Plane Foolish

"One more second of this heat and I'm going to pass out," Lela thought.

The temperature inside of the aircraft hangar felt every bit of 98 degrees, and that was in the shade. Beads of sweat seemed to form on her forehead and dissolve immediately. The humidity was thick, too. This was the type of heat you could cut with a knife.

As Lela climbed out the aircraft cockpit and walked over to the water fountain, she thought to herself, "I wish I was still on that cruise."

She had really enjoyed that Tom Joyner cruise, all the locations, the old R&B groups performing, made her feel like she was twenty something again. Even though most of the men at work didn't know and wouldn't believe it, Lela had recently turned fifty-two.

"Well at least this is Friday," she thought to herself as she bent over to take a sip of water.

As the cool water touched her lips, there was a tap on her back that startled her. She turned and noticed one of her supervisors, Dave Kolinsky and a young black man, standing behind her.

"This is Kevin Johnson, Kevin meet Lela Brown," Dave said as he introduced the two, "Kevin is our new mechanic."

"How you doing," Kevin said as he extended a hand to her.

"What strong hands he has," she thought, "but damn, he's just a baby, let me stop thinking about him like that."

Dave notified her that Kevin was going to be working with her, helping her inspect and fix some of the minor discrepancies. "Give him a tour and let him know who to avoid," Dave said as he walked toward his office.

Turning to Lela, Kevin asked, "What did he mean by that."

Lela chuckled and said, "don't worry I'll tell you all about it," and they walked over to one of the electric carts, used to commute from hangar to hangar, and began the tour. Almost an hour had passed, and since it was just about time to leave Lela decided to start getting cleaned up.

As they swept the floors around the aircraft she had been working on, Kevin asked her about some of the things they discussed while she was showing him around.

"You said it's only twelve women working here. Does that make you uncomfortable knowing that you're one of four women who actually does maintenance on the planes here," Kevin inquired?

"Not really," responded Lela, "you know I've never really paid attention to it."

"I know out of the hundred or so odd men who work here, somebody has had to ask you out," said Kevin digging deeper.

"Yea, all the time but I don't date co-workers. Beside that, everybody here is either married or between marriages," Lela said then added, "Now lets finish this floor so I can show you how to do your time card, so we can get out of here," Lela had done right to end the conversation, because she had experienced all kinds of problems when she started dating Greg.

Greg was a painter who worked in one of the other hangars. Everything started off innocent enough but then people started prying into their relationship. They dated a couple weeks then separated but went out a couple more times over a year's time before she found out Greg was engaged. That was a little more than four years ago and rumors were still coming out. About the only truth that was ever told, was the fact that she had never slept with Greg.

Lela hadn't had sex in more than two years. She really hadn't had time too. But right now wasn't the time to be having a personal conversation with a person she just met. She wasn't trying to be short, but she hardly knew him, and besides he was too inexperienced to even understand why she was so cautious.

"Are you going to help me with this time card, because I can't figure out how to add this stuff up," Kevin said as he reached over and tapped her shoulder.

"You should be better than me at this stuff, since you just got out of school," Lela said then asked, "How old are you?"

"Just got out of school," Kevin smirked, looked her over, and responded, "I've been in the Marine Corps for twelve years. By the way, I'm thirty and you're probably only in your mid thirties."

Lela smiled for a second. "I wish," she responded, "everybody around here knows I'm in my early fifties. But anyway, youngster, how about we finish that time card of yours."

Leaning over to check out Kevin's time card, her left breast happens to brush his arm. It was purely incidental, but that instant a shiver shot through her body. If it hadn't been for the material of the work shirt she was wearing, he probably could have seen her nipples get erect. The touch seemingly lasted for minutes as she savored this incidental touch. She almost wanted to repeat the incident. Then it occurred to her, what if he had read her reaction. At this point she didn't care.

"To hell with being shy," she thought, "I'm too old for that." But then she came to her senses and took a step back for a moment. She looked to see if he had noticed. He hadn't. She could breathe now.

***************************************

All Lela could think of was that hot Calgon bath she was going to take when she got home. Just her, the bubbles, and the episodes of "The Young and the Restless" she recorded during the week, on her TiVo. She'd waited all week for Friday night.

"I hope you don't have any plans for tomorrow," Dave said as he yelled across the hangar.

"Why," Lela asked.

"Well, the schedule is due to pick up for a couple weeks and we need an inspector to come in on Saturdays, for just like a month or so, and get a head start on the mechanics," Dave explained.

Before Lela could speak, he added, "I'm also asking Kevin to come in, so he can get familiar with the process before it gets to busy."

"Sure," she replied, "I could use the overtime."

***************************************

Several weeks had come and gone. Lela had begun to wonder if she had made the right decision when Dave had asked her to work on the weekend. The last couple Fridays she'd just come home and showered and fell asleep. She hadn't even watched her soaps last Friday, so she was dying to find out if Sharon had gotten Nikki to be her alibi after she told her she murdered Cameron. But here she was at work again on a Saturday morning. The sun still hadn't rose and most normal people were in their beds. But instead she was at work about to remove a faulty control yoke on an airplane.

The last couple weeks hadn't been that bad in all actuality. She didn't have to wear her uniform, which she swore held heat, and she could crank the volume on her radio up, because there was no one there to complain except Kevin. But he didn't seem to care. He would come in and usually begin working, usually on another plane, pulling the component she'd noticed needed replacing. As she stepped through the aircraft door, just as predicted, Kevin was sprawled out under the instrument panel replacing the master cylinders and hoses she had wrote up the week before.

"About time you do some work," Kevin joked, barely glancing up.

"Yea, guess I should since they are paying me," Lela responded," but look like you're in my way though, I have to change that yoke."

Making her way to the front of the plane, she steps over him, but steps on one of his loose tools, and loses her footing. As she began to fall back she begins to grab for something to steady her. An audible "Oh shit", escapes her lips. Then she feels his hands on the back of her legs. He steadies her, accidentally grabbing her ass, but Lela is too embarrassed to notice.

"You ok," Kevin questions, as he removes his hands from what he now realizes is her ass.

"I'm good. But you really need to move your damn tools," she snaps at him.

"Yes ma'am," Kevin responds and goes back to work.

Her heart is still beating fast as she leans over the glare shield of the plane to place her tool caddy down. The scene replays in her head, but pauses on the part where she noticed he grabbed her. Kevin definitely had strong hands. She imagined him grabbing her ass again, only in a different situation. She'd been thinking about him in that aspect more lately.

"You trying to give me a show or something," Kevin asked as he slid from under her. He had been peeking up the leg of her shorts.

She quickly responded, "No, why would I do something like that?"

He smiled, the smirk on his face said he knew she was thinking something. She watched as he stood up, stooping over, because the cabin of the plane was too low for him to stand.

Turning around, wiping his hands on a rag, he comments, "like my first week on the job, when you kept brushing your breast up against me." Lela didn't know what to say, she was speechless, she tried hard not to blush, but couldn't.