Chapter 3 | Adam
Friends constantly talked about the convenience and inconvenience of air travel. Having to fight for leg room, bag room, the aisle or window seat. Being jammed into the cabin as every flight was booked to capacity. Sometimes, even being bumped from a flight for being overbooked.
Such conversations made Adam very grateful he didn’t travel much. It didn’t engender any desire to do more than he’d already done or go further afield in the future.
So sitting on a plane that hardly had any passengers was a momentous adventure. Something he could rib his friends about when social talk inevitably turned to grousing about flying anywhere.
Lifting the armrest between the two seats on his row, he made his space roomier so he could spread out. He loosened his seatbelt a little and twisted to stretch his legs into the floor space of the adjacent seat.
With tension radiating off him, the man in the seat on the opposite side of the aisle held onto the armrests with a death grip. It seemed he wasn’t having a very good day.
Adam understood the immediate, visceral reaction to takeoffs and landings. He didn’t need to be a seasoned traveler to know what it felt like. Through years of training, he learned to breathe through it. Relax. Let any anxiety rise so he could acknowledge it, and then, through deep breathing, let it go. The trick had served him very well.
Ever since early childhood, Adam had always been deeply empathetic. He didn’t need to deal with something through experience. He found it easy to extrapolate, to put himself in someone else’s place, to have a good idea of what they were going through.
It was one of the things that made him uniquely suited for a life of holistic healing, along with his affinity with herbal remedies. He was very similar to his grannie in that way. Even his own mother had always told Adam that he and Grannie were two peas in a pod. Unfortunately, that was before his parent’s death in a car accident that left Adam and his two younger brothers orphans.
When he and his brothers, Cade and Benjamin, went to live with Grannie, he discovered the truth of what his mother said.
When he looked at the American businessman, he saw the signs. He could read them like an advertisement. The tension in the man’s shoulders, the way the man’s fingers gripped the armrests and turned his knuckles white, the way the man’s feet were braced against the floor.
Even so, there was something… familiar about the guy. Adam couldn’t put his finger on it. Usually, he remembered faces even if he couldn’t remember names.
He studied the stranger in profile, and despite the world-weariness about him, he looked young. Not much older than Adam. And, he looked tired. Not just from jet lag or long work hours; it looked like the man carried the entire world on his shoulders.
It was far more poignant now as Adam tried to place where he knew him from. Had he seen him on Maona?
His woolgathering snapped away when he realized the stranger was looking back at him, and Adam’s cheeks burned in embarrassment. Of course, seeing him square on, Adam could appreciate how attractive the man looked. He must always have unwanted attention; annoying people staring at him.
It only drove home the deep connection he felt tugging between them. A familiarity that seemed to delve deeper beneath the surface.
“What?” the man snapped.
“Um, sorry.” Adam fumbled around as he tried to work out just what to say other than ‘sorry’. He felt like he owed the man an explanation. “I just… I feel like I know you. Have we met before? Like on Maona?”
Obviously, they were both coming from there. That had to be it.
The man shook his head. “No. I’ve never met you.”
Well, brisk and to the point, Adam could respect that. It must be his obvious nerves about flying. “Oh. That’s cool. It’s weird, that’s all. Because I feel like I should know you.”
The man’s brows furrowed and the deep frown lines creased his attractive face, making him even that much more enticing.
“I’m sorry. You look familiar. I feel like I should remember you.”
“That’s fine.” The man shook his head again and looked away. He appeared to focus on the activity at the front of the cabin.
The plane had leveled off, and the flight attendant was busy at the front of the plane, getting the cart ready for the snacks.
“So, were you on Maona on business? I don’t recall seeing much industry when I was there. My name’s Adam, by the way.”
“Something like that.” The man straightened. “Sorry. If you don’t mind, I’m not interested in talking.”
“Right. Of course.” Adam also straightened in his seat and stared straight ahead.
Well. The man was certainly blunt. Adam dug into his backpack and pulled out some gum. He didn’t want it, but it gave him something to do to cover his embarrassment and the small amount of tense anger he sensed growing within him.
He understood that the stranger wanted to be left alone to deal with whatever he was dealing with. Not everyone enjoyed meeting and talking to new people.
On the other hand, it wasn’t like Adam was coming onto him or anything. Sure, he'd noticed how attractive the guy looked. And that could be the problem. A man like that probably had people hitting on him all the time. Adam had just wanted to find something to talk about. A distraction may have helped the guy work through his own anxiety about flying.
In short, Adam’s feelings were hurt by the rude brushoff. It felt like a rejection of who and what Adam was, by a man who didn’t even know him.
It was also a reminder; something Grannie had to remind him of regularly. Not all people were blessed with a kind and open heart. So many people went through life, lurching from one crisis to the next. Adam’s bright and vivacious personality would rub those people the wrong way just on principle.
A hard lesson and one Adam found difficult to accept; he was still learning. It was just… he was usually able to deal with a brushoff a little better than this, and he didn’t really understand why he felt so drawn to this man.
He leaned back in his seat, fighting the desire to keep peeking over at the stranger and offer some measure of help or support. Not that he had much with him. All of the herbs he’d grown and preserved he’d shipped ahead of him to avoid dealing with customs.
When he rooted around in his backpack—just in case—he had his gum, his water, homemade trail mix, a poultice for aches and muscle strains, a comb, and some mint candy. Not much.
The candies could help a little. Mint was a natural stomach soother, and even the sweetness might provide a distraction to help keep the man’s stomach settled until they landed again.
The man had made rejected Adam's friendliness. He couldn’t just shove it down the guy’s throat if he didn’t want any help. Taking a deep breath and clearing his mind, Adam made himself think about what he wanted to do for his first days back at home instead.
If the universe wanted Adam to intervene, it would provide him with a way.