"Carrie!"
Carrie turned around at the sound of her name and looked into the crowd at the airport. She couldn't see anyone she recognised and continued walking towards the passport control.
"Carrie Eldon!"
The male voice was closer now, but Carrie still couldn't see anyone she recognised. Suddenly a man walked up to her, put his arm on her shoulder and grinned.
"Carrie Eldon, it IS you! It must be at least 15 years since we last saw each other."
Carrie searched through her memory to see if she could possibly place this man's face somewhere in her past. He obviously knew who she was.
"You don't remember me, do you?" he chuckled knowingly.
"I'm sorry," she admitted. "I'm usually really good with names, but I can't seem to place your face."
"That's probably because the last time you saw me I had the long, curly rocker hairdo, a la Jon Bon Jovi," he grinned and tapped his closely shaved head, the hair style favoured by so many balding 30-somethings. "I'm Les Dean, from high school."
"Les? I don't believe it!" Carrie was visibly shocked. "It's so good to see you! What are you doing here? What are you doing these days?"
"Well, I was sent here to negotiate a deal on behalf of a client of mine. I'm a lawyer now and I seem to be spending most of my time flying around the world negotiating corporate takeovers and mergers. Please, don't ask any more because I'll only put you to sleep. How about you?"
"Business as well," Carrie smiled back. "I'm a jewellery designer and I'm here to discuss a new line of jewellery that I'm going to design exclusively for a high-end chain of department stores."
They moved through passport control and baggage reclaim, talking about their jobs and the trip they were currently on. When they got outside the rain was pouring down and there was only one taxi. It turned out they had been booked into the same hotel so they decided to share the cab.
"So do you still live back in the old backwater where we grew up?" Les asked.
"No, I took a job with a silversmith right out of school and lived out of a suitcase for five years. Then I got married to a TV producer and divided my time between a few different locations. Since I established my own company I never seem to be in the same place two months in a row, it's a very nomadic lifestyle."
"It didn't occur to me that you would be married. You're obviously not Carrie Eldon anymore."
"Well, I'm divorced now, but I kept my ex-husband's surname since that's the name I had when I got established as a designer. My passport says Eldon again, but these days most people know me as Caroline Charles."
"You're Caroline Charles? I wish I'd known," he sighed. "I bought my ex-wife a very expensive, but beautiful, necklace by you as a five year anniversary present. Two weeks later I found out that she'd been having an affair and she wanted a divorce."
"I'm sorry," Carrie shook her head. "Guess neither one of us was lucky in marriage. My husband decided that I was too old for him after 10 years and traded me in for a younger model."
"Ouch!"
"Yeah, it's been a year now and it would seem that at 35 I'm over the hill."
"You're hardly over the hill, Carrie. You don't look a day over 30, and you're much more beautiful now than you were in high school, and you were a real beauty then."
"You flatterer, but do go on, my confidence does need a boost."
"All the guys were wild about you in school. You were really sexy then and you've filled out very nicely since then. Unfortunately so have I."
"Don't be silly," she laughed. "I seem to remember that you were little more than a skeleton with a huge mop of hair back then. There's certainly more meat on your bones now, but it's not like you're twice the size of your teenage self like Doug McKenzie. Have you seen him lately?"
"Oh yeah, we were best friends in school. I try to drop in on him every time I go visit my parents. He's a car salesman and he's adopted a, how can I put it, very comfortable lifestyle since we were teenagers."
The two laughed and spent the rest of the ride to the hotel getting each other up to date with what their old friends were doing. At the hotel they each checked in and in the lift on their way to their respective rooms Les turned to Carrie.
"Listen, I'm not meeting anyone until tomorrow and I need dinner. Are you free tonight?"
"Sure," Carrie agreed. "I just want to freshen up a bit. How about we meet in the lobby in an hour?"
They agreed to meet an hour later and then they reached Carrie's floor and she went to her room. She lay on her bed and smiled. Imagine meeting Les Dean here. He'd always been one of the nicest guys in her school and they'd had a few classes together, but they'd never moved in the same circles. He had grown into his 6'3" frame though. The gangly boy had turned into a broad shouldered and strong looking man. So what if he did carry a few extra pounds? She only had to look at the 36D bras and support panties that she wore to keep her stomach looking as flat as it was 10 years ago.
She had a quick shower and examined the image in the mirror. Her hips were definitely more feminine, as was her chest, but her waist was very pronounced and her thighs still looked good in jeans. She used to wear her chestnut hair long, but nowadays she let it curl up in a short hairdo that elegantly framed her face. She didn't know where Les intended to eat tonight so she dressed in an elegant, but understated, maroon dress that accentuated her generous bosom and feminine curves. She also put on her highest heels so that she wouldn't feel so short next to Les with her 5'5".
Les turned and smiled at Carrie as she exited the lift. She walked up to him and angled her face to receive the obligatory kiss on the cheek. His brown eyes swept across her body, taking in the soft curves that the dress clung so seductively to. Carrie smiled appreciatively at his appearance. He was wearing a grey suit with a navy and white striped shirt. He wore no tie and the shirt was open enough to show off some chest curls. Carrie had to fight a sudden impulse to run her finger through the hair on his chest.
"I've been here before and I know that they have wonderful food in the hotel restaurant," Les said. "Would you be happy to eat here?"
"It sounds great," Carrie smiled and let Les take her arm and lead her towards the restaurant.
The meal was fabulous, but Carrie didn't taste it. They talked, but Carrie couldn't remember what about. Nothing had been said, but they both knew where they were headed. The dinner simply added a little bit of respectability to the lust. Their desire for each other was obvious. His eyes kept focusing on her cleavage. Her legs stretched under the table and touched his. His hand kept touching her hand on the table. They simultaneously turned down the waiter's offer to show them the dessert menu and Les showed him his room key card and quickly signed for the meal.