"Oh come on Daphne! He's a perfect ten! Look at those cheekbones!"
The two air stewardesses were peeking through the curtain at the A-lister who had just taken his seat ready for take-off on this Atlanta to LAX flight. But Tom's boyish looks were far too clean-cut for Daphne's liking:
-"You young girls obsess over silly little boys like that all you want but I'm here to do my job! And, it's 'Chief', not 'Daphne' to you Bianca, and don't forget it." Chief Air Stewardess Daphne liked to run a tight ship. Divorced and the wrong side of 40, her stern professional demeanor was her armor.
"But look at this shoot! He's practically naked in it!" Bianca, the youngest stewardess in Daphne's five-woman team, pushed a glossy magazine in front of her superior. It was the recent edition of Style magazine and the 18 year old Tom Caley, international singer superstar, was posing in nothing more than a tight pair of pink swimming trunks, his lithe and toned body on display for his adoring female fans.
But Daphne had had enough of this fawning over a silly little male popstar: "That's enough Bianca. If you focused more on your work than chasing men my job would be a whole lot easier. Now prepare for take-off. We've had celebrities on flights before, this is nothing special."
Also taking her seat just in front of Tom was a tall brunette lady. Juliet fitted in just like any other of the passengers. To look at her, no-one would think anything out of the ordinary. She wore high boots over her skinny jeans with a tight polo neck sweater which accentuated her small but pert boobs. Her hair was straight and swept to one side, falling to her shoulders. The long jacket she carried on hid something slightly more serious. A pistol and a badge as Juliet was an Air Marshal.
*
With an uneventful take-off and a quick visual sweep for anything suspicious or untoward, Juliet fell into boredom. This was the fifth domestic flight in a row she'd been assigned to. In a male-dominated profession, it seemed to her that female Air Marshals like herself were treated as inferior to their male colleagues. These cocky men were getting assigned to the big international flights, with cushy expense accounts while Juliet (a superb professional - or so she thought!) was stuck on these tedious domestic flights. She longed for a chance to prove her ability and was keen for something more eventful to happen.
Suddenly, Juliet's phone began to ring. While other passengers looked at her shocked, she calmly took the call. This was her work phone and it must be something urgent for central command to ring her mid-flight. A flustered Bianca was quickly descending upon Juliet, loudly instructing her to hang up and put that phone into airplane mode. Reaching into her jacket, Juliet grasped and flashed her badge of authority to Bianca, who understood the seriousness of the situation and gestured for the Air Marshal to follow her to the rear of the plane and the seclusion of the steward's galley.
From his aisle seat Tom Caley languidly watched the proceedings as the two women hurried passed him on their way to the back of the plane. He figured the stewardess must have been as young as himself. She was a beautiful, athletic, black girl, with her hair tightly bound in a puff ball. Her blouse teasingly had a few too many buttons undone and was certainly against regulations; Tom could clearly see the outline of her black lace bra, showing off her ample cleavage. The little minx gave Tom a cheeky wink as she passed him, leading to Tom quickly fantasizing about how it would be to strip her of that sexy stewardess uniform and force himself upon her.
At the back of the plane, Juliet was now relaying her phone conversation to the five stewardesses huddled together. They had a situation. An anonymous tip off had alerted her to a situation. And the new draconian homeland security laws required all such tip offs, even anonymous ones, to be taken with the utmost seriousness. It seemed a passenger on the flight was travelling with a large amount of illegal narcotics hidden on their person. Or allegedly was. And, who was the perpetrator? Or alleged perpetrator? None other than the famous Tom Caley!
The circle of ladies gasped in unison at this revelation. Chief Stewardess Daphne quickly tried to assert some order. "Well Juliet, what happens now? What is the procedure?"
Juliet paused before replying, she anticipated what she was about to say would throw this gaggle of mostly young ladies into a silly frenzy. But regulations must be obeyed, and she knew what her duty was, and she would enforce it steadfastly:
"I'm afraid the regulation is very strict here. I must perform a search of Tom's person."
Bianca giggled and piped up "You mean like frisk him? Can I volunteer to help lol!"
Her joke earned her a withering look from Daphne.
Juliet cleared her throat, as she guessed she'd have to spell it out to this naΓ―ve young girl:
"Not just a frisk, no. A FULL body search; a full STRIP search. I'm afraid I've no option but to confiscate Tom's clothes for examination, as well as examine his entire body as well. It would mean, ladies, the suspect will be stripped and completely nude back here, in the confines of this steward's galley while I complete the search."
Daphne rolled her eyes and sighed. A naked man back here in her stewards' section while they were trying to sort out the in-flight meals was the last thing they needed! But the other stewardesses were reacting in sheer delight! Oh this was too delicious! One hot A-list celebrity was about to be stripped of his clothes before them and there was nothing he could do about it! Bianca was even doing a little dance, pushing her hands to the ceiling and whooping loudly: "Tom's sexy naked ass is mine!!"
*
Tom was filled with apprehension as he was escorted to the back of the plane by the tall brunette lady. What the hell could this be about? All the passengers were speculating, murmuring and staring accusingly as Tom was marched past them like he'd done something wrong. A pudgy young teenage girl by the name of Henrietta was now overjoyed that she'd bullied her mother into giving her the aisle seat. Though Tom was now in the steward's area at the back of the plane, the curtain that separated it from the passengers was still open. Henrietta leaned into the aisle and twisted as much as she could. She could still see Tom, her absolute favorite singer, back there, now talking to the tall lady and the whole group of amused-looking stewardesses. They all seemed so tall in their high heels, almost towering over a fearful Tom Caley.
"You...you can't be serious?! Anyone could have made up that in an anonymous tip off! And I'm a VIP passenger, I shouldn't be treated like this!" the full horror of what Juliet had just explained to him was slowly sinking in. Five stewardesses and Juliet stared sternly at Tom, making him feel both scared and guilty despite it not being true!
"I'm afraid the regulations are the same for everyone, VIP or not." Juliet continued firmly "I apologize if this seems unfair; you somewhat have a point how unjust it must seem that just one anonymous tip off means you must now forfeit your clothes, but there it is. Please know that it gives me no pleasure to have to strip you naked."
Bianca giggled at just the mention of the word 'naked', and at Tom's exasperated reaction. It must be sinking in - Bianca thought with cruel delight - 'there's no way he can get out of this, he's going to lose his clothes in front of us! We're all going to be in our nice, smart, feminine uniforms and he'll be shivering and standing here for us stark bollock naked! I'm going to be able to tell all my girlfriends of the day the famous Tom Caley was forced to strip for me!'
*
Henrietta was too far up the plane to hear the conversation, but she continued to watch intently. The ladies seemed very serious, all standing with their arms crossed staring down at Tom. And he seemed very animated, shaking his head. What could be going on?!
And then, to Henrietta's amazement, it began to happen. As she craned her neck to look to the rear of the plane she saw a sullen Tom struggle to step out of his shoes and socks. Why would he do that?! A frantic Henrietta surveyed the scene, trying to make sense of it all. The stewardesses and the tall brunette woman were gathered around the young celebrity, some were frowning, while others looked positively delighted.