My husband visited the bathroom before we headed back to our room after a sumptuous dinner.
The comings and goings fascinated me. Business executives, hookers and late night gym users, on personal missions to fuck over, fuck anything for cash and pump like fuck, in that order, passed me by paying little attention to my furtive spying.
I'm proud to be an accomplished, surreptitious watcher of people and things.
This time, someone far more accomplished than I, stalked me with their eyes.
I felt excited, her fascination in me drove mine in her. My heart pounded, I panicked from self-induced tension, one eyeball or a twitch of my head away from capture.
The flight attendant furtively averted her eyes, as did I, when the orbit of our gaze intersected. Our battle for voyeur supremacy felt somewhere between dodging a leering perv on a tube train and studying the cute boy in row four, centre aisle.
I felt aroused, my senses spiked and surged, signalling danger, pleasure, and taboo throughout my body.
I was alive, both hunter and hunted.
I stole a few frames here and there with secretive glances directly or through reflective surfaces, building a picture in my mind. Relishing what assembled, one pixel at a time.
My phone buzzed, distracting me from our latest oculus tryst. I was at a disadvantage, my enemy could ravish me, stealing my image forever.
"I'm sorry, I feel unwell, so I went straight up."
"Fuck! Why didn't you say something?"
"You're playing."
"What do you mean?"
"The air stewardess wants to fuck you. I'm not blind. Go ahead!"
I fumbled with my phone, dropping it under the table. By the time I recovered, she was gone.
"She's gone now, anyway."
I felt confused. We'd never fantasised about having anyone else before, and now suddenly, seemingly from nowhere, my husband gave me permission to fuck a woman.
"I don't understand."
"I don't mind."
"You don't mind what?"
"If you and she fuck each other."
I stood up in protest, as if my innocence were still possible or my lust could be hidden. I scanned the room in case my husband was playing a silly joke, but there was nothing for my iris to report that was remotely out of the ordinary.
A key card on the glass table caught my eye. I picked it up, checking my own was still in my jacket pocket.
It was.
I couldn't remember this being here.
Room 625.
"I think she left her room key."
"Use it then."
"Fucking hell, John, where did this come from?"
"Twenty years of marriage and my deep, loving trust in you. I saw the way you looked at her and I know you want to try her out, so I'm giving you my blessing. She's already seduced you, anyway."
I sat heavily, tossed her key card back on the glass table as if dismissing the idea, then panicked and ran headlong into emotional turmoil.
My phone buzzed.
"Chill out, darling. I know you're panicking. I won't judge... just enjoy, or not, as you wish."
God, I love that man, but my wedding vows were carved into my heart and I just couldn't see myself committing adultery, regardless of John's encouragement to do precisely that.
I agonised, wrung my hands while watching the phone buzz with messages, sliding across the glass table until it almost fell off.
I read his encouragement and affirmation of undying love for me.
"Are you sure?"
"Do you love me, wife?"
"Absolutely."
"Enjoy her, then come and tell me all about it."
Butterflies exploded in my stomach, sending hormones that excite, thrill and delight surging through my body. A hedonistic feeling swamped my mind, urging me towards her even though I'd only drank two glasses of wine and sneaked a peek.