by Kaylie Kay
UNDER GREY CLOUDS
By
Kaylie Kay
Copyright © Kaylie Kay 2018
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.
The moral right of Kaylie Kay has been asserted.
ISBN:
ISBN-13:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
For Lewis xxx.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 1
‘Bye, Mum,’ Lewis shouted above the shrill tones of the school bell that rung out in the playground.
‘See you in two sleeps!’ Susan called after him, watching proudly as her handsome eight-year-old ran off towards the door, so smart in his private-school uniform of blazer and short trousers, cap perched on his head. She looked around for Sophia, catching a glimpse of her daughter going through the door to the Year 6 block, deep in conversation with her group of girlfriends and clearly even less bothered than her brother that her mum was going away. Susan sighed, but she was grateful it was like this really, it would be much harder if they got upset, and besides, it was all that they had ever known. Mum had always gone away for a few days here and there, but she always came back.
Susan Kennedy could feel the stares and sideways glances of the other mums, all in their sensible mum clothes, a stark contrast to her smart flight attendant’s uniform. She knew what they were thinking. How could she possibly leave her children for days? How could she go to work and serve people? Well screw them, she thought, they were just jealous really, jealous that they too couldn’t get away from the mundanity of motherhood and wifedom, from the school run and the grocery shopping, from looking after their fat, boring husbands. Tonight, she didn’t have to think about what was for dinner, whether the kids had done their homework, or whether she needed to receive her husband’s advances. Tonight, she would be thousands of miles away, being Susan Harrison.
Susan had never changed her name at work, despite being married to Jeff now for twelve years, because at work she was still her old self, for a few days a month she got to be her, not someone’s wife or mother. She turned on her stilettos and walked confidently through the school gates to the car park. Still they watched her, as they stood in their cliques, but she couldn’t have cared less as she climbed into her brand new Range Rover that was gleaming so much brighter than theirs in the September sunshine.
The motorway was a bitch this morning, she thought to herself an hour later, glad that she had left extra time to get to Heathrow as she crawled along. The phone rang over the Bluetooth and Jeff’s name popped up on the screen. She hesitated for a moment before answering, switching herself back from Susan Harrison to Jeff’s wife, Susan Kennedy.
‘Hi, darling,’ she said cheerily.
‘Oh, glad I caught you, I thought you may have been at work by now.’ Her husband sounded a little flustered.
‘No, no, traffic is terrible, I’m still on the M25, is everything okay?’
‘Yes, yes, I just bumped into Andy at the office earlier. I’ve invited him and Evelyn over for dinner at the weekend, I just wanted to check with you, is that okay?’ Susan took a deep breath, glad that her husband couldn’t see the tortured look on her face, that she only had to fake her voice on this occasion.
‘Absolutely, I’d love to see them, I’ll make us all a lovely dinner. That’s something to look forward to when I get home.’ Her happy voice didn’t mirror her true feelings.
‘Oh, thank you, sweetheart, you really are the best, I do love you.’
‘I love you too, Jeff.’
‘Okay, well I’ll see you when you get back.’
‘Bye, darling, try not to miss me too much.’
‘You know I always miss you, I wish you’d give up that job.’
‘Jeff,’ she said in a tone that warned him off going any further.
‘I know, sorry, selfish me.’
‘Yes,’ she scolded kindly. ‘You know I love my job. And I love you. Anyway, gotta go, I’m just coming off at the airport now, see you in a couple of days.’
Susan hung up the call and groaned. An evening with Jeff’s boring friends was like pulling teeth; she had absolutely nothing in common with them, but she would do it for him, because that was her duty as Jeff’s wife.
When she had promised to love him and honour him at the altar she had meant it, and in return he gave her everything she could have ever wanted. She had known that people had judged them because of the age difference, but she hadn’t cared, when she was twenty-three he had only been forty-three. He was handsome, and fit, and very, very rich.
Now though, at fifty-five, he was starting to look old, his hair was greying and the pounds had begun to stack on around his middle; lately she had felt the age gap much more. But, she reminded herself daily, while he may not have been fit anymore, and maybe he wasn’t quite so handsome, she knew that he loved her absolutely, and he was still very, very rich.
In contrast, she had got more polished, worked out harder, and honed her body to perfection. She looked nowhere near her thirty-five years; at least that’s what people told her, and she believed them. No wonder Jeff loved her so much, she looked the part and she was the perfect wife and mother too, and as long as she got her little breaks she could keep it up quite happily.
Chapter 2
The plane picked up speed as it rolled down the runway, Susan sat on her hands and pushed her
head back into the headrest, braced for take-off. There it was, she felt that moment as the huge bird took flight, the air lifting its wings and picking it, and everyone in it, up off the ground. She looked at her watch; 11.55. With a seven-hour-thirty flight time and a five-hour time difference, plus two hours for the airport and bus journey, that would have her in her hotel room for 4.30, she concluded. Perfect.
The ping of the seatbelt signs being turned off signalled the start of work, and Susan got up slowly, stowing her harness into her jumpseat and busying herself setting up the galley ready for the service in first class.
‘Excuse me.’ Susan hadn’t heard anyone come into the galley over the sound of the ovens and the engines. ‘Can I get some help with my television please?’ She turned around to see a glamorous lady of perhaps sixty years old standing there, looking apologetic.
‘Of course, madam, where are you sitting?’
‘1G, I’m sorry to bother you.’
‘It’s no bother.’ Susan followed her to her seat and started to help her select a movie. She knew that the older passengers did tend to struggle with the technology, whilst the kids could get to grips with it without any problems. As she navigated the screen with the controller she couldn’t help but notice the huge diamond ring that sparkled on the lady’s finger. ‘Are you flying on your own, madam?’ she asked casually, quite sure that none of the diverse mix of travellers that were sitting around her could have been her husband.
‘Sadly yes, I lost my husband last year.’ She smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes.
‘Oh, I’m very sorry,’ Susan said, unsure what else to say.
‘It’s fine, he was a fair bit older than me so I always knew I would be on my own eventually, I’d prepared for it a long time ago,’ the lady reassured her. She had a serenity that made it seem okay.
Susan thought of Jeff; it had honestly never occurred to her that this would happen to them, she had never thought that far ahead. She shrugged it off quickly, there was absolutely no point in thinking about it, he wasn’t that old yet!
‘Now what sort of film would you like to watch, romance, comedy?’ Susan asked with forced brightness.
‘Oh, something with a bit of excitement, my dear,’ she said, looking up with a twinkle in her eye, so she still had plenty of life left in her, ‘and a glass of champagne to watch it with would be wonderful.’
‘No problem at all,’ Susan smiled back at her. Maybe she would be in this lady’s shoes herself one day, and she liked to think she’d have a glass of champagne too.
As she walked back into the galley minutes later David, the flight manager, was standing in front of the entertainment control centre looking baffled, tapping the screen in agitation.
‘Everything okay?’ Susan asked.
‘They’ve got no screens on down the back, but it says here that everything is fine,’ he answered with an air of exasperation, not taking his eyes off the screen.
‘Oh dear,’ Susan winced. This wasn’t good, two hundred passengers without entertainment could make it a difficult flight. ‘It’s working okay up here,’ she offered, trying to cast some hope on the situation. She was relieved that she was, firstly, working in the galley out of sight of the passengers, and secondly in the cabin that did have entertainment, for now at least. She stopped herself from making the ‘not my aisle’ joke, doubtful that it would be well received at that moment.
‘I’m going to have to turn it all off and on again, see if that sorts it out.’ David exhaled as he picked up the handset from next to the jumpseat and made an announcement to tell everyone what he was doing, thanking them for their patience. ‘Let’s hope it works,’ he said as he hung up the phone and flipped the switch next to the screen to the OFF position.
Oh, what a flight that had been. The entertainment had not come back on for the rest of the flight. Some sort of remote circuit breaker, the engineers had said when they had boarded in JFK, faced with a crew exhausted from seven hours of entertaining the passengers personally, calming and reasoning with them. It was only their TVs after all, not the engines that were broken, Susan had pointed out on several occasions.
As she closed her hotel door behind her, she stepped out of her heels and sighed loudly as she placed her tired feet flat on the ground. She looked straight ahead through her window that framed the Empire State Building perfectly, oh what a view! The flight hadn’t been her favourite of all time admittedly but it was over now, and here she was in New York City with the best view in town.
Opening her suitcase, she took out the bottle of champagne which she had brought with her. It was still chilled from being in the cargo hold, and the sound of the cork popping was the best thing that she had heard all day. She poured the bubbling nectar into the crystal flute that she had also carried, and took her first sip with her eyes closed in order to fully appreciate the moment.
Carrying her designer toiletry bag into the small but modern bathroom, she quickly found the expensive bath oils that she had treated herself to at the weekend, squeezing a few drops into the hot water that was now flowing from the faucet. In just a few minutes Susan lay in luxury, imagining that she was in an exclusive spa, breathing in the aromas of the oils that were worth every penny of their expensive price tag. For the next twenty minutes she only moved to sip her champagne.
Stepping out of the bath that was beginning to cool now, revitalised, she dried herself gently with the fluffy white towel. She smoothed deliciously smelling lotion into her tanned limbs, and applied the creams that promised miracles onto her face. Shaking out her hair from its pins it fell perfectly, if a little tousled, around her shoulders. She glanced at the bedside clock as she opened her case again, 5:15pm. From under her clothes she soon found what she was looking for, taking out the small silk bag. She laid out the contents on the white bed sheets and admired the beautiful red lace underwear, before putting it on and standing in front of the mirror. A quick brush of bronzer on her face, and slick of lip gloss, and she was ready, just in time. The sound of the key card in the door made her smile, and when he came into the room she was soon lifted off her feet, her legs wrapped around his lean muscular body as he carried her to the bed without saying a word.
Chapter 3
Susan Harrison held on to the arm of Tony Carluccio as they walked along Broadway, letting him lead her through the throngs of people. Tall and broad, he was the epitome of the American Italian, thick dark wavy hair and olive skin. At thirty years old he was younger than her, but he had never asked her age, and it didn’t matter; she knew that they looked good together, and whenever she was with him he made her feel like she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She felt like she was walking on air.
They had first met two years ago, him being the newly appointed manager at the crew’s hotel in New York. She had always thought since that he was wasted in hotels, he should’ve been on TV with his looks and charm.
He had come to her room that night to check out a broken tap, and hadn’t left for over an hour; he had never fixed the tap. Now he came to her room every time she was in the city, and for those twenty-four hours she was in town, when he wasn’t working, she was ‘his girl’ and he was ‘her man’.
There were rules of course, she had had to set them at the beginning, just in case things got complicated. It was purely a fling, that would last as long as they both wanted it to, there would be no commitment. He wasn’t to ask about her other life, about Susan Kennedy, she was no one to him. She wouldn’t be meeting his parents, or going to family parties, she would be with him alone when she was here, he was the only one that she needed to see. Nor was he to contact her, she would contact him, when she was coming to town, and only then. Tony was fine with all of that, happy even; no ties but all the good bits, it seemed that it suited him perfectly.
Tonight he was taking her to a show, and she felt giddy as they walked there; perhaps it was the champagne, or maybe it was the after-effects of the way he had made her feel back there in the hote
l room. She squeezed his arm and looked up at him, feeling the intensity of his stare as he looked back at her all through her body. The show would be great but, if she was honest, she couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel afterwards, to be back in that room with him. The excitement of having to sneak in separately so that his colleagues, or hers for that matter, didn’t see them together added to her butterflies, and she drew a deep breath of air trying to calm them.
The next afternoon Susan put her lipstick on and tied her scarf, checking herself in the mirror by the door. She smoothed down her dress and stood upright, looking at the perfectly groomed flight attendant that was looking straight back at her. Tony had left for work that morning and she was ready to go home now, reenergised and rejuvenated. Pulling her suitcase and crew bag behind her, she took the elevator down to the ground floor. She walked purposely across the lobby towards the crew that were huddled together, trying not to look at him behind the desk. He was talking to the receptionist but she could tell that he was watching her at the same time.
‘Did you have a nice trip?’ asked Sam, one of the crew that she had been working with on the flight out.
‘Yes, thanks, hon, did you?’ She was glad of the conversation, of the distraction.
‘Yeah, lovely, lots of shopping. Shame you didn’t make last night, we all went to the roof bar at 230 Fifth, you were the only one who didn’t come.’ She was looking at Susan for an explanation, for a reason why she had been so unsociable.
‘Oh, I was really tired, I just fell asleep after I had a bath,’ she lied. ‘That’s a shame though, I would have loved that. Definitely next time I’m here,’ she lied again.
‘I get it, sometimes you just have to catch up on your sleep,’ Sam said understandingly.
Susan nodded. Truth was she had had very little sleep at all, but she didn’t feel tired now, and there would be plenty of time to catch up when she was at home.
