AMERICAN DREAM by Britease
Jodie and I spent our honeymoon in America, the jolly old US of A.
Actually I had wanted to go to the West Indies, maybe Martinique, but of course I was out-voted, and as frequently happens I didn't regret it at all.
We flew British Airways out of Heathrow, and landed at JFK several hours later, having tried but failed miserably to join the mile high club on the way. That didn't matter as we soon made up for it, as we toured the East coast, taking in New England and the surrounding area.
Coming from Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, near to Cambridge University, we especially enjoyed our visit to Yale and Harvard, but the biggest surprise was quite how wonderful and rural New York State was. Not at all how we expected it to be.
Three weeks later Jodie and I had no doubt made love in more motels than the average American would manage in a lifetime.
We loved every minute of it, and vowed to one another on the aeroplane back, that it would not be long before we returned.
Great plan ----- great idea ---- but of course real life and our careers just got in the way.
Nine years on, and I, Dave Martin, and my wife Jodie, found ourselves in our early thirties, happily married, no children, and a lovely house mortgaged to the hilt, as most of the people in our position would be at that time --- but living life to the full. I had recently been made a junior director of Alscans Ltd., who specialised in high tech incinerator plants, in which in our narrow sector, we led the world. We were a small company but growing, and I had managed to grow with it. Under my boss George, who virtually owned the company, I guess I was about number four or five in line.
Jodie had done quite well, but as a schoolteacher her progression was a matter of length of service as well as ability, and just occasionally she got frustrated that I had shot ahead of her. I later wondered whether it was this sort of jealous undercurrent that made her act in the way that she did.
I would say without doubt that we were still in love, not perhaps with the passion that we had when we'd first got married, but that was to be expected. Our love life was not bad at all, with the odd week or two of abstinence when we were both under pressure, made up for by the more frequent flurry of sexual activity when we were both in the mood.
Our story starts when we were in the middle of a particularly long spell of the former, but looking forward to a well-deserved period of the latter.
We hadn't actually taken a holiday of any sort for almost a year, but Jodie had broken up from school the week before, and we were due to go off on a well deserved break to the Beaches of Spain just the next day.
Jodie dragged me out to buy some new holiday clothes for the pair of us, though as expected, I ended up with one pair of shorts. No surprise that Jodie ended up with four or five new outfits, and each one more revealing than the last.
It was the last one she chose that started her off.
Jodie tended to be rather adventurous and headstrong on holiday, and wore and did things that she would perhaps not normally do at home. I suppose that day, that she had already entered into the holiday spirit, and the blouse that she picked out seemed to reflect that fact exactly.
"Do you like it?" She asked, as she held it up for my approval.
"It's a bit see-thru," I noted, not with any genuine disapproval.
"Then it's just what I'm looking for then," Jodie told me. "I'd better try it on I suppose."
She disappeared out of my sight into the changing room with the filmy, black wisp of satin, leaving me stood there with six or seven other guys all waiting, like me, for their wives or girlfriends.
I wondered whether Jodie would decide herself, or whether she would come out and model it for me, to see what I thought. I thought that she had put on a fairly skimpy bra that morning, so if she did come out, then a few guys could be in for a minor treat.
She did come out. Right out into the waiting area --- no peeping round the corner for me to come and look like some girls do.
I did get one thing wrong though, and that was the bra. It probably had been the skimpy one that she'd put on that morning, but since she'd removed it to model the blouse, then it didn't make much difference.
Male eyes, including my own, popped open in surprise as Jodie spun around showing the new blouse off to me. Well, nominally to me.
It was black.
It was flimsy.
Other than that, what could I say?
It covered her ---- well sort of I guess.
It covered her up adequately --- well I couldn't really go along with that.
What was the word or phrase I was looking for?
Hid her --- no.
Protected her assets --- certainly not.
Covered her breasts --- well not really.
Guarded her modesty --- hardly at all.
Could me and the other guys make out the shape of her tits --- You bet we could.
Could we see her erect nipples ___ bet your bloody life we all could.
Bloody hell, my missus Jodie was flashing her boobs off at all the guys there as if she was topless. The thin material of the blouse hardly camouflaged what was underneath, and her nipples stuck out like thimbles, every detail plainly on view.
It would have been less erotic if she had been bare to the waist.
And she was loving it!
I couldn't honestly claim that I was that upset, but she was loving it --- the cheeky cow!
Jodie bought the blouse, and we moved on to the next shop.
Then we got the new bikini!
If you could describe it as such.
She disappeared into the changing room, and seemed to take her time. Eventually she pulled the curtain back and stood there for me to admire.
Bloody hell!
I found my heart pounding as I stood there looking at her, aware that at least a couple of other chaps waiting around were also getting an eyeful. Jodie I should explain is a rather attractive young woman, about five foot three, reasonably slim and with boobs that though not more than a "B" cup, thrust out firmly as if issuing a challenge.
"Where's the top?" I asked her when I managed to recover my powers of speech.
"We're going to Spain," Jodie proclaimed gleefully. "Who needs a bikini top there?"
True as it happened. We'd been there the year before, and after the first hour or two, my wife had discarded her bikini top and joined the many other women who were topless. To my knowledge she never bothered with it again the whole time we were there.
But a department store in Cambridge was hardly a beach in Spain.
"Do you like it then?" She demanded, arching her back slightly, emphasizing even more just how stunning her bare breasts were.
"Love it," answered at least two of the admirers looking on, before I could so much as utter a word either way.
Jodie giggled at the attention she was getting, and twisted around to offer a different angle.
"Can I have it then?" She asked me, while I stood there, not sure whether I should be embarrassed or turned on by her show.
"I'd give her one," said one of the guys cheekily, and the others all laughed.
"Ok, you can have it," I told her before the whole thing got out of hand.
On the way home in the car, I got to thinking.
Jodie wouldn't normally have acted quite like that, so something was up.
My wife Jodie was one of those women who was strong willed, and when I did something to upset her she felt she had to get her own back. Four months previously she had flirted with one of her colleagues in front of me and it ended up with her kissing him out on the dance floor, while I had to stand there watching them. I wasn't too sure where his hands were either for that matter.
We had a blinding row afterwards at how she had humiliated me in front of everyone, and all she had to say was that it was all my fault. Apparently I had forgotten that it was the anniversary of our first date a few days before, and she had decided to make me pay.
The anniversary of our first date??
When the hell had we last celebrated that for Christ's sake?
Then about a month after that I got home late when we were supposed to be going out for dinner. It was only half an hour or so because I got held up in the traffic coming home from a meeting with a client up North. Four hours on the road, and an accident on the motorway that had happened earlier in the day had delayed me. I'd even rang to say I'd be late but that didn't help.
By the time I got home she'd already gone out, and left me a note to say that she'd cancelled the dinner reservation. No idea where she'd gone, just that she'd ring me in a bit so that I could join her.
A 'bit' turned out to be over three hours later, and it wasn't so much an invitation to join her as a demand that I went to pick her up to give her a lift home.
I told her what I thought of her, and that she could make her own bloody way home. She'd gone out on her own, so she could come home on her own.
"Plenty of guys here would be more than happy to bring me home Dave. I just don't know how I would be able to pay them back for their kindness."
They were her exact words!
When I got to the club I was fuming. It wasn't helped when I found Jodie surrounded by a group of young men, most of them five years younger than her, and so obviously hoping for a special ending to the evening.
The skimpy dress that she almost had on did nothing to dissuade them that they had chosen well, or to calm me down. As I walked up to the group, at least three of them actually had their hands on her, round her waist, on her exposed shoulder, and another perilously close to her breast.
"Excuse me lads," I said as I carefully eased my way through to her, somewhat cautiously pushing their hands away from her body. "Time this little lady was going home."
"Piss off mate," one of them retorted, trying to barge me away. "We got her first. Go find your own bit of crumpet."
"It's OK boys," broke in Jodie. "It's my husband come to save me. Sorry to break up the evening, but I'm afraid I'll have to go home with him."
Oh dear!
It looked as if it would turn nasty, and there was no way that I would stand a chance against the group of them.
They weren't happy!
It was obvious that they thought Jodie had been leading them on, and that by pre arrangement I had arrived to take their fun thing away, and two of them including the stroppy one started to push me.
It had been some years since I had been involved in any sort of fight; not since I'd been at school. But I'm not the sort of guy who backs down too easily, so I pushed back.
It started to get out of hand, until Jodie interrupted again.
"Come on you guys," she scolded them. "Leave him alone will you."
It quietened them down just a little, but the atmosphere was still very threatening.
"Come on then," Jodie carried on, as if she was enjoying the situation. "I'll give you all a nice kiss goodnight, and then me and hubby have got to be going."
That may have placated them, but it infuriated me.
"You kiss one of them Jodie," I shouted at her. "And don't bloody well bother to come home tonight."
Stand off!
People round us started to move away, and the barman started to clear glasses from in front of us. Most of the bunch of young men seemed happy enough to back off and leave it, but the two trouble makers were as riled up as I was.
There was going to be trouble, and I was in the thick of it.
Suddenly two huge bouncers arrived and started to push us apart. I can't say that I wasn't relieved, even though I was pumped up and would have gone for it.
"You lot stay there," one of the bouncers said to the group of young men, pushing them back, before turning to us.
"I suggest you get out mate while you're still in one piece," he said to me. "And take that trouble making bitch with you."
There are times when you make a stand when your wife is insulted, and times when discretion is the better part of valour. I took the second and easier option, and dragged Jodie out behind me. Besides, at that moment I agreed with his judgement.
The drive home was in silence, but when we got home we had another screaming row. We hardly talked to one another for three days or so, and I warned her that if she ever did anything like that again, that the consequences would be dire.
So back to the incidents in the changing rooms, and what caused them?
"Just a warning shot," she informed me. "You know I'm not happy that you're working tomorrow morning when we're going away, so it was just a warning."
Well in my book, crazy cow that she was, there's a big difference between flashing her boobs off at strangers and actually leading them on with her flirting as she had done previously.
Truth was, it had actually turned me on quite a lot, and the thought of Jodie wearing her revealing clothes and going topless in her bikini in front of other guys on holiday got me rather excited.
All a matter of degree really. I've never minded other guys looking, but touching was something else altogether.
That night we screwed one another senseless, breaking our period of no sex. When I eventually regained my senses, I wondered how many other wives or girl friends had enjoyed such a night of passion, due to their men-folk remembering how wonderful Jodie's breasts had looked, and imagined that they were fucking her.
The next day, I had just one appointment with Butch. Butch was one of those more real than real sort of guys who was over from America to look at our products. My boss George had been out visiting them a couple of weeks previously, and he was on the return trip, to see how we operated. My job was to run him quickly through the manufacturing process, and then take him out to see a plant in operation.
I planned to have a quick lunch with him then leave, giving me plenty of time to get back home, get changed, and drive to Stansted Airport in time to catch our late afternoon flight.
Jodie had been furious when I told her what I would be doing, demanding that I cancel my meeting with Butch and get someone else to cover for me.
I tried to explain how important the meeting was for our company, and how a foothold into the huge American market could lead to expansion for us, and even greater prospects for me.
She hadn't been happy, and that no doubt, was what had led to the display the day before.
"You think more of your bloody job than you do of me," she screamed at me when I refused to go along with her idea. I declined to remind her of the numerous times we had cancelled arrangements because of her commitments at her school, knowing that all would be fine between us once we were on the plane.
I knew that Jodie could sometimes be a bit self-centred and righteous, but I'd known that when I married her, so I could hardly complain.
I patted her on the bottom as I went out, pecked her on the cheek, and confirmed that she had to be ready and packed when I got back home in a few hours time.
"You be one minute late and you'll regret it," Jodie spat at me with a touch more venom than I thought appropriate.
The meeting went well, in fact extremely well indeed. I found I got on really well with Butch, only having met him very briefly on his previous visit a few months before.
He came up with some extremely searching questions, but I acquitted myself well, and as the morning came to a close I was pretty sure that we would soon be confirming the order.
"Where we going for lunch then?" he asked me at about eleven thirty, and I suggested a local pub where we could get a quick bite to eat and a beer.
"No," he came back to me. "Let's go to that place Mario's where we can sit down a bit more quietly. I've still got a number of things that I need to go through with you."
I glanced at the time, realised I had a bit of time to spare, and agreed.
An hour later we were only half way through our meal, and he was grilling me with questions that I could hardly believe. How much did he want to know about our company and our product, and for that matter about me?
"I'd better just ring my wife and warn her I might be a bit late," I explained to him as I made my way to the toilet, not wanting him to hear the explosion that would no doubt result. I decided to then give it another ten minutes or so before I would reluctantly interrupt him and explain why I had to split. You think twice before deserting such a potentially important client, but I still had a little time to spare.
"You what?" Jodie screamed at me over the phone when I told her, unprepared to listen to my protestations that we still had time to spare. "I warned you Dave that if you were late, then you'd regret it. I'm not missing this holiday even if I have to go without you."
I tried to calm her down but with no luck. By the time I rang off we were both angry at one another, and she had stopped listening what I had to say. I decided to just go back to Butch and explain my problem, and ask him if he could make his own way back to our plant. That would save me twenty minutes or so, and I'd be back at my house maybe just five minutes later than planned. Butch was a married man himself, and would no doubt understand.
"Well Dave," he greeted me on my return to the table. "It's time I came clean with you, because I know you're in a rush and have a plane to catch."
Oh shit!
What was this all about? How did he know that? What was he about to hit me with?
I sat down and waited for the axe to drop, convinced that he was about to pull the plug on the new big order that I had thought was in the bag. How did he know that I was in such a rush? I'd obviously blown it by trying to rush things through.
Why oh why hadn't I simply told him at the beginning of our meeting that I had a tight schedule to follow?
"I want you to come and work for me Dave," Butch said confidently. "How do you fancy coming over to live in the States?"
I had one of those moments when you just can't seem to get your chin to come back up and meet the rest of your face.
"Say that again please," I demanded when I recovered.
"All these questions Dave, I've been checking you out. George hasn't told you but we are going to take a license to manufacture your plants in the US, and we need someone with your knowledge to help us set it up."
"But - but.... " Was all I could manage, before Butch carried on.
"George suggested you Dave, as the best man. He doesn't want to lose you of course, but this deal could make Alscans a fortune over the next decade or so, and he says you're the man to make it work."
"George knows?" I asked limply.
"Of course he does Dave, but didn't want to say too much till I met you and decided that you were the man I wanted."
I collapsed back in my chair with the most incredible warm feeling running through me. Going to live and work in America as an executive of a large company. Jodie would go crazy with delight when I told her, as we both still talked about what a great time we'd had there, and how much we would like to go back. But never in a million years had I ever expected to be going back on terms like these.
I listened in astonishment, as he quickly outlined the package they were offering me, a salary that I could hardly comprehend, share options, company BMW, an apartment till we found one for ourselves .... It just went on and on.
"Well you have a plane to catch young man," he finished with. "Perhaps you'll give me your decision when you come back from holiday and had time to discuss it with your wife."
"I'll give it to you now," I found myself spluttering. "I accept, and I'm absolutely sure that my wife will agree."
We both stood up and shook hands on it, and Butch shooed me off to go pick up my wife and catch my plane.
I walked off with my head in the clouds, checking to see that I still had time. It would be tight, but I took out my mobile phone while I was walking out to the car park, and dialled my home number.
It rang --- well it would wouldn't it?
But then it rang and rang and rang.
No answer. I checked the time, and found that it was two minutes after the time I had originally said I would get back home.
By then I had reached my car, and as I stuck the key in the ignition, I auto dialled Jodie's mobile. I hadn't even put the car in gear when she answered.
"Where the fuck are you?" She shouted down the phone.
"On my way home sweetheart," I replied. "And wait till you hear what I've got to tell you."
"Bugger you Dave you bastard," she interrupted me. "You don't care a damn about me do you?"
I was lost for words for a moment, but unfortunately she wasn't.
"Your bloody job --- that's all that you think about. You don't care shit about me. I've had to ring up Terry to give me a lift to the airport because I knew you wouldn't turn up on time."
Terry? --- Ah yes that would be Terry Jones, the art teacher that she works with. Flash bastard who thinks he knows it all.
The fact that it had been him that Jodie had traded kisses with when I'd pissed her off before, hardly endeared him to me.
"Jodie," I implored her. "I'm virtually on our road now, and I'm only three or four minutes later than I said."
"Tough Dave," Jodie replied. "I'm already half way to the airport. If you're not here then I'm going without you."
She cut the connection, and despite me attempting to ring her back, there was no response.
I checked the time and thought how stupid all this was. I still had plenty of time to get to the airport and book in, so I turned the car round and headed off towards Standsted, arriving there much as I had predicted with at least half an hour to spare.
I parked, took my parking ticket and made my way through to the departure terminal, hoping that at least Jodie had thought to take my case with her.
I looked; I searched, but could not find her, and by then time was getting short. Eventually I went to the departure desk and asked if my wife had already registered.
"Oh yes here it is," the pretty blonde said after searching her list. She booked in about fifteen minutes ago --- a Mrs. Martin and a Mr. Jones. They've got seats numbers 24 b and c."
WHAT!
My initial reaction frightened the poor girl, and I had to apologise for my outburst.
"There must be some mistake," I claimed. "Mrs. Martin, but not Mr. Jones."
The girl could see that I was pretty upset about something, and double-checked everything for me.
"No, that's correct," she confirmed to me at last. "The tickets were booked in the name of Mr. and Mrs. Martin, but Mrs. Martin changed one of them to Mr. Jones."
"Can she do that?" I mumbled unable to believe what I'd heard.
"Yes," replied the girl, beginning to take pity on me, realising that some odd event was taking place. "There would be a forty pound charge for doing so, but she apparently paid that."
I stood there like some refugee or something, not knowing what to say, or what to do.
"He had his passport with him Mr. Martin," She added apologetically. "So everything seemed above board."
I thanked her for her trouble, and shambled unhappily away from the desk.
What was going on? What the hell was she up to? This had beyond a joke.
Looking at the departures board, it immediately became apparent that the plane hadn't taken off yet, and for that matter they hadn't even boarded. I rushed along to try to get to the boarding gate, but couldn't get passed the counter into the departure lounge.
No boarding ticket --- no entry. That was clear.
I argued and cajoled, but when it became obvious that they were going to call security, I gave up, went to the bar, and sat there with my head in my hands.
I couldn't believe it --- I just couldn't believe it ---- my world had been turned upside down in the space of half an hour.
Jodie couldn't --- no she couldn't really be going to Spain with that bloody Terry Jones in my place.
It wasn't possible.
Please some one tell me that it just wasn't possible, and that I was having a dream.
Then I had an idea. Not a good one as it turned out, but it seemed so at the time.
Rushing over to the other side of the airport, I eventually arrived at the observation lounge. In years gone by it would maybe have been an open terrace, but in these days of terrorism, we had to look out at the planes through huge plate glass windows.
To my complete surprise I spotted her. My wife, my Jodie, making her way across the tarmac towards a waiting Boeing 737. I couldn't miss her of course, few women having flowing blonde hair, and such a trim figure as she did.
Then I saw bloody Jones get out of the courtesy bus behind her, and follow her towards the waiting plane.
When he caught up with her I totally lost my rag, as even at that distance I could hardly miss it as he put his arm around her slim waist, any more than I could miss her, as she leant back and kissed him on the cheek.
The security guards were, I suppose, just doing their job.
I know I shouldn't have hammered like a crazy man on the glass window, and I shouldn't have shouted the way that I did.
There was absolutely no chance that they could have heard me anyway at the distance they were, and in any case Jodie never so much as glanced back.
They eventually released me from the detention centre with no charges when they decided that I was no longer any potential threat to other passengers, and I sullenly made my way back to my car.
I tried Jodie's mobile, but of course it was a waste of time.
What a mess --- what a bloody mess!
I think I cried that night, but I'm not sure because I was so drunk by the time I staggered home from the local pub, that I couldn't be sure of anything.
I couldn't even ring her in Spain as I had no number and her mobile wouldn't work in a foreign country.
About midday the next day, I came to my senses, the phone ringing loudly by my side. I realised that I had fell asleep on the sofa, cuddling the phone close up to me.
Why? --- I have no idea.
"Hello," I mumbled into the mouthpiece, not knowing what to expect.
"Is that you John?" Came the strident tones of my wife, sounding just like the schoolteacher that she was.
"Yes," I answered simply.
"Well?"
"Well what?" I replied.
"No apologies then you bastard," Jodie spat out at me. "Don't you care that you've let me down again?"
"I've let you down?" Came my query, but she went on and on about how I didn't care for her feelings, and thought more about my work than I did for her.
"What about when you didn't turn up for dinner with our new neighbours because of some silly problem at your school," I reminded her rather pointlessly. "And anyway I got to the airport on time."
"That's different Dave, and you know it," she shouted down the line at me, though from my point of view it certainly wasn't.
I realised that we were just screaming at one another to no purpose, and tried to change my tack. Having just woken up I hadn't fully regained all my senses, and forgotten half of what had happened the evening before, and tried to tell her about the offer from Butch.
"Jodie," I said more levelly. "There's something I have to tell you about my job. I've been offered ....."
"There you go again," Jodie set off again. "Your job --- your bloody job --- that's all you ever think about. What about me, here on my own in Spain?"
It was only then that it all came flooding back to me, and suddenly my love for Jodie felt as if it was beginning to dissolve.
"On your own Jodie?" I queried. "And what about Terry bloody Jones?"
She went quiet at the other end, obviously stunned that I knew he was with her.
"What about him?" She asked in a quieter tone.
"Are you still in bed with him then?" I went on.
There was another period of silence, and then she answered.
"What if I am? You deserve it you bastard. It's all your fault."
"Good fuck was he then?" I asked spitefully.
"Better than you Dave," Jodie answered back nastily. "So eat your heart out Mr. Nobody."
The line cut as she replaced the phone, or more likely as it happened slammed it down.
If my marriage wasn't already dead, then maybe, just maybe that last comment finished it.
The following morning, though not too early, found me in George's office discussing the new job. He was a bit surprised that I wasn't in Spain, but I avoided giving him a direct answer.
"Why didn't you mention it?" I demanded.
"I couldn't," he protested. "Not before he had met you properly and decided that you were the man."
"Thanks a lot," I went on. "Perhaps that has cost me my marriage."
I proceeded to tell him my tale of woe, but to my surprise he didn't express any great surprise.
"The husband is always the last one to know Dave," George at last managed to inform me.
"What's that meant to mean?"
"Nothing too specific Dave," he expanded. "But the last couple of company events, your wife Jodie has been ---- well let's say putting herself around."
"What the hell do you mean by that?"
But he just shrugged his shoulders and I slowly came to my own conclusions.
God damn it! Who was this woman that I'd loved and been married to for all those years?
"Wait till you see Mai-Lin," George remarked with a smile on his face, trying to change the subject.
"May who?" I asked, not taking too much interest with the other problems I had.
"Mai-Lin, she's every men's wet dream."
"Wet dream?" I queried, totally lost.
"She's your new secretary --- sorry, personal assistant," he delighted in informing me. "An Asian-American, I met her the other month when I was out there."
I just stared at him.
"Lucky bastard," he said wistfully. "You wait till you see her. You lose one you gain one."
The next few days passed in a bit of a haze, partly because of my marital problems, and also at the speed that my transfer was taking place. As keen as the one was to get me out there and working for him, then the other was also pushing, so that the license could be formalised. I felt as if my feet were hardly touching the floor.
Then Jodie rang again. I knew she would, and somehow I knew it would be mid morning.
"Hi lover," she greeted me. "Thought I'd ring you to let you know how wonderful it is here."
"I have something to tell you Jodie... " I started as before.
"Never mind that lover," she interrupted me yet again. "Are you ready to apologise yet for your attitude sweetie-pie."
"Look Jodie," I tried to say, ignoring her stupid comments. "I really have something to tell ..."
"Sorry lover," Jodie broke in, though I made no great effort to over ride her. "I still love you dearly, and when you're ready to say sorry, then we'll get on with our lives, but meanwhile I've got someone else to keep happy."
I simply put the phone down, though I'm not sure whether she beat me to it.
Jodie had sounded drunk. Not like pissed out of her mind drunk, but beyond trying to get anything sensible out of her. If she thought screwing the art teacher was more important than a chance of us having a future together, then that was her problem, not mine.
The week continued --- the most extraordinary week of my life. On the one hand the most exciting, and the other the saddest. Where would it end up?
The next call from Jodie was more of a surprise, coming in the early hours of the morning.
"Hello Dave," she mumbled. "I've been thinking. How did you know Terry was here with me?"
"I saw you together getting on the plane," I told her, trying to gather my sleep infected brain into shape, astonished that she should ring me at that hour to ask me such a question.
"You were there Dave -- you were really there?"
"Of course I was there Jodie," I told her my temper beginning to rise. "How the bloody hell do you think I knew that that creep Jones was with you?"
"Why didn't you stop us Dave? Why didn't you do something?"
"Do what," I said, nearly shouting down the phone. "I got there in time for the flight but you'd already taken the tickets and gone through with your bloody boyfriend, and they wouldn't let me through. I ended up getting arrested!"
"But I thought you weren't coming Dave. Terry gave me a lift to the airport, and in a fit of temper I asked him to come with me. Honestly, I didn't know you were there honey."
"And your damn friend Terry just happened by chance to have his luggage and passport with him did he?" I stung her with.
"Oh shit --- oh Dave I ...." But I put the phone down on her before she could continue.
I think she rang me several times more, but I either wasn't in, being far too busy making arrangements, or perhaps just didn't answer.
Eventually a few days later, I picked up.
"Hi, is that you Dave?" I heard.
"Yes Jodie, it's me," I replied. "What do you want?"
"You Dave, I want you. Terry has been such a bastard and I need you."
I mumbled something incoherent.
"I got back to my room last night, and he had some floozy in there with him," Jodie cried.
"Well how awful for you."
"Can you imagine that," she went on, missing the sarcasm in my remark. "How could someone do something like that Dave?"
"Difficult to imagine," I replied, trying not to laugh.
"To go off with someone else like that behind my back though," she mumbled, and I realised that she was a bit drunk yet again. "How could he?"
"No accounting for folk," I responded in the most sympathetic tone that I could muster.
"Dave, I'm coming home early. I can't stand it here anymore. I get back to Heathrow tomorrow at four o'clock. It was the only flight I could get --- can you pick me up?"
I started to say no, when it suddenly occurred to me that I could.
Of course I could.
"See you at four o'clock," I said curtly.
"Were you trying to tell me something the other day when I phoned Dave," she surprised me with. "Something about your job was it?"
"Oh nothing important Jodie," I told her. "I don't want to bother you with my work."
She'd find out anyway in due course.
I was ready for her by two thirty, and a bit pissed off when her plane landed twenty minutes late. When she came through the arrivals gate I was waiting there like a dutiful husband. I'm quite sure I even had a smile on my face.
"Hi Dave my sweetie, it's so great to see you," she called out as she saw me there, and dropping her case wrapped her arms around me and kissed me with all the vigour she could manage.
I have to say, she did look fantastic. A suntan always suited Jodie, and her blonde hair set it off. The thought that her breasts were probably also brown ran through my mind, and despite myself I felt myself rising to the occasion.
"Let's get home sweetie," Jodie whispered to me." I've missed you so much, and can't wait to get you into bed and make up with you."
All thoughts of an apology from me seemed to have gone by the board. She loved me again so it seemed.
"Let's have a coffee or a cup of tea first," I suggested.
"No let's get straight home," my wife urged.
"No a drink first," I insisted, and guided her to a café nearby.
"Good holiday Jodie?" I enquired, having got a coffee for her and a tea for myself.
"Started ok," she replied quietly. "Sorry if I over reacted a bit."
"Terry not as good in the sack as you thought he would be then?"
Jodie looked up at me sadly, and a single tear rolled slowly down her cheek.
"Not really," she started to tell me. "Then I caught the bastard in bed with one of the maids. In my bed ---- in my room."
I neglected to point out that they had been sharing the room in question, and that in any case, strictly speaking, it had been our bed and our room. It was me who had paid for the damn holiday.
"Can you believe that Dave?" she went on. "We were supposed to be on holiday together and he went off and fucked someone else and left me on my own."
"That must have been difficult for you my dear," I sympathised. After all, I knew how she felt.
"Any way, bugger him. He'll get what he deserves. Can we go home now please Dave? I'm desperate to make it up to you."
I attempted to tell her that I had tried several times to inform her of my news, but that each time she had cut me off.
"That can wait Dave," she interrupted yet again. "Let's get home and you can tell me on the way."
I didn't have to think about it really. My mind was already long since made up.
"Here's the keys to the car Jodie," I told her, having come in her old car, my company car having gone back to Alscans the day before. "And here's the keys to the house. They're all yours."
"Ours' you mean Dave, don't you?"
"No just yours' Jodie, just yours'," I explained to her. "The titles have all been made over to you and the bills are all paid till the end of the month. If you decide to sell it, then there should just about be enough money left over to pay for another couple of weeks in Spain."
Jodie looked at me blankly, not understanding what I was telling her.
"And by the way, I noticed that one of your tyres is almost bald, and there's a funny noise coming from the gear box."
Jodie continued to look at me blankly.
"What I was trying to tell you Jodie," I went on. "Is that I've been offered a fantastic job in America. Great salary, superb benefits -- everything I've ever dreamed of."
A huge smile came to Jodie's face, as she took in the news.
It saddened me somewhat.
"When do we go out there?" she asked enthusiastically, forgetting our conversation of a few moments earlier.
"I'm leaving on a BA flight in forty minutes Jodie," I told her.
"Have you got a ticket for me as well?" She asked excitedly.
"No" I replied.
"When will I follow you out then?" Jodie went on.
"You don't Jodie," I told her. "I'm sorry, but you don't."
Ten minutes later, I passed into the departure lounge on my own, leaving Jodie, crying her heart out at the counter, beyond which the authorities would not let her pass.
My last sight of ---- ever! ---- Was her tear stained face as she stood there watching me walk out of her life.
Ironically, it was a sense of 'deja-vue', except that the tables were turned completely. Only ten days or so before it had been me stood at the desk and barred from following the person that I had loved.
Different airport and different destination, but I'm sure the heartbreak was at least as bad.
FORWARD NINE YEARS, THREE MONTHS AND SIX DAYS.
I was back at Heathrow, in the very same terminal that I had left from all those years before.
Not by any means the first time I had been back, but this time I had been there for two weeks, and was planning to stay much longer.
The licensing agreement with Butch's company in Huntingdon, USA, had been an unmitigated success, and I rose through the ranks to be the Coe of that division of his company, and the holder of a large block of shares.
Butch had long since become a personal friend, and in yet another twist of fate, it had been through him that George had approached me to go back to the UK and take over as managing Director of Alscans.
He was retiring, the company had grown hugely since I had left, much of it due to the relationship with us in America, who had been able to open their products to a much larger market. It made sense for everyone, and especially me, as along with the post I would eventually be acquiring a substantial chunk of that company as well.
I waited at the arrivals area for an old colleague from Butch's company who had helped me tremendously from the very beginning. Though no longer actually working there, it was a joy to know that they would be joining me in the UK.
Even before I spotted her myself, I sensed her arrival, as virtually every man in the waiting crowd, perked up as they saw her and probably drew their tummies in.
Mai-Lin was as beautiful as the day when I first saw her, probably more, and her smile seemed to light up the entire terminal when she spotted me waiting for her.
Leaning over to her two travelling companions, she pointed me out to them, and they both rushed over towards me.
"Daddy --- Daddy --- I've missed you so much," cried out Maddy, our five-year-old daughter, as she leapt into my arms. She was a miniature version of her mother and had already left several broken hearted young boys behind when she had left to come and live in the UK.
"Hi Dad," greeted my eight year old son a little less spontaneously, but the smile on his face said it all. He was already tall for his age, and I couldn't wait to see how he made the change from the American style of football, to the European version, soccer.
Maybe one day he'd play for the Arsenal!
"First day of the rest of our life," greeted my lovely wife as she reached up to kiss me.
Indeed --- how true!
Hope you liked it.
Tried to take on board some of the constructive criticism from some of you after my last story, but only you can judge if I have succeeded. Please let me know what you think.
By the way;
Why did I choose Huntingdon County?
Well some twenty years or so ago, I, with a group of English Folk dancers (Morris dancers) spent two months touring the East coast of America giving displays at carnivals etc.
We were looked after so incredibly well by everyone there, that I have had fond thoughts of America and Americans ever since.
The biggest event we did, was a week end in Huntingdon County, where they were celebrating their bi-centenery, and I remember I stayed with the local doctor.
What a great week-end.
If anyone remembers us then I was the guy dressed up in the Lion's suit, and my photo appeared on the front page of one of the local newspapers. Unfortunately lost my copy in a house fire several years ago.
Fond memories, and I met my wife the week end I got back.
