"Hi, hon," Steve answers his cell. "Things don't look good for getting home tonight. They pushed back our flight another hour and the snow shows no sign of letting up."
"Aww, man! And I had such plans for you tonight," Jennifer whines, genuinely disappointed.
"I know," he responds, equally disappointed. She has been texting lewd messages to him throughout the day alluding to their imminent reunion after his business trip. "It shouldn't be too bad, though, they're predicting it to end tonight, so I should be out tomorrow easily."
"But there's something I've got to tell you...."
"Okay..." Steve doesn't like the sound of this.
"I told Janet you would be willing to do the Scout overnight with the boys again this year."
"What!? Jenn! You know I hate that. I said I'd never do it again. It's unorganized, they don't know what they're doing and I never get to spend a moment with my own kids because Carla Younk manipulates it so I spend the whole time in that stuffy kitchen."
Jennifer snickers, "That's because she likes staring at your cute butt."
"Not funny! Probably true, but still not funny. Jenn, you knew I didn't want to do this."
"I know, I know, but Janet was about to cancel it because they didn't have enough guys. I thought I could bribe you with exotic sexual favors tonight."
"But now I'm stuck here and exotic... and, uh,
things
... will have to wait," Steve says, suddenly worried about how far his voice is carrying in the crowded airport terminal full of grumpy, delayed, business travelers. Specifically, he glances at the college coed sitting next to him. Just before his cell rang, they were in conversation and he was in the process of removing a virus from her laptop which is still sitting on his knees even as they talk. Another message box has popped up on the screen, needing attention.
"Hang on a sec; I was working on a laptop. Here, talk to Mandy for a second." He hands the phone to the startled young girl and turns his attention to the troubled hardware.
"Uh, hi," the young blonde cautiously says into the phone.
"Hi. Mandy, is it?" Jennifer smiles. "I'm afraid my husband gets a little tunnel focused when working on a computer problem and doesn't always think through the introductions so well. I'm Jennifer; my friends call me Jenn."
Mandy's giggle is a beautiful sound. "Steve has been just awesome. We were sitting here stuck in the terminal and he said I could use his mi-fi thingy to connect to the internet like he was but then all of a sudden my computer, like, freaks out. He looked at it and said I've got a virus that he's seen before. He is amazing. It looks like he's got it all back but he said he had to do something else so it doesn't come back."
"Yeah, that sounds like him."
Steve frowns in deep concentration at the laptop screen so Mandy continues chatting. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate this. I would be like, screwed, if my laptop was messed up. I wish there was some way I could show my appreciation but being on a student budget I've got, like, no money or anything."
"He really isn't a money-driven kind of guy anyway," Jennifer smiles into the phone, amused by the bright chatter from the young girl. "I'm sure adoration and thanks from a young, nubile woman will be more than enough to boost his middle-age ego. If you really want to go there, give him a peck on the cheek and watch him blush."
The beautiful laugh again contrasts with the bleak, travel weary atmosphere in the terminal. "Okay, if that will work!"
"What will work?" Steve looks up from the keyboard. "I think you're all back now." He hands the laptop over and holds his hand out for the phone.
"Oh, my gosh! You are amazing, Steve!" The megawatt smile is a ray of sunshine in the midst of the blizzard blustering around them on the other side of the plate glass.
"It was one I had seen before and I already had the clean-up tools on a CD," he shrugs. "Be a little more careful about opening things in your email inbox that you don't know who it is from."
"Yes, sir," she beams at him.
Steve grins at the beautiful young woman before turning his attention back to the phone. "What are you two cooking up? You've just met and already I think there is a conspiracy of some sort going on."
Jennifer laughs lightly. She really enjoys this playful, flirtatious side of her relationship with Steve. And it had only gotten better during their recent heart to heart conversations about trust, fidelity and their complete commitment to each other.
"Oh, we were just talking about rewards one could earn for doing a good deed," she says.
"About what?" Steve is unclear entirely what has just transpired.
Suddenly the softest, most delicate sensation brushes his cheek accompanied by that distinctive sound of an innocent kiss.
"Thank you so much, Steve. You are simply amazing. I can't thank you enough," Mandy coos, her adoring eyes lidded by seductively long lashes.
"Buh, uh, yeah, no problem," Steve suavely replies.
"Hand the phone back to Mandy," Jennifer demands. His eyes never moving from the blonde's sparkling blue irises, he silently passes the phone to his admirer.
"Uh-huh?" Mandy says.
"Did he blush?" Jennifer asks.
"Oh, yeah," Mandy laughs out loud. "You know that color of the inner most petal of a pink rose? That's about where he is."
"Hey!" Steve glances around, the hustle at this end of the terminal has pretty much come to a standstill as bemused business men find an entertaining distraction from their own growing travel worries. A touch of color now graces Mandy's cheeks also as she realizes her kiss has become the center of attention.
"Give me that!" Steve snatches back his phone but it is clear that he is not actually mad. In fact, if anything he is enormously pleased.
"Did you put her up to that?" he demands into the phone.
"Of course," Jennifer is laughing at his blustery confusion. "You've got one more adoring female panting after your prodigious technical prowess. It makes me wet knowing Mandy is coming on to you."
"Ulp," Steve is doubly tongue-tied now. He had zero belief that Mandy was "coming on" to him; plus, that kind of evocative talk is uncharacteristic of his normally polite wife. Somehow their frank conversation about trust when he was on the road and his assurances that though he may look, he has never, ever been remotely interested in any other woman has boosted Jennifer's confidence that he is hers and hers alone.
From under her lowered eyes, and with the cutest nibble of her lower lip, Mandy frets, "Did I embarrass you, Stevie? I'm sorry. Forgive me?"
"Psh. Whatever. Of course," Steve surrenders, seriously outgunned in this exchange.
"Okay, let me talk to Jenn, again," Mandy flounces, beaming with self-satisfaction. Without a word, Steve relinquishes his phone, apparently terms of the surrender.
He turns his attention back to his own laptop, somewhat relieved to get back to familiar territory where he is more comfortable. Besides, from the corner of his eye, he has been monitoring the exchange between the ticket agent at the gate and the baggage handler that has come to the top of the stairs to talk with her. He has seen this stuff a thousand times before. Even though nobody is officially announcing it and he can't hear any of the words being spoken, their body language and their glances at the blowing snow indicate that nobody is getting out tonight. A few clicks on his travel agent's website verifies the transaction he started about an hour ago has been confirmed -- he has a room for the night at the airport hotel. A few more clicks proves that he was right to do it early; there are zero rooms now in the entire surrounding area.
"...I don't know what to do. I'm sure they're there but I can't reach them if they don't turn their phone on." Mandy is talking on the phone. "Uh-huh? Uh-huh? Okay. Thanks so much." And she hangs up.
"Oh, so I don't get to say good bye to my wife?" Steve asks.
"Oh my gosh! I'm sorry, Steve," Mandy is dismayed at her own thoughtlessness. "Jennifer said she was going to somehow get in touch with my grandparents waiting for me at the other end. I'm sure they're sitting there waiting and won't think to check incoming flights to see that we've been delayed. I've left messages, but ... What's the point of having a cell if you never turn it on, right?"
"I know, my dad is the same way," Steve laughs as he redials his wife. It goes straight to voice mail. "Great. She's calling someone else now."
Mandy is now gazing around the terminal with an expression bordering on panic. "We are just delayed, right? We're still going to make it out tonight."
"That's the 'official line' but look at it, kid. The reality is that we're stuck here; they just haven't announced it yet."
Mandy clutches Steve's arm in panic. "Don't say that, Steve! I don't have money. I mean, they'll give me a certificate or something for a room. Won't they? I won't have to stay here, will I? Will you be here?"
"Whoa, whoa, hold on there, don't come unglued," Steve tries to calm her but in reality, her situation is pretty bleak. "Um, yeah. The airlines will probably issue stranded traveler vouchers for money off a hotel room. Maybe not though, sometimes they'll call a storm like this an 'act of God' beyond their control so they aren't responsible. It will create a ton of arguing either way and the airlines hate to do it. That's why they've waited so long to make an official call on it. Not that it really matters because a voucher is only good if you can actually find a room which I've just confirmed there aren't any of for miles around."
Obviously, speaking the truth so bluntly was a stupid idea since that fuels the rising alarm in the young coed. Belatedly, Steve recognizes the wild-eyed terror as all color drains from the girl's stricken face.
He lamely tries to recover. "But I'm sure that they'll have something for you..."
"Steve, I can't get stranded here alone. I'm terrified of falling asleep in the open and getting attacked. Ever since I was a little girl..."
