| "I'm sorry, Miss, your ticket is not registered here," the middle aged woman standing behind the desk told me. I shifted my weight to my other leg and brushed a few strands of hair out of my eyes. "I...I don't understand this," I said, "I bought these tickets two weeks ago, they were perfectly good then." "I'm sorry," the lady repeated, shrugging, "I don't know what to tell you." I sighed and took my no-good tickets from her. I quickly turned around and almost ran into a young man who stood directly behind me. "Sorry," I mumbled and began to walk around him. "Wait," he said in my direction. I stopped and slowly turned around. He motioned for me to come toward him. I slowly stepped toward him. "She's, uh, with me," he said to the lady behind the counter that rejected my ticket. "I'm sorry, Mr..." she glanced at his passport, "Brown...you can't just take someone on the plane with you under your ticket." "Oh, come on," he said, leaning his arms on the counter. "Have a little sympathy. The lady paid good money for these tickets, now you aren't going to let her on?" I stood there, amazed that this complete stranger was doing all this for me. "There has to be at least one open seat." The woman looked at him, thinking. "I have one open seat," she quietly said. "Don't expect me or anyone else for that matter to do this again." I was shocked. I slowly handed her my ticket and she stapled and stamped it, handing it back to me. I smiled thanks. I looked back at the young man who had helped me out. "Let's go," he said, motioning toward the terminal. I followed him as we walked toward it. "I can't believe that," I told him when we reached the opening. "Well, I was in a good mood today," he shrugged. "Thank you," I looked over at him. He nodded. He held out his hand as he walked. "I'm J," he said as I shook it. "Whitney," I replied. "How can I ever repay you for what you did back there?" He looked over at me, half-smiling. "We'll figure something out," he replied as we boarded the plane. Chapter Two... |
| Chapter one |