March 2021
Chapter 1
Everything had turned grey. And also dull. The result of a hotel quarantine after two days. Eight more to go! The dullness was deafening. Hotel Wi-Fi was choppy, and there was nothing on TV. I felt like a bloody prisoner in my economy class hotel room right by Heathrow airport in London. My boss had thought it essential that I safe their London branch, and so he sent me across the pond willing to pay the 2000 pounds to quarantine me. And to be honest, it flattered me. I felt needed and valuable to the company. Great.
But this story is not about the boredom, it's about how we beat it. With sex and the gentlest of domination and submission games.
This story is about Amelia and me.
It was 10:30 pm. My highlight of the day had passed: Dinner.
Which means someone brings a tray with food, puts it on a chair next to my hotel room door. I could always hear the steps in the hallway. But only when I received a phone call from reception, I was allowed to open the door and bring it in. So that I wouldn't meet any other people and spread the virus that I was pretty sure I didn't have. The voice on the phone always sounded passive aggressive. Pretty disappointing. The only human voice I heard every day... hated my ass.
I was in bed watching British TV, when I heard a noise in the hallway. Like a trumpet was playing music. It sounded heavy and slow and not all that great. I recognized the tune though. It was Toxic by Britney Spears. An odd sound for a trumpet. But it stuck in my ears, and I was humming along. The first thing for a couple of days that wasn't grey.
I got up, excited for some action and put my ear to the door.
"Shut the fuck up!" a male voice yelled from his room.
The trumpet grew louder, as if the person playing it just walked passed my door.
"I swear, if I have to come out, there'll be hell to pay!"
I held my breath hoping for some excitement: Like the man to come out and maybe start a fight with Miles Davis. Anything. Any relief from this crushing boredom would do.
He didn't though, and he was smart not to. No one was allowed outside the hotel room without permission. There was a fine of up to Β£10,000 on breaking quarantine the hotel staff had informed us.
It was really, really dumb to parade over the hallway playing the trumpet. Frankly it was also really stupid to open the door to peak, but I couldn't help it.
I was wrong on two accounts.
The music didn't come from a trumpet but a trombone. The large brass thing with the moving valves you push in and out. A weird instrument. My second mistake: It was a girl who played it. She was wearing yoga pants and a crop top, dancing barefoot over the stained carpet. Gingerish hair and huge grey eyes. She looked somewhat Irish. She had pale skin, a pronounced face. Did I mention her huge eyes? And her huge smile when she stopped playing and saw me?
She turned around, stopped playing
"Oh my god, I can't believe I found you!"
"Me?" I swear I had never seen her before.
"Yes, you! Of course, you! You were on the flight from Dallas.
That was true.
"Don't you remember me?"
"Err, sure. Of course..."
"That's great! You were on the bus here! Remember? I wanted to slip you my phone number before they locked us away. You know, I was, I was kind of, you know... fascinated by you!" She burst into laughter over her awkward embarrassment and almost hugged me.
An odd situation. It had been ages since someone had actually touched me.
Fucking Covid.
"But then I lost you in the lobby! I am so glad to find you! You know how terrible it is to be incarcerated in a hotel room?"
"In fact I do."
She laughed: "Of course, you do!"
Well, yes. I had come from Dallas to Heathrow. When we got off the flight, they escorted us straight from the plane to a bus that brought us to this hotel. I must admit I didn't pay much attention to anyone though. I felt miserable. They made us feel like we were prisoners. Like we were on Conair or something.
So maybe I had seen her. Come to think of it, I might remember her back in Dallas with a black case for that giant instrument of hers and a lot of luggage.
"Shit, we got to go!"
"What?"
"We can't stay here! I just gave a concert to flush you out! The bad teeth hotel police is going to come after us!"
"Who?"
She didn't reply but reached out her hand, and without thinking I took it. She yanked it and ran back with me to her room, maybe 20 yards down the hall.
We slipped into her room and she slammed the door behind us.
I had escaped my hotel room, broken the British quarantine laws. I felt like an outlaw. Something I wasn't really used to. I generally liked to stick to the rules.
We stood next to each other.
"Oh my god!" I said, but she put shushed me and put her soft hand over my mouth.
"Quiet!" she whispered.
I held my breath. Not to listen to the steps coming from the elevator in the hallway, but to feel her hand.
It felt like we were committing a felony. Human contact. Her hand on my mouth right in quarantine. I can't remember the last time I had shaken a hand, and here this girl was pressing hers on my mouth. Our arms touched.
My chest was heaving up and down, and whenever I inhaled, her elbow touched my boobs. I kind of did it deliberately.
She didn't notice though. She listened to the steps walking past us. A few feet away.
Finally, the steps became fainter. She started to giggle, turned to me and said:
"Isn't that crazy! It is so good to see you!"
And then she hugged me.
Like, really hugged me.
Her arms reached around my body, she pressed hers into mine, and although I didn't know her and I wasn't sure what she was talking about, I let it happen. No, I gave in to her embrace. I hugged her back, as if she was my best friend. One I hadn't seen in like forever.
All because of her huge smile. She was a nuclear bomb of positivity. And I was starving for some human touch.
Sometimes you only know what you've been missing when you get it back. That's how I felt about her human affection.
When we looked at each other, I immediately fell for her.