While on the whole I'd say modern technology is a great thing, it's amazing the trouble it can get you into without even trying...
A couple of years ago I quit my job and set out to see if I could make my own business work. Nothing much, just a couple of decent ideas and some software I'd chucked together in what little spare time the 21st century offers to a not-quite-30-year-old. Still, it seemed to work and a couple of months ago my little one-man band had grown big enough to go global. Well, European and North America wide anyway. Close enough, right? While the extra business was nice, and the money that was coming in was way beyond anything I'd dared dream about when I started all this the expansion had taken any remaining free time and gobbled it up with flights back and forth from meeting to meeting. It had gotten to the point where I was able to tell what country I was in just by the carpet in the airport departure lounge.
The only positive aspect really (other than the extra business and therefore money and stability of course) was that I could occasionally take advantage of my flights to spend a day or two visiting friends in various far flung and exotic locations. In this particular case I was coming back from a trip that definitely rated highly on the job satisfaction scale. I'd managed to secure a large contract with a European-wide beverage company with the added bonus of spending a couple of very enjoyable days with Rachel, a very open minded old friend who had been begging me to take her up on an offer involving her, a video camera or three and a fully equipped BDSM dungeon for which she happened to have a spare key.
Before I'd left I'd had time to do a rough cut on some of the footage we'd shot and the results were impressive if I do say so myself. She looked fantastic, the film quality was high enough to blow virtually anything you'd find in the 'professional' adult entertainment industry away and the action itself was certainly, umm, inventive. Unfortunately her computer had decided to terminate itself just before we did the shoot and she was waiting for her new Macbook to turn up so she couldn't actually keep a copy for herself. Don't worry, I assured her, you'll have the finished cut as soon as I get back home. Heck, it'll be a great way to christen your new machine. Still, she wanted to keep a copy of the rough stuff (meaning the footage you sick, twisted individual you) so I crunched it down into something that could play on her iPod, stuck it in iTunes and synch'd it up. And that's really where the problem started...
The flight back to the UK was surprisingly quiet, although for reasons I've never understood this particular airline insisted on allocating seats seemingly at random. Oh, I'm sure there was some logic behind it but damned if I could figure it out. Thankfully I ended up with a window seat and, looking around the interior of the 737, I figured I'd have the row to myself as there was no-one in either row before or after mine so I closed my eyes and tried to get some sleep before take-off. That particular intent was thwarted by the slight thud of someone dropping into the aisle seat. Cursing under my breath (okay, there was still a seat between us but wouldn't it be easier to give everyone as much space as possible?) I turned to assess how big a pain this was going to be... and found my brain in free fall.
It turned out the thud was the result of my new travel companion losing her balance as she was putting her bag into the overhead locker and she'd ended up with one knee on the seat, a hand braced on the armrest, the other on the seat back of the row in front and her breasts pushing her sheer white blouse to bursting point right in my eye-line.
Somehow I managed not to openly drool and forced my gaze upwards to meet a pair of sparkling green eyes in a wonderful, perfect, sculpted face topped by a mane of red hair that hung almost to her waist. She, in turn, was looking straight at my... umm, well, let's say upper thighs. I caught the quick flicker as she travelled upwards to my face (as I, in turn, followed the ancient male ritual of sucking in the stomach, puffing up the chest and generally trying to look like I didn't spend far too many hours in a chair of one sort or another) and as her eyes met mine we both realised we'd been caught in our respective mental undressing and shared a grin that was half embarrassment, half enjoyment and all flirt.
"Sorry" she said, in a light Irish brogue that cut straight through me and settled somewhere in the base of my spine to send shivers throughout every nerve ending in my body, "I'm always a bit of a klutz when flying".
"Not a big fan then?" I asked, trying to keep the mood light and hide my sudden desperate desire to know every last detail of her life.
"Oh no, I love flying." she laughed, "I just hate the take off and landing parts."
"I can see how that would be a problem. If it's any consolation I hate the flying but love the take off and landing parts."
"Really?" she said, sliding into her seat (and I do mean sliding, I swear she made that simple act a hundred times sexier and more enticing than any move dreamt up in any pole-dancing routine in the history of the world. Or at the very least, Vegas) "But surely you're more likely to have something fatal happen on the way up or down?"
"True, but at least it'd be quick. Anything happens at 40,000 feet you'd have enough time to write the letter of complaint to your travel agent before hitting the ground. Besides, it's the only time you really feel the speed, the rest of the time it's sitting in these seats that aren't designed for the human spine and checking to make sure blood is still flowing around anything below the waist."
She laughed at that, a low-pitched combination of giggle and belly laugh that she hid behind a hand, her eyes dancing. "I see your point, though I think I'd be tempted to do something a little more interesting than write a letter with my last moments."
"Like what?"
"Oh... I don't know... be the first person to join the mile high club without an airplane?" Her eyes flashed with delight as I felt the blush jump up to my cheeks. "Of course, you'd want to know at least a little about your partner in the record books..... so tell me, what's your name?" Again that smile, the same mix of daring and embarrassment at being quite so forward and I felt myself relax as we started chatting. We didn't stop for a break until the plane was more than an hour into the flight.
I'd found out a great deal about her and, I must admit, thought I might just be falling in love. Her name was Karen and, not to put too fine a point on it, she was a geek. An IT Manager by trade I could only imagine the havoc she'd wreak in most IT departments I knew of just by walking through in high heels (well, high heels and a suit obviously. If she walked through in JUST high heels there'd probably be gladiatorial combat breaking out). In a rather sad (but successful) attempt to appeal to the love of shiny things common to all geeks I pulled out my latest toy, the brand new iPod Touch. She immediately started flicking through the menus and I took the opportunity to stretch my legs with a quick comfort break which was almost entirely not an opportunity to feel her legs brush against me as I squeezed past her to get to the aisle.
When I got back something was definitely different but I couldn't put my finger on what. The look she gave me as she slid her legs just far enough to one side to let me in was definitely different. Where before there had been playful interest now there was... I don't know exactly, I'd almost say outright desire but there was something tempering it, holding it back.
"So..." she said as I dropped back into my seat "should I make sure not to turn my back on you?"
"Umm, sorry, but I don't quite follow."
"Well, it seems the safest option to make sure I don't find myself a little... tied up?"
My heart skipped a beat at that, mind racing. "Sorry, I'm still not quite sure I'm with you".
She didn't say anything, just turned my iPod towards me so I could see the screen and a shiver of dread ran through me as I saw the video of the previous weekend's activities running in living colour. My mind raced, part trying to figure out how it had got on there and part seeing how to play this. The first was easy enough, I'd autofilled the device from iTunes before setting off that morning and it must have put the video on then. As for the second... well, I'd gotten this far by being honest, and I really didn't have any other option anyway.