LOVE BY CHANCE
Chapter One
June 5, 2001
Rose DeWitt-Bukater looked at her watch as
she ran through the airport terminal. She had five minutes to make it to her
airplane. If she missed her flight she’d never make it home to see her mother,
not that it would be a true disappointment in her eyes. Her mother’s eyes were
a different story. Oh well, no time to think of that. Have to get to the gate.
"This is the final boarding call for
Flight 517 to Philadelphia..."
Rose paused as she got in the line to board
the plane before digging into the back pocket of her jeans to pull out her
boarding pass. She was still slightly out of breath as she smiled and handed
her pass to the attendant. As she stepped into the airplane’s cabin she let out
a sigh of relief. She moved back toward the coach section, looking for her
seat. She found it, regretfully an aisle seat right beside a man about her age
with blonde hair.
"Hello," she said to him as she sat
down.
He turned to look at her.
"Hello..."
After setting her purse on the floor, Rose
turned to look at the man she would be sitting beside for the duration of the
flight. "Oh, my gosh! Jack Dawson, I can’t believe it’s you!"
"Rose DeWitt-Bukater! You were the last
person I was expecting to see on a flight from San Francisco to
Philadelphia!"
"Same here," she said with a huge
grin on her face. "I can’t believe this! It’s been years since I’ve seen
you. Wasn’t it on graduation?"
"Yeah, it was. My parents dragged me
away after that. I tried to get in touch with you after that but I lost your
address and I couldn’t remember your phone number."
"No problem. Same with me, though I
think my mother threw them away so I couldn’t keep in touch with you. She never
liked you. She always wanted me to date Caledon Hockley, but there was
something about that guy I never liked."
"I still remember your mother’s eyes
every time I came over to your house. Like ice." Jack thought for a
moment. "You know, I heard from someone that Cal is in jail for abusing
his wife or something like that."
"Doesn’t surprise me that he was already
married and that he abused his wife. Seems to me that jail is where he
belongs."
"Yeah," Jack replied. "So, do
you live in San Francisco?"
"Yeah, I live and work here. How about
you?"
"I do too. I almost can’t believe we
never ran into each other before!"
"It’s pretty amazing," she replied
with a slight smile.
Suddenly the captain came over the loud
speaker. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Sorry about
the delay, but we will be getting on our way. Please turn your full attention
to the flight attendants as the demonstrate how to use the safety devices in
the plane. Thank you."
Jack and Rose smiled at each other, then
looked forward to the flight attendant.
Some time later...
"Rose, when you said I would spend my
life drawing, you weren’t kidding. Getting that job at Brown’s Advertising has
done me a world of good. I can do what I enjoy all the time and get paid good
money for it."
"And when you said I would spend my life
with my fingers glued to a computer keyboard, you were right. I work for the
San Francisco Times as a journalist. Well, not really. I just design the layout
for the paper and send it to print. I like it and the money’s not really bad
either."
"Rose," Jack said a few minutes
later, turning toward Rose. "I really regret how our relationship ended
up. I do. I really loved you and to be honest I can’t say I ever stopped."
"Jack," Rose said, slightly
shocked. "I don’t know what to say. I never would have even thought you
would have feelings for me after all this time." She laid her hand on his.
"I can honestly say I feel the same way you do, Jack. It was just a weird
feeling I had when we were going in high school. That we belonged
together."
"Yeah, I had the same feeling. I should
have told you about it. I mean you honestly can’t believe how heartbroken I was
when we left and when I discovered I had lost my last connection to you. I
moped until my parents threatened to do something drastic to snap me out of
it."
"Yeah, I was so upset, too. Mother tried
to set me up with Cal to make me feel better, but he tried to feel me up that
night and he ended up getting a cup of coffee in his pants." Rose grinned
evilly.
"I would have loved to have seen that. I
bet you loved doing it."
She leaned closer to him. "Oh, you know
it. Almost as much as I love doing this..." She closed the remaining
distance between them and kissed him, the same fire that had fueled their
passion when they were in high school rushing back at that instant. Rose ran
her hand up Jack’s chest to rest on his cheek as Jack’s hand ran from her cheek
to run through her fiery curly red hair.
"Can I get you something to...oh
my..."
Jack and Rose pulled apart to look up,
smiling sheepishly at the flight attendant. It would be a long flight.