"Your ticket Ma'am?"
Jessica took a deep breath and passed her ticket to the well-dressed man on the tarmac.
"Looks like everything is in order here," he smiled, then gestured politely up the stairs to the sleek private jet on the tarmac, "enjoy your flight Ma'am." She returned his smile, accepted her ticket back and climbed the stairs to a new beginning.
She was greeted at the top of the stairs by a smiling flight attendant, who helped her with her luggage and guided her to a comfortable leather seat. Jessica stowed her purse and carry-on bags in the cabin above and turned to look around. The plane was luxurious. There were passenger seats for twelve, two of which were already occupied. One with a young man, the other with a girl who looked to be a few years younger than Jessica – no more than twenty years old.
"Hi, I'm Aaron," the young man half-stood up from his black leather chair and offered his hand.
"Jessica," she replied with a nervous smile.
"I'm Melissa," the other girl offered. She seemed very shy, but offered a polite smile.
Melissa had the look of a high fashion model. She was unusually thin, with a boyish figure with small breasts that barely made bumps in her shirt. Her skin looked pale and soft and her hair was cut short like the models on the runways of Europe – but she seemed to lack their confidence.
Aaron was cute in a boy next door sort of way. His hair was brown with blond streaks from the sun. His body looked strong from working outside but he would easily have disappeared in a crowd. His eyes were his best feature, they were blue.
"You look like you're here with the agency too," Aaron continued. "I mean, you're very pretty so I just assumed." He blushed a little and retreated back to his seat.
Jessica was pretty. She had done some catalog modeling in high school. Her auburn brown hair fell just past her shoulders and framed a beautiful face with green eyes. She thought her breasts were a little small but she was proud that she was in pretty good shape. She was modest and hid her slim body and long legs beneath clothes that were usually too big for her.
Still standing, Jessica answered awkwardly, "Oh, well yes, I hope so anyway. I've come this far at least."
She was interrupted by the flight attendant.
"Alright everyone, please take a seat for take off." The flight attendant checked that all the baggage was secure and that everyone was buckled properly before hitting a switch to signal to the pilots that they were ready to leave.
The plane took off quickly and the flight attendant began passing out blankets and pillows.
"Try these," she offered passing Jessica a cup with two pills and a glass of water. It's going to be a long flight, these will calm you down and you can get some rest." She smiled.
Jessica took the pills and dropped them to the back of her throat. She hated taking pills they made her gag. The water washed them down. She stretched out in the spacious cabin covered in the blanket as the flight attendant distributed pills and water to Aaron and Melissa as well.
Jessica drifted off to a deep sleep and began to dream about the circumstances that had led her to get on the plane. A lot had changed over the last two weeks.
******************************************
For three years Jessica and Matthew had lived together. They had first met at a bar when her friends had introduced her and then abandoned her so that he had to drive her home. They'd talked and gotten along amazingly and over the next several months they dated intensely. Matthew made Jessica feel comfortable with herself and he was a gentle considerate lover.
They moved in together and things had gotten routine. They had begun to act like a married couple even though Matthew had yet to propose. Every day became predictable. Jessica would go to work as a receptionist at a local law firm and Matthew would go to work as an engineer at a technology firm in town. Every evening they would come home, eat dinner together and talk about their day. Then they might watch some T.V., or go to a movie. They rarely made love anymore.
It used to be something that caused fights. They had started off strong but the honeymoon phase wears off and sex had become routine. They would usually argue about whose fault the lack of sex was, forgive each other, have make up sex and then repeat the argument all over again two weeks later because they had dried up again. When they did have sex Jessica insisted that the lights be off and the sex itself was usually missionary and quick.
Then about 6 months ago the fights had stopped. Matthew had stopped complaining about the sex and the stress level had eased up. They got a long much better and Jessica believed that Matthew had come to his senses and realized her libido wasn't as active as his. She needed romance and time to warm up.
Four months passed before Jessica began to worry that Matthew didn't seem interested at all anymore. She brought it up with her girlfriend from work and she gave Jessica a knowing smile.
"Jessie, he's probably having an affair. There aren't many reasons why a twenty-six year old man would suddenly stop wanting to have sex with his beautiful young girlfriend, unless there's another girlfriend."
Jessica didn't believe it. They were almost always together at home and unless his mistress was crawling into his office at home, where he spent most of his time, there wouldn't be any room in his schedule even if he wanted to cheat on her. The words burned into her though. She watched Matthew at home that night. He seemed happy and things seemed as usual.
That night as they crawled into bed, Jessica leaned over and whispered into his ear.
"Do you want to have sex tonight, baby? It's been awhile."
Matthew rolled over sleepily. "We don't have to Jessie, I know you love me." He closed his eyes and adjusted his pillow. He was asleep and snoring gently in a few minutes.
Jessica tried to pretend that was fine. Deep inside her mind was screaming though. "It's been like four and a half months since we've had sex, why isn't he ripping my pajamas off and getting on top of me?"
She rolled over and tried to go to sleep. She would have to find out what was causing his sexual restraint. The next day she called into work and took a personal day. She dressed for a day at the office and kissed Matthew as he left for work.
Then she locked up the house, got into her own car and drove to his office. Parking down the street she walked to his building. Taking out her cellphone she called Tracy, Matthew's receptionist. "Jenson, Phillips and Morrison, how may I help you?" Tracy answered the phone smoothly.
"Good morning Tracy, it's Jessica calling."
"Oh hello Jessica! Matthew just got into the office a few moments ago and is in the morning briefing. Is there a message for him?" Tracy was a fantastic secretary and Jessica had met her several times at Matthews work events. She definitely wasn't Matthew's type though, she was probably old enough to be his mother.
"Actually Tracy I was hoping I could talk to you," Jessica stammered she wasn't quite sure what she was going to say. "I, um, have been thinking about surprising Matthew with lunch this week and was wondering if you could let me know what his schedule looks like."
"Well you're probably fine any lunch hour, to be honest, for the last three or four months Matthew has been having lunch delivered to him in the office and only rarely going out to lunch when he's invited by one of the senior partners. I don't see any of those meetings this week so you're likely fine any time."
"So Matthew hasn't had any outside lunch meetings recently?" Jessica questioned trying her best to sound casual and uninterested.
"No I'm afraid he's been pretty boring lately, he could probably definitely use a lunch out with you," she replied cheerily. "Would you like me to pencil something in? I can keep it a surprise!" She sounded excited.
"Maybe later Tracy, I'll have to see when I can duck out myself. I'll give you a call back l when I have something concrete." She tried her best not to sound suspicious and hung up the phone after saying bye to Tracy.
Jessica took a seat in a coffee shop across from Matthew's office. When he didn't leave for lunch, as Tracy had said he hadn't often over the past few months, she decided it was silly to suspect him of cheating on her and walked back to her car.
She wracked her brain on the drive home. There was definitely something wrong in their relationship. Matthew used to be insatiable and much more sexually aggressive than her. He always wanted to try new positions that she wasn't comfortable with. Why couldn't he be gentle and romantic all of the time? She needed to go slow, to take lots of time to relax and feel pampered before she felt ready to have sex and then he used to ruin it by asking her to tell him how it felt during sex, or trying to twist her into other sexual positions.
Now there was nothing. The arguing was gone but so it seemed was Matthew's desire for her.
She pulled into the driveway, walked into the house and collapsed on the couch. She didn't know what to do. She'd offered to have sex in bed last night and he had turned her down. They'd eaten dinner earlier that night and Jessica had sat in front of the TV while Matthew went to his office to work.
