Just as she turned to look my way when I didn’t respond, after she’d asked me a question, to my silent horror a toy of my own spilled out of the unzipped pocket of my carryon as I lifted the bag up to the overhead compartment above my seat.

Toy in hand, I felt an intense blush cover my cheeks as I sneaked a look at her. She was smiling behind the hand she’d demurely covered her mouth with when she’d caught sight of the dildo. To keep from laughing? Thank goodness her daughter was facing away from me, with her face plastered on the window, gazing at the neighboring planes.

“I think I have one just like it,” Suzy had said charitably, and then turned to continue tucking various books and toys into the pockets of their seats. She does?

Our eyes met as I continued to observe her now. A distant ache reopened somewhere in my gut as we locked eyes; she was the kind of woman Chris had been like, I told myself again. Fashionable clothes, not a hair out of place, carrying herself with a timeless, effortless sophistication, tall, slim, sexy.   A style icon, a woman to dream about, cherish. Was there a flip side to her? Could she be just as wanton during sex as Chris had been? Constantly surprising in the way she let herself go in the throes of passion?

“Cr-a-a-ve,” she repeated now, slowly licking the tip of a pink tongue over those shiny, red lips, returning my lustful stare. “You were right.”

She tucked her tablet into the seat pocket by her side and flipped the tray back into its position. As she turned towards the sleeping form of her daughter and adjusted the blanket she’d laid over the toddler, the captain announced that we’d cleared the air pockets that had caused the turbulence earlier, and that the lights were now dimmed to allow passengers to settle and sleep if they wanted to.

Suzy unbuckled and fixed a long look at me. She uncrossed her long, slim legs and stood gracefully. She smooth out imagined creases on her skirt and looked at me again before taking a step.

I felt a certain buzz exchange between us, and knew it was going to happen.  Whatever “it” was the same thing had happened with – a dozen, twenty? I’d lost count – other women over the past year.