She would take great things away from their interaction, though.
In just the seven hours, she had felt something in her gut that she hadn’t ever felt before, an a-ha moment that made her sure that she had been doing the right thing to wait for the right guy to come along. It couldn’t be Levi since the timing was all off, but at least in her conversation with Levi she learned that there were still eligible bachelors who knew more about literature and politics than Tinder and Twitter.
Another nugget of truth became glaringly obvious to Virginia: she was way more confident than she gave herself credit for. She had hid from the public eye since she had been forced into it for a stint of time when she was twelve, and her confidence had seemed to play hide-and-seek since. Maybe today it because she had a captive audience, but she had the right jokes at the right times, had easily rattled off the last five biographies she had read, and she could’ve talked about her life with her mom for days.
Third, Virginia’s ENFJ—extraverted, intuitive, feeling, judging—personality was confirmed. Levi commented more than once that Virginia seemed authentic, logical, and “somewhat idealistic” when it came to her event planning. She worked for almost an hour to tell him why that was not the case, and then went into why the trait of idealism in an event planner is a wonderful thing: it makes the client feel like no dream is too big, which is exactly what Virginia and Sophie want when a client walks out the door after an intake meeting. Either way, the character traits Levi seemed to pick up on fall right out of the ENFJ handbook.
Now here they were, just twenty minutes from the end of the flight and Virginia’s ability to form coherent thoughts was struggling to surface above the fight going on in her mind: the panic over probably never seeing him again, versus the certainty that she needed to focus on her work and the upcoming event.
Levi might have been fighting the same battle; his words were getting slower, his pauses and his looks longer.
It also might have been because they had been talking nonstop for seven hours and it was past ten o’clock, her non-event bedtime. The extravert in her had loved the conversation; the stick-to-a-schedule girl in her wanted a fluffy pillow and a blanket.
Virginia had successfully avoided any talk of what happens next. She was nothing if not a master at steering a conversation the way she wanted it to go. Her meticulous planning occurred from the smallest of life’s details to the largest events, a trait that had thus far served her well.
However, her streak was bound to be broken eventually.
Right?
Click crackle click.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have begun our initial descent to JFK. Thank you for your patience on this very long day. Wingspan Airlines will work hard to make sure each and every passenger impacted by today’s significant delay is compensated appropriately. We try our hardest to do things right, and we hope you will fly again with us in the future.” He paused. “Seatbelt signs are back on, flight attendants prepare for landing.”
The whoops and hollers after this announcement rivaled the hoopla from the first round so many hours ago. Once it died down, Virginia and Levi could get back to their conversation, which had gone from free-flowing to awkward stops and starts.
“The Never-ending flight is finally going to … end,” he said, rubbing his hands on his dark denim pants, then resetting his tie to sit exactly where it had been a moment before.
Virginia nodded.
Levi took a small deep breath. “Think they’ll make a movie about it?”
Virginia smiled, a burst of joy and light that was relishing in his humor for a short while longer. “Maybe. I mean, this has been pretty epic. Turning down a gentleman caller with a terrible pick-up line.”
“Terrible pick-up line.”
“Meeting a celebrity.”
He gave her a tsk-tsk look.
She smiled so that her eyes crinkled all the way. “And…”
“And the best conversation I have had in years, with the most beautiful woman I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.”
Virginia’s breath caught for a split second, then reason took over. “I bet you say that to all the girls. And I bet all the girls believe you. Since you’re Levi Adams and all. All-American boy who’s not actually American, handsome, compassionate, changing the world for the better. They swoon, I know they do.”
“The girls do swoon, that is true,” he said with a smirk. “But that’s their choice. I don’t say something unless I mean it.”
Virginia did not work to hide her skepticism. There is no way a man as good-looking and personable as Levi didn’t know how to flirt. Did he stay away from flirting today with her? With the exception of that last line, he had seemed to, but she figured that was because she had so easily shot someone else down he knew enough to know not to go that route. But his charm… it had to land somewhere when the ladies were swooning over him. She just knew it.
“Whatever you say,” she said, flipping her still-braided hair over her shoulder and reaching for her bag that had been shoved under the seat in front of her.
“Great, you understand.” His thin, confident smile was more endearing in person than it had been on all those hours of the cooking channel she had watched.
The last ten minutes of the flight felt like some kind of punishment. They stayed mostly to themselves, stealing glances at one another here and there. Virginia tried to listen to other passengers, but they too had grown quiet. Eerily quiet, probably all in the name of Get me out of here! Nobody wanted to do anything that might hurt their chances of finally landing this plane.
Virginia stared out the window to her left. Nobody had sat next to her after all. She had been looking forward to watching the clouds and landing well before dark. She had missed all the clouds and even the sunset, thanks to her time with Levi. Now, she could see nothing but complete darkness until just seconds before the plane landed with a thump-thump-dunk-thump.
More hoots and hollers from the peanut gallery in front of her.
Quiet, almost disappointed reverence from her neighbor.
My, how this day has shifted from beginning to end. Starting with her rushing to get onto the airplane that would take her to the biggest presentation of her career, and ending with an equally strong desire to ask the pilot to please re-enter the airspace so she could have seven more hours talking to Levi. She turned to look at Levi, who was already staring at her.
Startled, she asked, “What are you looking at me like that for?”
He smiled faintly. “Honestly?”
“Nothing less,” she said.
“This has been the most incredible day. And I have spent it on an airplane. A stuffy, poorly lit, cramped airplane. But it’s been the best day, and I don’t want to let you go without knowing I’ll see you again.”
My heart.
Virginia’s eyes flickered down below for just a moment, long enough to see his hand twitching, almost like it was moving closer to hers. She moved to clasp her hands and hide them in her lap.
“That is very kind of you, Levi. I have had… I…” she scratched her forehead. “This has been incredible. Surreal. Wonderful. But I am headed to New York City for the biggest moment in my adult life, and I need to focus. I know that sounds like a lame excuse but it’s true. Right now is just not the time, I’m sorry.”
“Not the right time? Hmm.” He said, pleasantly. “I’m a celebrity, right?”
“You haven’t thrown that in all night.”
He waved a dismissive hand. “Humor me. I’m a celebrity, right?”
She nodded.
“I am here to tell you: there will never be a right time if you wait for a strong career to slow down. Never. You either go for it when it’s there or you don’t.”
Virginia cleared her throat while taking care of a pesky thread sticking out of her jeans. “Well, I’m not going for it right now.”
Even though like ninety percent of me really, really wants to, so if we do not get off this plane in
the next thirty seconds I very well may lose all resolve and just go for it.
For who knows how long—Virginia certainly didn’t know—she and Levi regarded one another with anticipation, concern, and mutual affection. She felt her heart stammer, and she could see his breath becoming more uneven.
Could she maybe—
No, she could not.
Once the cabin lights were back on and the bleeping and blooping from others’ phones took over as ambient noise, Virginia became the first to break their trance as she grabbed her phone and let her mom and Sophie know that she had finally landed.
You will never ever, ever ever ever, believe the story I am going to tell you when I get to the hotel.
Can’t wait! SO glad you’re finally here! Drinks on me at the bar downstairs?
Not up for that. Want to go over the presentation.
Of course. We’re in suite 706.
Thanks! See you in a bit! <3 [party emoji]
The plane was parked and people were starting to rise, get their luggage out of the overhead compartment. Virginia started to get up, but a light hand stopped her.
“Could we at least take a picture with our phones?”
Virginia shook her head in amusement. She had released her braid and now her long hair swished behind her. “Did Levi Adams just ask me to take a selfie—I’m sorry, two selfies, one for each phone—with him?”
Levi’s smile threatened to break her resolve. “That he did.” He paused and regained his seriousness. “Please?”
Virginia sat back. She stared at him, exhaling loudly. “Well,” she said, reaching for her phone. “Now I have two stories. One, meeting a celebrity on a plane. And two, he asked me for a picture, instead of the typical fan-girl thing. Fabulous.”
One at time, they each held their phones out to take a two-person selfie. They leaned their heads together and smiled, two quick but powerful moments for Virginia’s staggering breath. True to Millennial form, each checked the photo to make sure it was acceptable, which both versions were.
Virginia went back to retrieving her luggage, which she did with little effort. Considering how hard Virginia had to concentrate on one step at a time, what with Levi standing so close to her, she considered it a small miracle that she had lifted her small bag up and out of the overhead compartment so easily. She stepped to the inside of the aisle so Levi could get his luggage, which of course he did with ease. The two stole additional glances at one another, but said nothing.
Virginia and Levi made their way to the front of the plane, then into the dingy jet-way that was lined with photographs of destinations Wingspan Airlines reached on a daily basis. The largest, most colorful photo was a collage that boasted more than one-hundred destinations.
Stepping into the airport was surreal. Virginia noticed that Levi had pulled his hat down lower and he kept his eyes downcast. She hoped that being in such a populated airport and city would mean that she could keep Levi to herself for the short while she had left with him, because maybe there were so many people that nobody would recognize him. They were heading to the same exit—ground transportation—but for two very different rides.
“Is there anything I can say that will convince you to give me your number? Or will give me permission to find you on Instagram or something and work my charm through there?”
“Afraid not, Mr. Celebrity Chef.” Her words held a sweet sadness as they weaved in and out of people going every which way in the terminal. So far, no bites on Levi’s celebrity status, a fact that thrilled her to no end.
Except, Levi suddenly stopped in the middle of an atrium that connected two sections of a terminal.
“Virginia.”
She looked around. Nobody had stopped, nobody had yet to notice that the kind, gentle-on-the-eyes, best-smile-ever man standing still amidst a sea of movement was the one and only Levi Adams. Well, she wasn’t about to bring attention to it.
“Yes?” she asked, playfully, in the hopes of coaxing him out of the serious plea he appeared about to make.
He lifted his eyes, which were shielded by his worn navy blue UNC Chapel Hill hat. Yet, they shined in her direction, begging her to give him a chance to recreate the accidental first-slash-blind date they’d just had.
“I don’t know about you, but it’s not often that I meet someone and spend seven hours talking to them and feel like it’s not enough. The last good date I had was in college before anyone knew my name. You leapt so far past the fan-girl moment I’m used to, and because of that, we shared something. We found something. I don’t want to let it go, Virginia. And I can promise you—“ he placed his palms together, “that I do not make these embarrassing speeches. Ever.”
Levi’s plea ended on a smile, the same sunburst Virginia had seen across her screen for so many years and the same one that had come to life for her just earlier that day. How she forced out, “It’s just not the right time,” would be beyond her for years to come.
“I’m really sorry. I’m also incredibly flattered,” she said, softly.
He sighed, defeated.
“If we cross paths again…”
“Like serendipity?”
“Like serendipity,” she said, unable to hide her smile. Slight tears threatened but she would hold it together.
He cleared his throat. “Okay,” he said, exhaling while he said it. “If we cross paths again, I am yours, Virginia. I am yours.”
She barely shook her head. “You’ve—“ She cut herself off, for fear of saying something she would regret. Yet, they hadn’t continued a conversation for seven hours because either of them had held back.
“I’ve what?”
She breathed out forcefully.
“You’ve known a million women in your lifetime. Probably been asked out by almost all of them. You are known for careful decisions, for a high level of integrity, and an unparalleled work ethic. How in the world can you have talked to me for a quarter of a day, and have the feelings to back up your words?”
Again with the smile. Did he really have to smile like that?
“You’re too smart for ‘when you know, you know’, so how about this: true, I am known for careful decisions. I am meticulous, I am calculated, I am precise. I also have followed every instinct I’ve ever had since my sixteenth birthday when I decided to be a chef. Every one of them. I know exactly what they feel like, and they feel exactly what I have felt like since you told that man you didn’t throw him your name.”
“That’s a tall order, Mr. Adams. I don’t make decisions that way.”
“I can respect that.” He shifted his bags. “I see my ride.” He nodded toward a sleek, black SUV. “I look forward to meeting again, Miss Sharpe.” He held out his hand for a handshake.
Virginia hesitated; did she really want to end this on a handshake?
her heart feel things today she hadn’t known existed? Yes.
Did her stomach swim with butterflies every time he had smiled at her? It absolutely had.
Still, she had her work. She had the Gala to win and plan. For now, that would have to be enough.
They shook hands, holding eye contact until Levi’s ride, whom Virginia recognized as Levi’s best friend, Seth Reed, came and patted Levi on the back. “Hey, man, we have to go. Your interview starts in five minutes.”
“See you later, Virginia,” he said.
And he left, looking back only once with a look that told her he meant every word he had said from their first to last moment together.
Chapter 4
Levi sat back in the passenger seat of his friend’s SUV.
“I don’t have an interview today, Seth.”
“You don’t, but I could tell a few people were starting to notice it was you. A: you looked like you were in an intense moment and I didn’t want you on the cover of Teen Beat for the wrong reason; and B: I wanted to see her up close.”
“Teen Beat? Seriously? I’m thirty-four years old. They don’t put old geezers like me on that magazi
ne.” Levi shifted to get comfortable.
“I would argue that behind Princes William and Harry, you are one of the world’s most eligible bachelors. Pretty sure that’s why you won Hottest Man Alive last year. Ladies love a good man with a good heart who knows his way around the kitchen. They would absolutely put you on the cover of that magazine, and others like it. Especially for talking to such a beautiful woman.”
Seth ran his hand through his dark curly hair, his tell-sign for when he is wondering something that he can’t wait to find out the answer to.
“That, my friend, was Virginia.” Levi’s words coincided with a sigh, a resigned sigh that also managed to be full of anticipation.
“Pretty name, pretty girl,” Seth said, shaking his head.
After talking to Virginia and hearing her soft accent that drew out the long a’s and sometimes made an o sound like a string of soft a’s, Seth’s harder New England accent seemed even stronger than usual.
“She is very pretty, yes.”
“And…” Seth prompted.
Levi cleared his throat, pausing for a moment before he answered his best friend. He was looking straight ahead, watching the traffic move like cattle through the lanes that led to the airport’s exit.
“And smart, funny, interesting, and … whew, all of the above.”
Seth threw him a wide, sideways smile. “That’s saying a lot coming from you, man. You don’t talk about girls like this. Have you ever actually felt romantic toward anyone since I’ve known you?”
“To be fair, you’ve known me since first grade, so your glibness goes unappreciated. How you’ve held onto your harsh city self after all those years at boarding school in Canada with yours truly is beyond me.”
“All my summers here. Kept it alive. Back to the pretty girl…”
Levi straightened as he spoke. “We held a conversation for almost every minute we were on that plane. Seriously. That’s seven hours. Talking about everything under the sun. She is incredible.” He let out a long breath.
Behind the Scenes Page 3