Chapter 5: What Alvin Really Wanted
Alvin's date with Missy was great. He was very surprised about how sexy she was. They saw each other when he got home to Los Angeles if he passed the check-in counter but he never returned her calls or texts. To him, she was just a notch on the belt. He flew to Sydney three more times in the month after he acquired Samantha's address and phone number but he never used it because it would end his career if caught as well as Missy's and that would be awful. He bid for the Sydney route in the hopes of seeing Samantha. Failing that, he always had the key to Aubrey's apartment. He got depressed thinking that beautiful Aubrey was his fall back. She was perfect. What depressed him was that he only thought of her as a fuck buddy. Most men would kill to be able to love her. Perhaps he had fallen in love with her. He was confused and depressed.
He was on the leg from Sydney to Los Angeles and to his delight saw on the manifest when he was in pilot's control room that Samantha would be flying. He was leaving Sydney slightly less depressed because for the past few months he spent many a long evenings with Aubrey. It wasn't just the sex, which was great. It was the afternoon of talking and hugging and walking around the neighborhood where Aubrey lived and trying out new restaurants. Actually, he was beginning to lose his infatuation with Samantha, which made his head hurt less. And there it was. Her name was on the manifest, that the flight crews have access to an hour prior to each flight.
He did not have time to stand at the door, waiting for 341 people to board so he waited for the plane to be in the air, when he could find Samantha in sea 1B, her favorite seat. About 45 minutes into the flight and before the meal was served, he excused himself from the cockpit and opened the door to the cabin. He found her immediately but did not interrupt her reading, right away.
After he had been standing there for two full minutes, he said, "Excuse me, miss, is everything alright tonight?" She looked up.
"Alvin, where have you been?" That Australian accent drove him crazy.
"I was just going to ask you the same thing."
"I went skiing in Colorado for the past month and the board met by phone for a month so I have not travelled back to Australia for a while. I am glad I saw you. I was worried I would have to chase you down if you were not flying today. In July, my company is being honored at a charity dinner in Sydney and I was hoping you would accompany me. "
Alvin was delighted, more than delighted. He was stunned and surprised that she remembered him, or remembered him enough to want a date. "Let me know the date and I will make sure I am in Australia."
"Can you be certain?"
"Most likely. I don't know at this moment but I will let you know as soon as I get back to the office in LA. I will know for certain tomorrow." She gave him her email address and phone number.
Alvin could not catch a flight the day or two prior to the event so he got a week off and planned to hitch a ride on a flight from Los Angeles to Sydney the day before the big event. He called her from Mexico City two days later to tell her of his plans. "Do you have a tuxedo?"
"No."
"I have a tailor in Los Angeles. I will email you his contact. Call him up. He will know what to do. I am so glad." Part one of her seduction of him was under way.
They talked again by phone when Alvin was in Miami. He didn't want to hang up. He learned about her marriage to an Australian-rules football player who was physically abusive to her and ended up getting a lot of money in the divorce. That brought up sports and he learned that she was a fan of many sports and that her family owned a soccer team in Australia and her father bred and raced horses but she did not like them. The conversation was getting serious when they each shared stories of their previous serious relationships. He learned that she had relationships with men and women but wanted to get married again and have children. She was beginning to hear her biological clock ticking and her parents reminded her constantly that they wanted more grandchildren and that her sister (younger) already had three little ones. She told him that she wanted to remain in Los Angeles and had a house on the beach in Malibu and a private guest house on her parents' 590 acre ranch outside Sydney. It was an amazing three hours. He didn't want it to end.
They spoke, emailed and texted often. In mid-March Alvin had a few days off in Los Angeles and they agreed to have dinner. Alvin was out-of-the-moon excited. So was she. He had already been to Samantha's tailor on Rodeo Drive who—over an hour—fitted Alvin for a custom-made tuxedo, patent leather shoes, tie, cummerbund, socks, the works. "Senior Alvarez, how much will all of this cost Miss. Greeway?"