On the recent flight home from our engagement session in Portland, Jeff boarded the plane before me to get our luggage in the overhead bins, while I waited behind in the boarding area to get a few extra minutes of charge on my laptop. He took the window seat, and left the middle seat for me. When I finally boarded, there was already a passenger seated in the aisle.

As I scooted past the stranger and slid into my seat, Jeff turned his head, took off his head phones, slowly looked me up and down, and said, “Oh hey, you’re pretty!”

I laughed a little and shook my head without looking at him. “Oh yeah,” I said and then worked on stuffing my laptop bag and jacket underneath the seat in front of me.

He replied, “Yeah. What’s your name?”

I looked at him and paused for a moment. Then I leaned over and gave him a kiss.

He laughed and adjusted his headphones while I leaned down to grab my laptop out of my bag to do some writing, when the stranger next to us leaned over.

“I was really glad to realize that you know each other,” he said, “because for a second there, I thought it was going to be a really long flight.”

Now that we have our studio in the heart of a bustling urban neighborhood and we walk or scoot most everywhere we go, Jeff has been playing this game where he’ll see me walk into Starbucks, meet him at the grocery store, or walking around the neighborhood to or from lunch, and he’ll try to ‘pick me up’. Preferably with unaware strangers nearby.

He was DELIGHTED that his game finally worked on the Portland flight.

I was delighted that after eight years of constant working, living, and traveling side by side all-day-every-day, we still have waaaay too much fun together.

Hugs,

Erin