Clutching a small case to herself protectively lest it get knocked from her by all of the people who were rushing past her, bumping and jostling her, Stephanie Lucas looked around the huge airport uncertainly.
The corporation Stephanie worked for was hoping to do business with a firm that was based here in England and the matter was seen as being so important that Selma Carrington, her boss and one of the most powerful executives in the company, had come out herself to conduct the meeting with the owners. At the last minute, Selma had called to say that she would be needing some more documents and that she wanted them as soon as possible.
As she was Selma's executive assistant, Stephanie had been ordered to gather up all the information that was needed and immediately fly off to London to hand deliver it. She had suggested that it would be quicker and more economical to simply fax the documents to Selma, but her corporate masters were paranoid that the competition might somehow manage to get hold of the papers and find some way to ruin the deal. Her husband Jack had been less than understanding when she called home to let him know that she had to suddenly jet across the Atlantic with no warning at all and so on top of everything else she'd ended up getting into an argument with him.
Stephanie had never been overly fond of flying and , while the ride from the States had been as smooth and uneventful as anyone could have hoped for, the idea of spending six and a half hours sealed into a plane just so she could deliver some paperwork and then spend six and a half hours flying back home was torturous to say the least.
She'd had high hopes that the in-flight movie might distract her and help her pass the time, but they had screened that film about a plane crashing in the mountains and the survivors resorting to cannibalism. Somebody out there, she judged, had a very sick sense of humor to show them something like that She had also brought along a book to read, but the paperback romance novel only ended up depressing her as she couldn't help but compare the dashing hero to the boring husband she was currently so very angry with.
There had been one bright spot to the trip journey however, but even that had been somewhat disconcerting to her.
She had gotten up at one point to stretch her legs and somehow found herself having a conversation with one of the flight attendants, a sweet little blonde who was probably about her age.. Both women had been surprised to learn how much they had in common and had ended up spending most of the flight talking about everything and nothing. During the course of this conversation, Stephanie was surprised but not entirely displeased to realize that the woman was flirting with her.
Though she'd never had the nerve to actually try it, Stephanie had always been intensely curious about what it might be like to have sex with another woman. Considering how depressed and upset she was over everything else, she found the idea of having a little fling with this girl extraordinarily appealing. After all, it would give her the chance to finally see what it was like to be with another woman, she would very probably never see this young lady again and so it wasn't really like it was going to evolve into a long-term and marriage-threatening affair, and there wasn't the slightest risk that her husband or anyone else she knew would ever find out considering they were on the far side of an ocean.
Stephanie had been flirting right back at that flight attendant and thoroughly enjoying it when the girl suggested exactly what the business woman had been thinking. Running a bold hand through Stephanie's hair, she'd bluntly suggested that they find a hotel as soon as they landed and spend a few hours in bed together.
Well, as much fun as the fantasy had been, the idea of actually doing it was more than Stephanie could handle. After completely humiliating herself by stammering out some lame, implausible excuse, she had almost run back to her seat and spent the rest of the flight avoiding even looking at that young woman.
She'd been driving herself crazy arguing with herself ever since. On the one hand she was kicking herself for passing up the opportunity to live out a dream she'd had for as long as she could remember without any risk of getting caught. On the other hand though, she kept reminding herself that cheating on her husband was the most brutally intimate and personal sort of betrayal possible and that she would have to spend the rest of her life living with the knowledge that she had done that to someone she honestly did love with all her heart.
Now, glad to be off that airplane at long last and even more glad that she had escaped the woman who had raised such conflicted feelings inside her, Stephanie found herself standing in Heathrow airport and trying to find her bearings. She had understood that Selma was coming to meet her and collect the documents she had brought, but lost in this sea of humanity she couldn't begin to guess how she was supposed to find her.
She need not have been concerned however as she turned just in time to see Ms. Carrington sweeping towards her, easily carving a path through the mob of people who seemed to be in a great hurry to get out of her way. Stephanie could not help but take a moment just to soak in the sight of this woman.
She had always admired, respected, and been impressed by Selma Carrington, but had never before had the opportunity to see her outside the office and she took full advantage of this situation.
Selma was a middle-aged woman with an air of absolute and unshakable self-confidence. She wore little make-up, did not spend hours working to get her shoulder-length hair styled just right and yet she could only be described as a very beautiful woman. Her figure did not have anything like the silicon enhanced curves of a porn star and yet she stared in the sexual fantasies of a great many people. Her success in her career had made her a very wealthy woman and yet she never went to those expensive boutiques to buy her clothes and what little jewelry she wore was small, inconspicuous and tasteful.
The executive did seem to have a taste for powerful and very fast cars though. When she had first seen the beast Ms. Carrington drove in the office buildings underground parking lot, Stephanie had assumed it probably belonged to an older, balding man who was trying to compensate for something until she saw whose parking spot it was.
"Stephanie! Thank God, you're here at last!" Selma said as she reached her assistant and took the case from her. "Did you have any trouble finding all the documents I asked for?"
The younger woman shook her head. "Not at all, ma'am. That secretary of your's is an absolute model of efficiency. She knew exactly where everything was and we had it all gathered and ready to go within a half-hour."
Selma smiled. "Yeah, Tammy's a real treasure all right. I'm sorry you had to rush all the way over here like this at the last minute though. I've had to rush all over the world plenty of times on short notice so I know just how inconvenient that can be." There was real sympathy in her voice and the other woman's heart lightened just a little to know that someone like this really appreciated all the trouble she had been put to.
"Thanks, but it's all right," Stephanie answered even though it was a little white lie. "These things just happen sometimes."
"It's still not right," Selma told her, reaching out to put a sympathetic arm around the other woman. "But don't worry, I'll make it up to you. Come on now - let's go get your luggage."
