by Nova Rain
Unfortunately, my plans for intimacy that night went right out the window. Michael and the rest of the flight crew kept him in that bar until almost 3am. Did I want to take him away from them? Yes. Did I express my desire? No. I just didn’t have the heart to do so. We were all having a fantastic time in there. Every now and then, a customer walked up to Jake and asked if they could take a picture with him. Being the kind man he was, he didn’t refuse anyone. He obliged those strangers, among endless flows of champagne and fifteen-year old whiskey. As for me? I danced with him, proud to be dating this extraordinary man. In between dances, I just reveled in his joy, keeping a watchful eye out for anyone who’d want to steal him from me. To my satisfaction, our romantic scene had not gone unnoticed. Most of the women who approached him addressed me afterwards, saying: “You’re a lucky lady.” None of them dared give him her number. By the time we went up to his room, Jake was so exhausted that he fell asleep in his clothes.
The next day we were taken to the airport in limousines. And that’s where I felt a little out of place. Why? Because I was the only one dressed in a normal, everyday outfit. The flight attendants and pilots were wearing their uniforms and as such, they made their presence known. It was then that I realized why Jake had been complaining about publicity. He couldn’t go anywhere in the airport without a passenger or a photographer following him around. Once more however, he demonstrated patience and didn’t argue with anybody.
The flight back to New York was a treat. I didn’t have to pay for my—first class—ticket. Three hours of luxury, pleasant conversations with Jake and the flight attendants just flew by. In that time, my respect for him grew even bigger. His colleagues treated him like royalty. Halfway through the flight, the Captain himself left the cockpit and joined us in first class, eager to chat with the pilot behind “the New Orleans miracle” as he called it. I kept my silence and listened intently, although I didn’t have anything to add. Unbeknownst to him, Jake answered the first thing I asked him the night before. How he had managed to avoid a disaster of terrible proportions…
Back in the Big Apple, I received a text from my editor:
“Get your hero and come over my place tonight. I’ve just thought of something I think he’ll be very interested in. Don’t make me regret the extra day off I gave you.”
Had it not been for his last sentence, I wouldn’t have shown that text to Jake. In my eagerness to see him, I had forgotten what I’d done to get out of work that day. Walter made sure to remind me what it had taken for me to get to New Orleans so fast. He had done me a big favor, and now, I had to do something for him in return. Jake agreed to meet with him, as long as our dinner didn’t turn into some sort of interview. I assured him that it wouldn’t, because Walter had stopped interviewing people since he was promoted to his position back in 2004.
Walter’s house was a gorgeous, vintage place in Astoria. I hadn’t been there much, but whenever I did go, its tree-lined roads stayed with me for a while. The whole area had “middle-class” written all over it. The estates were somewhat large and kept up, but not too extravagant. There were nice lawns, adorned with bushes and small trees, instead of ridiculous water features. Hybrid cars roamed its streets, along with the occasional electric ones. The presence of all those Priuses in the area made Jake’s Corvette stand out. Running into more than a few of them, he maintained a slow pace, until we arrived at Walter’s address.
“I’ve just found the first place I won’t be moving to when I retire,” Jake stated as I rang Walter’s bell. “I’m into sports cars a little too much. These people would hate my guts.”
“I beg to differ,” I disagreed in a sweet voice. “They would welcome you with open arms, even if you showed up with half of Jay Leno’s garage.”
“Hey!” Walter cheered, pulling his front door open. “How’s it going? Welcome. I can’t believe it. A hero in my house!” He added, shaking Jake’s hand. “Come on in.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Jake muttered, annoyance evident in his tone.
“Good evening, Walter.” I gave my editor a polite smile. “Where’s Martha?”
“She’s working her magic in the kitchen,” he responded, leading us to down the hall on the right. “What time did you kids land?”
“About two hours ago,” Jake answered, stepping into his office. Straightaway, he settled his gaze on the huge poster of the Brooklyn Bulletin behind my editor’s executive chair.
“That’s the first copy of the paper, sixty-four years ago,” Walter informed him. “I’ve had to repeat its date of circulation a lot these days. February 25th, 1955.”
“Why?”
“I’ll answer that if you promise me it won’t leave this room,” He responded in a stiff tone, turning his attention to me.
“It won’t. Trust me,” I assured him, padding across the room.
“We’ve had a lot of financial issues lately,” Walter explained, gesturing us to the chairs in front of his desk. “The paper’s loans hadn’t been paid in five months, until your story from down in Miami. It bailed us out. Your interview helped a lot, too.”
“So, Jake and I saved the Bulletin?” I asked, my voice rising an octave.
“Pretty much,” my editor nodded, taking his seat. “We wouldn’t have been around for much longer if it wasn’t for you two. So…” he paused and drew in a sharp breath. “How does it feel to be on the front page, Captain Turner?”
“It takes a bit of getting used to,” Jake said. “I’m having trouble avoiding reporters.”
“Lucky for me, there’s one reporter you don’t want to avoid,” Walter laughed. “How long have you kids been dating?”
“Not long,” Jake replied, pursing his lips. “Penny said you wanted to talk to me about something.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Walter’s wily smile vanished into thin air. “Look, there’s no denying you’re hot these days. There’s an old marketing saying I believe in: ‘Sell it while the people still buy it.’ I’m offering you ten thousand dollars for an advertisement. I’m not talking about a TV ad. We don’t have the resources to do that. I’m talking about a single picture of you, sitting in a chair, reading the Bulletin. I’ve even come up with the slogan. ‘Heroes get their news from reliable sources.’ What do you think?”
“Ten thousand?” Jake squinted, his face twisting into an expression of surprise.
“I know it’s not much, but like I said, the Brooklyn Bulletin is not exactly rich,” Walter uttered, a touch of disappointment in his tone.
“I’ll do it.” The smile returned to Walter’s aging face at the end of Jake’s phrase. Just then, my boyfriend’s cell phone buzzed with an incoming call. “Excuse me. I need to take this.”
With him out of the office, my editor clenched his fists. “Yes!” He cheered, beaming with joy.
“Walter, why weren’t the staff told about the paper’s financial problems?” I asked the question that had been swirling in my mind since his disclosure.
“Because they hadn’t affected you yet,” his explanation making sense. No one had complained about not getting paid on time. “I figured we had about four or five months before they did. Hey…” he whispered. “Don’t dwell on that. It’s water under the bridge. Things are a lot better now.”
I wished I could believe that. I wished I could just take his word for it and pretend everything was fine. Yet, my editor had planted the seed of doubt within me. Something had broken inside of me, something on which our relationship was based.
Trust.
Yes, his explanation was logical, but by no means was it acceptable. The way I saw it, Walter should have let the staff know, especially people with families who were raising children. They should have been the first ones to be notified of the possibility of a dark future. I had seen the vicious face of unemployment. I didn’t even want to imagine what it would be like for the people in that building who were raising families.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jake
&nbs
p; Surprisingly enough, Penny’s behavior changed after my return to her editor’s office. The cheerful, curious girl disappeared altogether. I would have blamed this on the fact that we were in her boss’s house and she wanted to act professionally, but her body language didn’t suggest that. She had leaned her back against the seat and crossed her legs, clear signs that she felt comfortable in there. When I strolled back into the room, she looked like she had swallowed a stick. She was sitting bolt upright, and her gaze was wandering around the office. She wouldn’t focus on anything in particular, and chose to keep her silence.
Things didn’t change much during dinner. Judging by Martha’s rather loud reaction when the two of them met, she was fond of Penny. The editor’s chatty wife kept asking her about the past few weeks, but my girlfriend wasn’t at all willing to discuss any of the recent events. Instead, she preferred to praise the hostess on her cooking. For some reason I couldn’t fathom, Penny was deflecting. For more than an hour-and-a-half, she confined her conversation to baking temperatures and ingredients, baffling me. In spite of my confusion, I didn’t let it show. Neither did I ask her why she was acting that way, afraid that I would embarrass her in front of her editor.
I didn’t express my bewilderment on the drive back, either. Penny might have been tight-lipped, but I had seen her snap more than once. Whatever had been on her mind could lead to one more of her angry outbursts. I wasn’t prepared or willing to handle it, with me at the wheel of an exotic car like my Corvette. The night was still young. I could discuss this with her in my apartment.
Once we arrived at my home, an idea flashed in my mind. Penny had been distracted; that much had been obvious to me. So, I considered checking just how distracted she actually was.
“I got a call from Alison, back at your editor’s house,” I commented, peeling off my coat. “She wanted to know if I was interested in a threesome with Tanya, one of the other flight attendants.”
“Okay,” Penny mumbled, strolling past me.
“Okay, stop right there,” I tightened my tone, realizing the severity of her issue. “Where are you, Penny? Because you sure as hell haven’t been with me since I left you and Collins alone in his office.”
“What do you mean, Jake?” She spoke in a low voice, still facing the hallway in front of her. “I never left your side.”
“I’m not talking about your body,” I groaned, reaching forward. I gripped her wrist, struggling to battle the anger within me. In a quick move, I spun her around. “I’m talking about your mind. I just told you I was planning to have a threesome, and you said it was okay for God’s sake. What’s going on, Penny?”
“I lost my faith in Walter tonight,” she confessed, running her hand through her hair. “He kept everyone in the dark about the paper’s issues, when what he should have done was come clean. If not for me, then for the people who depend on their job to feed their families. What would they do if they were laid off some day? How would they provide for their children?”
I huffed air out of my nose. “That’s it?”
“What? You don’t think that’s serious?” she answered my question with a question of her own.
“It is,” I nodded in agreement. “But then again, this is business. There’s no emotion in it; no consideration for other people’s fortunes. It’s all about numbers.”
“Don’t tell me you’re okay with this,” Penny urged, discomfort deepening her tone.
“I didn’t say that,” I went on, my voice calm. “I’m just trying to help you understand your editor. Do you remember the stall on the flight to Miami?”
“Yeah. What does that have to do with anything?” she wondered, her voice returning to its normal registers.
“Believe me, it does,” I continued. “I told my superiors that I accidentally deployed a system that’s used just before landing. I lied to them. It was my first officer’s mistake, not mine. That kid is just twenty-three years old. He’s pretty good, but he’d never been to Miami, and that sort of…” I paused, “distracted him. If they had found out he’d screwed up so badly, they would have fired him in a heartbeat. With such a blunder on his record, he’d never have flown again.”
“Okay, you lost me,” Penny shook her head sideways once. “If that mistake you mentioned is that serious, why didn’t they fire you instead?”
“Because it would be too expensive for them,” I explained. “Think about it. I’ve been working at United for almost nine years. They’d have to compensate me, and that compensation usually amounts to in the high six figures. Barnes has only been working there for a few months. He’d get nothing.”
She exhaled hard, averting her gaze from me. “Wow…”
“You can’t afford to be romantic when it comes to work,” I spoke, my voice a touch louder. “Not in this day and age.”
“I guess not,” she let out a mere whisper, her eyes still down at her feet.
“You can be romantic somewhere else,” I implied, tipping her chin up.
“Sorry,” Penny whispered, biting her bottom lip. “Not tonight. Can you please drive me home? I’d like to be alone right now.”
“I’m not getting through to you, am I?” I wondered, putting my hands on my hips.
“You got through to me just fine,” she disagreed. “I shouldn’t have a romantic view of work. Money matters more than people and their careers. I need a little time on my own to process this.”
“Oh, come on!” I exclaimed, glaring down at her. “You’re a big girl; you’ve been working at the Bulletin for what? Five years? Don’t tell me you didn’t even suspect this.”
“I didn’t just suspect it. I knew it,” Penny responded in an emphatic tone. “I knew employees didn’t mean much to their employers in other lines of work. I just thought that the Bulletin was an exception.”
“Look, I get it. Your whole belief system just crashed into reality,” I remarked, my voice firm. “But what will you do when I drive you back home, huh? Let me guess. You’ll brood. You’ll say to yourself: ‘I’m such an idiot. The Bulletin is a business, too. Why did I think that they did things differently?” What will you get out of that? Nothing. You’ll just waste your time, wallowing in self-pity. Newsflash: you and I don’t have time. In fact, I’m a little surprised that United hasn’t called me yet. They probably will tomorrow; the day after, tops. I’ll leave, and we’ll see each other next week. Is that what you want?”
“No, it’s not,” she said, her voice sounding sweeter. “I’m sorry, Jake. This was just too much for me to take in. I hope you understand.”
“If I didn’t, I would be long gone by now,” I replied in a more mellow tone, leaning over towards her. “So, what do you want to do? We can watch something on Netflix if you like.”
“Actually, no,” Penny said, flashing me a big smile. “There’s one thing I’ve been meaning to do since I found you in that hotel in New Orleans, but I haven’t been able to do it. Go sit on the couch and wait for me.”
“This sounds promising,” I commented, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, you have no idea, Captain Turner.” She winked up at me. “You have no idea.”
Feelings of relief, mixed with anticipation coursed through me when she turned around. Penny made her way down the hall while I reflected on our little argument. I liked the fact that I had talked her out of her—silly—decision. Penny had realized that it would be a mistake for her to be all alone. Now, I couldn’t wait to see for myself what she had in store for me. I could suspect, but that didn’t diminish my eagerness.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Penny
What would I do without you?
Of all the times I had asked myself that cliché question, this was the one that had me wondering the most. I knew what would follow that night if I left. Jake was right. I would end up shedding tears and bitching at myself for being so naïve. What I didn’t know was what I would do if I ever lost his calm approach to things like these. At any rate, I couldn’t think about that. It had t
aken Jake’s rant to help me see what I would miss out on if I took off. His speech had acted like a wakeup call, and I meant to take full advantage of that opportunity.
I put on a set of black lingerie and struck a pose in the bedroom mirror. The mesh, free-falling top reached just past my bellybutton. It barely touched my skin, offering me a naked feel. The matching thong didn’t hide much, but I liked it that way. These fishnets should work their magic on him. Jake had been teasing me. It was time for me to tease him back.
My plan was simple, but it required all of my femininity. Tiptoeing out of his bedroom, I halted just before the end of the hallway. I curved my arm around the corner of the wall and turned out the light.
“Now I’m even more curious,” Jake stated as I headed for his home theater system in the corner.
“Patience, darling. I’m almost done,” I spoke in a playful tone. Pressing the “play” button, I turned around. I picked up a candlestick and grabbed a chair from the living room table, as melodic, synthesizer notes broke the silence. Leaving the chair next to the coffee table in front of the couch, I lit the candle. Beyoncé’s smoky voice started singing the first lyrics of her song “Dance For You.”
“Here’s a little something for you,” I uttered in a raspy tone, wiggling towards the couch.
“Whoa…” he murmured, his eyes taking in every bit of me. I circled my hips around in the shape of a figure “eight.” Smiling, I inched closer, Jake’s gaze halting at my chest.
“No touching,” I whispered, the tips of my index finger caressing the side of my midsection as I bent towards him. My chin brushed his cheekbone as I breathed in. His masculine scent tantalizing me, I lifted his chin with my finger. “Get your cock out,” I commanded, gazing deep into his eyes.