“Excuse me.”
Melissa approached.
“Can I help you, sir?”
“Are infants normally allowed in first?”
Melissa smiled professionally.
“Yes, sir.”
“Even that young?”
“As long as they meet travel requirements.”
Preston nodded slowly.
“Interesting.”
He sat.
Simone looked out the window.
She had encountered enough things in life to know when a question was not really a question.
The flight had not even left the gate.
Twenty minutes later, Lila made a small sound.
Not a scream.
Barely a cry.
Preston sighed dramatically.
Simone adjusted the baby.
“Sorry.”
He looked toward her.
“Premium cabins used to mean something.”
Simone felt her shoulders tighten.
“What does that mean?”
Preston glanced toward Lila.
“I paid for quiet.”
“So did I.”
His eyebrows rose.
“You paid?”
Simone stared at him.
Preston smiled.
“Just asking.”
“No, you weren’t.”
He turned back toward the window.
The plane pushed away from the gate.
Simone told herself not to engage.
She had a presentation to review.
A baby to care for.
A meeting that would likely run through dinner.
She opened her laptop after takeoff and connected to onboard Wi-Fi.
The Hale Meridian contract summary was still open from the night before.
Service reliability: below target in four hospitals.
Replacement sensor pricing: fifteen percent above the leading competitor.
Clinical satisfaction: acceptable.
Software integration: strong.
Customer-support escalation: inconsistent.
Ethics compliance: no unresolved material finding.
Renewal recommendation: pending.
Simone had not decided what she would recommend.
That was important.
Preston’s company had problems.
Every company did.
Its equipment also performed well in several critical categories, and changing vendors across seventeen hospitals created costs no spreadsheet captured cleanly.
Meridian did not switch suppliers to make statements.
It switched when patient care, economics, service, compliance, or long-term strategy justified doing so.
Simone intended to hear Preston’s team the following morning.
She did not yet know Preston sat twelve inches away.
The irony would have been almost funny if everything afterward had not happened.
About an hour into the flight, Melissa offered breakfast.
Simone ordered fruit, oatmeal, and coffee.
Preston ordered eggs and asked whether they still carried a specific California sparkling wine.
Melissa explained they had champagne available.
“Close enough.”
He ordered a glass.
While she served him, he nodded toward Simone’s laptop.
“You in healthcare?”
Simone looked up.
“Yes.”
“Nurse?”
“No.”
“Doctor?”
“No.”
He waited.
Simone did not explain.
That seemed to bother him.
“What do you do?”
“Administration.”
Preston smiled.
“Of course.”
Simone closed the laptop halfway.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.”
“It sounded like something.”
He lifted both hands.