Your name: submit What is this?

You crammed into the tiny airplane seat sighing as you wished your company at least had splurged to upgrade for an extra inch or two. Adjusting your complimentary pillow trying to get comfortable you thought about how much you despised this part of your job. You hated flying the red-eye out of LAX to JFK, but I was one of the many "perks" of your job. Suddenly, a low voice startled you out of your thoughts.

"Is this seat taken?" The voice asked.

You looked up at the man with blonde hair, "Uh, no you can sit here," you replied moving your purse to the other side of your feet to make room.

The man put his suitcase in the overhead compartment, and squeezed into the tight chair next to you.

"I'm Dean, by the way," he said holding out his hand, looking into your eyes.

"I'm Y/N," you shook his hand noting his Irish green eyes.

"Nice to meet you Y/N," he replied with a smile.

You both turned your heads and stared straight ahead for a moment before your neighbor began, "Sorry, I feel like I'm bothering you. I'm just not the biggest fan of flying," he laughed nervously, "You'd think flying everywhere for my job would help that…"

You turned to look at him, "No, yeah, I totally understand."

"I should just become a pilot, I fly so much," he said light-heartedly.

"I hate flying the red-eye," you began,"And yet here I am every Thursday night flying the red-eye for meetings on Friday."

"You work out here in LA?" He asked

"Yeah, but there's another main office in Manhattan so I'm always flying out there."

"What do you?" He pressed.

"I work for a market research company, so I basically compile data for the companies that hire us. It's pretty boring." You looked into his eyes, and immediately looked away. His stare was so intense, but there was something intriguing about him. "What do you do?" You quickly asked.

"I'm a sales director at a company in New York, and they always send me out here to work with the other sales department…" he trailed off, and you both resumed staring at the back of the seats in front of you.

"What time is it?" You asked reaching down to grab your phone from your purse.

Dean checked his watch, "It's midnight, huh we were supposed to take of fifteen minutes ago…"

As if on cue, he was interrupted by the crackling on the pilot talking on the system, "I'm sorry folks, but we're going to be sitting here for awhile since there is an issue with the fuel system." The sound system crackled off.

"Oh good," Dean muttered rubbing his hands on his thighs.

"What?" You chuckled, "Nothing's gonna happen we're just sitting here." You reassured him.

"Yeah, but what if when we take off there is still an issue with…"

"OK, OK, just calm down, it's OK," You interjected, "Just breathe, it'll all be fine."

Dean let out a nervous laugh, "Thanks, I'm so bad with flying."

"It's OK. Just talk to me, you know, it'll… distract you." You said, smiling.

"OK…" He began.

It took the flight crews an hour to fix whatever issue there was with the plane, and in that time you learned more about Dean, and he learned more about you than you cared to admit.

The pilot came back onto the speaker to announce, "Ladies and gentleman, I'd like to announce that we will finally be taking off." A half-hearted, tired cheer went up among the crowd causing Dean to grab the armrests.

The plane started down the runway, and you rested your hand on his arm to calm him. Sometime in the five hour flight you fell asleep slumping your head on Dean's shoulder to his surprise.

At 6:00 AM you were shaken awake by your neighbor. Noticing the handsome man you had practically drooled on you shot up, and adjusted yourself apologizing the whole time.

"It's OK," he chuckled softly, "We just landed."

"Thanks," you shot him a smile, and immediately closed your mouth after sensing your bad breath.

He got up and grabbed his carry-on from the overhead, "I'll see you around then, it was nice getting to know you."

"Yeah you too," you replied. Sad to see him go, knowing you'd never see him again, but wanting to see him as quickly as he had gone.

You collected your things, left the airport, and hailed the nearest taxi to check into your hotel before your first meeting at 10:00 AM.

You arrived at the office building ten minutes early, and let the secretary know you were there. A few minutes later the head of your market research team emerged from the hallway.

"Y/N!' Your boss bellowed. You stood up and shook his hand.

"Hello, Mr. Roe. How are you?" You asked politely.

"Fine, I'm just fine. I hope you don't mind, but I had our meeting with the clients moved to a brunch spot just around the corner." He boomed.

"That's perfect, I'm pretty hungry from my flight."

You settled into your chair at the table after introducing yourself to the new clients.

"Y/N, here is one of our bests, and I think…" Your boss began before he was cut off by a low voice.

"Y/N?"

You glanced up at the source of the voice only to stare into bright, green eyes.