CHAPTER 5: VANCOUVER AND BEYOND
A healthy dose of passionate pussy in Vancouver. Melissa and Antonia relive the past while porn plays on the screen in front of them.
It was a close-run thing, getting from Logan to Salt Lake City airport in time to catch his flight to Vancouver. As he settled into his seat, he turned around and asked, of no-one in particular, "Is this plane going to Vancouver?" He couldn't get used to the casual boarding habits in American airports, where one plane replaced another as if they were at a bus station in Leicester.
"Yes," replied the woman in the seat next to him. "And this was the time to ask."
He smiled at her. Nice-looking woman. Late twenties, he guessed, and dressed for a business meeting. Charcoal linen suit, frilly white blouse (but not too frilly), patent leather shoes and black stockings. Actually rather yummy.
But he wasn't going to try his luck quite so soon. It was a relief to have a conversation with a woman without the pressure of wanting to get laid. He liked the way Americans would pick up a conversation with strangers in a friendly, almost intimate way, in a coffee bar or a pizza place or an airport waiting room. It was all for the moment; no expectation of the beginning of a friendship, just a way to pass the time pleasantly. In England, you could expect to be cut dead.
"You have business in Vancouver?" he asked.
"I do. Actually, I have to give a presentation."
"About?"
"Improving the company's image with Asians. I work for an image consultancy firm and I'm doing this for a perfume company."
"I wish I could tell you the name of the fragrance you're wearing. I can't, but I do like it. Subtle."
Now if this were Edinburgh, say, the woman might think it was a pick-up line and he would get the treatment. But Frieda, as she turned out to be, was perfectly at ease.
"Thank you, you're too kind. Now tell me what you're going to Vancouver for."
"Well, I suppose you could say it's a kind of market research." He couldn't believe he was saying this. What kind of second-rate movie did he think he was in?
"What are you selling?"
"I'm selling myself short." It was the only way he could think of recovering. "Actually, I was a bit shy to tell you what I'm travelling for, so it was the first thing that came into my mind."
"Now I'm curious. Romance? Exploration? Adventure? Investigation?"
"All of the above. My girlfriend Melissa has sent me on a quest."
"A quest? You're a knight? Where's your coat of arms?"
This was a good question. What was his badge? He thought hard. "Have you read
Orlando Furioso
?"
"Well no, but I remember something about it in a TV series called -- what was it --
Changing Places
? From a novel by David Lodge. He's looking for Angelica." Educated, too, but anyone in her line of consultancy needed a bit of cultural capital.
"Yes, well, there's an episode where two friends are challenged to find a chaste woman."
"I thought most men were looking out for an unchaste woman."
"O no, I would never do that. Why do you think I'm talking to you? OK, so eventually they seduce a young woman. Both of them have her, and then they fall asleep with her between them. They are woken up in the middle of the night because the bed is shaking. She's having sex with her boyfriend right there in the same bed. They are so tickled they pay her a shedload of cash."
"No wonder Virginia Woolf thought she should write her version of
Orlando
."
"TouchΓ©."
"So, you're on a quest to find a chaste woman. And now you've found me, what are you going to do?"
"Define 'chaste'."
"It's the opposite of slut."
"Describes you to a 'T'. As it happens, I've got to go all round the world, and I can't leave any town before I've tasted -- what shall we say? -- the local specialty."
"So what was it like in Salt Lake City?"
"Utah can be proud."
"Did you stand up for yourself?"