Of course she was there too. Taking up three seats—one for her, one for her bag, one for her dog. Still yelling on FaceTime. Still no leash. Still barking. Nobody said a word. We were all too drained. So I sat next to her. She gave me a dirty look. I smiled and said, “Long wait, huh?” She ignored me. A few minutes later, I casually stood up, walked a few feet away,

then returned and said, “Hey—just got a gate change alert. Rome flight’s at 14B now. This one’s for Paris.” Without checking, she rolled her eyes, grabbed her stuff, yanked her dog’s leash, and stormed off—muttering about how stupid the airport was. And just like that, she was gone. Silence returned. A couple people chuckled. Someone clapped once. A mom mouthed thank you. The gate agent smiled. She never came back. And yes—our flight was still to Rome.