Buddy Amaral, a successful but emotionally detached advertising executive, is grounded at a Chicago airport waiting out a weather delay. Rather than endure the overpriced airport bars or the agonizingly slow restaurant queues, he passes the time flirting with a stranger he has just met. On the way back from the washroom he encounters another traveler, Greg Janello, who is simply trying to get home to his wife and children. As an ad man and natural extrovert, Buddy thrives on conversation and connection, effortlessly able to charm and sell ideas to anyone in front of him. He invites Greg to join their table, drawn in by his own curiosity and habit of turning strangers into temporary companions. Greg agrees, settling in easily enough. After all, they are all just stranded passengers killing time until the weather clears.

Greg is a simple guy, a writer. Expresses far more through his work than through conversation. He contributes to a financially struggling newspaper, a fact he keeps modestly to himself until the more outspoken Buddy casually exposes it. Greg is at the airport trying to find the quickest and most affordable way home after weather delays have thrown travel plans into disarray. He had originally planned to take the bus - unable to comfortably afford a flight - and is only now hoping for a standby seat or any last-minute cheap option that will get him back to his family sooner.

In conversation Greg tells Buddy how the wife is mad at him for pursuing his passions in writing instead of other ‘real’ jobs, while they are struggling (in her words) to stay afloat. So extrovert Buddy takes out his camera, and films an apology for the poor guy. Soon the airport reopens and flights begin taking off again. Greg says his goodbyes, preparing to continue home to his family. Buddy, meanwhile, impulsively decides not to board. Caught up in the excitement of the spontaneous connection with the woman he has just met, he hands Greg his ticket instead, figuring he can always catch another flight in the morning while the two of them head off to a hotel together.

In the middle of the night, unable to sleep, Buddy goes to get a glass of water and turns on the television almost absently. What he sees on the news stops him cold: the flight he was meant to be on has crashed, killing everyone onboard! The casual moment of routine collapses into shock and disbelief as he realizes the full weight of what his impulsive decision has set in motion.

Last week in church the pastor was on about those stories where God is said to save someone’s life by making them miss a bus or a flight that later ends in tragedy. The service is mainly in Kikuyu at my church but I was still able to piece together what he was saying. A few weeks earlier I had watched this old movie - Bounce - and somehow the timing of that sermon couldn’t have been better.

Over in another part of the US of A, Greg’s wife Abby Janello, is going through the first stages of grief: disbelief and denial. Abby is played by Gwyneth Paltrow. I have a friend who looks exactly like Gwyneth Paltrow, well, at least the younger version of her. But she is too blinded to admit it.

Abby has seen the plane crash news on TV, and is trying to convince herself that her poor husband was supposed to take the bus, not a plane. But Greg hasn’t answered his phone in well over 24 hours. The agencies responsible for salvaging whatever’s left of the crash are still identifying the victims and connecting them with their closest of kin.

A few hours later Abby receives that knock on the door. Two agents from the airline stand outside in dark coats, their faces composed into expressions of practiced remorse. Delivering news like this is never easy. Receiving it is even worse. For a moment you try to convince yourself it’s a mistake, that they’ve got the wrong address, or it’s some cruel modern prank. But deep down you already know it isn’t.

The agents don’t even say much. Just the familiar, hollow “We’re very sorry for your loss”, as if those words can make anyone feel better. Abby shuts the door on them, overwhelmed, refusing to let the reality fully enter her home just yet. When her mother arrives Abby warns her not to cry, because if she cries she’ll cry.

Eventually she goes with her mother to the airline’s offices to confirm what she already fears is true. That’s when the shock finally gives way. Abby breaks down completely, screaming in disbelief and grief, her composure dissolving into raw and uncontrollable emotions. She lashes out at the air, at the moment, at anything she can reach, not wanting to be touched, not wanting comfort, not wanting reality to settle around her. She collapses to the floor, and no one tries to stop her. There are moments like that where language fails, where even grief feels too small a word for what a person is going through.

The tragedy deeply affects Buddy too. He is wracked with guilt, and spirals into alcoholism but eventually enters rehab. A year later he is still haunted by what happened. This is aided by the fact that the victims’ families are ever on the news, still seeking closure and filing lawsuits against the airline. Through this he discovers Greg’s widow, Abby, and decides to seek her out.

He learns that Abby is a real estate agent trying to make ends meet. She is left with two young boys, and her mother now lives with her permanently. On the surface, she seems to be holding on well. She even gets a dog, as if trying to fill a part of her life that can never truly be filled.

At first Buddy only intends to help anonymously by saving her husband’s struggling newspaper from financial collapse, partly out of guilt and partly as a way of supporting Greg’s family from a distance. Then he starts helping her close real estate deals, and gradually becomes part of her life. They grow close and eventually fall in love. At least she does.

At lunch one day at a restaurant Buddy pulls out a move that sounded so much like something I’d do. He goes on and says something like:

“The drinking wasn't the worst part. It was the thinking I was such hot stuff. I've always been one of those people: born salesman, closer, people person. Yeah, I wasn't. Not by a long shot.”

He stares straight into his drink, then continues.

“It's like how everybody thinks that they have a good sense of humor, or good taste. Or they're a good driver. I'd be driving along and I'd happen to look up in the rearview mirror and there would be all these bloody people, and crashed cars in the street, and I'd think ‘Jesus! There's a lot of bad drivers in this neighborhood’.”

Silence.

“That was me with people. I'd like to tell you that I've wised up, but I don't know.”

It’s always the ‘I don’t know’ when you’ve already said what you know. Aki men!

Abby, eyes almost breaking from tears, does the reasonable thing and leaves Buddy to his traumas and bloody people on the street.

“I get it, you're bad with relationships. And as a person who's standing in the road ahead of you.. thanks. I'll be getting on the sidewalk now.”

“Abby..!”

“No, you know it's okay,” she continues. “I took a shot. I think I misread stuff and I'm sorry. I'm just really grateful to you for throwing me the sail and everything. Bye.”

She walks out.

But as with all rom-dramas, Buddy and Abby find their way back into each other’s lives after their separation. What began cautiously gradually becomes more natural, even comforting. Abby’s children warm to Buddy with surprising ease, and for the first time since her husband’s death she feels like her life is opening back up instead of closing in. She is no longer seen only as a widow, but as a woman again, someone still capable of being chosen, desired, and loved.

For Buddy, the relationship becomes more complicated for him. What started as a guilt-driven attempt to help the family of the man who died in his place begins to shift into a tangible feeling. He realizes his feelings for Abby are no longer just about responsibility or redemption, but deeper. Something he can’t easily explain or dismiss. The truth about the plane crash still sits inside him though, uncomfortably, lingering in his mind every moment he spends with her.

Abby meanwhile is caught between healing and hesitation. She is grateful for Buddy’s presence and what he brings to her life and her children’s, yet she also wrestles with whether it is too soon to rebuild an intimate relationship so soon after loss. Her happiness with Buddy exists in tension with the memory of Greg, and the fear that moving forward might somehow mean letting go a little too soon, a little too completely.

Eventually Buddy can no longer carry the weight of what he knows in silence. The truth comes out, shattering their fragile foundation of everything that has grown between them and forcing both of them to confront the full consequences of that single, impulsive decision at the airport.

Isn’t it sad, that someone can cause your death, even if unintentionally, then later take your beautiful wife?

Crazy. Stay safe though.

Reagan..✍🏽