The Air Hostess
This story concerns the chance meeting and subsequent sexual and emotional relationship between a young man and a much older flight attendant.
I have used the now-outdated term "Air Hostess" in the title and text as I think it will be a familiar one to most readers.
I hope you enjoy the story and look forward to comments.
Sylviafan
I'm not a jet-setting executive or anything like that, but I do travel quite extensively in my job and I spend quite a lot of time airborne or waiting for seemingly interminable periods of time in airports. And that's how I met Faye.
Just for a bit of background: my name's Tom, I'm a patent lawyer working out of an office in Bristol - that's Bristol in the Southwest of the UK. I'm twenty-eight, single and pretty average in most respects. I like running and cycling and reading and music and I'm also a bit of a petrol head; I'm currently restoring a 1975 Porsche 911. Friends (?) tell me that I look like Dustin Hoffman in
The Graduate
, though he was a couple of years older at the time. And a few inches shorter.
This story starts on a June morning on a flight from Miami to Manchester in a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. I was pissed off that morning for a number of reasons. Firstly, the meeting in Fort Lauderdale with the pharmaceuticals company could have gone better; secondly, I was in Economy Class because there were no spaces in Business Class because my secretary hadn't booked the flights in time (although if I'm honest I probably hadn't given her enough notice); thirdly, I'd only got about fifteen hours in Manchester before my connecting flight to Madrid the following morning and realistically that didn't give me enough time to get home and back so I'd have to spend the night in an airport hotel.
On the plus side, a couple of very slender and attractive air hostesses had greeted me at the aircraft door and I was sitting in aisle seat, which I prefer; to be precise, seat C of row twenty-four, and with nobody in seat B. Nevertheless, I was a bit grumpy and paid scant attention to the safety video or the voice of the captain welcoming us to the flight.
Once in the air, trolley service began at the front of the Economy Class section. By leaning out slightly I was able to look down the aisle where I could see the rear of one air hostess as the service trolley made its progress down the aircraft towards me. I could also see, intermittently, the face and shoulders of her colleague at the other end of the trolley. As the trolley approached me, over the next fifteen minutes or so, it became obvious that the hostess facing me was not exactly a spring chicken. In fact as she got closer I realised that she was probably in her sixties, with a lined face and dyed blonde hair. I was surprised that the airline employed such elderly staff as cabin crew, but she seemed perfectly efficient and capable and she smiled a lot at the passengers.
By contrast, I was mesmerised by the view of the hostess with her back to me. For one thing, she had the most superb legs I think I'd ever seen. Encased in translucent black pantyhose and visible only below her knee-length skirt, they were long and slender, with a graceful sweep of calf and slim ankles. She wore two or three-inch black court shoes which only served to highlight their perfection. Further up, when I could drag my gaze from her legs, I noted slim hips and waist, a crisp white blouse and long, black hair tied in a braid. I couldn't wait to see her face and as I waited I imagined what she might look like.
It was only when the trolley did eventually reach row twenty-four that I got my first look at her and I was so surprised that my stomach did a little flip. She was ancient! No, that wasn't fair, she probably wasn't as old as her colleague, but I didn't think she'd be seeing fifty again. But as she smiled down at me and asked what I'd like to drink, I realised that, regardless of her age and all the makeup she was wearing, she was actually a very attractive woman.
She had an oval face with high cheekbones and dark-blue eyes and a straight nose surmounting a mouth that was full-lipped and slightly downturned, making her look a bit severe, until she smiled and showed even, white teeth, like a toothpaste advert. Her accent was Mancunian and her movements deft and practised. She handed me my red wine with a slim-fingered hand with the nails painted carmine red. A thought had flashed through my mind that the young and attractive cabin staff that I'd seen on arrival were probably serving Business Class. This was rapidly replaced by a thought that I'd just as soon be served by Faye, that being the name on her lapel badge; the other hostess was Wendy.
I smiled back at her and said, 'A red wine please, Faye,' and she gave me an even bigger smile, poured me a plastic beaker-full and turned her attention to the passenger in the window seat.
He was a different proposition altogether; I'd said hello when I sat down but he'd ignored me and stared out of the window, so I'd ignored him too.
'I'd like a glass of red and a glass of white,' he told the air hostess in a nasal whine. 'There's a chance that one of them might be drinkable.'
No please or thank you. I was shocked at his bad manners and looked up to see what the air hostess's reaction was. She just ignored his rudeness and handed over his drinks. 'I hope you enjoy them, sir,' she smiled at him, with apparent sincerity.
The flight was a little under eight and a half hours and the time dragged heavily. I couldn't find a decent movie to watch and none of the music appealed to me so I went into my cabin case in the overhead locker and got out my laptop and started writing up notes from the Fort Lauderdale meeting. This took me until dinner time when Wendy and Faye appeared again with a hot meal and I got more smiles and a peek at Faye's bosom as she leaned over to put my meal on my tray.
I know it sounds weird, but I've always quite liked airline food. I like the little packages of things and the tiny bread roll and miniscule packet of cheese. The chap in the window seat was less impressed. I'd handed him his meal and he'd poked at it for a few seconds and as the trolley moved away from our row he spoke up in a strident tone:
'Excuse me! No, this is all wrong! I ordered the vegetarian option!'
'I'm terribly sorry, sir,' said Faye. 'I haven't got your seat down for a vegetarian. Would you like me to see if there's a spare one available?'
'Well of course I would!' he bleated loudly, turning a few heads in the nearby seats. 'You surely don't expect me to eat this!'
'I'll see what I can do, sir, but it'll be a while I'm afraid.'
'Yes,' the window seat sighed, 'I suppose that's what you get when you employ geriatric trolley-dollies.'
There was a strained silence immediately after this delivery and I felt my anger rise.
'How
dare
you talk to the cabin staff like that,' I said, half turning to him. 'Their job's difficult enough as it is without mannerless bastards like you insulting them!'
'It's fine, sir, really,' said Wendy.
But I hadn't quite finished yet. Leaning further over towards him I hissed: 'If there's another rude remark out of you, I'll be waiting for you outside the terminal building.'
He feigned indifference and stared out of the window, although his face flushed a deep red; I sat back and let my anger subside. I looked up at the air hostesses, ready to apologise for my outburst but they just smiled again. Then, just before moving on, Faye mouthed 'thank you' to me and then they were gone.