Some Kind of Bliss

Jake was sat next to Anna on a long-haul flight from Heathrow to Tokyo. They had felt the mutual attractive discourse emanate between them as exit rituals were played out and the plane banked a confident launch into the sky.

They engaged in light conversation about their respective groups of friends, careers, and their recent failed relationships and became increasingly enamoured within the connection they had accidently forged as the journey progressed, as though they were passengers on a solo flight to a destination no one else was travelling to.

Jake thought Anna was strikingly beautiful, but in a subtle way that meant she didn’t display any signs of being aware of it. Her eyes betrayed an unflinching honesty, earnest in the trusting affection she had begun to display. He noticed the way her nose would crease slightly whenever she found something funny, and he felt grateful for his noticing.

Anna thought Jake was effortlessly attractive but mysterious and alluring all at once. For the first time in weeks her mind was no longer painfully lingering on thoughts of Ben, and she said to herself that this must surely be a miracle in itself.

Anna and Jake became flirtatious as the altitude heightened the effects of the mini bottles of wine that were handed out and rested their heads on each others’ shoulders to watch the in-flight movie – some corny American comedy to which neither paid much attention.

The flight slept and the plane glided through rainclouds in pursuit of the flashes and dots on navigation screens. Anna felt Jake stir against her and she blinked into a semi-conscious state, attempting to adjust to the darkness of the cabin. Jake was staring into her eyes with a deep furnace of emotion blazing away inside his own. She felt mild relief as a gentle smile sketched its way across his face.

She asked what he was smiling about and he replied, “I think I’m in love and now I have no fear of dying alone”.

He had just enough time to register the sleepy confusion yawn across Anna’s pretty face before the bombs packed inside his shoes exploded, giving birth to a blissful corona of fire that lit up the sky.