Ann: A Love Story Ch. 29

Seconds later, Ann was in the middle of her orgasm. She was stifling her screams, and she let out a raspy whisper when she announced to me that she was cumming...no doubt so as not to wake up her roommates and their kids.

When she calmed, she exhaled. I'd never heard anything sexier over the phone. It was the sweet release of passion, dripping through the phone and into my ear. My cock throbbed, aching to reach across the continent and give her what she really needed. Me.

"Ann?" I finally said, after a lingering silence left me holding for well over a minute.

"Fuck!" I heard her say as she fumbled for the phone. "Neil...are you there?"

"Yes, babe. I'm here."

"I'm so sorry. I got a little lost in myself there. Forgive me?"

"Forgive you? Are you kidding? I'm about to whip 'Antonio's' brother out right here in the airport. That was pretty hot."

"Pretty FUCKING hot, thank you very much!" Ann said proudly.

"It was nice to hear that you miss me so much. I only wish I could have fucked you myself, babe" I said, thinking about what Ann had said just before she came.

"What?" she said, sounding almost petrified. For whatever reason, it shocked her.

"You said that you missed me, just before you told me to fuck you. That was sweet."

"You mean Antonio," she said, sounding confused. "I said Antonio."

"No, babe. You said Neil. I know I've been pretending to be someone else all weekend, but I do know my own name. I even heard it paged a little while ago here at the airport," I laughed.

"Oh...my God!" Ann cried out...and then she cried. As in, burst into tears, sobbing like she lost a loved one, crying. She was inconsolable for a couple of minutes. I didn't know what was wrong, or what to do. I wanted to reach through the phone and put my arm around her; to tell her everything would be okay. But at that moment, it would have been easier to do the arm through the phone trick. How could I tell her that everything would be okay, when I didn't know why she was crying?

~*~*~*~*~*~

'NEIL THOMAS. PAGING MR. NEIL THOMAS. PLEASE REPORT TO THE CUSTOMER SERVICE DESK NEAR GATE B73'

I couldn't imagine ever being paged once in my lifetime at an airport. To have it happen twice in less than an hour had me reeling. I figured it was Tina, wondering where I was. I looked at my watch. I still had over twenty minutes before they would even start to board the plane. Tina would have to wait.

"Ann. I'm being paged again. They want me to go to the customer service desk. Please pick up the phone!"

I had been begging for her to answer me for a couple of minutes. But I got lucky and happened to yell her name into the phone during one of the few times she took a breath between sobs. She'd dropped the phone after she burst into tears, and I was left hanging on, hoping I'd get to talk to her again. She heard me, and picked up the receiver. I could hear her breathing, and finally she spoke.

"You need to go Neil. You can't miss your flight."

"Sure I can. I'm pretty sure there will be another one."

"Don't be silly. Tina is waiting for you...and..." She didn't finish the sentence.

"And what? Ann, right now, I'm thinking to hell with Tina; too hell with all of this. I think what I really need to do is fly to California."

Ann calmed down almost as soon as I said that. She was still catching her breath, sounding like a lost little girl trying to be brave and stop crying when something was obviously upsetting her. "You would do that?" she asked, just like that lost little girl.

"In a heartbeat, babe. Just say the word and I'm there before the end of the day, holding you and making everything better."

"God I love you, Neil."

"I love you too, Ann. Now, do you mind telling me what this is all about, or do I need to get a flight to San Francisco?"

"You don't need to fly out. And I promise I'll tell you, but just not right now. Can you handle that?"

"Sure" I said, lying. I was dying inside. But that was more about not knowing how Ann was, and feeling helpless. "Just tell me. Are you okay?"

"Now more than ever, baby. But you need to get going. I have one more surprise for you that I've set up. I'm just not sure I should have now."

"A surprise?"

"Yeah. Get going...you've let Tina wait too long. We'll talk later today, okay!"

"Okay. But you're sure you're okay?"

"I am, but I won't be if you miss the flight. Now get going. I love you!"

"I love you too, babe."

~*~*~*~*~*~

I got paged a second time as I walked toward the customer service desk. My mind was reeling. I had told Ann that I could handle not knowing what was wrong. But I only said that to calm her down. In truth, it bugged the shit out of me. For the first time, I was truly pissed that we were so far apart. It was an inconvenience up to that point. It wasn't about the sex. What I missed since she left was the closeness. Being able to console her, to share whatever the issue was; to take on the burden that she'd felt and place it on my broad shoulders. I didn't know what was wrong, or what happened, and I really didn't know if my being there would have helped Ann or not. But I would have helped me.

I was also reeling about the page. I hadn't come to grips with the last one, and the only thing I was certain was that this one wasn't Ann. At least, I didn't think it was. She had pulled off so many things that seemed impossible up to that point, nothing would have surprised me.

I walked up to the desk, and got in line the long line of people waiting their turn. I heard the first boarding call for my flight, and got a little nervous. I had time, but I couldn't afford to be standing eight deep for too long, and it didn't look like the line was going to be moving anytime soon.

There were only two girls working behind the counter. There was a third, but she was busy doing everything but working. She was to the far left side, behind a sign that said 'VIP Club Members', standing like a statue as she looked past the group of us that apparently weren't 'very important' to her. One of the other workers glanced over to this ice woman, and I could tell she was ticked. Yet the woman didn't move to help. You could tell she was the type that wasn't going to lift a finger to step outside of her responsibilities. I'd never seen such a look of contempt on such a blank face.

I waited another minute, never moving in line. I was about to just head to my gate, when the human mannequin picked up the telephone in front of her and hit the page button. Once again, she announced my name, and I raised my hand and waved to her.

"I'm right here."

"Sir, you need to come over here to the VIP line." She said that line loud and smugly. And if there's one thing I don't tolerate well, it's pretentiousness.

"Why?" I said just as loudly back to her.

"Because...I've been paging you, sir. You need to come over here so I can assist you."

"No thanks. I can wait," I said, even though I really couldn't.

"Sir, your flight is boarding. We need to take care of this so you can get on your plane. Now please step over here to the VIP area," she said, exasperated by my lack of cooperation.

I stood firm. She was trying to make a scene, and she got one. I started blankly back at her and said, "I don't think so. I'm not any more important than any of these other people that are in front of me in line. Why don't you get off your pedestal and help one of them." That turned a lot of heads in the group in front of me, and caused a couple of smiles.

"I'm sorry sir, I can't do that. Now please..."

"You can't, or you won't," I said cutting her off.

"I can't sir. I need to be available for our VIP customers."

"Funny, I don't see any. But I'm sure if you called the next person in line, they'd gladly step to the side if the Pope or the President walked up. If it's all the same to you, I'll wait my turn. I'd rather have one of the nice girls wait on me anyway. You're reminding me a little of my ex-wife, and I've already had my lifetime maximum dosage of bitch."

She turned bright red, and she was shaking. I heard another call for my flight to board, and I turned my head toward my gate. I could see Tina standing there, and she waved for me to come over. I shrugged my shoulders, and turned to step out of line just as one of the two other girls said, "May I help whose next?"

There was a guy in the front of the line, and he looked back. "Hey buddy, do you really have to board now?"

I pointed over to Tina, who was waving again. "Yeah...that's my flight."

The guys smiled and addressed the rest of the people ahead of me. "Do any of you have a problem with this guy going next? After all, he was the only one of us that had the guts to say what we all were thinking."

Suddenly, a nice older woman who was standing in line front of me was pulling me toward the front of the customer service desk. I found myself standing in front of a lovely young woman who was beaming.

"How can I help you sir?" she asked kindly.

"Truthfully, I don't know. Bertha the bitch over there was paging me, but I don't know why."

"What's your name, sweetie?"

"Neil Thomas," I said looking back at Tina.

The girl looked up my information, and said, "Well. Looks like you're a VIP in someone's eyes, Mr. Thomas. You and Miss Roberts have been upgraded. All of your flights today will be in first class."

"What? Are you sure?" I asked, stunned.

"Yes sir. Let me have a signature right here, and I need to see some identification."

I pulled out my wallet and showed her my driver's license, and she stuffed the new tickets in my hand. "Give your old tickets to the girl checking in your flight. She'll cancel them and then take these. Have a great day Mr. Thomas. And thanks!"

"Thanks? For what...I should be thanking you?"

"I'm thanking your for putting...Bertha in her place," she said, nodding toward the stuck up snob, who was now sitting down in a chair, hiding from the stares of my companions in line. "You don't know how much that meant to us."

"Well, you're welcome," I said as I turned to walk toward the gate. Actually, I ran, worried I'd be late.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Tina was anxious.

"What took you so long? I was thinking I was going to end up going alone...but then I thought I'd never get home anyway, since you have the car."

"Sorry, Tina. The first page was Ann."

"Ann! Oh my God...is everything all right?"

"I'm not sure. She called to see how things were going...and then it got weird."

"What do you mean by weird?"

I quickly explained to Tina what happened. I tried not to leave out any details, but invariably, I'm sure I did. But I was close enough. Tina listened intently as we waited for our row to be called.

"That's us...we need to board," Tina said when she heard our number, holding the old tickets.

"Actually, we don't...unless they called first class already."

"What?"

"That's what the second page for, and why I was over in line. Somehow, we just got upgraded again." We'd been given a better car, an amazing hotel room, and now the airline tickets. And I still didn't know how all of it was happening, other than it was somehow Ann's doing.

"WOW...well, no, they haven't called first class, but usually they do that first. They started with the back of the plane."

As we waited, I finished telling Tina about the phone call from Ann. She was pondering the significance.

"So, she just started bawling her eyes out right after you told her she had said your name instead of saying Antonio?"

"That's right. It doesn't make any sense. At least to me, anyway."

"Hmm, I'm going to have to think about that for a minute," Tina said.

But before she could put too much thought into it, they called for first class to board. When we picked up our carry on stuff, we looked around the waiting area of the gate. Tina and I were the only ones left. We looked at each other.

"Where's everybody else?" she asked.

"Beats me. Maybe you just missed them calling first class earlier."

"That doesn't make any sense, either. They don't call the section twice. You just heard them the same as I did."

"Good point," I said as I shrugged my shoulders. It didn't make any sense. Nothing was.

We didn't dwell on it. Tina handed the old tickets to the girl at the gate, and she shredded them and asked for the new ones. I handed her those, and she led us to the jetway. Once we were past the door, she closed it behind us. We were the last ones to board the plane.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Rachel, the sexy older stewardess that was on our flight out to DC, was standing at the end of the jetway, waiting for us. I had totally forgotten that she said she was taking the return flight with us. She was beaming, and gave us a welcoming wave.

"Hey, you two...great to see you. How did your weekend go? Did you get the job, Neil?"

"We had a good time, but I don't know about the job yet. The interviews went well I think," I said in a grand understatement. Bringing up everything that happened seemed too time consuming, and my mind was still on Ann. I wasn't in the frame of mind to recap all the details. It didn't matter anymore. So, I went with a polite, "How was your weekend, Rachel?"

"God, it was fantastic. Bradley was better than ever."

"Bradley...Oh, your boy toy in DC," Tina said as we kind of lingered at the door of the plane.

"Yeah. He came down from Philly last week, so he was pretty anxious for me to get here. We had an amazing time. I just left him this morning. We never left his apartment. Now that I think about it, this is the first time I've had clothes on since I got there."

And they were nice cloths. Rachel wasn't dressed like she was on the first flight we had with her. She was still wearing company garb, but I could see the subtle differences. The blue blazer was a little more stylish, cut to accentuate her breasts. Her tan skirt was still above the knees, but now it was way above. It was actually above mid thigh, and it had slits up both sides a couple of inches. Her blouse was still white, but it was so sheer that it was closer to clear. It wasn't hard to see her navy blue bra underneath...she could have been wearing it on the outside of her blouse and it wouldn't have made much difference in appearance.

But the change that was most obvious in Rachel's attire was her legs. She'd scrapped the traditional hose that gives the appearance of a tan, and gone with navy stockings. I knew they were stockings, because I could see a hint of her garter through the slit up the side of her skirt. Rachel caught me looking. Staring, actually.

"Do you like? I don't wear stockings much anymore. I really should though. I feel so much sexier when I wear them."

"Hard for me to argue either way, Rachel. But you look incredible," I said as I tore my eyeballs away from her legs.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Welcome to first class. I'll be your stewardess for this flight. My name is Rachel. Please let me know if you need anything before we get ready for pre-flight instructions, and of course, take off."

Tina and I were sitting in our big, wide seats, luxurious even for an airline. Rachel was standing at the front of the first class section, having closed the outer door to the airplane, securing it. She gave her little speech to the people in first class, as the heavy floor length curtain to the rest of the plane had been drawn shut. There were two curtains, actually. One went between first class to the galley that was directly behind it and there was another between the galley and those poor unfortunate souls that were stuck in a different class.

Rachel had our undivided attention as she did her job, addressing the cabin as she'd likely done thousands of times. She really was amazing. She knew her job very well, and she went about it professionally, but with a personable flair. And on top of that, she was stunning. I couldn't help but wonder how hot she must have been when she started out as a stewardess.

After Rachel finished up telling us all about the versatility of our seat cushions, she did a couple of other mundane tasks that were a part of her job, and then went back to check on Maggie, one of the other stewardesses on the flight and the girl she was training to become a lead.

Maggie was going to be in charge of the rest of the airplane. Even though Rachel was still ultimately responsible for the steward crew, she was turning over that section to Maggie. She'd told us before we got seated that she was going to let Maggie do it on her own. That would leave her to handle first class by herself, without having to worry about the rest of the plane.

She came back our section, and went in to check with the pilots before securing that door and getting ready for departure. Tina and I were in the first seats on the right side of the plane, and Rachel sat across from us in her chair, which faced us. She buckled up, and nodded toward the two of us.

"You might want to get strapped in. We're going to be taking off soon," she said as she winked at us.

"Aren't you going to tell the rest of the people in our section?" I asked.

"Very funny," Rachel said, looking around the rest of the empty section. Yes, it was just the three of us in first class; Rachel, Tina and myself. The rest of the seats in first class were empty, around a dozen of them. I was still trying to figure out how that could happen, when Tina and I weren't even supposed to be in first class when we started the day. While I figured the person that would know was probably lying in bed in California, I had a good idea the striking woman sitting across from us might have an inkling as to the reason.

"So, Rachel. Do you have any idea why Tina and I were moved to first class?"

"Yes," she said, being coy.

"And do you know why we're the only ones in here?"

"Yes."

"Do you care do share that with us?"

"Sure James," she said with a wink as she pulled an envelope from her jacket pocket. She handed it to me, and I could tell right away from the handwriting that it was from Ann, and it was addressed to me.

"Holy shit! She did it again!" Tina said, looking at the same lavender stationary that Ann had sent to the two of us earlier in the month. I brought it to my nose, and smiled as I caught Ann's perfume. It brought her to me instantly, and the conversation I'd had with her earlier came to mind. I wished the plane I was on was heading to California instead of Texas.

Opening the envelope, I read the handwritten letter.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Hi Baby,

It's me. I know you're probably wondering how everything that has happened this weekend came about. Frankly, I am too. It started as just a little thing I was going to do for you and Tina to make the trip more exciting for you, and it kind of snowballed out of control. I kept thinking of more and more things I thought would be cool, and then, somehow, I found a way to do them.

I'm going to give you all the answers you want later tonight when I talk to you. I want you to get home, go in your room, and we can relax and have a nice conversation. But I think it's safe to say at this point that I had a lot of help in making your 'Bond' weekend happen. Hopefully it's been a 'successful mission'. And that's why I wanted to send this letter to you.

I'm sure by now you're on board the plane heading for home. And I'm also sure you've met Rachel. She's a friend of a friend. I've met her a couple of times, but I know her more by reputation. I knew she was pretty open minded, and from what I understand, she's pretty much game for anything sexual, so it wasn't too difficult to have her help with this last surprise. I'm sending this letter out well before the weekend even happened, so I really don't know what adventures you and Tina have had up to now. But I want you to know that in my mind, I've been with you every step of the way. I don't have specifics, obviously, but I know that I'm with you in spirit, and that helps. I miss you, Neil. And I love you so much!