"Excuse me... are you Charlie Pace?"
Normally a question like that would cause hairs in private places to tingle. But today? With a sense of weary dread Charlie turned to face a fairly cute girl. She smiled expectantly and, more out of habit than anything, he automatically noted her measurements and presence of any telltale wedding band. "Yeah, that's right."
Her smile faltered a little, but only a little. "Driveshaft, right?"
He couldn't even force a smile. The rush had faded long ago, leaving behind only the sense that he was, once again, wearily admitting defeat. "Yeah," he acknowledged, not even taking off the dark shades worn habitually these days.
This time her smile wavered, then vanished, to be replaced by an expression of confusion. Maybe hurt. "Sorry," she finally offered. "I didn't mean to bother you." She indicated the long line in which they both waited. "I just saw you standing there and..."
Mentally cursing himself for being at least seven different kinds of a prick, Charlie tried to muster some of the old enthusiasm. "No, hey. I'm sorry. Just having an off day, you know?"
Her bouncy smile was back, all forgiven. "Sure, yeah. Of course. No one looks forward to a flight like this." They inched closer toward boarding. "Heading to LA?"
I Where else would I be heading, you daft twat? /I He wanted to yell it at her. Instead he shrugged slightly. "Yeah. You?"
"LA first. Then I thought maybe Vegas. I've heard so much about it, you know?"
"It's a cool place," he agreed, hoping his tone was carefully neutral, neither offensive nor encouraging.
She seemed to finally get the hint, and with relief he watched her hover toward her purse, then seem to think better of it. If she had asked for an autograph there was a chance he might have broken down and cried, right in front of God, the Oceanic crew and everyone else in this endless line. "Well," she finally managed as they approached the gate at last. "It was nice meeting you. I hope you have a good flight."
"Yeah, same here." He nodded slightly, the incident already, thankfully, behind him.
When he saw her body on the beach a few hours later, it belatedly occurred to him that he didn't even know her name.
End