This is for Ann-M, because your obsession with Ian will never be far away :-)
*****
Tom was not having a good day. The radio had just announced that the only main road in the area was closed until further notice due to the huge amount of snow that had fallen in the last four hours. Four hours wasted, instead of making tracks and getting away from this backwater little town and its isolated conference facility, he had been stuck in a boring conference on the ethical uses of IAN - Isotopic Aerated Nalcohol. It was a new product the company had developed but as yet was banned for public use because of some of the side effects the gas had when combined with other influences.
IAN had been developed to be a substitute for dry ice in cocktail drinks to give the smoky effect without any harmful risks, the trouble was it effectively provided a short term enhancement to the effects of the alcohol in the drink and one cocktail could have you singing naked in the street if you weren't too careful.
The conference didn't have enough material to be interesting for fifteen minutes but a professor of eggheads had somehow drawn it out for 4 hours and twelve minutes - Tom had looked at his watch for almost every single one of them.
One of the interesting facts he picked up was if IAN was released normally it was as a super-cooled gas to create the dry-ice smoky effect, if however it was released in very small amounts in a steam environment the effect was roughly equivalent to that generated by Viagra - another reason why the government authorities had decided to withhold the licence to distribute the gas. Even if the whole of the companies legal department were currently working to get a limited release form approval.
The only other person Tom knew at the conference was Ann, she was one of the sales reps and had brought along the samples of IAN for the static display, an array of glasses with different colored water and a generous fog of IAN softly floating from the half full glasses down over the display table. Ann was quite pretty, early thirties, slim figure with long dark hair pulled back into a single pony tail going half way down the back of her suit jacket. There was some talk that she had been a professional dancer some time back before she joined the company, she certainly had the figure for it and she carried herself with a confident grace almost gliding as she moved.
Tom hadn't been with the company long, three months next week but he had heard a few stories about Ann from some of his other male colleagues. Ann over the years had been hit on by most of the men in the office, always the same polite gentle let down. She had never even fallen foul of the office Christmas party where the booze was free and the lights were very low. The bitter conclusion never openly spoken was that Ann just wasn't into men. Such a shame Tom thought as he smiled and held the door of their hire car open for her to climb into.
Ann threw the small sack of sample canisters on the backseat as Tom moved around to the driver's side. The road was already heavily covered in snow and within ten feet Tom was wishing they had set off hours ago and avoided the worst of the weather. Still the hotel was only a mile away and a couple of cars had left already leaving fresh tracks in the snow for him to follow.
Ann was pleasant enough to Tom and they had got along pretty well on this trip so far, from the few hours in the car they had spent together he had formed a few more assumptions of the dark haired beauty sitting beside him as he drove. One, she was definitely not single, but she was also very private about it. Her phone had rung three times when he had been around and she either let it go to voice mail or answered it with a very short "I will ring you back later." She didn't give anything away. Two, she was very focused and hated wasting time. She usually spoke her mind but did it in a calm and affectionate way, probably one of the reasons for her success in sales. And three, she had considered the whole conference just as pointless and frustrating as Tom had.
Twenty minutes after leaving the conference Tom pulled into the car park of the small hotel, collecting his overnight bag from the boot he offered to take Ann's bag to reception while she went to return her forth phone call. Ann's smile and brief nod enough for the junior Tom to sling her bags over his shoulder and head off to the reception while she began a quite conversation in the snow.
Tom was checked in and had just been handed his key when Ann appeared in reception, face slightly red from the cold and biting conditions outside. It got even redder when the reception informed her she wasn't on their list, and there were no more rooms available. Some guests had re-booked for extra nights because of the conditions and the hotel was unusually at maximum capacity.
The usually cool and calm Ann was rapidly becoming irate, "How the hell can I not be on the list when you have just checked in my colleague" Ann was ranted pointing at Tom as he stood waiting to see the outcome of the debate.
The receptionist checked and double checked the computer, apologizing once again but confirming that there was no booking made for her, and as it stood there were no spare rooms.
There were a number of people in reception now and a queue forming behind the irate Ann, the argument was going nowhere and after being told for the umpteenth time Ann stomped away from the reception tears welling in the corner of her eyes.
Tom sighed and held his hand out towards Ann as she walked towards him to collect her bag, his room key dangling from his extended fingers. "You take my room, I will sleep in the car or maybe get drunk in the bar and curl up on one of the sofas" Tom told her with a small smile, "but it will cost you dinner."
Ann was a bit taken aback, surprised by the generous offer from Tom and for once she was a little lost for words. She managed to blurt out a thank you and returned his weak smile with a more hearty sincere one.
Ever the Gent, Tom carried Ann's bags up to her room and asked if he could leave his own bags there and possibly use the shower later providing it wasn't any trouble.
It was the least Ann could do as she took the bags inside and Tom turned to head off to the bar while she got settled into the room and sorted herself out.
The hotel was quite a small one, with just sixteen bedrooms, a restaurant, a bar and a lounge/reception area, the building was an old Tudor lodge, with dark timber beams throughout and walls that seemed to be off at strange angles so nothing seemed to be perfectly straight. As Tom walked to the bar he found the low ceilings and slanted floors quite a challenge and he couldn't help but think after a few drinks the corridors of this place could be lethal.
Tom was half way through his second pint when Ann arrived in the bar, refreshed and redressed, she was changed out of her charcoal grey business suit and was wearing tight fitted jeans and a powder blue cashmere jumper with a thick wide neck showing a hint of cleavage. Her hair loose with a slight bounce and curl to it falling just below her shoulders.
Ann ordered a glass of white wine indicating to the barman where she was sitting and just like that she was back to her usual confident self. She took a seat next to Tom on a table near the open log fire, heat radiating from the glowing embers as the crackle and pop noises filled the gaps in conversations around the bar.
"You look very nice" Tom commented as Ann sat down at the table, "I don't think I have ever seen you out of your work clothes!" The comment instantly brought a smile to Ann's face and a grimace to Tom's as he quickly tried to cover the double edged meaning but just made it sound worse with each explanation. Eventually Tom just stopped talking and took a big swig of his drink, Ann was still amused and her mood was considerably better than it had been all day. Maybe the Ann out of hours was a little more relaxed, maybe it was because she didn't have to worry and stress about the room but she was warm and smiley and was genuinely enjoying Tom's company.
The barman delivered Ann's wine along with a couple of menus, lingering slightly too long at the table before hustling quickly back behind the bar. Tom had noticed that the guy had clearly been staring down Ann's top as she sat leaning forward looking at the menu. Suddenly feeling he was missing out a little but deciding he had already made enough of a fool of himself with his previous comments.
"So do you get that kind of attention a lot then?" Tom asked in an attempt to shift the conversation away from his earlier transgression.
Without even looking up Ann responded "It has its advantages, and it never hurts to allow others to think they have one over on you, especially if the need arises when you want something back from them."
Tom couldn't help but laugh, she knew exactly what she was doing and was quite open about using what she had to her advantage. Ann summed it up with a simple "they get something - I get something, everybody's happy."
"I'm starving, would you like to eat here or move somewhere else?" Ann asked. Once again she gave Tom a full on smile as she delivered the last part of the sentence. Tom wasn't sure what the hell she meant by somewhere else - he had assumed she meant the restaurant but from that smile he wasn't sure if she now meant room service!
Tom swallowed and said the restaurant looked good, standing and picking up both of their drinks. Ann smiled warmly standing to join Tom, before crossing the bar area towards the restaurant with Tom in her wake.
The pair were seated at a small table with a view over the snow covered gardens. The floodlights lighting the snow brightly against the contrast of the darkening night sky. In the last couple of hours the snow had really fallen heavily and the weight of snow on the trees was beginning to bend the branches as it accumulated. The temperature was also dropping rapidly, indications were it would reach around -6 degrees tonight.
