She sighed and looked up at the electronic board. Great! Thanks to the lousy weather her connecting flight was delayed, in fact it, thanks to the weather it appeared that nothing was leaving the airport. Sheets of rain pounded against the terminal windows and every now and then thunder sounded and lightning flashed.
When they had landed around eight the voice on the loudspeaker had assured her and the dozen or so people on her sparsely filled flight that they would be leaving after only a short delay. That had been over a half hour ago and the bright letters next to her flight number still simply said "delayed". She should have taken the flight in the morning; the company would have paid for another night in the hotel. Now she was stuck here in the small almost empty airport. She sat and sighed again; it looked like it was going to be a long night.
"Damn!" he thought. He had rushed to the airport, driving way too fast through the storm, hurried through security, checking his watch compulsively, and then hustled down to the gate, when what he should have done was call ahead to check for delays! Now he had sped here risking a ticket, and his life, for nothing! His flight was delayed for at least another hour, maybe more because of the bad weather. It made no sense to go all the way back home. "Damn! And double DAMN!"
He stalked across the waiting room, looking around restlessly. It was a large rounded room full of functional chairs all attached in rows; no, that wasn't right. Actually, it was two circular rooms connected like conjoining bubbles full of functional chairs attached to each other in rows. There were some artfully obvious fake plants in oversize planters and the requisite large garbage cans. The rooms were surrounded by windows that went almost from floor to ceiling with a railing around them, presumably to keep someone from falling out. Those windows were dark with night and the rain pouring against them from outside. There were two gates on opposite sides of each room although only the room he was in was occupied, the gates across the way were empty and dark. He looked up at the unchanging status board with its lit up letters and groaned softly in frustration.
"Pretty annoying, huh?" a voice said from almost beneath him. He looked down in surprise at the woman who had spoken and found himself gazing into cool eyes behind stylish glasses. Her hair was thick, reddish and stylishly disheveled. A large brightly colored, gypsy style earring peeped from underneath it. "Yes it is" he replied. He glanced around the waiting area. "They seem to have pretty much shut this place down." He gestured at the seat next to her. "May I?" he asked. She gave him a delightful smile. "Sure, it's a public airport."
From her seat she regarded him. He was medium height with a rather handsome, broad face, dressed casually for travelling in chinos and a shirt, with a voluminous trench coat over it in deference to the messy weather. He removed the coat before he sat down revealing what appeared to be a decent build, neither fat nor thin.
"So" he said "traveling for business or pleasure?"
"Business" she replied. "And you?"
"Business" he nodded. "Although I guess you can't say we're actually doing much travelling now."
"No" she agreed with a small pleasant laugh "Nor apparently in the near future."
They both looked to the board with the flight numbers and destinations frozen on them. "It's not like there's a lot to do here either" he said.
"Yes" she agreed "Pretty much all the shops down the concourse are closed already and you know if you left the airport as soon as you were gone your flight would start boarding."
He nodded. "The only things open are the convenience store and the bar." He looked around and paused. "Well..." he continued. "We could either browse magazines or I could buy you a drink.
"We?" she asked, then gave a musical laugh. She considered. He was she decided several younger than she was. "No" she said then smiled. "I'll buy you a drink."
He smiled back, oddly pleased, "You can get the first one."
"Deal" she said standing. He stood also. She had a trim figure under a stretchy, form fitting top and great legs under her short white skirt. He hadn't realized he was staring until she stopped and looked in his face. "Like what you see?" she asked arching an eyebrow. He flushed, about to apologize, then decided on a bold course. "Yes" he said simply. They stood facing each other for a moment.
"Let's go get that drink." She finally said. They walked side by side to the generic airport bar. The light was dimmer here. It was a long narrow, rectangular room, with stools running the length of a bar that extended along half of the longer side, the room beyond had tables scattered around. One whole side was open to the airport waiting rooms beyond. About half the people from their respective flights were in there, which still made it mostly empty.
She walked to the bar, he followed. The bartended came over. "Vodka tonic" she ordered and looked at him. "Scotch and water" he supplied "with ice." They waited silently for the drinks to arrive. She looked at him. "Yes" she thought "he has a nice face and this was certainly more interesting than reading a magazine." The drinks arrived and she laid a fifty on the bar. The bartender scooped it up and gave a ridiculously small amount of change. She picked it up leaving four on the bar.
"Shall we sit at a table?" he suggested. She nodded and picking up her drink led the way to the furthest table in the back corner, a curious knot of excitement in her stomach. It was not like her to flirt, or to enjoy it quite so much.
He followed her admiring the sway of her hips as she moved, the way her waist tucked in and her hips flared noticeably... They sat side by side and he couldn't help but notice that she had picked the most secluded table in the bar.
"So travelling on business?" he started the conversation.
"Yes" she replied and sighed. "I knew we would finish late and I could have stayed overnight, but I wanted to sleep in my own bed, so I booked a late flight. Coming here and picking up a connecting flight was the quickest option." She gave a small laugh and continued "You can see how well that plan looks like it's working."
She paused then "How about you?"
