The Affair by OlympusMons90
Part One of Two.
As I finally get out of the busy London traffic and arrive at my office in Shepherd's Bush, I park my BMW 3 series in my designated car space. It's another Monday, the start of a new week with yet more travel on the itinerary.
My name is Mandy Gronski, I'm a 28yo Senior Media Consultant for a large media consultancy agency based in London, UK. I've been married to my 36yo husband Rob for the last five years, together for just over six. He runs his own company, they do Event's Management which sometimes requires Rob to do his own traveling, although most of his work is now based out of his office in Twickenham.
This week I've been tasked with handling Tyler John, he's an attractive English actor who's about to embark on a media tour for the new TV series he stars in. My job is to make sure he turns up at the right places and says the right things, and to co-ordinate with the media organizations he'll be getting interviewed by. Essentially, I'm his media 'handler' for this promotional tour.
It's all standard fare for me now, I've been doing this role since I left university. In fact, while in my senior year I was doing a trainee-ship which had me supporting the woman that would later become my boss, as we 'handled' an old rock group at a large event that summer. That's where I first met Rob too, his company was running the logistics for the event itself, organizing the various tradesmen, sound tech's, security, catering, and so on. The only thing they didn't manage was the talent, that was our job.
The spark between Rob and I was instant, somehow right from the start I just knew we'd be together. He asked me out on a date that weekend, and everything just blossomed from there. A year later and we were married, and I couldn't be happier. Rob is one of those type of guys that gets what he wants, he's driven, ambitious and extremely hard working. He's also very logical, calm and loving.
For the first few years we were together, it was like being in a fairy tale, he was everything I could possibly ask for in a husband. Tall, handsome, strong, intelligent, passionate, ambitious, and a little bit wealthy too. We moved out of our apartment, buying an expensive home in the posh suburb of Teddington, which is just south of Twickenham in West London.
The more successful Rob has gotten, the less he's had to travel, able to employ other staff that can run events outside of London. For me, it's been the opposite; my career now has me handling far more important celebrities as my experience grows. And that means far more traveling both in and around the United Kingdom, but also overseas as well.
That's not to say that we're unhappy whatsoever, I still very much love Rob and all he has provided for me, even if the excitement of those first few years has now faded somewhat. And I know he still loves me too, he shows me that with his different gestures or actions, well, when we both have the time to be together anyway.
We've also put the idea of having children on hold too, there are still goals in my career I want to achieve before we start down that path. I guess that's what happens when you both have consuming careers, sometimes your relationship with each other can seem to become secondary. Careers can also add stress when they require you to spend time apart from each other on a regular basis. More recently it's been me that's been on the road mainly while Rob remains in West London. Normally it would make my homecoming's more memorable though, but lately even the passion of my returning home after weeks on the road has seemed to wane a little, becoming almost 'normal' for us.
"Hi Mandy, I hear you're starting a new junket this week, and with Tyler John of all people. Lucky you." Shelley, our receptionist says as she greets me into the office.
"Sounds like you've got a bit of a celebrity crush on him." I quickly respond.
"Who doesn't? He's tall, good looking and has the body of an Adonis. Every woman in here is going to be jealous of you this week."
"Shelley, what would your husband say if he found out that you're getting all giddy over a handsome, young and buff actor?" I reply, smiling back at our late-thirties red-headed receptionist.
"He'd probably tell me to go for it, that way he can have more time to watch football than what he already does." Shelley laughs back at me.
"Oh, and Jane wanted to see you too as soon as you got in. She's in her office." Shelley advises me as I head towards my own office, depositing my stuff before heading in to see my boss.
"Hi Jane, you wanted to see me?" I ask my boss, Jane Morrison, who's in her early forties but is still a very attractive and career-driven woman.
"Yes, close the door please Mandy. Now, I know I informed you about supporting Tyler John for the upcoming English and Wales pressers over the next two weeks, but the distributors are pushing for more, a lot more." Jane informs me.
"What? Here in the UK, or overseas as well?" I respond, worried about where this is going.
"Well, both. I'm hoping you can cover all three weeks here in the UK, including Scotland and Ireland as well, but also another five weeks in the United States and Canada too."
"Can't we get someone else to cover the north American tour? What about Rachel, she lives in New York and usually handles all the US and Canadian media tours for us."
"She'll be away getting married and also has her honeymoon too, and I don't trust the other people we have over there to handle Tyler. His agency is our biggest client, and he's one of their biggest stars right now. I need you to handle this, I don't trust anyone else. Can you do this for me?"
"I'll have to check with my husband first, but if I do this, you'll owe me big time." I reply with a smirk.
"You know I'll always look after you, I always have, haven't I?"
"Yes, that's true. But two months on the road, going from hotel to hotel, city to city, presser to presser, I'm going to be absolutely exhausted by the time I get back."
"Alright, how does a week off with paid leave sound when you return? It won't come out of your normal holiday leave either, it's just an added bonus for doing this for me."
"Okay, I can live with that. I'm probably going to need all that time off to rebuild my marriage with Rob anyway when I'm done." I chuckle along with Jane in response.
"Thanks, Mandy. I knew I could rely on you." My boss tells me, before I go back to my office, wondering how I'm going to break this to Rob later tonight.
He didn't sound that enthralled with the news either, what was meant to be a two week press junket through a few cities here in England and Wales, with the first few days of those two weeks still here in London, has now turned into eight weeks away covering the rest of the UK and Ireland too, along with major markets across the US and Canada, finishing the trip over on the west coast in Los Angeles for the show's premier.
"This will be the longest we've ever been apart since we first started dating six years ago." Rob said to me as we sat together on the couch at home.
"I know, but I'll get a whole week of paid leave off on my return to compensate. Is there any chance you could take that week off too, just so that we can spend that time together, just the two of us."
"I'm not sure, I'll have to check when I'm in the office tomorrow, but maybe I can take at least a day or two off that week." Rob answered.
"See, it won't be so bad. I'll call you every night too, you probably won't miss me at all." I add while kissing Rob on his lips, trying to soften the blow.
"Okay, when does it start, and where are you going?"
"We start on Wednesday, but the first few days are here in London anyway. I'll leave for Bristol on Saturday. From there we go to Cardiff, then on to the Midlands, Yorkshire, followed by the North-East and Scotland before going over to Ireland. We'll then fly over to North America for five weeks to begin the tour over there."
"Will you be able to come home before you go overseas? Do you guys get any days off?"
"Maybe, I'm not sure right now, I'll have to check. We do have a very tight schedule though; it's the promotional tour for a new TV series that starts in just two month's time. We need to hit all the major markets before the show airs."
"And who's it for this time?"
"Tyler John."
"The guy that looks like a younger more buff version of Idris Elba?"
"Yeah, that's him."
"Hasn't he been in all those big Hollywood action movies lately?"
"Yeah, although this is for a big budget TV series this time. I think he's still playing the same type of action star however." I reply.
"Isn't he a bit of a heartthrob for all the ladies too? Wasn't he supposed to be dating that singer, and some actress before that as well?"
"Yeah, he likes to get around a bit I guess, he's known as a playboy for sure. All the women love him."
"Well, it's not your job to keep all those women off him too, is it?"
"Probably, I'll need him fresh for all the back-to-back interviews he'll have every day. The last thing I need is him being up all night enjoying himself with some random women in every city we go to." I reply, smiling a little.
"Well, as long as he keeps his hands off of you, that's all I care about." Rob chuckles back at me as he leans in to kiss me again.
"Yeah, of course. I'm a professional Honey, sleeping with the talent is definitely not in my job description." I reply with a smile as we kiss some more.
My mom and my best friend Clara both also expressed concerns about me spending so much time with a guy like Tyler John however, when I spoke to them about my upcoming trip. My mom flat out asked me if it was a good idea for a young married woman like me, to be spending two months on the road with a handsome single playboy like Tyler. I assured her that it would all be fine, that I'm an adult and it's my job to deal with this sort of thing. Clara on the other hand, asked me how Rob handled the news, and more or less insinuated that I was placing my career before him and my marriage, all in a way that only your best friend can do without saying it outright.
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Tyler is a very charismatic man when I first met him on Wednesday morning, going into some of the studios together here in London to record the first batch of his interviews. He's extremely handsome and more than a little playful too. I can't deny that I do find him very attractive physically, Shelley was right, who wouldn't?
Most of my time spent with him on Wednesday was prepping him before ushering one interviewer in then out and then another one in, always telling Tyler who each of them are, so that he can act like he knows them all.
This repeated for both Thursday and Friday too as we visited a few different studios, but at least I got to come home and be with Rob for each of those nights. Tyler too got to go home to his upmarket house in Chelsea, I'm not sure if he shares it with anyone, however. On Saturday morning, I packed my suitcases and said goodbye to my husband, not knowing that it would be another eight weeks before I'd see him in person again, and that everything would change between us.
