I was almost asleep. If he had waited even one minute longer I never would have heard him and we never would have spoken. But he did not wait and my peaceful rest was interrupted by a faint smacking noise. I tried to ignore it and ease into the uncomfortable seat. It continued to get louder and the smack smack smacking was this time followed by a “psst, hey!”
Slowly, I opened my right eye to see the man in the window seat smacking his forearm muscles with his palms. I turned my head slightly towards him out of curiosity. “You got muscles?” he asked me as he reached accross the empty seat between us and squeezed my arm. Oblivious to the expression of sheer horror on my face, he continued to point out the different muscles on his own arms.
“So what do you think?” He asked with raised eyebrows. When I did not answer, he continued. “What? You got a boyfriend?” Instinctively I blurted out “of course!” For a moment I was sure I had offended this stranger – but only for a moment. He looked at me nodding his head and said “We can figure something out.”
At that point my head was spinning and I looked at my phone to check the time. Oh boy. This was only the beginning. We still had four more hours to go. Luckily, the food came and he was distracted. After eating I checked the time again. Only seven minutes had passed. Damn. I ate too fast.
I told him I was tired and hoped he would get the hint. Instead, he pulled up the arm rests between us and told me to lay accross the seats with my head in his lap. I graciously declined, muttering something about not being able to sleep lying down. I put my arm rest back down, clutched my purse to my chest, and squeezed my eyes shut.
Smack, smack, smack. This time I kept my eyes shut.