long night at the airport

Recently I had to take a brief business trip, the layover at the airport was time well spent as I wrote a story partly fiction partly truth of what was happening. I still keep in contact with Danny....


One day I thought about the secrets that we all keep. It was a day that I was traveling on one of my many trips. I thought about this sitting for what seemed to be hours and hours waiting for a delayed flight in Cincinnatti. The airport was packed and it was evident that most everyone that was milling around the terminal was stressed and tense and just wanted to be home where ever that might be.I felt the same way but after traveling for the last two days on a very quick, hectic business trip, I really did not want to be alone and wanted someone to talk to. I was sitting in the middle of a mass, more like a swarm of people and felt invisible. A man smiled at me and resumed reading his newspaper. A younger businessman with dark serious eyes and a massive mane of hair looked my way and our eyes locked. It was strange the connection, the attraction, the instant magnetism. He did not look away, neither did I. It became unnerving and a bit uncomfortable. I finally broke the connection and looked in the direction of a fussy child on the bench a few rows away from me. It was a believable diversion, one that he would not have thought he had won our staring contest. Better to let him think I was his equal, his match.

I could feel him looking in my direction still and my face felt flushed. There was excitement in my body and a quickening in my breath. I smiled a devilish little smile in the direction of the fussy child but in actuality was smiling the smile of a woman wanted, a woman lost in wanton thoughts. Suddenly the wait at the airport became bearable. Time seemed to stand still and in my mind, I was with this dark stranger. In my mind he only thought of me, of my wants, of my needs.

His name was Lucas and he was a traveler from a faraway land, a prince in his native country, a man that was taught to hold a woman in the highest regard. He was skilled in archery, martial arts and rode a horse like he had done so all of his life. Lucas was a man who would dress up in his finest clothes and take a woman out to an opera halfway across the country arriving in style, dinner on a concorde jet, champagne in the private opera box, no expense spared to make his lady feel like she was the only woman in the world to him. On the way home in the plane looking out over the quiet sleepy land below, twinkling lights of homes filled with love and hope, he touches her hand and smiles and he touches her heart in a very deep place. I am that lady and I smile back knowing that there will be many more dark plane rides to faraway places with this wonderful dark handsome man.

I look up and he is still looking at me this time smiling a little and if I am not mistaken a little wink or slight twinkle in his eye. The child fusses again (thank god) and I look in that direction.

His name is Danny and he is a construction worker in California working on houses during the day, surfing the best waves at night. He is simple and quiet and happy to just be , he does not judge and does not want to be judged. He is a hard working man, one who hardly ever travels but on this ocassion, is coming back from a trip to see his mother. He is lonely and wants to find a girl who just gets him. A girl that is happy to sit with him on the beach on a grand evening and watch the sun set while enjoying a couple of ice cold Coronas. His idea of a great evening is a barefoot BBQ on his patio with some steel drum music in the background or maybe a little Bob Marley and a quiet dance with his lady until they fall asleep under the stars. No pretention, no illusion, just truth and trust. He is a keeper and he is mine, body and soul. Wonderful strong Danny, I would not want for more and he is completely happy with me and our life together.

I feel his eyes on me again and I look up this time red faced and aware that he knows he has conquered my attention and a little bit of my heart. I smile and regally, gracefully and oh so slowly raise my chin and look in the other direction. He understands the attraction but knows I am no pushover.

His name is Jack, a man dedicated to doing only good for others. He is a decorated firefighter in a New York Borough and a hero in many ways. He has saved many lives and for this he has taken too many chances. With each fire, he feels like he is completing his last mission, his luck has run out and this time he is going to eat it. The adrenaline is too much for him though and he cannot stop. For this reason, he cannot pull himself away, when he hears the sirens in another part of town he simply is pulled towards it like the proverbial moth to the flame. What girl would not be attracted to the hero in him, the large sinnewy muscles, the hard body underneath his firefighting gear. The little boy look on his face when he is on his way to a fire and the bravery involved with his heroics is something so attractive to a woman. Sadly, he cannot find a girl that will be with him through the long haul, they are too afraid of losing him so rather than face his fate with him, they seal it for him by leaving him. He is sad and lonely and the only the fires that he can control and quench give him the satisfaction like that of conquering a firey wild woman. I am that wild woman and he takes hours and hours to control my fire with his raw tender passion.

They call my plane to board and I look up and see my mystery man is no longer there. I am crushed but a little relieved. My thoughts of him have consumed me and now they will just be a memory, a wonderful fantasy like that of a one night stand, the kind of naughty memories that years later will still make you blush. I realize that in thinking about who this mystery man was, I have summoned all the the men that make up the man I dream of, Lucas, Danny, Jack together all have special places in my heart and I know that someday a man who is strong and adventurous, simple and good, brave and true will find me and I will have found the other piece to the puzzle that I have been missing all of my life. I sigh and I get up to walk down the ramp to the plane's entrance. I say hello to the flight attendant and find my seat next to the window and settle in. I have my laptop on the seat next to me and am buckling my seat belt when I hear a soft yet strong and very masculine voice say, "is that seat taken?" I look up knowing it is my dark stranger and he smiles at me with a knowing look like I am the missing piece to his puzzle. I smile, pick up my laptop and say, "this seat is yours."