He pulls them off to better glare. “Let me take your picture in them then.”
A middle-aged lady with two teenagers steps beside me and holds out a hand for my phone. “Go ahead and join him. I’ll take one of you together.”
She must think we’re a couple. “Oh, that’s okay. We’re—”
“I’ll do it, Mom. You don’t know the right camera angles.” Her teenage daughter reaches past her and grabs the phone from my hand.
I hold up a palm to stop her. “We’re not together. We’re flight crew.”
I look to Nathan for help, but he must not be able to see without the sunglasses. He’s squinting this way in confusion.
“What’s ‘flight crew’?” asks the teen boy.
“He’s a pilot, and I’m a flight attendant. We’re coworkers. This is my first trip.”
“Wow.” The teen boy gapes at Nathan. “You’re a pilot? Is it hard?”
Nathan shrugs. “It has its ups and downs.”
The teenage girl giggles.
Their mom looks at me. “Your first trip? Then you must get a photo. Go on now.”
Why not? I jog over to the grassy area where Nathan is already in the perfect position. We just need the rest of our crew to join us.
“Vincent. Desiree!” I’m still not sure why the other flight attendant seems to be avoiding me, but I’m trying extra hard to include her now.
The moment I’m within an arm’s length of Nathan, he swipes for the frame of his glasses on my face. I quickly spin away and grin in triumph. I may not be a dancer anymore, but my ballet training does come in handy.
He nods at the saying on my shirt. “I can come and take it if you want.”
“Take ’em,” the teen boy cheers.
Nathan leans toward me menacingly.
I hold up the same palm I held up to the teen girl earlier, only he respects my signal.
“Take one group photo with the Texas glasses, then I’ll trade you back. I promise.”
Without sunglasses, his dark eyes glower a little dangerously in the way that made me once think I needed a soda in a sock to defend myself. But then he slides the shades up his nose and all that remains visible from his expression is a twitch of the lips.
Vincent and Desiree join us, and we all smile for the camera. Apart from Desiree’s cold shoulder, it’s been another good day.
I retrieve my phone from the strangers, grateful they insisted on snapping pictures with me in them. “Thank you.”
The shots are great. The teen girl really does know her camera angles. She’d stepped farther away and zoomed in to make the little tiny Alamo behind us look larger than life. And the sun has dropped low enough in the sky that the light is flattering as well.
Nathan peeks over my shoulder. “Do me a favor and don’t share those in the social media group about crew layovers.”
I glance at the image of me wearing his aviators and him in my heart glasses.
Vincent glances at my phone screen. “Yeah. He’d get made fun of in those shades for sure.”
I giggle. These pictures are too good to waste. “Well, I’ll just send them to you guys then.” I tap the icon for my messaging app and hand the phone to Nathan. “Add your phone number.”
He pauses for a moment, then complies. After passing the device to Vincent, Nathan holds out my new sunglasses for the agreed-upon trade.
“Fine.” I switch back with him.
