uniform in front of the door.
“You’re the nervous one.”
“I am not.”
“Eh, you’re the superstar face of Royal Asia these days. Every single one of those boys and girls were inspired to sign up because of you.”
“What are you? Chopped liver?” That was another expression Arianna had recently learned after hearing one woman demand if that was what she was to her boyfriend.
“Trust me, I’m easily replaceable.”
“That’s not what the photographer said at our last shoot.”
Riley grabbed the handle and opened the door, her last words, “At least it gets me laid,” haunting Arianna as she put on a professional face the moment she was exposed to the room.
Sixty pairs of eyes were soon on her, reverent silence forcing her to smile even harder as Riley slipped a folder into her hand.
“Good morning!” She approached a podium before the freshly graduated class of new Royal Asia flight attendants. I’ve never seen a group this big before! Then again, Arianna didn’t often work for a new airline attempting to handle its unprecedented growth in the industry. “Let’s get right to it. All of you are desperately waiting to hear who is the first to train on our flight to Singapore later this afternoon.”
She rattled off five names, all of them selected by herself and Agnes Wong, a woman she had grown professionally close to ever since the Vice President of Human Resources called her into a conference room in Changi Airport, asking, “What can we do to smooth everything over?”
One by one, excited graduates from both sides of the ocean congratulated one another and walked to the wall to grab their overnight bags. The ones left behind weren’t in trouble: merely, Arianna and Agnes had decided they were better suited for other routes, some of them also leaving today, and others later that week. She had a feeling that the new crew to Honolulu would be much happier there than in Singapore.
But Arianna wasn’t going to Hawaii. She was heading off to Singapore with some old colleagues like Esther and Charmaine, where they would give the recruits pertinent and practical in-air training experience. With passengers!
Arianna couldn’t help but grin to see the excitement on the graduates’ faces. For many of them, this was a dream come true. Even the ones who were merely chasing a career change and had never harbored an intense dream of becoming a flight attendant were delighted to finally go on their first actual flight, let alone to another country.
It wasn’t until many of the new crew had filed out of the room to head to their new assignments that Arianna noticed the small delegation near the other exit.
“What are you doing here?” Arianna instinctively opened her arms to hug Elle as she and two of her male colleagues approached. She recognized Isaac Persons, one of Elle’s fellow board members and the closest thing she had to a best friend. I’ve met his fiancée, too. Lovely woman! There were already a hundred jokes about them having a double wedding to save money on a destination honeymoon to Southeast Asia. When Arianna discovered that Isaac’s fiancée had a travel fascination with her area of origin, it was only natural that they spent most of their dinners together talking about Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia.
Elle gave her a tight squeeze before stepping back. “Our meeting is here in about an hour. We decided that some of us should come to see the new crew members receive their assignments. I trust that you and Agnes made the best possible decisions. Actually, I know you did, because you did most of it at our kitchen table.”
Arianna grinned, her hand still attached to Elle’s. “It makes me think about when I graduated from training at Singapura Airlines. Except I’m not telling them how to style their hair and what makeup to wear.”
“Don’t they look dapper in their uniforms, though?”
“And you can count on them having the best customer service among any airline in the sky. I made sure of it.” She would further ensure it on that afternoon’s flight. Arianna was overseeing the First Class and Business Class cabins, where she would put the new assignees through their paces. I don’t care what country they’re from. We are all held to the same standards! Although she dared to think that the new American crew was more intimidated by her than the ones from various Asian countries.
“You are a bit of a celebrity, you know.” Elle’s smile faded when she glanced over Arianna’s shoulder. “So are you. Try to behave in Singapore. I won’t be there to babysit you.”
Riley turned around, pretending she hadn’t heard that.
“We’re having dinner when we land,” Arianna said. “Meeting up with my sister, actually. She confirmed on the way over here.”
Riley turned around again.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Arianna cheerily teased as she reorganized her memos into her folder. “She’s dating a lawyer.”
“You don’t want to deal with their mother, anyway,” Elle quipped. “I’ve still got burns on my soul from that encounter.”
That was Riley’s cue to officially leave for the preflight meeting.
“My mother loves you.” Arianna brushed lint off her fiancee’s jacket lapel. “You’re not divorced, you don’t have kids, and you’ve got…” She lowered her voice. “Money.”
“She told me she’d kill herself before letting you marry a woman,” Elle said in Mandarin.
“If she were serious about that, she would have done it already!”
