He closed the trunk of the car, having extracted his bags and slung his backpack over his shoulder. He extended the handle of his rolling luggage and waved goodbye to his wife with one hand, turning towards the entrance to the terminal.
As he stepped across the threshold and the doors slid closed behind him, he could feel the weight of responsibility lifting off of him. The burdens that his wife was constantly placing on him, her perpetual demands; all were melting away as he took his steps into the airport.
He found the check-in desk for his airline, showed his boarding pass and got his tag for his carry-on bag. He went to security and was just as frustrated as usual, removing his belt, taking his laptop out of his bag and removing his bag of liquids. He was glad that he was packing lightly for this quick trip. When he was through security, he went to grab a bite to eat before he sat down at the gate. He got a turkey sandwich that shouldn't have cost him $17 but it did and he tried to enjoy it despite the dry bread and lifeless lettuce..
It was Thursday evening and in just three days he'd be checking something off his bucket list. An avid runner for years, he was going to run the Chicago Marathon, one of the World Marathon Majors. With six marathons in the series, Chicago was the most accessible to him, especially considering the nervousness around travel as the pandemic dragged on for a second year. The New York Marathon had hundreds of thousands of applicants and used a lottery system, making it tough to get into, and Boston had a firm qualification time that he was nowhere near achieving. It was already a big enough deal to travel to the United States from his home in Canada, so he would put London, Berlin and Tokyo on the shelf for a while as his overseas travel would be on hold for a little while longer.
But the real reason he was getting excited is that he would be seeing Jenny for the first time in over a decade. Jenny, the woman for whom he had fallen hard when they met at a corporate retreat over 13 years before. Jenny, with whom he had gotten back in touch over the pandemic, with her marriage breaking up and him being profoundly unhappy in his.
After over a year of talking online, things heating up and then cooling off, they were finally going to meet again. She had been somewhat distant, keeping things very cool with him for a while after a steamy few months in the late summer and fall the year before. He never knew what she was feeling for quite a long time. But they finally talked some more on the phone and resolved some things and agreed to meet up for coffee, at least to start with.
For well over a year, his heart had been beating only for Jenny. And while it wasn't the only cause for the decline of his marriage, his realization of his feelings for Jenny was what made him understand his lack of them for his wife. The moment that it dawned on him how little he felt for his wife and how much he was feeling for Jenny, he realized the huge mistake he had made when he got married.
He still wasn't quite sure of how Jenny felt about him, though. He couldn't help but replay some of the things that Jenny had said to him at different points over the last year and a half and try to read into them. Did she really mean it when she said that that she was ready to illegally cross a border to see him? Was just about anything really on the table sexually? So many things had changed since then and her coolness towards him didn't make him too optimistic.
At least he had something to keep him occupied this weekend and it wasn't all about her. If things didn't go they way he wanted with her, he'd still have something big to cross of his "to do" list.
His stomach was in knots as he waited for the plane to board and he needed to temper his emotions while waiting for the plane to board. He tried to distract himself by reading his book on his phone but his thoughts kept coming back to her. He tried to focus on his running. He went over his game plan for the race. He went over his fueling strategy. He looked at the weather to better plan what to wear. He looked over the course map, trying to visualize what he'd see and hear and feel at ground level.
Time both stretched and flew. but before he knew it, it was time to board. He found his seat on the plane and got as comfortable as he could. Since losing 30 pounds training for the marathon, he definitely fit better into the tiny airline seat. He had the window seat and there was a young looking couple sitting in the two seats next to him; definitely a big improvement on the squirmy baby sitting on the well-built father's lap he had next to him on his last flight, several months back. He pulled the inflatable pillow out of his bag, blew into it to inflate it and put against the aircraft bulkhead. He leaned his head against it, closed his eyes and let his thoughts wander.
Of course they wandered to Jenny, wearing a feminine, yet somewhat conservative dress as she approached him for the first time. Kissing him deeply, her tongue exploring his mouth as her hand caressed the back of his head, running her fingers through his thick hair. He could almost feel the curve of her hips and as he put his hand on them and pulled her close, the feel of her tongue in his mouth, the warmth of her body next to his and the smell of her scent as he inhaled. Then they were in his hotel room and she was backing him up and pushing him on the bed, pulling his pants down, the warmth of her hand and mouth on his cock as he got harder and harder.
A jolt of turbulence broke him out of his reverie and he realized that his pants were fitting just a little tighter than when he dozed off. He took a quick look around to make sure that no one noticed (they hadn't) and he checked his phone to see how much time had elapsed. Just 20 minutes or so had gone by since they had taken off. It wasn't a long flight, Toronto to Chicago, but he almost couldn't wait until he landed.
He passed the rest of the flight reading, watching a TV show he had downloaded to his phone and just otherwise trying to distract himself from the real reason he chose to run the Chicago Marathon. Ok, it was a dream to run it, but his desire to see Jenny easily overpowered the allure of a big event like the marathon.
Soon enough the plane landed and pulled up to the terminal. He exited the plane and caught a taxi to his downtown hotel, close enough to the start of the race that he'd be able get to and from pretty easily. He rode up the elevator with his minimal baggage and checked the clock. It was only 9pm. He had to keep reminding himself that Chicago was an hour behind his accustomed Eastern time zone.
He was exhausted. But first he pulled out his phone and connected it to the hotel WiFi. He could easily afford the fees his cellular provider charged for roaming in the US, but he hated himself for relying on that, and since he didn't expect to be leaving the hotel tonight, he didn't want to incur charges for that extra day, even if it was only $10.
Once connected, he checked his emails. He texted his wife that he had landed and arrived at the hotel and did the same for his parents. Even though he was 45 years old, his parents still insisted that he check in whenever he traveled. His duties completed, he turned to his next task. He texted Jenny. "Landed in the Windy City," he typed. "Hope the wind is at my back on Sunday!"
He put his phone down and went to the washroom to grab a shower and wash up. He didn't expect Jenny to respond right away (if at all). Their communication had been tenuous since reconnecting after he wished a happy birthday back in June. She told him she didn't want to have full blown text message conversations they way they had before and she would write to him once in a while. Sometimes he'd write back and go unanswered for a week or two. The frustration and emptiness of this treatment had had him on edge for months. Every once in a while, she'd tease him with a morsel of friendliness. An occasional comment on the crossword they both did every day, or a passing thought about running (a pastime they bonded over initially), or something about their shared line of work. He would be careful, trying to stoke these shards of connection into something that resembled a conversation but she would always pull back. She used her busy schedule, trying to be a single mom, trying to figure things out with her husband as excuses and he really tried to see things from her side of it but was frequently just left sad and lonely to have lost this incredibly deep connection and long-time friend.
He had avoided any sexy talk as it seemed to push her further into her shell. But he remembered vividly how just a year before, their conversations were enough to get his heart racing and the blood flowing to his penis in seconds.
As he finished up in the shower, he heard his phone ping. Usually he kept it on silent when he was around his wife, but now that he didn't have to worry about her, he let it make whichever sounds it made.
