Naebody in Particular

Tonight, sitting lonely and alone, on a long business flight back from the west coast, I witnessed one of the most beautiful, spontaneous, cinematic-voyeur moments that I’ve seen in a long, long time.

Shortly after I took my seat, I noticed a guy in front of me was talking back and forth with the stewardess, who had camped out in our row while people boarded the plane. He was 65ish and DC-professional, and spent the whole flight working on some sort of legal document on his iPad. She was 50+, very put together, and a truly southern lady.

And all was going perfectly boringly, until…

… guy sitting in front of me on the plane just wrote his number on a cocktail napkin to give to the stewardess. (1/x)

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

… he's been fiddling with the napkin for 10 minutes, trying to stick it on his empty drink and still have the number viewable. (2/x)

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

… the wrong stewardess just came by to collect his trash, so he had to snatch the napkin back. (3/x)

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

… watching this is equal parts epic, awkward, horrible and heartwarming. (4/x)

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

… regrouping. he's totally going to do this. #godihopeshesaysyes #buticantwatch

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

… she's coming. (6/x)

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

… fwiw, i'm listening to Mumford & Son's "I Will Wait for You" while this is happening. #neartears #epicsoundtrackaccident (7/x)

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

… #dammitwomanmovefaster (8/x)

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

… she took it, and said thank you with a very warm smile, but moved away quickly. #sigh (9/x)

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

… i'm just now realizing that Love Actually has completely skewed my expectations when I'm in and around airports. #nothappy (10/x)

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

… my hero just looked over his shoulder. stewardess hasn't done a pass in over 5 minutes. #nothappytimestwo (11/x)

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

… i'm going to call this. he's not going to get a call back. thank you napkin guy, thank you. #yourstillmyhero (12/x)

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

… she totally just winked at him. (13/x)

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

… "I hope you'll call me." "I will." #OMFG (15/x)

— evancparker (@evancparker) September 19, 2014

I’m paraphrasing from one of my favorite movies of all time, but one thing I will never forget: there’s someone out there for everyone – even if you need a pickaxe, a compass, and night goggles to find them.

Love blossoms in the heart of Southwest.