It all began when she had asked for her bottle to be filled not long after take off. “Can I please get this to be filled with water?” she asked. He had asked hot or cold, and she asked for cold.
A normal request like any other, he came back with the bottle a minute later.
When he came around again, he was serving drinks. This time, he started a conversation with her. “Faham bahasa melayu kah?” to which she responded, “sikit” after much thought. Her Malay was admittedly, embarrassingly getting rusty as the years went by, but she could muster that much. He swiftly switched to English, and asked her where she was from. “KL?” to which she responded with “no, KK.” He seemed surprised, as though she looked like a city girl through and through. Upon pouring her drink, he said with a smile, “I’ll talk to you later” and continued his serving run.
She was bemused and intrigued at the same time. The next time he came around, he was serving a main meal, and this time they talked about her life in Melbourne. She was careful not to reveal too much, yet remain friendly at the same time. Her eyes shifted down to his name tag as he was pouring her a drink. Afiq, that was his name. She noticed his smile - he had a cute one - the kind that her mother would not approve. He was smooth with his words, typical of a flight attendant. Again, he ended the conversation with “okay, I’ll talk to you later” and continued on with his trolley.
Throughout the flight, he did things she believed and knew a normal flight attendant wouldn’t do. When she grew cold, he came from the back and swiftly opened up a blanket for her (as though he had read her mind). When she was falling asleep, he tapped her on the arm and gave her an eye mask. When she woke up, he greeted her with a “did you just wake up?” followed by "did you have a good sleep?” and finally, he had served her with a plate of chocolates before the flight landed. She was hesitant to accept the last one. If all those other times were not an indication, this was something she couldn’t accept. But he insisted, and not wanting to be rude or attract attention, she accepted and had a piece.
At this point, what seemed far fetched at the beginning didn’t seem far fetched at all anymore: was he trying to pick her up? Or perhaps he had a dare with one of the flight attendants. Who knew. She liked to take things at face value, and so just as the plane was starting to land, she took out the air sickness bag in front of her and wrote on it a simple note of thanks, wishing him all the best in his future endeavours. She placed the note on top of her blanket, and walked out of the plane, with not much on her mind than, "well, that was an experience".
IMAGE SOURCE
