SERENDIPITY by Rocky
CHAPTER ONE
Her flight was late. She sat looking out an observation window tapping the armrest with her fingertips in frustration. Her reflection looked back revealing a late-thirties woman in a rumpled business suit on the edge of giving fiery hell to the next person who crossed her path. She contented herself by watching the boiling fog, the perfect symbol of Her rage at the rotten luck that landed her here in the middle of nowhere. Then, a stranger had the nerve to walk in front of her and obscure her vision of frustrated anger. If she had not been so tired, she might have taken the time to appreciate the fact that the stranger was actually quite a striking young woman, but all she saw was a kid in blue jeans, standing in HER window.
"Do you mind!" She growled in irritation. "Find your own window, will you."
The girl turned, startled, like she hadn't seen the woman sitting there. Actually, it was entirely possible since there were very few people here in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of night. She murmured a quiet "Sorry." and moved to the next window.
The woman dug a cigarette from her bag and moaned in frustration when she couldn't find a match.
"You can't smoke in here any way," said the reflection of the girl.
"That's just fucking great." The woman said angrily stuffing the cigarette back into the pack. She felt like crying or killing something, instead she pinched the bridge of her nose trying to fight the rising headache behind her eyes.
"You can smoke in the lounge you know."
The woman looked up to see that the girl had turned from the window and was looking back at her.
"That's wonderful," The woman replied sarcastically, "if I knew where to find it in this mausoleum."
"I'll show you where it is and you can buy me a drink." She flashed an impish grin. "It looks like we're both stuck here for the night and you look like you could use a good stiff drink."
The next thing she knew, the woman was gratefully filling her lungs with smoke and nursing a surprisingly good scotch rocks. It was then that she had a chance to appreciate the company she was now keeping. She hadn't even asked her name. She realized now that she had been wrong about the girl's age rather than a teenager she had to be a youthful mid-twenties with curling blond hair and shining green eyes.
"Better?" The girl asked, shaking the woman from reverie.
"MM.... Much." The woman replied realizing to her embarrassment that she had been staring. Then to shake it off extended her hand. "Thank you, YOU are a life saver. My name is Rory."
She smiled, "Your Welcome, I'm Amy, and thank you for the beer." She raised her glass and looked at her quizzically. "Rory?... Is that short for something?"
Amy's smile was disarming, so much so that Rory felt immediately at ease. She smiled back, "Actually it's Rochelle. My friends call me Rory."
She laughed, a marvelous musical laugh. "Good then that means we are to be friends."
"Well anyone who takes the time to show me to the comfort of a smoke and some good scotch in my hour of need has to be either an angel or at least a good friend!"
Her laughter was contagious and soon Rory found herself giggling like a schoolgirl. Amy was stuck there just as she had been although she had to admit that Amy was taking it much better than she had been. Just when she thought things couldn't get any worse; this sweet girl had led her to sanctuary in an airport bar.
Rory's husband had left her for a younger woman citing that she was a "Frigid bitch" and the company in its infinite wisdom decided that she should take a milk run presentation to the mid-western states in the middle of winter. Things were just "Ducky!" And yet when they announced that the fog had turned into a blizzard she just laughed and signaled to the bored bartender to freshen the drinks.
"It looks like we're screwed." She observed and reached for another cigarette.
"May I?" Amy asked indicating the pack.
"Sure, but you don't strike me as a smoker."
Amy helped herself to a cigarette. "No it's a filthy habit, but tonight... who cares!"
They both laughed. The snow swirled outside the window and Rory lost herself in those sparkling green eyes.
"So Amy," Rory asked gently rotating the ice in her glass, "What's your story, and do you always save lost business women in airports?"
"Only the interesting ones." She said grinning over her beer glass. "No big story, I've merely come to a cross roads in my life that's all." She took a long drag and kissed several smoke-rings into the air. "School, work, a few broken hearts, most of them mine, and now here half way back to a home I swore that I'd never go back to."
Watching the sorrow come and go across her face. Rory felt a kinship with this stranger and an odd thing happened. She reached across the small table and caressed her soft cheek. Amy leaned her face into her palm.
"You are far too young to be so jaded," Rory said smiling sadly, "…and just when you were cheering me up." She returned her hand to her drink. "They say misery loves company, well I'm miserable and you are good company so why don't we trade hard luck stories and see who has been dealt the worse hand?"
Amy laughed, "Man oh man! You sure don't know what you're letting your self in for. Okay, what the hell, I'm game …but, you get to go first."
Trapped! Rory looked around the room, other than a couple of tired looking businessmen in a far corner they were alone in the night and ‘ What the Hell!’ she thought, and so she began. "I’m recently divorced, my husband …make that my ex-husband said that I’m a workaholic and bad in bed so right about now he’s in Hawaii with his new twenty-something blond bride." Rory paused to take a long pull from her drink, looking up from the swirling ice into a pair of quiet expectant eyes, she continued. "I committed career suicide earlier this year by accident…" Her hand was shaking as she reached for her drink, surprised to find it empty she signaled to the bar for another round. "…I was accused of making a pass at an intern at the office." She pulled a fresh cigarette from the pack; her hands were shaking so bad she was having a hard time to get the lighter to work.
Amy reached across the table, taking the lighter from Rory’s hands she said in a quiet voice, "Go on, I’m listening, it seems to me that you’ve needed to get this off your chest for a while now." She gently took the cigarette from Rory’s lips, and put it in her own and lit it. Passing the cigarette back to Rory, she leaned in attentively. "Come on tell me. You’ve got nothing to loose."
Rory pulled in a ragged breath. "I’ve never done any thing like that in my life. It was the night after my final decree and I was drinking alone in my office pretending to work and forget that my life was in the toilet. " Rory laughed in spite of her self. "Shit! I thought my life was over… I was only getting warmed up!" She leaned back in her chair trying to look anywhere but at those green eyes across the table. "I didn't hear her come in, I thought I was alone or else I never would have been sitting there crying into a bottle. She asked if I was, OK? I told her that she should be careful with her heart or some such foolishness. I must have taken hold of her hands because at the time I thought it was so terribly important and I kissed her on the cheek and told her to go home." Tears welled up in Rory’s eyes; she wiped them away quickly. "The next morning my career was ruined, I was promoted to western sales manager complete with endless hotel rooms and airports like this one. Quite conveniently swept under the corporate rug."
"What!" Amy exclaimed in disbelief. "You just sat back and let them do that to you!" She reached out and took Rory’s hand. "You don’t strike me as someone who would just roll over like that."
"It was my word against hers. She said that I had grabbed her and tried to kiss her. Frankly I think it was an ambush… or perhaps I really did it …I don’t know anymore." Rory looked up at the girl holding her hand and smiled. "I guess I haven’t scared you off yet, not afraid of the weird old bag who grabs young girls in her office?"
Amy laughed her soft musical laugh and leaned across the table to kiss Rory on the cheek, leaving her in a surprised silence. "I have greater demons than that." She said. "I guess it’s my turn to scare you." She released Rory’s hand. "I’m Gay." She stated matter of factually, waiting for a reaction from the woman across the table.
Rory didn’t know whether to run in terror or be flattered, she chose the latter but that didn’t stop her from downing her drink, frozen to her chair like a deer caught in the head-lights. "Oh really," She stammered. Then it hit her, the whole absurdity of the situation. She couldn’t help herself; she burst out laughing, the tears streaming from her eyes. "Oh Shit! I sorry, I guess that I came off like a total idiot!" However, she still could not stop laughing.
"Hey, it’s OK, " Amy laughed too. " I think what happened to you stinks! I Just couldn’t sit here anymore with you thinking that you were some kind of pervert." She sat back in her chair and reached for her beer. "My parents disowned me the second I told them I was queer." She looked over to the pack of cigarettes. "Do you mind?" She asked, indicating the pack.
"No, not at all." Rory replied, and handed her another cigarette. Her mind reeled with a thousand questions but instead she simply said, "It must have been hard for you."
"Yup, it was. I had to tell them, it was eating me up inside, I just hadn’t figured that they would take it so hard. They cut me off, just like that.
I was stuck with no way to pay for school, but I gave it the literal ‘Old school try’, I went to work and tried to stay in school, pretty tough sledding when you try to combine slinging drinks and shooting for a degree." Amy paused to take a long drag on the cigarette and lapsed to a coughing fit. "Sorry," she said smiling. "I guess that’s why I quit in the first place."
Rory smiled knowingly. "Filthy habit, I’d quit but then what would I do with my other hand when I’m holding a glass of scotch?" She asked trying to lighten the somber mood. "I guess you couldn’t make it if you are on the way back home."
" Well not exactly, an Aunt of mine came to the rescue and really helped me out… for a while anyway." Amy looked up at the ceiling as she fought not to start crying. "I’m on my way back home for her funeral."
"You were close to her?" Rory asked.
"Yes, I guess we both got black-balled from the family when she decided to help me. I can’t imagine what I would have done without her. I don’t want to even conceive how I’m supposed to manage now that she’s gone." Amy smiled a sad, sweet, smile and added. "In a twisted way my parents got their wish, even with help from Aunt Christen, I’ve been too busy working and going to school to have any love life… I’m broke, homeless, and celibate." She looked up into Rory’s eyes and winked. "Do I win?"
"Other than the fact that you’re young, bright, beautiful, and have the rest of your life in front of you, I’d have to say yes." Rory replied.
"Touché!" Amy exclaimed laughing. "My ego hasn’t had a boost like that in a long time." She raised her drink. "To us, a couple of young, bright, beautiful, women on the verge of a nervous break-down." She giggled into her glass as she downed the last of the beer.
It was infectious, and wonderful to hear Amy’s laughter. Rory raised her glass and followed suit. "Ugh!" Rory said making a face. "This is just melted ice." She waved a bill at the bartender and he responded by bring two beers and two scotches to the table.
"These are from the fellows over there." He said indicating the only other inhabitants of the bar.
"Well isn’t that sweet of them." Rory said looking over at the two men who smiled hopefully over in their direction. "I tell you what, you can get them what ever they’re drinking and keep the change if you tell them ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ We’re not looking for company tonight." The bartender just shrugged and took the bill. Watching the bartender go back to the bar and deliver the drinks to the other side of the bar. Rory said, "I hope that I wasn’t being presumptuous, but I didn’t think you were anymore interested in their company than I was."
"Not in the least." Amy replied with a crooked smile. "But the big one has been watching you since we came into the bar."
"Really?" Rory teased, "Well he’ll just have to be the big-one that got away! I like talking to you; dopes like those crawl around every airport bar that I’ve ever been in. Where as you, my dear, are a catch in a million."
"If I didn’t know better, I’d say that sounded like a come-on." Amy said grinning over the foam in her beer. "Thank you. I like talking to you too."
‘Oh god!’ Rory thought, ‘She thinks I coming on to her!’ "Please forgive me," She stammered, "I didn’t mean…"
"Relax!" Amy said shaking her head and holding up her hands. "I was just teasing. I knew what you meant, and frankly, I’m flattered. I’m almost disappointed that you weren’t."
Relief flooded over Rory’s face that was slowly replaced with puzzlement. "Are you saying that you wish I was coming on to you?"
"Why not?" Amy replied, "You’re funny, interesting, and very nice to look at. If you weren’t so terrified at the prospect of having kissed another woman, I’d have made a pass at you by now."
"That has truly, got to be, the single nicest thing anyone has said to me, in… I don’t know? …a very long time!" Rory said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. It had been so long since such sincere flattery had touched her soul, its honesty left her dumb. She stared into her drink carefully sorting out how she felt about the whole statement. Was she embarrassed? Was she shocked? No, neither of those, it was a new feeling; something that hit at the very loneliness that had ruled her life for as long as she could remember. She had been praised before, for her ruthlessness, her business cunning, even her brilliance in the boardroom, but never had she been called funny, interesting, or good looking all in the same sentence. 'You're just tired.' She explained to herself. 'The scotch is going to your head.' Rory looked up only to be caught by the glint of green smiling eyes.
"Cat got your tongue?" Amy asked, "Surely you have been told how incredible you are." She leaned back in her chair. Her eyes appraising the woman sitting across the table from her. "How old are you? If you don't mind my asking…thirty-five?"
This struck Rory as being horrendously funny. She laughed until she started hiccuping. "Oh God! Ha hahaha…" She slowed to a fit of little giggles. "I'll be… hic… hahaha… I'll be Forty on my next birthday."
Amy's eyebrows shot up. "Wow!" she exclaimed. "I would have never guessed. I was scared that I would piss you off by saying thirty-five. You are not just incredible, You are fucking amazing!" Her gaze held a whole new appreciation for the older woman before her. For someone who lived out of a suitcase Rory was in pretty good shape. Maybe a little on the heavy side but who wouldn't be on a steady diet of hotel food and constant sitting at boardroom meetings. "What is your secret? Have you got an aging portrait of your self hidden in an attic somewhere?"
This statement only served to send Rory into a second fit of giggles. When she managed to get control of herself see wiped her streaming eyes on a cocktail napkin. "Sorry." She said trying to compose herself. "I think I'm getting just a trifle drunk. You are so sweet, I could kiss you." Realizing what she had just said, she fell into another bout of laughter.
"Promises, promises," Amy said falling into the contagious humor. "I'm going to hold you to that." She got up and walked over to the other side of the table. Kneeling down beside the older woman's chair, she leaned in and kissed Rory. The kiss was meant to be a joke but the second their lips touched, it was like a match to dry tinder. Rory's lips were soft and warm, and it had been a long time for either one of them. The casual act woke a hunger neither woman had expected. Amy's tongue brushed the older woman's lips, which opened to receive it. Rory's hand crept up to the blond curly locks of the younger woman pulling her tighter into the embrace.
An angry shout of "Get a room!" Startled them apart. Amy looked up guiltily to the angry faces of the two men at the other side of the bar and then back down to Rory who wore a look that was both amazed and guilty at the same time. "Oh my!" She said softy.
The blond woman slid sheepishly back around to her chair and proceeded to down her remaining beer. "Sorry." She said quietly, an eternity later. "I never meant t…
"Don't." Rory whispered, cutting her off. She smiled warmly at the woman who's sweet taste was still on her lips. "I sure wasn't expecting that but you can be damn certain I'm anything but sorry." Her voice was husky and low. She licked her lips and sipped at the glass of scotch.
Both women spent a long silence looking across the table at each other. Too spellbound to say anything, each woman analyzing her individual reaction to the event that had just transpired.
"Look, maybe I should just go." Amy said rising from the table. She was now uncomfortably aroused and attracted to the older woman and that was the last thing she really needed in her life right now. "Thanks for the beer and …everything, but I really need to get going." She turned and walked quickly out of the lounge.
'Go after her!' Rory's mind screamed. Her body would not respond. She sat staring at the doorway long after the girl had left. The vacuum created by her absence grew into a painful ache. Rory had only known this person for a few short hours, however her abrupt departure had magnified the loneliness, she had thought was safely locked away in the part of her soul she refused to visit any more. Now she felt incomplete, like half of her spirit had just walked out the door.
The announcement came over the inter-com. "All passengers on flight four-o-four may now commence boarding at gate sixty-two. Please have your boarding passes ready." Amy reached down under her seat for her backpack. She shrugged it onto one shoulder and walked wearily up to the flight desk. "When is takeoff please?" She asked the bored looking young man behind the counter.
"We are doing pre-boarding right now," He answered, "The flight should be taking off in another forty-five minutes to an hour." He smiled a phony airline smile and went back to looking at the clipboard in his hand.
Amy set her bag on the floor, crouching down to open the flap on the side to retrieve her boarding pass. She looked back into the waiting area almost expectantly hoping. She shook her head sadly and turned back to the counter to give the attendant her pass.
"Wait!" A voice cried out from behind her. Amy turned to find a frantic Rory half running into the waiting area. The startled young woman found herself in a bone-crushing hug. "Oh god! I've been looking everywhere." Rory sighed, out of breath.
Amy's arms crept up to encircle the taller woman. They stood wrapped in each other's arms for several seconds basking in the closeness. "I'm glad to see you too." Amy whispered, and looked up into the clear blue eyes, noting a tear that had started to roll down the older woman's cheek. She brought her hand up and brushed the tear away with her thumb. "I'm so sorry I left like that. You can't know how sorry!"
"No… I should have never let you leave!" Rory replied studying the beautiful face before her, trying to memorize every aspect, every nuance so she could keep it in her heart always. "Not without saying good-bye!" She then smiled shyly. "Can we keep in touch? I want to see you again, get to know you better."
"I would like nothing better." Amy answered smiling. "Do you have a card or something, I'd give you my number but I don't even know where I'll be staying once I reach the city."
Reluctantly Rory released her hold on the younger woman and dug into her handbag pulling out a worn pocket secretary. "Here's the name and number of the hotel I'll be staying at for the next few days." She said scribbling on the back of a business card. "Or you can reach me through my home office. Please call me." Her eyes pleading as she handed Amy the card.
"You can count on it." Amy said, carefully putting the card into her shirt pocket. "It's nice to know there will a friendly voice I can call over the next few days; it's going to be pretty rocky."
"Last boarding call for flight four-o-four." The intercom announced. "Damn! I have to go." Amy winced angrily, pulling the taller woman back into a hug. She was only mildly startled when Rory leaned down and gave her a passionate, leg-melting kiss before releasing her to the beckoning plane flight. "After a kiss like that you can be sure I'll call!"
Rory sat at the same window she had been at the night before watching Amy's plane take off. The sun shone brightly. The sky was blue.
Her heart sang in anticipation of a whole new day.
(c) 1998 S. Day