“You’re in 2A?”
“Yes.”
“May I see your boarding pass?”
Nina did not react immediately.
She reached toward her phone.
Then stopped.
“Why?”
Riley blinked.
“Because I asked.”
Nina looked at her.
“That’s not an answer.”
Two passengers across the aisle became attentive.
Riley noticed them.
Her smile tightened.
“First-class boarding has already begun. We’ve had people walk into the wrong cabin before.”
Nina nodded slowly.
“And you think I did?”
“I’m verifying.”
“Did you verify his?”
Nina nodded toward the white man sitting in 1C.
The man looked up from his laptop.
Riley’s cheeks colored slightly.
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“He’s already seated.”
“So am I.”
The man in 1C lowered his laptop.
Nina waited.
Riley’s voice became more formal.
“Boarding pass, please.”
Nina unlocked her phone and displayed the digital boarding pass.
NINA CARTER
SEAT 2A
FIRST CLASS
Riley looked at it.
Then at Nina.
Something should have ended there.
A professional correction.
A simple apology.
“Thank you, Ms. Carter.”
Instead Riley said:
“Interesting.”
Nina frowned.
“What is?”
“Nothing.”
Riley turned toward the case.
“You’ll need to put that away.”
Nina placed the phone on her lap.
“Yes.”
Riley walked away.
The man in 1C glanced toward Nina.
She ignored him.
She had spent enough of her life deciding whether small slights deserved energy.
Most did not.
This one, she told herself, probably did not either.
Three minutes later, Riley returned.
Nina had opened the briefcase’s outer document sleeve and was checking one page against an encrypted message on her phone.
The seal remained intact.
Riley stopped beside the seat.
“I told you to put that away.”
Nina checked the cabin clock.
Boarding had another eighteen minutes.
“The door is still open.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It does under your own cabin policy.”
Riley looked surprised.
Nina continued.
“Personal items may remain accessible during boarding as long as they don’t obstruct the aisle.”
The briefcase was between Nina’s ankles.
Not in the aisle.
Riley’s expression hardened.
“You work for the airline?”
“No.”
“Then let me handle policy.”
Nina closed the outer sleeve.
“That’s exactly what I’m allowing you to do.”
Riley stared.
Across the aisle, the passenger in 2D pretended not to listen.
Riley lowered her voice.
“This cabin has certain expectations.”
Nina’s eyes narrowed.
“What expectations?”
“Courtesy.”
Nina almost laughed.
“Agreed.”
Riley looked toward the case again.
“Where did you get that?”
Nina stared at her.
“The briefcase?”
“Yes.”
“I own it.”
Riley gave a small smile.
“Of course.”