by Liz Peters
Chapter Three
Ali
Ali had woken up long before dawn on Monday morning feeling a little nervous, but mostly excited about the day that was waiting for her. Her Sunday had been as awesome as Sabrina had promised her. They had spent most of the day at the beach, though as the evening had worn on they’d ended up at a restaurant just off the beach with a pair of guys they’d met during the course of the day. Honestly, Ali couldn’t even remember either of their names if someone had asked her. She was pretty sure Sabrina had put both of their numbers into her phone at some point during the night. Overall, the day had been exactly what Ali needed to get her mind off of her nerves about today.
Now, she just had to get through the day and the ensuing eight weeks to make sure that she would get and keep the job that she really wanted. The phone call she had received a couple of weeks ago to let her know that she was admitted to the training program had also included instructions about what she was supposed to wear for the first day. After today, they would be wearing uniforms, but this morning would be spent getting all of them fitted for the clothes they were supposed to be wearing for the remainder of the program.
Ali had already spent an hour staring at her closet, trying to figure out something that she could put on. There were plenty of clothes that would have been great to wear to the beach and a ton of things that she could throw on to mix drinks at the local bar she had spent the last three years working at, but the actual collection of things that would be appropriate to show up for her first day of work in was really limited. She had it narrowed it down to two of the most acceptable outfits, but after trying them on, she realized they just wouldn’t do.
Groaning out loud, Ali slammed her closet door and walked into the kitchen and then into Sabrina’s room beyond. Her roommate was still asleep, so Ali tiptoed through the room to let herself into the walk-in closet on the other side of the room before quietly shutting the door behind her. Sabrina was admittedly something of a clothes horse, and there was a much bigger variety of clothes she could choose from in here, even if half of them were club dresses that Ali wouldn’t have been caught dead in. However, there was a small section of dresses that looked conservative enough to wear to work, but were going to be flattering enough to make Ali feel like she wasn’t wearing a potato sack.
Finally, she settled on a black pencil skirt and a short-sleeved button-up shirt that she had found along with a pair of black pumps that matched the skirt to a tee. Leave it to Sabrina to have just the outfit she’d been looking for. Ali whispered a quiet word of thanks as she crept back out of the room and to her own bedroom, hoping she hadn’t woken her best friend up in the process. She slipped the clothes on and straightened them out with a nod in the mirror. Now, the only thing standing between Ali and being ready for work was a good round of hair and makeup, and a stop at the coffee shop drive-through to try to gather her nerves before she arrived for her first day of training.
“Well, here goes nothing.” Ali nodded in the mirror, then headed off into the bathroom to finish the process of getting ready for her day.
ALI arrived in the parking lot of the training center at seven forty-five. It was just early enough to not have to sit around for an unreasonable amount of time with nothing to do, but still give her plenty of time to meet a few people before things began in earnest for the day. She had no idea how anything was going to go, but she was at least hopeful and confident in the way that she looked as she walked through the door. Her red hair had been gathered into a low bun near the nape of her neck, and she’d spent enough time on her makeup that she was certain that it wasn’t going to go anywhere without an arsenal of products to remove it.
There was a small group of women and men who seemed to be about her age gathering around in the foyer of the building as she entered. Ali looked around the crowd, sliding one hand into the convenient pocket of the skirt she was wearing as she looked for someone who appeared to know what was going on out here. Finally, she spied a dark-haired man in an airline uniform who was surveying the group with a clipboard in hand.
Normally, she would have walked over to introduce herself, but there was something about this man that stopped Ali in her tracks. He was easily the most beautiful man she had ever actually seen in real life. That was saying a lot considering that she lived at one of the most popular beaches in the country. She’d seen a lot of good-looking people in her day, but there was something about this guy that made him stand out. He could have been a model, but there was more to it than that. He had an air about him that was sophisticated and almost regal. If she was guessing his age, she would have put him in his mid-thirties, but there was no real way to tell. He held himself with a lot of confidence. He could have been anywhere between his late twenties and forty-five.
“Well, he’s absolutely gorgeous.” An unknown voice came from over Ali’s shoulder, interrupting her thoughts in the same moment that she realized she’d been staring at the man with the clipboard. “I’m guessing you’re here for the training class, too.”
Ali turned around to find the source of the voice, a petite blonde-haired woman who had walked up behind her with a grin on her face.
“I definitely am. My name is Alicia, but most of my friends call me Ali.” Ali held out one hand, offering it to the blonde with a warm smile.
The other woman took her hand, giving it a gentle shake. “I’m Kristina, and I guess if we’re giving nicknames out here, you can call me Kris.”
Ali took her in as the two women shook hands. On the outside, she was almost stereotypically good looking herself. Her blonde hair curled perfectly where it rested just below her shoulders. Her eyes were an almost startling blue, and she looked like the clothes she was wearing had been custom-tailored to fit her perfectly.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Kris.” Ali moved to stand next to her new acquaintance, glancing back over at the man who had originally caught her attention. “So, who is that absolutely gorgeous man?”
The grin that spread across Kristina’s face was mischievous, and Ali couldn’t wait for the answer to the question she’d just asked. He was clearly an employee of the airline, though Ali wasn’t sure if he was just here to check on the class for their first day or make sure that they got all the appropriate pieces of their uniforms this morning. He really could have been anyone.
“Well, when I introduced myself to him, he said he was the instructor for our class.” Kristina’s tone of voice was clearly amused, and she folded her arms across her chest, looking around the room. “I’m taking bets on how many of our classmates get turned down by him before the end of the course. Most of them aren’t even old enough to drink yet, but Mr. Dixon over there looks like a tall glass of water to me. You in?”
Ali laughed in response, but she immediately felt a knot in her throat at the proposition of having to work closely with this man for the next eight weeks. This was going to be trouble if she wasn’t careful. Kristina definitely had a point.
“So what’s the age range out there, and how many people are in the class?” It seemed like her new friend had a lot of information, and Ali was hoping to get as much of it as possible before this class started.
“Hmm... I was wondering the same thing so I checked into it. Most of the class are between eighteen and twenty-one. I’m one of the oldest — twenty-three— and it seems like there are about thirty of us. I won’t offend you by asking how old you are, but I’m guessing it’s older than nineteen.” Kris laughed and gently elbowed her.
“Would you believe me if I said twenty-four?” Ali was looking around the room again, noticing for the first time how young most of the people waiting around in the lobby actually were. Kris was right. Most of these people were definitely not old enough to drink. Ali had become a good judge of how old people were in her job as a bartender, and she wasn’t sure why she hadn’t noticed that other than the instructor, she was definitely among the oldest people in the room.
“Practically elderly. B
oth of us.” Kris laughed and shook her head. “So what’s your bet on how many of them at least flirt with the teacher?”
“I’m going with at least half because that is definitely a beautiful man.” She glanced over once again at the instructor Kris had called Mr. Dixon before he cleared his throat and started to address the group.
“Good morning, class. Welcome to your first day on the job. My name is Benjamin Dixon, and I’ll be your lead instructor for the remainder of your training course. I’m sure you’ve all been informed about what our morning will entail. Each of you will be fitted for your work uniform and supplied with six full sets. You are expected to keep them in excellent condition and have them dry cleaned on a regular basis. Should you need more in the future you can discuss it with your supervisor. I’ll be calling you into the next room individually in alphabetical order by last name. In the meantime, you can all get acquainted here.”
“And apparently a hard ass.” Kristina let that one slip as soon as Ben turned his back to lead the first person into the next room where they were to be fitted with a uniform.
Ali couldn’t help the snort that came out in response, but she knew one thing for certain. The next eight weeks were going to be some of the longest of her life.
“Also, add my name to the list of people who might wind up falling for the teacher over there.”
It was Kristina’s turn to giggle this time, and she nodded towards Ali with an amused expression.
“Fair enough. I can’t say that I blame you there. He does have a sort of je ne sais quoi thing going for him. I have to give him that. So if it’s your thing...” She trailed off and shrugged. “I just think we’re in for a rough ride here.”
“I kind of hope so.” Ali shot a wink at her conversation partner, hoping that the other woman understood the double entendre she was hoping to get across. The laughter she got in response was confirmation enough for Ali, though she didn’t have enough time to catch a response from Kris before her own name was being called from the door where Benjamin Dixon stood waiting for her.
“Good luck.” Kristina returned her wink before Ali turned around and strode off to start what she hoped was going to be the rest of her life.
THE DAY TURNED OUT to be one of the longest of Ali’s life, and there wasn’t anything that could have been done to prepare her for what this day had held. In fact, she was pretty sure that there were going to be at least a handful of her classmates that didn’t even make it back for the next day. If the first day had been this exhausting, there was no telling how bad it was going to get in the next two months.
By the time she pulled up in the parking lot of her apartment complex, she was ready just to crawl into her second-floor bedroom and crash for the rest of the night. She got out of the car, leaning on the door frame before she found the energy to fish her bag of clothes out of the backseat. Her set of uniforms were waiting to be taken upstairs and hung in her closet. She supposed she had better get used to wearing these clothes since it seemed like that was going to be a big part of her life from here on out. At least they would be as long as she managed to make it out of the training program in one piece. That was going to be an accomplishment, to say the least.
Ali dragged herself up the stairs, making it all the way into her own living room before she remembered that she had left her purse sitting right in the middle of the passenger seat back in her car. Daytona wasn’t exactly the kind of place you could leave a purse sitting out in a car and expect it to be waiting for you there the next day. Besides, her phone was in there, and she definitely wasn’t going to make it through the rest of the night without that. As much as she didn’t want to head back down and up those stairs before she was able to sit down and relax, Ali supposed that she really had no other option. This time, she chose to slide on a pair of flip flops she had kicked off next to the door instead of pulling back on the pumps she had been wearing all day. Her feet and ankles were screaming after spending the day in those totally uncomfortable shoes.
Ali had barely gotten out of the door and pulled it closed behind her when she ran directly into the chest of whoever had just rounded the corner of the staircase that led up this side of the building. There were elevators just to the right of them, and most people around her chose to use those rather than walk up to their apartments. Ali rarely used them since she was only on the second floor, but she really hadn’t been prepared for someone else to be coming up the way she was planning to go down.
“Excuse me...” Ali started to apologize for her blunder but froze in her tracks when she realized exactly who she had run into on the staircase. She had taken a step back as soon as she’d bumped into the larger man, pausing to look up and find his face and figure out whether or not she’d done any damage. Instead of one of the neighbors she knew, she was shocked to find Mr. Benjamin Dixon staring down at her.
“Miss Hansen?” He had one eyebrow up in the air, and she was surprised to find that he was even more attractive out here in the real world than he had been back at the training center. This was really starting to get ridiculous.
“Well fancy meeting you here.” Ali tried to act nonchalant and take the fact that she had just run into her teacher in her apartment building in stride. Maybe he had some reason for being here, but this was the last thing she had expected out of today.
“I suppose it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch since I do live here.” Ben’s voice was fairly flat, though she could tell he was a little surprised to have run into her out in the wild.
“Hold on a minute. You live here?”
“For the last two years. Yes. I have an apartment up on the fourth floor.”
Ali was absolutely shocked to not only run into Ben here but to find out that they had been living this close to each other for two years without her ever remembering seeing someone that attractive wandering around the place.
“I live here. I’ve lived here for like three years with my best friend. How have we never run into each other?”
“I don’t know. I usually take the elevator and keep to myself. I tend to get an early start and don’t go out much.”
That explained a lot. Ali was a night owl most of the time, with the exception of her morning runs. She worked late and usually didn’t leave for work until the afternoon. She guessed it was possible that there could have been someone living in the complex that she hadn’t met yet. After all, it was a pretty large complex, and a lot of people did live here. It was just a shock that this would be the day she finally ran into her neighbor.
“Wow. Well, I guess it’s a small world, eh?” Ali was kind of at a loss as to what to say for the moment.
“I guess so.” His answer was short and seemed a little terse. Ali decided that maybe the best course of action was going to be to let him go before she made a fool of herself.
“Well, I’ll see you around.” She held up a hand, giving him a half-wave as she moved around him to head back down the stairs.
“I certainly hope so.” Ben’s reply came as she was already moving down the stairs with her back turned towards him. It was something of a shock to hear him say that after the awkward encounter that they had just had, but it did give her hope that maybe she could look forward to the rest of his class at least.
Chapter Four
Ben
If someone had asked Ben how he was feeling about this class when it began, he would have told them that he expected it to go just as every other class had gone. Usually, these sessions were fairly uneventful. Ben had even gotten himself into something of a routine with all of it. There was a prescribed curriculum that he followed. Each day was laid out in detail, though there were always minor differences from one group to the next. He was accustomed to the structure and predictability of it all.
There were also always a few people who stood out in each group. These were usually the ones who made it through the training process and on to the next step, which was on-the-job training working on real flights. That number var
ied from class to class, but it was always somewhere around a third of the people who were brought in on the first day of the class. Out of the current group he was working with, there would probably only be ten people who made it onto the job by the end of things. A few of them would quit, even more of them would be asked not to come back at the end of each week until only the strong ones were left.
This was admittedly a hard job. If someone wasn’t able to make it through the difficult training sessions, then they weren’t going to survive a single day on the real job. Flight attendants needed to be able to think on their feet and keep their cool no matter what happened. Most people were definitely not cut out for this job, and it was Ben’s responsibility to pick through the prospects and make sure that only the best of the best made it through the process.
However, there was something a little different about this class. Ben had been feeling it since the day he’d met each one of them individually. On the surface, this should have been just like every other group that had come through. He ran through five of them a year. By now, this was old hat, and the moment that one group left the training center, he was prepping for the next one to walk through the door. They tended to blend together after the months passed. Even the faces of many of them started to look the same, save for the odd stand-outs here or there.
