Was It Something I Said?

By Valerie Block

Justine and Barry are two young professionals living and working in New York City. Justine is a lawyer with a six-figure salary. Barry is an account executive with a food company. One day they are both at the airport, headed to different destinations. Barry sees Justine and is smitten hard, so hard he changes his ticket for one on the flight Justine is taking. He even manages to talk his way into the seat next to hers.
Shortly after the plane takes off, it experiences problems and has to return to the airport and make an emergency landing. Justine is slightly injured in the landing. Sharing a near-crash experience together creates a bond between Justine and Barry and they end up dating, which makes Barry very happy. Justine, not so much.
Justine likes Barry but things about him annoy her. He says and does embarrassing things in public. His philosophy is more liberal than hers (she is a fan of dead president Ronald Reagan).
Barry is pretty enamored with Justine but still finds her annoying at times too. She has a tendency to blow hot then cold which he finds confusing and off-putting. Their relationship is rocky and the final straw for Justine is when Barry screws up at work and gets fired. He becomes too whiny and clingy and seems rather shiftless and so she calls it quits.
But life without Barry just isn't the same and trying to find a replacement for him isn't working. And maybe Barry's failure at work becomes more understandable when Justine finds that her job is becoming a problem too.
Maybe being with Barry is better than going it alone?

This was an OK read. Barry and Justine are both rather annoying. I totally related to how off-putting Barry's jokes and behaviour in public were to Justine. And vice-versa, with Justine all cuddly one minute then bitchy the next.  Barry never knows where he stands with her. This is certainly not a match made in heaven. On the other hand, maybe these two pills deserve each other? Anyway, this was a fairly readable story, although I wasn't really grabbed by it and, by the end, cared for neither character.