She was flying across the country for a blind date. But she fell for her flight attendant

Angela Buckner, pictured left, boarded the flight to New York excited for a blind date. Then she locked eyes with flight attendant Brittany Hairston, pictured right, and everything changed. Brittany Hairston and Angela Buckner via CNN Newsource

When Angela Buckner decided to fly halfway across the United States for a blind date, she didn’t consider the decision a leap of faith.

Instead, Angela saw the trip as simply a fun adventure — another in a series of carefree romantic escapades.

“I was a recreation supervisor, laid back, not trying to be in no relationship, trying to have fun,” Angela tells CNN Travel today. “I was very excited to go to New York and literally was doing whatever I wanted.”

That day in the fall of 2023, Angela boarded the airplane with no expectations. Some friends had arranged the date and they knew her well, so Angela — 28 at the time —figured it’d be a good time at least.

She paid no attention to the flight attendant greeting her at the door. She made her way to the back of the aircraft, ready to switch off and get some rest.

“Usually when I fly, I literally put my Beats on my hoodie, on top of my head, and I’m zoned out,” says Angela.

As the flight pushed back from the gate, Angela closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the flight was in the air. She suddenly tuned into voices around her.

The flight attendant was making conversation with the older couple next to her, who’d just ordered red wine. She was quizzing them on how long they’d been together, encouraging them to make the most of the flight, laughing and joking with them.

“I was half asleep, and I kind of woke up, and she was very loud with the older people,” recalls Angela.

She zoned into the conversation and found herself smiling. It was charming, the young female flight attendant connecting with the older couple.

“I was like, ‘Oh my god, she is so sweet and just generous,’” recalls Angela. “I’m a big lover of elderly people, because that’s how we learn, that’s how we get here, is through our elders. So just how she was comforting them and talking to them … I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s so sweet.’”

Angela turned to look at the flight attendant for the first time. The woman was smiling ear to ear as she engaged with Angela’s seat neighbors. Then, suddenly, she turned her attention to Angela. Somehow, her smile was now even wider. Angela’s heart skipped a beat.

“Right then, I forgot all about the date,” recalls Angela. “It was all about her. It was all about her.”

‘She walked on … this tall goddess’

For flight attendant Brittany Hairston, that flight to New York started like any other. She stood by the door, greeting the travelers as they boarded. Some smiled back. Most ignored her.

It was evening, her last flight of the day. Brittany, then 32, loved flying and the flight attendant lifestyle — even when she was tired, even when it was busy, even when passengers were difficult.

“I’m single, living in New York, traveling around the world, just meeting people and enjoying life. It was great,” she recalls.

Then, on walked Angela. She didn’t even look Brittany’s way, but Brittany was immediately smitten.

“She walked on … this tall goddess,” Brittany recalls. “I immediately started pinching the other flight attendant. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, look, look.’”

Angela, meanwhile, was just focused on getting to her seat.

“She had headphones on, she had a hoodie on, not even paying attention,” recalls Brittany. “My mouth was open, and there may or may not have been drool coming out.”

Angela turned to her fellow flight attendant, telling the colleague that she needed to be the one serving Angela once they were in the air.

“Oh, my God, she’s beautiful,” Brittany said, half to herself, half to her coworker, who raised an eyebrow at Brittany, bemused.

Then, Brittany turned to watch Angela walk to the back of the plane, bend her long legs into the tiny seat and close her eyes.

“I remember she was sitting in row 28,” says Brittany.

Once the flight was in the air, Brittany began serving customers. As she made her way down the aisle, she pysched herself up to talk to the woman in row 28.

But when she approached, she realized Angela was out for the count — eyes shut, headphones on, hood up.

Usually, she’d skip sleeping passengers. Instead, Brittany hoped her interaction with Angela’s seat neighbors — the cute, wine-drinking elderly couple — would wake her up.

“We’re talking about how long they had been together,” she recalls. “I was so loud, I’m like, ‘Hey, do you guys want any more wine?’”

When she saw Angela’s eyes eventually open, Brittany immediately turned to her, smiling.

“I asked her, ‘Can I get you something to drink?’ And she asked for a Sprite, very nonchalantly, like, one eye open, one closed,” recalls Brittany. “I asked, ‘Cookies or pretzels?’ Gave her some cookies … ”

Throughout this interaction, Brittany was blushing. She assumed her feelings must be written all over her face. Meanwhile Angela, smiling enigmatically, was harder to read. Brittany continued making conversation, trying to figure her passenger out.

“You must play basketball,” she said, referring to Angela’s 6-foot 2-inch frame. Angela explained that she used to play for Wichita State University.

Brittany immediately started rambling about her cousin’s husband, who is from Wichita.

“So, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s nothing in Wichita.’ And she ended up saying, ‘Well actually, there is stuff in Wichita, let me see your phone.’”

Still feeling a little like she was in a trance, the flight attendant removed her phone from her pocket, and opened the Notes app, thinking Angela was going to type in some travel tips.

“I thought she was going to write, ‘Well, we have the Sedgwick County Zoo. We have this, we have that.’”

Instead, Brittany watched as Angela keyed in her cellphone number.

“I almost melted into the floor,” recalls Brittany. “I skipped to the back of the plane. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I got her number.’”

Brittany immediately texted her best friend, a fellow flight attendant, and told her what had happened.

And then Angela and Brittany started messaging, right there on board the airplane.

“I was just so mesmerized. I’m like, ‘I have to see her again,’” Brittany recalls.

‘Flight attendants meet people all the time and flirt’

Landing in New York, Angela immediately texted her best friend about Brittany. She told her she’d just fallen in love at first sight on a flight.

She still went along to the blind date, but her thoughts were elsewhere.

“We went to a restaurant and actually had a great time, but all I could think about was Brittany,” recalls Angela. “I couldn’t wait to talk to her and see her again. I just knew she was special from the moment we met, so I wasn’t really concerned about anyone else at that time.”

Angela might have seemed cool and collected to Brittany on the flight, but inside she was a whirlwind of emotion and excitement. She told herself to calm down, that the interaction didn’t necessarily mean anything.

“I’m like, flight attendants meet people all the time and flirt,” she recalls.

Meanwhile, as Brittany made her way to her apartment in Queens, the excitement of the flight settled, and her butterflies also turned into a mix of nerves, apprehension and uncertainty. She started to doubt whether even staying in touch, let alone going to visit Angela would be a good idea.

“I’m a flight attendant. We do travel and everything … but I don’t know you like that,” she recalls thinking.

Plus, while Brittany had been attracted to women before, she’d only ever dated men. She was hesitant about acting on her feelings.

“I have always had an attraction for men and women, but never saw myself dating a woman because I was worried about what the world and my family would think,” she says.

Despite their respective anxieties, Brittany and Angela kept texting.

“Talking to her over those couple of months, I’m like ‘Okay, she’s cool, maybe we can hang out … ’” says Brittany.

Stil Brittany flipflopped between acknowledging her attraction to Angela and telling herself she was just swept up in the excitement of making a new friend.

That December, Brittany was booked to work a charity flight taking kids to Disney World in Orlando.

“Usually the children have illnesses, or their parents were in the military and passed away,” explains Brittany. “We dress up the plane, we go in Disney costumes.”

She loved working these flights. And by pure coincidence, the aircraft was due to fly straight to Wichita after dropping the passengers in Orlando. Brittany was set to have 24 hours to spare in Angela’s home city.

Hearing the plan, Angela immediately cooked up the perfect itinerary.

“I had to impress and make it very memorable,” Angela says.

Brittany was excited, but hesitant. She decided to rent a car and book a hotel, trying to exert her independence, as if Angela’s presence in Wichita was just incidental.

“I was like, ‘Why did you get a car? I’m going to be your chauffeur for the day,’” recalls Angela. “I went and picked her up. We did a bunch of stuff. Went to a restaurant, ate out, then I took her to the arcade — I’m a big video game person. Took her to a bar …”

By the end of the day, Angela and Brittany were already planning their next meet-up in New York, in three weeks time.

“But that night, I was just tossing and turning like, ‘Oh my gosh, what do I do?’” recalls Brittany.

She didn’t want to leave. She debated staying an extra day, then told herself it was a stupid idea. She continued to oscillate back and forth as she waited for the flight, knowing she had feelings for Angela she wasn’t facing.

“I went to the airport and I just sat and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh I cannot leave. I can’t leave,’” recalls Brittany. “I called my best friend and I’m like, ‘Bestie, I can’t leave. I don’t know what to do, but I cannot leave.’ And she’s like, ‘Well, then don’t leave.’”

Brittany protested. Her friend told her it didn’t have to be so complicated — she wanted to stay, so she should stay. Brittany reached a compromise with herself: if she called the hotel and they had a room available for another night, she’d stay.

They did. And so Brittany called Angela.

“I have decided to stay another day,” she said, tentatively. “If you’re free, can we hang out? I just couldn’t leave…”

Angela was at the airport before Brittany could believe it, and the two spent another magical day together in Wichita. Then, three weeks later, Brittany and Angela reunited at JFK airport.

As a flight attendant, Brittany can get through security without a boarding pass, so she met Angela directly off the gate.

“I tapped into my arts a crafts side, so I went out and purchased a piece of construction paper, scissors, markers, glue and glitter. I wrote ‘Welcome to New York, Angie,’” says Brittany. “As soon as she walked off the plane, there’s me with this big sign.”

Angela saw Brittany waving the sign, smiling, and ran into her arms and hugged her.

“I still have the sign,” says Angela.

In their texts back and forth, Angela had told Brittany she was a history fanatic, so Brittany took her to the city’s best museums and to the Statue of Liberty. They ate out together. They walked around the city, smiling at each other. And they opened up to each other. Both Angela and Brittany’s fathers had passed away young, something they both normally struggled to talk about, but now came more easily. They also bonded over their shared faith.

“She paid attention and she listened,” says Angela, who recalls feeling their connection had a depth to it that didn’t fit with what Brittany kept telling her: “We’re just having fun.”

Angela would echo the words back to her, even as she didn’t quite believe them: “I’m like, ‘Yeah, we’re just having fun. I don’t want no relationship, let’s just enjoy each other.’”

The more she heard those words said aloud, the less Angela felt they were true. She figured Brittany just needed time to come to terms with what was happening.

“It was a little harder for her, because she hasn’t been with women like that and I have, you know, so it’s a whole different thing,” Angela says.

Angela describes herself as “an opportunist” when it comes to love and romance. She’d always “liked what she liked when she liked it,” and fell for the person, not the gender. But Angela appreciated that for Brittany, acting on her feelings was a big step.

“But I knew I wanted her, I knew I needed her, and I knew I was going to get her, so that was … not to be cocky, but we had too many things in common … Too many things aligned.”

Saying the words aloud

After the New York trip, Brittany and Angela kept meeting when they could. There was a “natural progression,” says Brittany. She felt increasingly comfortable with Angela, and they kept getting closer.

One night, they were lying in bed together “just talking and giggling and laughing,” as Brittany recalls it.

“I was falling asleep, then she tapped me and she said, ‘Well, why don’t you just go ahead and say it?’”

“Say what?” Brittany said, sleepily, smiling.

Angela smiled back and repeated herself: “Why don’t you just go ahead and say it? We both know.”

Brittany paused. Then she said the words aloud to Angela for the first time: “I love you.”

The next day, the two went on a walk around Wichita together. At the time Angela was the recreation director for the city of Wichita — she’s now the city’s recreation supervisor — so she enjoyed showing Brittany her city’s natural beauty.

“We went to one of the recreation facilities, and they have a beautiful nature walk,” recalls Brittany. “There was a beautiful lake, and we had walked out on the pier, and we were at the end of it.”

Brittany looked up at Angela.

“I know we were in and out of sleep, last night,” she began. “But I’m awake now. So, I just want to make sure you know that I love you.”

Then she kissed Angela.

“And Angela looked at me with these little googly eyes and said, ‘I love you too,’” recalls Brittany.

It was February 2024, a few months since they’d met on the flight. They officially became a couple in spring of that year.

“We took our time, even though I think we knew we were going to be together. We just wanted to make sure it was right before we did,” says Angela. “I told her, ‘When I’m all in with this one, I’m all in.’ And she told me: ‘The next relationship is going to be my last relationship.’”

While part of Angela wanted to go all in right away, she also enjoyed the slow burn, falling in love with Brittany more each day.

“She made me put in my work,” says Angela. “It was much appreciated, and I respect it, and I honor it even more, because it was work and it wasn’t easy. It was never easy, but it’s been amazing. I learn something new every day with Brittany. She is truly a special individual.”

For Brittany, diving into the relationship with Angela also involved her being honest about her feelings — both to herself and her loved ones. For much of the first few months together, she kept the burgeoning connection with Angela pretty private.

“In my heart, I knew that I loved Angie and wanted to be with her forever despite what anyone else thought,” Brittany says today. “I went back and forth with myself about how I felt and how I was going to explain that feeling to people, but it had to happen because she deserved more, we deserved more.”

When Brittany plucked up the courage to tell her mother, she was greeted with nothing but love, support and excitement.

“I told my mom, who was super happy that I was super happy, and she loved me no matter what,” says Brittany. “After that, I felt on top of the world and we both decided to make it ‘social media’ official.”

The overwhelming love Angela and Brittany received from friends and family was incredible. Brittany felt buoyed by love and optimism.

“A couple of months later, I got a tattoo on my thigh with song lyrics that read ‘You don’t have to change a thing. The world can change its heart’ and that’s exactly how I feel,” says Brittany. “I am not afraid to love out loud anymore.”

A cinematic proposal

Brittany and Angela realized their future goals were aligned pretty early on. Neither wanted kids — “we’re the fun aunties,” says Angela — and both admired their parents’ long relationships and hoped for their own long-term, special union.

Initally, however, they had slightly different perspectives on marriage.

“I knew way before she knew that I was gonna marry her and end up being with her for the rest of my life,” says Angela of Brittany.

For Brittany, the idea of marriage was daunting at first. She was used to her independence. But as she got to know Angela, she shifted her perspective. She began to think marriage was symbolic of “unconditional love.”

On the first anniversary of the day they met on the flight, Brittany and Angela planned to go out together in Wichita and celebrate. As a surprise, Angela arranged to meet Brittany at a movie theater.

Brittany was skeptical. While she and Angela are on the same page about many things, they differ when it comes to cinema.

“She is a huge movie person,” says Brittany of Angela. “She loves movies. Her father and her used to go to the movies all the time. Me, I don’t like movies because they’re so boring.”

Angela spent much of the first year trying and failing to turn Brittany into a film fan.

“If it doesn’t catch me within the first five minutes, I don’t want to watch it,” shrugs Brittany.

The only movie Brittany really loves — and has loved for years — is the musical drama “Dreamgirls.”

When she was greeted by Angela outside the movie theater, Brittany was just excited to see her partner, even if a potentially “boring” film was on the agenda.

“She has a big bouquet of flowers. Hugs me happy anniversary,” recalls Brittany.

“Then we go into the movie theater, and there’s no one else there. There are rose petals inside the movie theater, going down the aisle. In the centre of an aisle, there’s candles within a heart, rose petals around it.”

Brittany couldn’t believe it. Then she looked at the screen, onto which was projected: “Buck and Bell.”

“Buck” is Angela’s nickname, an abbreviation of her last name. “Bell” is Brittany’s — short for Tinkerbell, the Disney character she’s always loved.

“And then we watch my favorite movie,” says Brittany.

Angela had rented out the movie theater, just the two of them, and arranged for a private screening of “Dreamgirls.”

“I know every word, every dance, everything,” says Brittany.

She got up in the aisle, her girlfriend grinning and laughing, for much of the screening. It was an amazing two hours.

At the end of the film, Brittany got ready to leave, but Angela gave her a knowing smile.

“She puts her arm around me, and she’s like, ‘Hold on, there’s more.’”

Suddenly, the cinema screen was filled with a montage of photos of Brittany and Angela.

“Pictures from throughout our relationship,” says Brittany. “We stand up, and she grabs my hand and we walk down to the centre. And on the screen, it says, ‘Brittany, will you be my forever?’”

Brittany was in a daze, she couldn’t stop smiling.

“Then, Angela gets down on one knee, and she starts talking. To be honest, I don’t remember what she said, but I just grabbed her and pulled her up and said, ‘Yes.’”

Brittany turned to see Angela’s sisters and mom cheering at the back of the movie theater, taking photos.

“It was so beautiful, and it incorporated her love for movies, and my favorite movie. She just rented out the whole theater,” says Brittany. “Just, wow. I have never been so amazed, felt so special. Oh my gosh. It was beautiful.”

“She makes me want to do stuff I never thought of,” says Angela of the proposal. “I wanted it to be special for both of us. I wanted us to be part of something together, and that definitely was it.”

‘Meant to be’

Today, Angela and Brittany are looking forward to their wedding and the future. The current plan is to elope — maybe to Vegas, maybe to a beach somewhere — and then later have a big party with family and friends.

Brittany and Angela have been navigating long distance between Wichita and New York City for the past two and a half years — made easier by Brittany’s job travel perks. But the couple are also excited to finally live in the same place soon, they’re planning to move into a townhouse in Wichita together within the next month.

Over their years of long distance, Angela got into the habit of leaving Brittany little notes in her bag whenever they say their goodbyes and return to their different states. It’s a practice she plans to continue even when they’re cohabiting,

“Little sticky notes,” says Brittany. “I always find them when I need them — my passengers are being jerks, and then I’ll find this little note and read it in her voice.”

“Something little can just make you warm and fuzzy,” says Angela. “Just to know somebody’s thinking of you.”

Every time she works a flight, Brittany thinks about Angela, reflecting on all the pieces that had to slot into place to allow their meeting to play out the way it did.

“The plane could have been full of passengers, and I didn’t have the time to talk to her. Or she could have been asleep the whole time,” reflects Brittany. “Or she was on her way to a blind date that some of her basketball teammates were sending her on, there could have been a different type of connection with them.”

For Brittany, the fact that everything lined up suggests she and Angela were “destined to be.”

“We’re meant for each other. We’re soul mates,” she says. “When I saw Angela, the attraction was imminent. Somehow, I knew my life was going to change, but had no idea in what way. I just felt warm and fuzzy inside, a feeling that I’ve never had before. I can now say that was a feeling of finding the one person in the world who was hand picked just for you, your soul mate.”

For Angela, their unexpected meeting is a reminder that “awesome things can happen,” against the odds, outside of your comfort zone. Flying for a blind date might not have felt like a leap of faith, but diving into her connection with Brittany did.

“I’m glad that we both took a chance and an opportunity, because I don’t think I could see my life without her,” Angela says. “I’m glad we leaned into the uncomfortable and put ourselves out there, and now hopefully our story can resonate with other people and just say, ‘Hey, you just never know.’

“I’m from Wichita, Kansas, and she’s a flight attendant from New York. What are the odds? Like she said, it was meant to be.”

Francesca Street, CNN