"Okay," Ruby said. "We'll go. But seat two C is still empty. When the person who belongs in two C comes through that door, you're going to remember this."
Sloan gave a small, dismissive tilt of her head. "Noted. Now please move aside. We have a flight to board."
The couple stepped forward before the girls were halfway out of the row. Richard lowered himself into seat 2B and placed his phone on the broad armrest, stretching his legs as though reclaiming familiar territory. Celeste took the window seat, 2A, and smoothed her dress over her knees. Sloan's face brightened instantly as she turned toward them, all her earlier impatience vanishing under a smile that could have belonged in an airline advertisement.
"Mr. and Mrs. Ashford, I'm terribly sorry about the trouble," she said. "Please make yourselves comfortable. We appreciate your loyalty so much."
"You're a miracle worker, Sloan," Celeste said, reaching for the glass of sparkling wine that had been offered while the disagreement unfolded. "Truly."
Richard lifted his glass without looking at the children. "I told corporate they ought to put someone with your judgment in charge of training the others. I haven't forgotten that."
That sentence mattered more to Sloan than either Ashford knew. She had applied for a corporate inflight training position three weeks earlier, a job that would put an end to nineteen years of hotel rooms, unpredictable rotations, and the exhausting effort of smiling through arguments at thirty thousand feet. The interview was scheduled for the following Thursday. A recommendation from a man who sat on the airline's customer advisory board could help her leave the aisles behind for good.
She turned back toward Ruby and Pearl, who were still standing with their backpacks pressed against their chests. "Off you go, ladies," she said. "We're all set."
The rest of the aircraft seemed to be watching. A woman in a gray sweater standing in the boarding line frowned when she noticed the birthday badges pinned to the girls' dresses. A man two rows behind the Ashfords lowered his newspaper and stared at the new boarding passes. Other passengers looked away, unwilling to start an argument with the woman wearing the lead flight attendant's badge while a long line waited behind them.
Ruby walked first. Pearl caught the back of her yellow dress with two fingers, exactly the way she did when they crossed a busy street or entered an unfamiliar classroom. They moved against the current of passengers boarding toward the front, two small figures carrying backpacks with a rainbow and a sleeping fox stitched into the fabric. Behind them, the couple raised their glasses, and the sound of crystal touching crystal followed the girls all the way to the curtain separating first class from the main cabin.