Click, click, click. The seat belt wasn’t closing for my seatmate and I’m beginning to feel stuck. The man next to me is fidgety and feels no compunction about manspreading into my legroom space.

He’s not been particularly friendly either and I’m trying to imagine that maybe he’s just a nervous flier. Patience. Just take a deep breath.

The flight attendant comes over to offer a pre-flight beverage. He immediately talks over me and her, “Can I get a bourbon?”

The flight attendant politely points out that until we’re airborne, she can only offer sparkling wine or water.

He makes a fuss and says “I’ll just wait until I can get a real drink .”

Then he leans over me and looks down the aisle and when I move my arm to block him, he glares at me.

“Oh, you’re going to be one of those seatmates. Too bad because I’d thought you were kinda cute.”

How on earth was I going to survive this nine hour flight next to this jerk?

Just then, the flight attendant comes back and asks me my name and then motions for me to grab my things and follow her.

She leads me into the business class section with the lie flat seats and says, “That passenger has a reputation that precedes him and we had an opening here so I wanted to make sure you could have a relaxing flight. “

I looked back towards my old seat, the jerk wearing an apoplectic expression.

Kindness pays.