Author's Note: This story is set in the fictional country of Nordland, a small island nation in the North Sea between the UK, Norway and Denmark.
This story is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places described in this narrative are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
All comments and feedback is welcome.
HF
------
Sigrid shuffled her way to the front of the queue in the small café in the Air Nordland headquarters building at Nordhaven International Airport. It had been nearly two weeks since her fateful night in New York where she had broken her marriage vows, sleeping with a handsome black passenger she had met on her flight. Her two-week Type C schedule was almost finished, and she was looking forward to a week of downtime. The grueling nature of the schedule had left little time for her and Magnus to have more than a few brief discussions about starting a family. She'd been home for only scant periods and Magnus had been focused on his own intensive project at work too.
The day Sigrid had arrived home, Magnus had been waiting for her in the terminal with a bouquet of flowers; she could tell he was determined to try and repair their marriage, especially after the last argument that they had the morning of her departure for New York. Sigrid reflected that it was most likely that argument that had led her into the arms of Marcus Thompson. A chat on the flight, followed by a longer one over dinner and drinks that evening in New York had culminated in his spending the night with her in her hotel room.
Sigrid both loved and hated the feelings that Marcus had generated in her. She felt guilty and ashamed of herself over cheating on her husband, especially as he was trying hard to make it up to her and had come around to the idea of starting a family. Nonetheless, her mind often drifted back to the incredible night of pleasure and freedom she'd shared with Marcus. It had been a night of firsts for her -- her first time cheating and her first time sleeping with a black man. Both caused her to feel conflicted and excited in equal parts.
She looked up and realized she reached the front of the queue. The barista looked up from the tablet on the counter. "Hi there, what will you have?"
"Uh...just an espresso, please," she replied, fumbling for her purse. She tapped her credit card on the reader. "What name?" the barista asked. "Sigi," she said as she moved away to wait for her drink.
Sigrid moved over to the large windows overlooking the tarmac of Nordland International Airport, watching the continuous flow of aircraft coming and going. She knew she should put Marcus out of her mind, focus on Magnus and their dreams of having a family, but something held her back. For that moment in time in New York, she felt free, free of the constraints that had been placed around her by her family, her husband, her life here in Nordland.
"Sigi." She turned and saw her coffee was ready and she collected it from the counter. She was on a crew training day today and she sat down at a nearby table and opened her crew manual. Flipping through the pages and sipping her coffee, she studied her procedures in preparation for the test that afternoon. Despite her dedication, she found it hard to focus on the words and diagrams on the page.
"Hey, Sigi!" Sigrid looked up to see Helga, one of her good friends, approaching. Helga was a vivacious little blonde woman with a big personality. Sigrid smiled; she hadn't seen her friend in a few weeks due to their conflicting schedules. "Hi Helga, how are you?" she said as she closed the manual.
Helga sat down opposite. "Tired, just got back from Tokyo last night. Supposed to be on rest today but they're so short staffed that I have to do a short haul across to London tonight and back again."
Sigrid nodded. "I know...it seems so busy lately. I can't wait for the next class of trainees to be finished." The recent expansion of the airline, coupled with aggressive recruiting campaigns from European and Middle East airlines had left Air Nordland short-staffed and struggling to fill their crew rosters.
Helga grinned. "Don't worry, you'll fix all these crew scheduling issues when you're in the hot seat. When do you transfer across?"
"Not for another couple of weeks. The training class need to finish and get their wings before I'll be released from the crew pool."
"Are you looking forward to it? At least you'll be home, right?" Helga asked. Sigrid nodded. "Yeah...I'm looking forward to it."
"Mags happy with the change?" Helga asked but then saw the expression on Sigrid's face. "Sigi, everything ok?"
"Y...yes, sorry. Just a bit tired." She gave her friend a smile. "It's been a busy couple of weeks."
"You're on the C schedule, aren't you?" Sigrid nodded. "Yeah...been to New York, Rio, Singapore, Dubai."
"How's Mags taking it?"
"He's been caught up a lot with work, we've only seen each other a couple of times in the last fortnight. But at least he's agreed to us starting a family," she told her friend with a little smile.
"Really? That's great!" Helga replied, knowing her friend had wanted this for some time. "You guys are going to have the cutest kids!" she said with a grin. She leaned in closer. "So...have you started trying?" she asked with a naughty little smile.
Sigrid gave a little laugh. "No...I mean, not really. Like I said, we haven't really been together much. I'm still on the pill too. Mags suggested I go see my doctor and get all the checks done, I'll probably do that next week when I've got some time off."