Chapter 2
It was twenty minutes to take off and the boss was still nowhere around. Abby sat back in one of the seats, counting down to whenever he decided to make an appearance. She was not surprised that twenty minutes before their scheduled take off time, the billionaire better-than-thou boss was still nowhere in sight. She had expected him to be late and was almost sure he would not apologize when he got here.
It baffled her that she was so angry at this man that she had never met before. It wasn’t as if she hated him or anything, but she just didn’t like the idea of someone feeling all above everyone else. A little humility would not hurt.
His terrible personality would not stop her from doing her job right. She would cater to him even more than she would with the best of her clients. She would embarrass him with so much niceness he would probably be embarrassed by his attitude.
Okay, maybe this line of thinking is a little childish, she said to herself almost immediately. This is you being tired of waiting for someone who feels he is God’s great gift to humanity.
Getting of the lush leather chair, she reached to where her belongings were, got her make-up bag, and returned to her seat. She would as well touch up her look. Going up to Malcolm was nowhere in the options she had. She didn’t feel up it. He was going to just tease her and she didn’t have the strength to banter with him right now. Waiting drained her of her energy.
As she opened the mirror, her eyes were instantly drawn to the fiery redness that was her hair. Her neatly packed tresses were still very much in place. It wasn’t as though she was expecting them to have been flying around. She had not done much yet for her hair to be scattered. The wooden brush went through her locks smoothly as she brushed them despite their look.
As she was applying a touch of lip gloss, she felt a shadow fall over her. The figure behind her coughed and she jumped with a start. Cursing in her head as she turned towards the door quickly, her eyes fell on the face of the man they were waiting for. Her mirror fell off her hands and would have shattered if it had not fallen on the soft rug by her feet.
Richard stared at her without a word until she picked the mirror off the floor. When she did, he just stepped in and dropped his carry-on by her feet. He sat on the closest seat with a table and turned to her.
“Please put that away.” he said in the most condescending manner she had ever been spoken to.
“Yes sir. Welcome on board, sir.” The shaken woman said with a confidence she did not feel. She was shaky and disoriented on the inside but she had been trained to endure even the most embarrassing moments. She would not give him the opportunity to see her weak.
“You’re still standing there. Inform the pilot I’m here and let’s get moving. We do not have all day.” He said and set his briefcase on the table.
Abby felt her face heat up with anger. Just a couple of seconds and he was lording over her. He was the one who delayed them yet he had the effrontery to talk about not having all day.
Picking up the luggage, she walked over to an overhead bin, stowed it away and stalked off towards the cockpit. Her hands quickly went to the door before she could think about composing herself. She gave three short raps on the door to inform Malcolm she was coming and then opened the door. Malcolm was about to start his banter but the look on her face shut him up immediately.
“I take it the boss is around.” He said instead.
“The cheek! Can you imagine the height of it?!” she said, fuming.
“The look on your face is enough to let me know exactly how angry you are. Was he that terrible?”
“He was just very condescending in his manner of speaking. I didn’t know when he was coming in and he shocked me into dropping my mirror because I just wanted to touch up my make-up before he comes in. And don’t you dare say anything about trying to seduce him. I just like to look good.
“He just stared at me like I was some sort of nonentity and after that he dumped his luggage on the floor and asked me to keep that away like he was talking to his maid or something. He totally disregarded my greetings after that. Can you just imagine?!”
“Calm down, Abby. I am beginning to wonder if this is anger or you are just a little embarrassed that he caught you with a mirror in your hands.”
“Do not start with me today, Malcolm. I am really not in the mood.”
“I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to irritate you any further.”
“It’s just annoying. He had the nerve to ask us to hurry things up when he was the one who delayed us in the first place. He didn’t even think it appropriate to apologize.”
“Well, he is your boss.”
“But he is human too. These are the basic etiquette one need to learn. How hard could it possibly be to say sorry? Anyways, he said to tell you to get this ship rolling or whatever.”
“Thank you, ma’am. Please have the gentleman settled in and we would make the ascent.”
“Fine.” She said and walked out of the cockpit towards Richard. He was too engrossed in whatever he was doing on his laptop when she came back. Just as she got to him, she heard Malcolm’s voice filtering in through the speakers.
“Good day, sir. Welcome on board. This is Captain Malcolm speaking. We are expected to be in the air in approximately five minutes. Please fasten your seatbelt at this time. I would also ask that your seat and folding tray are in the upright position for take-off. Please turn off all personal electronic devices including your laptop and cell phones. This is a non-smoking flight and smoking is prohibited throughout the duration of this flight on the entire aircraft. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to speak with the red-haired beauty that is our flight attendant. Her name is Abby. Do enjoy your flight, sir.”
“Hello again sir. I am Abby.”
“I know that. You are the only attendant on board.” He said dismissively.
“Please shut down your laptop and fasten your seat belt sir.” Her cheeks hurt from having to fake the smile on her face as she spoke.
“You do not have to hover over me. I’ll call you when I need you.” he said and turned back to the laptop.
Abby sighed but waited till he had put away his laptop. This was probably going to be the longest fourteen hours of her life and she really was not looking forward to spending so long attending to this obnoxious man that was her client.
Chapter 3
“Good day again, sir. This is your captain speaking. We are currently cruising at an altitude of 30,000 feet at an airspeed of 350 miles per hour. It is 8:30 am by my time. The weather looks wonderful and with the tailwind on our side, we are expecting to land in Sydney give or take twenty minutes ahead of schedule. Abby would be coming around to offer you refreshments soon. I’ll talk to you again before we arrive at our destination. Until then, sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of your flight.”
Abby couldn’t help but roll her eyes when Malcolm was done with the announcement. He always loved this part of the job; the talk part. It usually beat her imagination why he had not decided to go down the radio presenting line instead. That man sure liked to listen to the sound of his voice.
She padded out of the kitchen and moved towards the only passenger on board, her nemesis. His stare on the laptop screen was as intent as it had been since he came on board. Abby wondered if he ever felt any discomfort from staring at the screens too much. She could never sit for this long looking at all that light no matter how low the brightness setting was.
“What would you like to have sir?” she asked.
“Umm first off, coffee.” He said without looking up. “Black with two spoons of sugar.” At this point he raised his head and looked pointedly at her. “Nothing more or less. I’d like one or two scones with that.”
“Anything else, sir?” She said, straining the ‘sir’ on purpose.
“Nothing for now. Although I would be needing a proper meal sometime soon. While we’re at it…” he paused as though he was think
ing it through. “Never mind. I’ll let you know when I need anything else.” Richard replied and turned back to his work.
Abby turned on her heels and went to make his coffee. She would remain calm irrespective of however he treated her. She had gone through worse with some clients on the commercial airline she used to work with. Maybe he isn’t so bad and I just interpret all his actions because of the things I have heard about him. Maybe Malcolm is right.
In no time, she was done making his coffee to his specification and she placed the cup in a tray with some scones. Her eyes swept over the busy form as she took his coffee to him. Despite his bad attitude, he was a little bit of a looker. A silly thought crossed her mind as she watched him; did he ever smile and how would he look when he did? This thirty-five year old would pass for a fifty- year old the way he took everything so seriously but that didn’t take away the fact that he was cute to an extent. She set the cup and saucer on the folding tray some distance from his laptop.
“Here you go, sir.”
“Right. That would be all for now.”
Having satisfied the client, Abby went back to the kitchen for Malcolm’s coffee. Malcolm on the contrary always had his coffee white and with as much sugar as possible. She set the coffee cup on another tray with a small canister of sugar and took it to him in the cockpit.
“You really should cut back on your sugar intake, honey. You take way too much.” she said and set the tray down beside him.
“Thank you for caring, love. But I love my coffee the way I love it.”
“You’ll get fat and stuff.” She joked.
“You’ll love me all the same. That’s what love does. It endures.”
“Don’t count on it, love. I’ll be out before you say anything more.”
“How’s our client doing?”
“Busy and still annoying. I am overlooking his flaws the way I overlook yours, though. He has been staring at that laptop since take-off.”
“Well that isn’t odd. He is a businessman and besides, he’s going to Australia to close a deal. I heard he is quite the thorough type. I would be disappointed if he was not at least pretending to be busy.”
In that moment, they felt the plane jostle and Malcolm’s coffee cup shifted slightly in his tray. They both gave each other a knowing look. Just as Abby was about to speak, the jostle returned, this time, a lot more severe that it threw Abby completely off balance and the coffee cup to the floor.
“Get back to the cabin and get settled in. Tell Mr. Myers to fasten up to be on the safer side. I doubt that the turbulence would persist though.” Malcolm said.
“You sure?” she said, looking at the cup.
“Just get settled in. I’ll make the announcement.”
Abby hurried on towards the cabin. As she made her way through, she could hear Malcolm’s voice over the speaker. Richard had taken the cue too and was quick to get buckled in. She had barely fastened her belt when she was forced against the belt violently. A crashing noise from Richard’s direction drew her eyes to shards of the cup that once held coffee on the floor. Richard had barely been able to save his laptop from all the bustling and was holding on to it with his mere fingertips.
She would have offered to help but in this situation, walking was practically impossible. They would both be fine; he and his laptop. Soon, the plane was bumping and diving, swaying from side to side uncontrollably.
Abby thought they were flying sideways at some point. She took in a deep breath and did a thirty second review. She hoped it wouldn’t come to evacuation with the way the turbulence was striking.
“It’s going to be fine, sir. It’s just turbulence.” She said to Richard.
Please remain seated and have your seatbelts fastened. We hit an unexpected turbulence area. Please keep calm and relax. Everything is under control.”
That was Malcolm again but for some reason, this time, Abby did not believe him. This was one of the worst turbulence she had experienced in all her time as a flight attendant. Something was oddly wrong here.
In that moment, she saw a flash of light and then another. The plane shook even more violently. Richard had by now turned ashen in his chair. The lightning struck again. The way the thunderbolt was striking, it was only a matter of time before something terrible happened.
As though he had heard her inner thoughts, the speaker crackled to life.
“This is an emergency. We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on the water.”
Chapter 4
Malcolm woke up with a very terrible headache. As he tried to get up, the headache got even worse. His arms and legs felt really heavy and sore. He moved his arm and felt the lushness of grass underneath him. Around him, he was surrounded by tall trees and short shrubberies. When he lay his head back on the ground, he was staring right at the canopies created by the palm trees.
Despite his hurting head, he managed to get off his back and on his feet and scanned the vicinity for the others. Some distance away from him, Abby and Richard lay sleeping. A heavy burden lifted off his chest. He staggered towards Abby, who was closer to him and felt for a pulse. As soon as he touched her, she woke up with a start.
“Take it easy. We don’t want you making any injuries, you might have, worsening.” He said in a soothing voice. “How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve been run over by a truck. Where’s Richard?”
“Over there.” He said gesturing towards the man’s direction. Richard was still on the floor but he turned just as they were looking at him. They both sighed in relief as they realised he was fine.
“Thank God! I was scared for a second there.” Abby said.
“So was I. I was scared for you both.”
“Where are we? Do you have any idea?”
“I honestly don’t. We’re on some tropical island in the middle of Pacific. I am certain of that. We were above the ocean when I decided to land.”
“What exactly happened?” Abby asked. She was still pretty shaken by the experience.
“Turbulence. An unusual one. I have never experienced one like that before. And then there was that lightning storm. I had to make a call and the best thing to do was to land when we did.”
“Shit. Any sign of help anywhere around?”
“I haven’t had a chance to walk around. I just came to myself.”
“There’s only one thing to do now.” Abby replied and got on her feet. “Richard should be fine here. Let’s go.”
“That is not exactly the wisest thing to do. Both of us can’t possibly leave only him here. What if he wakes up before we get back? We don’t want him walking around without any one of us knowing where he is headed. And he looks quite like the impulsive one.”
“You can’t possibly leave and wander these forests alone.”
“And we can’t leave him here alone. I would be fine. I’ll be back soon.” He said and left before she could stop him.
Abby’s eyes followed Malcolm’s back until he disappeared from sight. The pilot was right and she knew it but she didn’t like the idea of any of them being out there in that forest without any idea of what lay in wait. It might be dangerous out there, for goodness sakes.
She got up herself and did a quick scan of their surroundings. There was no sight of the wreckage of the plane. Making sure she didn’t go too far from Richard, she walked a little further but still saw nothing of importance. A loud rumble escaped her belly and Abby realised that they had nothing to eat or a shelter over their heads and probably no form of help. If they didn’t get their acts together, they wouldn’t last our here.
She sat on the floor beside Richard Myers and watched him sleep. Even in his sleep, he looked like he was at war with the world. One would have thought that at a time like this he would be looking a little vulnerable. He sure didn’t let down his guard. She leaned against a tree and continued to watch him sleep.
***
Abby was shaken out of her sleep by a
pair of hands. She was shocked by the ride awakening and then her shock turned into anger when she saw who had woken her. Richard stared back at her with a blank stare.
“What in the world?” She asked glaring at him. Richard sighed.
“You’re fine.”
“Obviously!” She replied, still glaring at him.
“Is the pilot safe? He is nowhere near here.”
“Your apology for waking me up so rudely is accepted.” She said sarcastically.
“I didn’t... oh… It took so long to get you to wake up, I thought something had happened to you.” He said.
Abby realized that this was probably the closest he would come to actually apologizing to her. She would take it like that for now. The effort was all that mattered.
Sexy Addiction Page 34