T5 continued

Could she claim eighteen pounds? Someone in the new office had said that when she away from the office then everything was claimable. Well, this was certainly different to her previous job when any claim was scrutinised and questioned; but then Munich hadn’t been a usual client visit destination. Slough or Reading maybe, but not Munich! Well, if nothing else, she would be able to use the German that Bristol Uni had taught her for three years. Damm, he was looking again. Yes, he was OK, but she was worried. The flight and the job was one thing, but Austin had freaked her. ‘I’m going to be watching you’ the text had read earlier that day. He even knew her new work mobile number. The scene outside the office the previous week had been so embarrassing; her boss was good about it but she knew that Austin’s screaming at her from the car park as she drove away in her new Golf would have raised eyebrows. Surely that was going too far? Should she have told someone about the text? Splitting up was always painful but it shouldn’t be like this. God, why hadn’t she bought the other blouse. This one might be slightly stiffer and thicker but it gaped - it was just cut wrong for her shoulders. Why did he have to keep staring? Damm Austin, damm that man, damm all men!

There was something really wrong this time. He knew he shouldn’t have been caught staring again; schoolboy error. Perhaps he should say something. Just a friendly something. Surely it was too late, though. Someone with a bit more ‘pulling power’ would have been in there straight away - ‘Hi, do you mind if I join you? Yes, that sort of thing, which by its nature and when said with the right tone, always put people at ease if you look unthreatening. But it was too late; he’d been caught staring too many times to try to start a conversation now. She was getting up to leave - she’d taken a twenty pound note from a flat black wallet and placed it on the small plate with the bill. She didn’t take the bill or apparently even wait for a receipt. She was leaving. Sliding around the end of the long seat she stood and turned immediately away from him. Her butt was small and cute; tightly wrapped in a knee-length blue pinstripe skirt. Oh yes; the black tights separating the skirt from the high black heels then came into view and made the picture complete. Damm, why hadn’t he said something? However worried she might have looked from the front, she looked just divine from the back. A dream. His dream.

Justin stared down into his Miso. Surely he had let life just pass him by too many times. He was young, he wanted to do things, he wanted to see the world, he wanted to sleep with every woman that took his fancy. He hated his reticence, he hated his politeness, his, his…..his just being him!

It took a while for the wallet to slip into his consciousness. It took a while for the flat black, mans wallet to appear as being out of the ordinary on the table. The plate was still waiting to be collected by the waiter and was part of Justin’s peripheral vision. But the wallet took time to form. Yes, now there was something else wrong. The wallet shouldn’t be at the table. Damm!! It was hers. Great! He’d find her, he’d run around T5 and find her. He’d get out of breath and he’d chase her and find her just as she discovered her loss as she waited at the boarding gate. He would be her hero. She’d talk to him then. She just might be going to Boston. The waiter was coming over; time to move, time to cut him off.
“Ah, she left her wallet - don’t worry, can you watch my bag, I’ll take it to her.” The waiter couldn’t stop him as he grabbed the wallet and almost ran from the table and the restaurant and out onto the concourse. Which way to go? Left, right? Take a chance.

Jogging gently through the crowds he searched in vain for the white, white blouse. The new white blouse with the gaping front. The small pert rear in the pinstripe. The sexy calves atop long black heels. Heels twitching along towards a destination unknown with an unhappy head.

“Where are you going looking like that?”
“Austin? What are you doing here? How did you get here?”
“I told you I was watching you.”
“Austin, it’s work. I’m working.”
“Yeah, right, of course you are, bitch!”
“Austin,shhhhh, please don’t so this. I’m going to work, I promise.”

The scene was getting ugly. Austin stood in front of her in his plaster-smeared overalls and two days growth of stubble. His arms were somewhat outstretched and his hands held up as if to stop her heading towards gate thirty-two. She was trying to act as if she didn’t know him. She was scared and tears started to well in her eyes as she stared towards the floor.
“Please Austin, let me go.”

“Angela?” Her name was clearly printed on her Axis Corp. pass inside the wallet. He’d found her. “I just wanted to say…”

Austin’s eyes moved slowly from Angela to the tall man in the jeans and t shirt with the upper class accent.
“I knew it, bitch!”