by Jane Peart
Tyler leaned across the table and said earnestly, “We’ve got to give ourselves a break, Robbie. Make up for lost time. I’ll take the blame for messing things up for us. But we can make a fresh start. Please, don’t say no. Think it over. We can start all over. I was wrong when I thought it would be easy to break up before I left. But it can be fixed. Honey, trust me.”
“But—” she began.
“It will be simple to arrange. When you get to San Francisco, instead of going to the airport motel with the rest of the crew, take the limo into the city and catch a cab to my apartment. If I’m not there—but, if I know ahead of time I can probably-anyway—”
Just then, over the PA system came the message, “Captain T. J. Lang, please report to Flight Operations.”
Tyler swore under his breath and glanced at his watch. “Got to go file my flight plan. Now, listen, Robbie, there’s no problem if you can’t work a flight. Get a non-rev on your days off. Let me know. I’ll meet your flight, then we’ll have three whole days to get everything straightened out between us, okay?”
“Captain Lang, please report immediately to Flight Operations,” the voice came again, this time more insistently.
Tyler grabbed Robbie’s wrist. “Walk with me,” he said, jerking his head toward the door leading into the lobby.
All around them was the activity of the impersonal restaurant as they weaved their way between tables. What a place to try to decide something as important as this, Robbie thought.
Still holding her, Tyler moved rapidly toward the bank of Trans-Con ticket counters. Once there, he spoke to one of the agents. “May we use your office for a minute?”
The agent nodded. “Sure thing, Captain Lang.” He pointed to the door behind him. Tyler pulled Robbie around the end of the counter and opened the door marked Private, Employees Only.
Once inside, he closed the door, pressing the snap lock. Then he took her in his arms and held her close. Her head went back to look at him, and for a second before he kissed her she wanted to laugh for sheer joy. The kiss was tender, full of longing and the passionate sweetness she still remembered.
Reluctantly Tyler released her. “I’ve got to go,” he said. Then he took her hand, turned it palm up, placed something small, metallic, and cold into it, and folded her fingers over it. “Whatever you can work out, whenever you can come, use this. If I’m not there, wait for me. Let’s not make the same mistake again, Robbie. We’ve wasted too much time already.” He pulled her to him again and kissed her with an intensity that left her breathless.
T. J. was being paged again when he and Robbie came back into the lobby He gave her one long, last look. His eyes moving over her were saying all the things that the time and situation prevented him from saying. Then, making a small salute, he turned and walked away. Robbie stood watching his tall figure stride through the terminal, mount the escalator and disappear into the crowd.
Minutes later, her own return flight to Chicago was called. The announcement jolted Robbie back to reality, and she became acutely conscious of what Tyler had placed in her hand. She stared down at her outstretched palm and saw the shiny metal key—the key to Tyler’s San Francisco apartment. All sorts of possible meanings flashed through her mind. Was this Tyler’s way of telling her that he was ready to make the ultimate commitment?
She didn’t have time right then to consider all the probable reasons. She slipped the key into her uniform skirt pocket and started walking toward her departure gate. She would have to wait to consider all the choices which Tyler had dangled before her until her preliminary flight duties were accomplished and they had taken off.
With a soaring heart, Robbie walked out onto the concourse toward the jet, relishing the winter sunshine and noticing that not a single cloud marred the clear blue of the Denver sky. Soon the giant plane had risen smoothly above the circling mountains.
Luckily there was a movie to be shown on this leg of the flight. After she had finished the beverage service and made the rounds handing out earphones to those who wanted to watch, magazines to those who didn’t, and pillows to passengers who wanted to sleep, Robbie took a seat in the back of the First Class section and reviewed the surprising encounter with Tyler.
She thought she understood now why Tyler had backed off so abruptly when their romance had begun to get serious. Robbie remembered his remarking once how many marriages among his fellow pilots had gone on the rocks. She had the impression then that Tyler was afraid of marriage. When he had realized he might be falling in love with her, he hadn’t wanted to take a chance. But the message of his words today seemed different. Maybe now he was willing to risk it. If only she could show him that marriage was not a trap or a ticket to emotional disaster—convince him that marriage could be the most wonderful adventure in life for two people truly committed to each other and loving and growing together in an exclusive relationship.
An icy rain turning quickly into sleet was falling when they landed in Chicago. Robbie had an hour and a half before the flight resumed to Atlanta. She went up to the stewardess lounge to freshen up.
To think that Tyler had missed her so much sent funny little shivers of excitement all through her! It was almost as if he had fallen in love with her against his will, she thought smiling. She remembered how she had given up hope that he would ever call her after their time in Bermuda and then he had. And how he had sheepishly told her about it on a later date.
“Actually I tried not to call you,” he had said slowly. “I mean, it was a conscious decision. I thought it might not be a good idea to see you again.” He had stopped, laughed, and shrugged his shoulders. “You see how good I am at following my own advice?”
Robbie smiled in retrospect. Beneath all that surface sophistication, Tyler was sometimes startlingly open. In spite of himself and in spite of moving three thousand miles away, today he had told her it wasn’t working. The invincible Tyler Lang had succumbed like any other guy in love, Robbie thought with a melting sensation. A man like that was impossible not to love.
Just then, the door of the stewardess lounge pushed open and Robbie saw a slender, blonde Trans-Continent stewardess rush in. A minute later, Robbie recognized her and whirled around exclaiming, “Sue Thompson!”
The other girl shrieked in return, “Robbie Mallory!” Sue Thompson had been in Robbie’s flight attendants training class but was based in Florida, and the girls had not seen each other in nearly three years. After a rapid-fire interchange they sat down on the couch and began chatting merrily, swapping bits of news and gossip about the other girls who had graduated and received their wings together.
“But what in the world are you doing in Chicago?” asked Robbie. “I thought you were flying to the Virgin Islands and the Philippines? Aren’t you still based in Miami?”
A mischievous twinkle sparkled in Sue’s wide, baby blue eyes. She gave a little toss of her dandelion fluff curls, wrinkled her small kittenish nose, and smiled. The enchanting dimples on either side of her rosy mouth deepened. “We-1-1-1!” she drew out the word with exaggerated reluctance. “It’s a long story and— I’m not sure I—I mean, it’s kind of a secret.”
“Uh-oh, there’s a man in the picture somewhere!” teased Robbie.
Sue had been given an undisputed “ten” rating by her classmates when they had been in training. Sue was as sweet and friendly as she was beautiful, but it had been a running joke that she had received more male phone calls than any other girl in the entire six weeks session. On “Take-off Day,” two separate bouquets of a dozen long-stemmed roses each and an orchid corsage were delivered to Sue! Sue Thompson just naturally drew men with no seeming effort.
Sue reached over and squeezed Robbie’s hand, “You’re right, and there is! But, I can’t tell!” She suddenly looked down at Robbie’s wristwatch. “Oh, my goodness, is that the correct time? I’ve got to dash. Do I look a wreck?” she asked, bouncing up and peering anxiously in the mirror.
“Sue, you couldn’t look a wreck if
you were washed up on a desert island after a hurricane!” declared Robbie, watching Sue adjust her uniform cap. “But you still haven’t told me how you happen to be in Chicago?”
“I switched flights with a stewardess who has the run to Los Angeles and San Francisco—for a special reason, Robbie.” Sue turned around from the mirror. “I really am sorry, but I promised not to tell anyone. It might get someone into trouble. Not bad trouble; it’s just that it might be misinterpreted…” She paused. “Gee, I’ve got to go, Robbie. It was super seeing you.”
Sue went to the door. With her hand on its handle, she looked at Robbie, dimpled prettily, and said, “It’s not that I don’t think you’re absolutely trustworthy, Robbie. In feet, I always said you were one of the nicest girls in our whole class—not mean or catty or anything. And Yd like to tell you what I’m going to be doing in San Francisco, but…” She sighed, put her hand in the outside pocket of her overarm bag, and pulled something out. “You’ve heard of T.J. Lang, haven’t you?” She held up a key and dangled it playfully. “Well, you can believe everything you’ve heard. He’s the greatest!” She gave Robbie a wink and then waltzed out of the lounge, leaving Robbie stunned and gaping.
The full impact of what Sue had implied did not hit Robbie until a few seconds after Sue’s jubilant exit.
Floods of emotion washed over her. She could feel the heat spread all through her as the humiliating facts began to take shape in her mind. Her breath came fast and shallowly, as if she had been running a marathon. She felt sick and dizzy with the conflicting feelings of disbelief and anger.
Sue Thompson could have had no idea of Robbie’s involvement with Tyler. Sue was too kind to try to hurt someone deliberately. Until this very minute, Robbie had had no idea that Tyler was seeing anyone else! She put clammy hands up to her suddenly throbbing temples! How could he? After all he had just said?
Bitterness came to her then like a hot, devouring flame. Tyler Lang was running true to form. How could she have ever thought he’d changed, that he was different because of her? His reputation had preceded him. And she had known it when, against her better judgment, she had let herself fall in love with him.
She wanted to scream, sob, and pound her fists against the wall. But, she reminded herself, as the cold reality began to seep through her hurt and fury, she had a flight to work. This was no time for hysterics.
Robbie stood up, went over to the washstand, and glanced at her white, pinched face. The effort not to cry was tremendous. Her throat ached with distress. Determinedly she took several long breaths until her pulse quieted and her head stopped pounding. She ran cold water over her wrists, soaked a paper towel, wrung it out, and then applied it to her forehead and eyes.
She still had a good half hour before her plane took off for Atlanta. Just time enough, she decided.
There was a desk in the lounge with writing materials and intercompany envelopes. Quickly she sat down and scribbled a note, put it in an envelope, and, before sealing it, took the little key out of her uniform pocket, dropped it inside, and pressed the flap shut.
Holding her head high, she straightened her slim shoulders and walked back into the main lobby and over to the Trans-Continent ticket counters. Behind it was a slot marked “Intercompany Correspondence.” Robbie dropped the envelope in the slot. She knew Tyler would find it in his mailbox in the pilots lounge tomorrow.
With that, she turned and walked resolutely toward the departures gates, to board her flight back to Atlanta.
Tomorrow she would call Kara Collins, the Chief Stewardess, and tell her that she had decided to accept the promotion job and go on the public relations tour for Trans-Continent. She needed desperately to get away and have a total change. If she kept on flying her regular schedule, she ran the risk of running into Tyler again. She could not face that or the constant threat of hearing about his latest girlfriends.
Yes, Robbie assured herself, sometimes the bravest thing to do is run and never look back.
Chapter Seventeen
“Well, after today, let’s see what our schedule looks like—two more cities and ten more interviews. There’s the Rotary Club luncheon, the Business and Professional Women’s Banquet, the radio talk show tomorrow morning, then…”
Robbie held up her hand pleadingly. “Oh, Todd, spare me!” she begged.
“Had enough of being a celebrity, huh?”
Robbie sighed heavily and stirred her coffee thoughtfully. She and Todd Maynard, Trans-Continent’s promotion and publicity agent, were having breakfast in the airport coffee shop in San Francisco. They had just taken the early bird flight up from Los Angeles that morning after a hectic whirlwind of events there. The tour had been encouragingly successful but, now in its fifth week, Robbie was beginning to feel the strain.
“Well, you can have some time off here,” Todd told her. “Take a couple of hours this afternoon. You could go shopping at Fisherman’s Wharf. Or we could rent bicycles and tool around Golden Gate Park, if you’d like to get some fresh air and exercise,” he suggested.
Robbie shook her head. Todd Maynard was a dear and had no idea how each of his suggestions drove a spike of remembered pain into her heart. It was just those sorts of things that Tyler had planned for them to do together if she had come to San Francisco. Of course, all that was over, in the past, and she did not want even to think of Tyler. Maybe it was being here in San Francisco for two days on the tour that was making her so edgy.
“What I probably need is a hot bath and a nap,” Robbie said rather apologetically. “It gets tedious always trying to project the alert, energetic, smiling Trans-Continent stewardess image—especially on less than six hours sleep.”
“I understand,” Todd nodded sympathetically. “Well, as soon as we get to the hotel and do that one interview…”
Robbie did not really listen as Todd outlined the day’s activities. Unconsciously her mind wandered to how different this, her first trip to San Francisco, was from the one she had hoped briefly to make. All the while, a running dialogue went on inside her head.
He never meant anything he said.
I never really thought he did.
But you were beginning to believe it! Come on! You were flattered.
Yes, but I was a fool. I should have known better. Right from the beginning I had told myself we had no future together. And he certainly made that clear enough.
Why couldn’t she forget Tyler? Why was it so hard to get over someone she couldn’t trust? I should have known better!
“Finished?” Todd was asking. Robbie blinked, coming slowly back into focus. “You’ve hardly touched your food,” he said accusingly
“No appetite. I’m too tired, I guess,” she replied. They got up, and Todd went over to the cashier to pay their check. Robbie stood idly looking over the display of candies and chewing gums. Then she was startled to hear a voice that she would recognize anywhere call her name. Without turning around, she walked swiftly out of the restaurant into the terminal lobby. But she was not fast enough. She heard footsteps coming closer from behind her. Then strong hands gripped her arm and swung her around. Tyler was towering over her, his gray-blue eyes riveting on her. Robbie was momentarily shocked.
“Robbie, don’t run away,” T J. pleaded. “I’ve got to talk to you. You have to explain that note you sent. Why have you refused to take my calls? I don’t understand…”
“There’s nothing to understand. It should be clear. It’s very simple. I’m not interested in any man who hands out keys to his apartment like prizes in a Cracker Jack box!” She wrenched herself free, feeling all the accumulated bitterness of the last few weeks well to the surface. Who did he think he was that she would come anytime to his beck and call? Her eyes flashed defiantly—while the sight of him tore her heart into ribbons.
Tyler dropped his hold on her and stared at her with a puzzled expression. “I don’t know what you mean by that.”
“Please don’t take me for a complete idiot. Whatever you may th
ink, I wasn’t born yesterday.”
Tyler started to say something, but was interrupted by Todd Maynard, who came up to them and said half-jokingly, “Is this man bothering you, lady? Hi, Captain Lang. How’re things going?”
Robbie took the opportunity to make her escape, “I’ll see you at the hotel, Todd,” she said coolly and walked quickly in the direction of the cab stand.
Two days later in Seattle, Todd regarded Robbie speculatively and remarked, “So, after the tour is over, what are you going to do?”
“You mean after I collapse?” She smiled ruefully.
“Yes, after that, and a week in the sun doing nothing.”
“I don’t know. I think I’m ready to make a drastic change of some kind,” she said thoughtfully, toying with the mound of scrambled eggs on her plate which was fast getting cold and inedible.
“Have you ever thought of modeling as a career?” he asked.
“Modeling?” she raised her eyes, regarding him in surprise.
“That’s what I said. You’re not classically beautiful, but you’ve got great bone structure, dynamite eyes, and you photograph like a dream. I’ve seen the glossies of all the publicity stills that guy in Los Angeles took of you and, believe me, they are fantastic! TransCon is going to be ecstatic with them. They’ll be using them for their own advertising. But you won’t get anything from that. I think you ought to consider a career for yourself where you’ll benefit from what you’ve got.
“I used to work in New York at a couple of pretty big agencies. I could give you introductions to the right people and recommend you to some of the top model agencies.” He paused, giving her another professional once-over. “But, I guarantee, when those new Trans-Con posters come out with your picture, you probably won’t need my help.” He grinned. “You’ll have it made.”
“I’ve never thought of anything like that. I studied to become a nurse and then went into stewardess training. I thought when I stopped flying I’d go back to nursing and get some specialized graduate training.”