Let's have four vodkas

The would-be teacher-turned-stewardess made her way back to our seat with something of a scowl.

"Can I get either of you a drink?"

"Do you have vodka?" I asked, winking at Britney. She flashed me a huge smile and suppressed a giggle.

"Of course, sir," she said.

"Make it four, please," I said. "With two ginger ales."

The flight attendant sighed and gave Britney and me our drinks with some pretzels to boot. Of course, I paid for them all.

Britney and I mixed our cocktails and clinked our plastic cups together. "Cheers," I said.

"Cheers," she replied, taking a sip. "And thanks!"

"My pleasure." I wanted to keep her talking. "What are you looking forward to about London?"

Britney sipped her cocktail and told me all about her plans. Tower of London, British Museum, Buckingham Palace ... the works. "But my dad is always like 'early to bed, early to rise,' so I'm not sure what I'm going to do at night," she said as she finished her drink.

I cracked open her second vodka and poured it into her cup. "You gotta find a pub or two," I said. "You don't want your whole trip to be a dry spell!" I winked at her, hoping I was being flirtatious and not weird.

She laughed and said, "Well, maybe you can give me some tips."

"I just might do that," I said. "Sounds like fun."

We chatted some more about family and school and friends. As we nursed our drinks and munched on our pretzels, our conversation became looser, more relaxed and fun. After about a half-hour, Britney said she needed the bathroom. I stood to let her by, and she stumbled a bit getting out of the seat. "Careful now!" I said, grasping her arm to steady her. She laughed and made her way carefully to the bathroom while I collected my thoughts. (I bet you can guess what they were...)

When Britney returned, I stood again and let her back into her window seat. I went to the bathroom myself and returned to find her playing a mindless game on her phone. I took out my book and continued reading.

It wasn't much longer before the flight attendants started passing out blankets. Britney had been yawning up a storm and happily took one. I did as well, though I stuffed mine under the seat in front of me for now.

"Bedtime?" I asked.

She yawned again. "I hope so," she said. "I always have a hard time sleeping on planes." She reached into her purse and pulled out some Ambien. "My dad said these should help, though." She tossed two pills back with the last sip of her cocktail. She held out her plastic cups and can of ginger ale. "Do you mind?" she said.

"Not at all," I replied, gathering up all our trash. She put her tray table up, reclined her seat, covered herself with a blanket and smiled at me. "Thanks, Simon. You're a real gentleman."

I dumped the trash when the flight attendant came by with the trash bag. The cabin lights dimmed, indicating that service was over and it was time for folks to get their overnight flight rest.

To any outside observer, I was working on getting sleepy by staring at the night sky out our window. But another natural beauty had my full, undivided attention.