They felt a deep connection on a plane. A year later, he got back in touch in an unexpected way | CNN

Natalie Malouf often thought about the man she’d met on the plane to London. It wasn’t a romantic connection, exactly. But as soon as they’d started talking, the conversation had been imbued with a distinctive ease. “When I was talking with him, it felt so natural,” Natalie tells CNN Travel today. “It felt like I was talking to someone I’d known for a really long time. I think that’s part of the reason why the conversation just kept going and going.” At the beginning of that flight in 2016, Natalie, then in her mid-20s, had been more consciously flirting. When her seat neighbor didn’t reciprocate, she dialed it back. “It felt like someone was tapping me on the shoulder, like ‘Pay attention to this guy.’ There was just this feeling beyond, ‘Oh, it’s nice to meet someone new.’ It was almost like this compulsion.” When the flight landed in London, she asked the man if he wanted to stay in touch. They swapped emails. She hoped he might become a long-distance friend, at least. They emailed a little, and swapped numbers in case they ever ended up in each other’s cities. But the conversation soon dwindled. Natalie wasn’t surprised. They lived in diffe