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I wondered if the town was used to getting storms like this.
“So, brothers… What are their names?” I turned back to Gabe as I asked this question.
If we were stuck here, then I was going to get to know him as best as I could. I figured that he might ask the same questions of me, and I prepared myself to answer those questions. As much as I didn’t like being the subject of questions, it was only fair this time around.
“Jesse, Luke, and Zeke,” Gabe replied. “My parents were fans of the biblical names.” He shrugged. “I suppose we could have ended up with worse names. At least no one makes fun of our names. I’ve heard of stories of children born more recently getting saddled with names so ridiculous I can only imagine they get bullied at school.”
“Grace is among one of the plainer names for women, but I think it suits me quite well,” I said in response. “There’s just something sweet about the name. And I like the way it rolls off the tongue. I think I’d name my daughter Grace, or maybe I’d use it as a middle name.”
“You want a family?” Gabe raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, but most female reporters I’ve met so far are vehemently against a family.”
“You have to be careful if you have a family as a reporter, but there are ways to make it work, especially since I work for a local paper,” I revealed. “But I still probably would take a break for a while.”
“Do you plan on getting married before having a family?” Gabe appeared to be more interested in my plans than in telling me more about his family.
For a moment, I wondered why, but decided that if he wanted to hear more about my plans for my life, then what was the harm? We were stuck here together, anyway. I thought it would help him understand my excitement to get to do something like this before I left the journalism business.
“I’d like to, yes,” I said.
I had a feeling that I was getting a dreamy look on my face now. Getting married had been one of those bucket list things I had written down ages and ages ago, when I was young, and that had only become something I wanted more strongly over the years. There were certain criteria that the man I married had to meet before I would even entertain a proposal from him, but it wasn’t incredibly difficult. At least, I didn’t think so.
I wanted someone who would encourage me to follow my dreams so long as we had the financial abilities to do so. If we didn’t, then I expected the man would be willing to listen and help me find a way to make it work – if it was feasible. If not, then I would appreciate whatever efforts he made towards making it happen – so long as those efforts were reasonable. It appeared to be something that not many women wanted out of their husbands, but I had known many women in this industry who knew they were going to stay in the industry. If their husbands couldn’t handle it, then they wouldn’t stay married.
“What about you, Gabe?” I managed to turn the question back on him, hoping that it would at least help me feel less put on the spot about everything.
“I’d like to get married and have a family as well,” he said. “I’ve not been sure where to start in finding someone who might want to become my wife, but I’ve given up on the dream of just finding someone who I click with instantly. It really only happens in movies, I suppose.” He laughed a little. “Besides, I spend so much time in the air that whomever I marry would have to understand that I have a job to do.”
“That’s understandable. And depending on what the woman was raised to want in a man, she might want you to be the breadwinner,” I mentioned.
Gabe’s cheeks flushed a little at the mention of being the breadwinner. I didn’t ask why, but I did wonder. Perhaps it was one of those things that he just hadn’t thought of before. Or he had and he hadn’t thought to believe that it was actually possible for a woman to want the man to make all the money. At the current rates he charged for a flight, I wondered how he was able to live off the money he made and keep his plane up and running.
Perhaps he ran the tickets at a price just above what he would need to make if he were to make a certain number of trips a year. For his sake, I hoped that he was able to keep that number of trips, even if he was charging the rush fee and such for some of the trips.
The conversation stalled again.
“I doubt I’ll have the time to get married the way this job runs me right now,” I admitted to keep the silence of the lobby from stretching out too long. “I hardly have time in the evenings for anything aside from dinner since that’s when all the orchestras play. If I’m going to be taking the tourism column, then I’m going to be traveling a lot more often, and we both know that it’s a hassle to keep up with anyone, friend or not, when you travel frequently. Family understands, but that doesn’t mean it's not a hassle.”
“Well, between being a travel photographer or concert photographer, what do you want to do more? Between the two jobs?” Gabe repositioned in his chair to look at me. “Clearly, they both pay the same. What do you think is more up your alley?”
“I think I’d prefer to be the photographer for anything, but I’m not sure I could afford to continue to travel like this,” I admitted. “Mr. White is only covering five-hundred dollars of the cost to come to Corinth. That would have been just one of my flights out here even if I had miles. Didn’t even include a rental car or anything. I need more than that to be able to do my job properly. Our paper is bleeding money, and he thinks this tourism column is going to save him.”
“What do you think it’ll do?”
“I don’t think it’ll help as much as he thinks it will,” I admitted. “As excited as I am to get the chance to see a couple of lesser-known places for families to go this summer, I don’t think that it’ll help as much as Mr. White wants. People could just see the header and then go look up stuff that is not behind a paywall. Or, just read this article if he makes it one of the free ones that can be read without a subscription as part of the free articles each month.”
I sighed. There was a lot I didn’t agree with going on at the paper right now, but it was the best place for me to use my photography skills. These skills had been honed over years of practice, and I still got paid peanuts for the product. Despite my attempts to negotiate better wages, because I was only a journalist photographer, I was still seen as a step below a “professional” photographer.
What I really wanted was my own studio. But there was no way to make that a reality anytime in the near future.
“Well, I suppose you’ll just have to wait and see what you decide to do then.” Gabe sighed. “There’s… there’s more going on there than you’re willing to tell me, isn’t there?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, then, I won’t press. Perhaps it’s too early for conversation, especially since we both didn’t eat a ton yesterday. I say we try and get our bodies back into shape for the flight back while we’re here. Based on the snow outside, I don’t think we’ll be able to take off for a couple of days. We’ll have to file a flight plan once more, and the commercial flights get priority since they’re flying every day from each of these airports.”
And just like that, Gabe was back to being all business. I nodded slowly.
As much as it pained me to see him switch so easily, I could understand why he wanted to do that. He needed to be sure that there was still professionalism between us, even if this was not the most professional setting. I wondered how often he was stranded like this with clients, or if he was able to better plan other emergency touchdowns for larger airports to allow for more hotels and a faster departure.
