I felt a relief so huge it almost shamed me. Seeing that, although he’d really wanted to pound someone, he had restrained himself, was something I’d almost needed to see. Whatever else I didn’t know about him, at least I knew he could practice self-control.
Uncontrolled violence and aggression were the monsters of my childhood, and I felt almost limp with relief to see that I wouldn’t find them in James. Not in the way I had feared. The way I always feared, despite a decent amount of time and therapy.
“What happened? What were they saying that would involve law enforcement?” I asked Stephan finally.
He just shook his head. “I’ll tell you later. Please, just give me a minute to compose myself.” His voice was pleading, so I dropped the issue. If he said he’d tell me later, I knew he would.
I was up the second I heard the double ding that indicated we were at ten thousand feet. I started my usual routine, preparing my galley for our breakfast service. I liked the routine, liked routines in general. I found them soothing, in a way.
The chaos of my adolescence made me crave stability in my adult life. So my life, even with all of the traveling, followed a schedule and routine that I enjoyed. Saturday morning breakfast service out of New York was a part of that.
Our airline prided itself on it’s first class service, so our breakfast service was extensive. We would be busy until we landed. With first class full, Stephan stayed up front to help me.
I worked the galley, and he served. That suited me, especially today, with a volatile James, and some apparently degenerate men in the cabin.
Stephan and I didn’t even speak for the first hour as we worked. He was brooding, and we didn’t really need to talk to communicate.
We worked together effortlessly, after all these years. He took the passengers’ orders and I read them and made them. As he served, I worked on the next step. We were fast and effective even without speaking.
I loved this part of the job. I wasn’t even sure why. Just the busy feel in the air, the familiar galley routine, making sure everyone felt like they had received exceptional service, and like we had done a good job. I supposed I had just spent a large part of my life feeling worthless and lost, and this job, on a good day, made me feel like I had some worth. When I thought of it that way, it sounded pathetic, but that didn’t make it any less true.
I noticed everything we served to James, of course. He drank water exclusively, that I had seen. No ice, just the bottle and a glass. I started putting a slice of lemon in his glass, and he didn’t complain, so I continued to do so.
For breakfast, he ordered the only healthy thing we served on the first flight of the day. It was greek yogurt with fresh blueberries and raw pecans. I wasn’t surprised that he was the only one to order it. We usually didn’t have any takers, so Stephan and I often had it for breakfast ourselves. I could’ve guessed from what I had seen of his body that he ate healthy, but that confirmed it.
Could I ever be comfortable getting naked with someone that good looking, who had a flawless body, so far as I could tell? I didn’t know how. I tried to stay in shape but I had junk food sometimes, and I probably didn’t work out as often as I could.
I thought my thighs were too big, and my ankles were too small, like toothpicks. And my arms were thin, but my hips were a little wide and my shoulders were too broad, to my critical eye. Like every woman, I had body issues. Would James notice them when I was naked? I tried not to dwell on it, but I did anyways. I was relieved when we got too busy for me to think about it anymore.
It was a solid two and a half hours into the flight before Stephan could make his way back to check on the main cabin.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes. Brenda is baking the cookies back there right now. I’ll bring some back to add to the cheese service,” Stephan told me as he hung up the inflight phone.
I nodded absently. I was prepping our three-tiered cart for the cheese service. There was nothing he could help me with in first class for at least ten minutes, so it was good timing.
I heard the bathroom door opening on the other side of the curtain, and shifted the cart to make sure the passenger could get back to their seat before I moved it into position.
I was startled when James entered the enclosed galley. He looked much calmer than he had before.
I offered him a small smile. “Hey,” I said, studying him carefully, trying to read his mood.
He gave me a small smile back. He moved my cart for me, seeing that I was bearing it’s weight. He used it to block the aisle completely, just outside of the curtained area, managing to stay behind the curtain completely as he did so.
“Oh,” I said softly as I watched him rearrange the galley, getting an inkling of what he intended. He was arranging a moment of privacy for…something.
I just watched him, mesmerized.
He set the brake on the cart with the toe of his shoe easily, as though he did it every day. He took a deep breath, his back to me for one long moment.
Abruptly, he turned, pacing to me. He grabbed my braid, pulling my head back. He kissed me, and it was hot and angry and hungry.
In spite of myself, I melted in an instant, melding my body as close to his as I could get it.
He backed me up against the counter, lifting me onto the only small bit of empty counter space available. I barely fit. He didn’t stop kissing me.
I murmured a protest as I felt his fingers inching my fitted skirt up my legs. He had my thighs bared in a flash, and I pulled back, panting.
“What are you doing?” I asked, a little panicked at his intent.
“Shh,” he told me, and started kissing me again, his hands still pushing my skirt up impatiently. “I need to do this.”
That didn’t make me feel reassured, but he stopped abruptly when his hands had shoved my skirt up far enough to bare my garters and the tops of my stockings. He shoved the skirt higher roughly.
He cursed when he saw my lacy lime green thong. “This is the type of panty you were wearing last night, too, wasn’t it? But that one was blue.”