Hi, all! This is my first foray into the Loving Wives category. None of the events in this story actually happen. Any resemblance to something or someone in real life is pure coincidence.
Comments are welcome as long as they're constructive. Hope you enjoy!
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The flight had taken it's toll on me, and I crashed as soon as I hit the stiff hotel pillow. I didn't have to be awake for another eight hours, so I took advantage of that time in an attempt to get over the worst of the jet lag from the trip.
I awoke to a buzzing phone, having forgotten that I had set a wake-up call at the front desk. The bathroom was calling my name when I stumbled out of bed, and I groaned when I saw myself in the mirror. A twelve hour flight and then a horrible hotel bed would not be helping me make impressions on the business CEOs at the conference. I took care of business and showered, then dried my hair and ran my straightening iron over it. With my makeup done and a new pantsuit on, I headed down to the desk to see about getting a ride to the conference. Unaccustomed to the procedures, I was informed that if I wished to have a car waiting for me I should have called down to make the arrangements, and that the wait now would be a half an hour before I could get a car. I slumped onto one of the seats and wondered if it would hurt me at the conference if I showed up not-so-fashionably late.
A man walked over to where I was sitting and took the seat next to me. He cleared his throat until I looked up at him from my phone and said, "Hi. I'm Dax, and I couldn't help but overhear your scolding at the desk."
I could feel my face burning as I smiled and took the hand he offered. His accent placed him from somewhere in the northern States, and I almost didn't reply. My Texas drawl always gets worse when I'm confronted with a northerner's own. "I'm Sarah. Yeah," I glared at the desk. "It'll be a miracle if I make it to my conference on time."
"We may be going to the same place," he smiled a bit as I talked and slowed the pace of his own speech. I hated when people did that, but this man was making my body warm in ways it hadn't in quite some time, so I said nothing and let him continue. "The Linker Conference?"
"Yes. Are you a presenter or just a listener like me?"
"Oh, I'm a listener. What I'm getting at though is that you can ride with me if you'd like. My car should be arriving in any minute." Just then, the lady from the front desk who had been so cold toward me walked up to him and bent down, making sure to show him her ample cleavage, and informed him that his car had arrived. He looked at me and shrugged.
"I'd love to ride with you, Dax," his name rolled off my tongue and something in me snapped. I grabbed my purse from the seat and told the woman I wouldn't be needing my car and followed him out into the grey morning.
The car was like any cab in America, I'd imagine, except I hadn't been in any cabs in America. I took my wedding band off and stuck in a pocket of my purse as Dax got in the car ahead of me. The back seat was small and Dax had to sit at an angle to keep his knees from hitting the back of the front seat, putting them right up against my thighs. He smiled an apology at me and shrugged again.
As I had feared, the conference was boring and my mind kept wandering to the stranger I had ridden with. He had stayed near me for part of the conference, but then we were able to walk around and meet the other business owners and we had drifted apart in the crowd. From what I could tell he was interested in the automotive aspects of the conference where I was looking into the tech side of things. Our respective interests lay at opposite ends of the building, so I didn't see him until it was time to leave for the day. I was standing outside looking at a brochure of the local area when I felt a light touch on my elbow.
"Would you like to have a late lunch?"