“I don’t have any more condoms.”
“We used them all?” I giggled. “We could…”
He shook his head with defiance. “Wait some time. Make sure we are both negative.”
I propped myself up on my elbows. “You’re not going to sleep with anyone else?”
“No. Why would I?”
“We’re hardly in the next town to each other. It could be weeks, months even, before we see each other.”
“I told you I can fly wherever.”
“That’s so expensive though.”
“We’re not having this conversation again. I can afford it, and you’re worth it. I don’t need to work in one place. I can work wherever I want.”
“I know you said that, but we don’t know each other.”
“But we are finding out. I know more about you now than I did before. We have FaceTime and other ways to be in touch. It doesn’t have to be hard.”
“But—”
“No more buts. I like you. Unless you’re happy being single?”
Again, I couldn’t come up with the words I needed to say. Yet, I knew the answer. It came out in a gurgle. Antonio asked me to repeat myself and after clearing my throat, I told him. “No.”
“Good, me neither. We can work something out. You can get flights to LA, right? Ask for special reasons?”
“I’m not in their good books at the moment.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“But I could ask and see what happens.”
“Good. Now, your hand was doing something down there, want to do it again?” The biggest smile spread across his face, and I had to kiss him quick to let him know how happy he was making me.
My phone buzzed a few times, stopped, and then buzzed again.
“I better check it.” I sighed.
Antonio didn’t say anything as I got up, but he opened the dressing gown so I could see what I was missing by not being with him. James’s name flashed up on the screen and then my phone died. I’d left my charger in the hotel. I looked around the room for Antonio’s, but he had a different one to me.
“It’s James. Must be checking up on me,” I said as I returned to bed and Antonio’s arms.
“Call him back.”
“I can’t, the phone died.”
“Use mine.”
“Are you sure?”
Antonio nodded. I took the phone from him and dialled James’s number. He didn’t answer me straightaway. I sent him a message to say it was me and then called again.
“Max, you better get back to Treasure Island. We’re leaving soon.”
“I didn’t think it was until three o’clock. What’s going on?”
“We’ve all been called to the airport. Some training or something or other that we have to go through.”
“You’re kidding me. When was that announced?”
“Graham’s been calling everyone. We must be at the airport for twelve. We’re leaving now.”
“Fuck, I’m on my way.”
“You’ll have to make your way to the airport yourself, he’s not holding back for anyone.”
“Fuck,” I screamed into the phone. “Okay, I’ll get there. Stall them until I do. Where do I need to be?”
“I’ll text you the details now.”
“Do it to this number, my phone’s dead.”
James agreed and hung up. I put Antonio’s phone down and ran around the room picking up my clothes.
“What’s happening?” Antonio asked as he helped me collect my things.
I filled him in as I got dressed. “I need to get to the hotel, get changed and then to the airport. I’ll have to get a cab or something, except I don’t have much cash on me.” My lip trembled, and I knew it would be easier for me to cry than it would to deal with what was happening.
Antonio’s arm came around me as he whispered in my ear. “You’ll be okay, Max. We can do this.”
His breath was warm in my ear and I could lose myself in him, but it wasn’t the time.
“I’m sorry,” I croaked.
“It’s okay. We’re okay. We’ll get a cab and I will wait for you.”
I sagged into him, and then his phone buzzed.
“It’s your friend with the details. Let’s go.”
We rushed down to the hotel lobby and into a cab. There wasn’t much traffic in Las Vegas for this time of day, and we were at Treasure Island in no time. I ran to my room, changed and was back at the cab in fifteen minutes.
Antonio took my case, placed it in the boot and told the driver to go to the airport. He stroked the back of my hand and only when he kissed me did I calm down fully.
“Better?” he asked.
“We’ll see.”
I took the spare power bank I had for my phone and started to charge it, and chastised myself for not taking it with me, or even my charger; my stupidity was ruining everything. This wasn’t how I wanted to say goodbye to Antonio. I was sure we’d had one more session in us before I headed back to England. But as the driver arrived at the restricted area of the airport, we had one final kiss goodbye.
“It’s not goodbye, Max,” he said. “See you soon, okay. Tell me what happens.”
I hadn’t realised I was crying until he wiped the tears away with his thumbs and kissed my eyes. My phone buzzed, and it was James telling me the meeting had started and Graham had closed the door. I gave Antonio one last kiss goodbye, and then turned and ran to security and showed them my pass to get in.
Security directed me to the room, which was up two flights of stairs and along a couple of corridors. Through the glass window in the door, I could see the crew staring towards the front of the room, boredom scribbled across their faces. I tried the door, but it wouldn’t open. A few crew members stirred when I knocked on the door. They looked at me, then away. Graham appeared at the door, a smirk danced across his face before it disappeared again. He opened the door.
“You’re late, Max. Please wait outside and I’ll deal with you later.”
For the second time that day, words failed me. By the time I had a response Graham had closed the door and had gone back to addressing the crew.
My body went cold as I thought about what he had said, and fell into the chair outside the room. I went through all the missed calls and messages I had on my phone. James had sent me quite a few, but there were none from Graham. If I remembered correctly, James said Graham had called them all, but he couldn’t have called me. The last call I had was from James, his call killed my battery, yet there was nothing from Graham.
I messaged Antonio to let him know what had happened so far, nothing of course, and then waited for Graham to finish. It was an hour later when I could hear movement from inside the room and people getting up. I stood and waited for the door to open.
Crew members filed out of the room, a couple of them frowned at me, a couple shrugged. Most didn’t look me in the eye. James was the last one out, his lips were pursed, and he shook his head as I went to open my mouth and say something.
“Ah, Max. Nice of you to join us. You better come in.”
I followed Graham into the room, James right behind me.
“Not you, James. This doesn’t concern you.”
“It does,” he shouted.
“Watch your tone. I don’t want to have to report you as well.”
James’s mouth opened and closed, and he only moved when I reached out and squeezed his arm.
“I’ll be outside then.”
Graham closed the door the second James had left.
“I’m sorry to say, Max, but you won’t be able to fly today.”
My blood boiled and I searched around for a word other than “fuck.” It took me a moment before I could say anything. “What do you mean?” I said through gritted teeth.
“You were called to be at the pickup point at the hotel earlier for some procedures that all crew members needed to go through. You missed the call, pickup point, and procedures. It would be a risk for me to let you fly. Esp
ecially in your given state.”
“What state is that?”
“Hungover. Or don’t you remember knocking me over last night?”
“I knocked into you. You didn’t even fall.”
“Care to explain this then?” He raised his arm and showed scratch marks on his wrist.
“I don’t know how you did that, but it wasn’t through me. I wasn’t even drunk, I tripped.”
“You’d been drinking, I could smell it.”
“I’d had a glass of wine. A glass, Graham. It was an accident.”
“Well, you’ve missed an important briefing on regulations, and with that I can’t let you fly.”
My head started to spin and something threatened to jump up from my stomach. This was beyond belief. “You can’t be serious? The flight is three hours away. You could take me through everything you need to.”
“I have other things to do than spend time with you.”
“But, I can’t not fly. How will I get home?”
“I’ve checked and we aren’t at full capacity. We will find you a seat somewhere. Don’t expect special treatment from the crew.”
“Graham, please.” My voice came out in a whimper.
“You’ve done this to yourself, Max. You’ve had plenty of chances. This proves you’re not fit to fly. Now.” He looked me up and down with a sneer. “I suggest you change into civilian clothes and wait by the gate. I will arrange for a ticket to be assigned to you, and will notify head office what has happened.”
I didn’t have any words to reply. Graham spun around and out of the room. James ran in.
“What happened?”
“He’s grounded me.”
James hugged me, then asked me what had been said. I relayed the story and James swore. He even used the C word, which was one he reserved for special cases.
“What have I done to him, James? To cause him to hate me that much? I know I’m bitchy with him, but I give as good as I get. This isn’t fair.”
“I don’t know, but I guess you’d better get your story straight. Tell me everything from the beginning, from the moment you landed in Los Angeles.”
“Why LA?”
“Because he’s going to bring anything up he can. You were meant to be in Joburg, remember. Even that may come up. If you have everything straight in your head, you will have a better chance of convincing management.”
“Okay.” We walked towards the gate so that James could start work. I didn’t hold back on telling him what had happened at Flamingos and the old guy. To his credit he didn’t chastise me.
“You’ve not been drunk since last Monday? Sorry, Max, but that’s impressive.”
“Thanks, I think? I had a glass of wine with dinner last night, but nothing else.” I tried to hide the upset in my voice.
“I didn’t mean it like that. But you do drink a lot. If you’ve not been drunk since then, there must be something about this guy.”
“Who, Antonio?” I couldn’t help the smile on my face. “Yeah, he’s pretty awesome.”
“So we need to work out what he’s going to do.”
“Antonio?”
“No, Graham,” James said. “How were things with Jane?”
“She said she’d put in a good report for me. I guess I could talk to her.”
“Send her a message, tell her what’s happened. She may give you some insight and tell you what to do. The only thing I’d say is do as you’re told by Graham. If you rebel, it strengthens his case against you.”
I gulped, wondering how much of a case he had against me. It would have been unfair for me to relay any of that onto James now. He had his job to do. My job as well. I wondered how Graham was going to manage with one crew member down, but I guess that wasn’t my problem.
We parted at the gate, and I sat there until the ground crew arrived and arranged for a ticket for me to fly back. They assigned me a seat right at the back of the plane, next to the toilet. I was sure Graham had orchestrated it, but like James said, I didn’t complain.
My phone buzzed with a message from Antonio. He was now at the airport too, but at a different terminal. I told him I was at the gate, and then his face flashed up on my phone as it rang. It was the photo we’d taken in the hotel in LA. I bit back another sob.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’ll be fine.”
“What does it mean?”
“I don’t know yet. I’ll find out when I land I guess.”
We talked, but it was pleasantries, nothing like we had in the hotel room, and I missed his touch already. The ground staff announced the boarding of the flight and we said our goodbyes with a promise for me to call him when I landed.
At the gate, I handed my passport and ticket over to the ground staff and made my way onto the plane. Graham stood at the entrance, but as I approached, he called for another crew member to greet me. I’d never felt as ashamed as I did in that moment. Amanda couldn’t even look me in the eye as she checked my ticket. I told her it was okay, but she directed me as she was meant to, to the back of the plane, where I took my seat.
Chapter Eighteen
The wheels touched down at Gatwick on the Wednesday afternoon, and woke me up. I hadn’t rested much throughout the flight. I had spent most of the time thinking about Antonio, and how things would work if I wasn’t a flight attendant. He’d told me he could work anywhere, but would he move five thousand miles to be with someone he’d only known a week? It didn’t seem plausible, so rather than face heartache, it would probably be best if I ended it now. Yet it felt like the worst decision I would ever make.
The seat next to me had been empty, which had enabled me to stretch out across the two chairs, but I hadn’t slept. Well, I didn’t think I had until we touched down. None of the crew had spoken to me, apart from the customary hellos and serving dinner. James had come to say hello, but Graham was hot on his heels to send him back down to First. I was granted permission by Graham to use the crew exit when we went through immigration, but told to report to head office to find out when my disciplinary would be.
“I’ll come with you,” James said.
“No, it’s fine. I think you’ve got a visitor anyway.” I nodded towards a man holding a placard with James’s name on it and a big bunch of red roses. I was happy he had someone now. He deserved it after all he went through with his ex.
Graham called me to follow him to head office, a mile outside of the airport. We walked through the airport to a bus which took us to the office. As it was the end of the working day, most of the office was empty. A slight slither of hope bubbled up within me when I recognised Lesley, the head trainer when I had first started at the airline.
We went into her office, and I took the seat she had pointed to for me. It was next to Graham, so I pulled the chair an inch or two away from him before I sat down.
“Max,” Lesley started, “it’s been a long couple of days for you, and so I’ll keep this short. We are grounding you until we have a formal meeting on Saturday. We aren’t suspending pay at this point, but that may happen depending on the outcome of the review. Do you have anyone you want to bring into the meeting with you?”
“Erm, James, I think, but I need to check with him.”
“We don’t think it’s wise for you to bring James with you,” Graham sniped at me.
“Graham.” Lesley cut him off.
I shook my head at her as she looked for another name.
“Very well, I’ll assign someone to you.” She scanned through the paperwork in front of her and then looked back at me. “I think that’s all for now then. I’ll see you on Saturday at one o’clock, Max.”
“Don’t I get to give my side of events?” I asked.
“On Saturday. We’ll do it all then. As I said, it’s late for you, I need to be out of here soon and it would be best if this is done with clear heads. Okay?”
I nodded, thanked her for her time and left the office.
The journey home was a blur. When I
got to the flat, Gran was there with a cup of tea and a hug. James would have told her everything, which was why she was there. I filled in the blanks and told her what had happened in the office.
“Well, you’ve got a couple of days before you’ve got to go in. Come and get some proper food in you and then we can watch some television.”
I did as I was told and appreciated being looked after. When my phone finally switched on, I had texts from James, Jane and Antonio. My heart leapt at Antonio’s messages, which got more frenzied as time went on. I sent a message to let him know I was okay at home and would call him later. James, despite being with Darren, asked lots of questions, but it was Jane’s message that was to the point.
When’s the meeting?
Saturday
I’m off that day. I will come with you.
THANK YOU! I owe you big time.
We need to meet before the meeting, make sure I know everything. Get there early.
Relief washed through me, and it was as though I could feel things shifting, but there wasn’t much chance of me revelling in the moment as Antonio called me.
“Hey,” I said.
“Max, I’m buying you a battery for your phone. You can’t leave it uncharged anymore. I get you two batteries.” He chuckled. “One can charge while you use the other one.”
I laughed at his determination, but then soured with what I had to say next.
“I don’t think it’s going to work with us.”
“What do you mean?”
“I may lose my job. I won’t be flying anymore, and if I’m fired I may not be able to work for any other airline.”
“I come to England then.”
“Antonio—”
“Why you do this, Max? Why you want to give it up?”
“Because it’s what I do.”
“Not anymore, okay. Not with me. I like you.”
“That’s not enough, not for you to come all this way.”
“Says who? It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?”
“Why, Antonio?”
“Do you like me?”
I sighed. “Of course I do.”
“Then that’s enough. We don’t need any more than that. It’s a start.”
“Are you sure?”
“Max, I’m not saying it again.”
Up in the Air 2: West Coast Page 12
