A half-hour into her flight and Kari Grant was relaxed.  Earphones in her ears, listening to her music, and her phone in her hand reviewing her emails.  Her head was bobbing and her face was smiling: she felt good.  Jordan was in good hands with his godparents, and she would soon be in good hands, she was certain, with Alex.  She didn’t realize, however, that the crew chief had been attempting to get her attention, without touching her, for several seconds until she finally glanced up, and saw him standing there.

She immediately removed one of the earplugs from her ear.  “Hi,” she said.

“Hello,” said the head of the flight crew.  “I was wondering, ma’am, if there was anything you needed?”

“Oh!  No.  Thank you.  I’m good.”

“My staff has been attending to all of your needs?”

“Completely, yes.”

“If you have any concerns whatsoever,” the crew chief said, “and I mean any concerns, please do not hesitate to let me know and I will correct the situation immediately.”

Kari smiled.  “I will.  Thank you.”

And the crew chief left her alone.

Kari leaned back and shook her head.  This must be what it felt like, she thought, to live a dream.  She remembered on her very first date with Alex, and how he wanted to fly her to New York for dinner without even mentioning anything about leaving town until they were at the airport.  She was scared to even get on his plane that night.  Now she was not only on his plane, but she was gladly going to New York to spend the weekend with Alex.  Just the two of them.  For a girl like Kari, who used to always find herself waiting for that break in the weather when that rain called life would always keep on pouring, she wasn’t sure if it could get any better than this.

She put back in her earplug.  Nodded to the beat.  And determined within herself that she was going to forget about the job, stop worrying about Jordan, and enjoy her weekend for once in her life.

Kari Grant was happy.

 

She didn’t realize just how happy she truly was until the plane touched down in New York and she looked out of the window.  She expected a limo to be waiting.  Alex, she knew, wouldn’t have it any other way.  If he said he was going to do something, he was going to do it in style.

But when Alex himself got out of that limo, buttoning his suit coat, looking every bit that gorgeous specimen of man she could hardly wait to get her hands on, it was only then did she allow herself to not just be happy, but to get giddy with it.  She started grinning and shaking her body from side to side.  He told her that he would be tied up at the office and would see her later tonight at his house.  But he showed up to meet her plane anyway.  That was a good thing.

But Kari was no idiot, either.  She knew he probably pulled out the stops for every woman he ever dated.  But the fact that he came to meet her plane, rather than sending one of his assistants, as he said he would, said a lot about where he saw their relationship.  They were moving, she felt, in the right direction.

And when she began walking down the steps of the plane, and Alex began walking toward the plane with a faster gait than was normally his stride, her excitement increased tenfold.  She felt as if she had been off to war or something, but was now back home.  To sleep in.  To relax.  To be with the man she loved!

She caught herself.  Love already, Kari?  Really?  You’ve only known the man for a couple months and you’re all in love?  She wasn’t going to call it love, but when she stepped off of that last step, and Alex’s gait had increased even more, it sure felt like love.

It felt so much like love that she had to talk herself down.  Stay cool, Kari, she said to herself.  Don’t go running to him like some giddy fool.  Every time you saw that man you were always running to him as if you were some tail-wagging puppy.  Stay cool.  Let him do the running this time!

But Kari didn’t have a fake bone in her body.  She was going to be Kari.  And that was why, as soon as her feet hit the ground, she was off and running.

Alex grinned broadly when she began running to him.  He loved her enthusiasm!  It made him feel a way he’d only been able to feel with Kari: it made him feel special.

And, to the utter shock of his own men, his driver and bodyguard, he started running too!  They looked at each other.  They knew the boss liked that black girl from Florida.  They knew he liked her maybe even above any of his other girls.  But damn.  They’d never seen him like this!

Alex never cared what other people thought, and was too old to start caring now.  His life was a dark, depressing hole before he met Kari.  He worked.  He golfed.  He slept around with woman after woman who meant nothing more to him than a sex toy would.  Now his life felt fulfilling and worth the effort.  Now he had a reason to get out of bed.  Yeah, his ass was running, he thought.  He didn’t care who saw him, or how unsophisticated it looked.  Kari was in town and he couldn’t wait to hold her.  He didn’t give a shit who was watching, either.

And when their running bodies collided, he placed his arms around Kari’s waist, and hoisted her into his big arms.  She wrapped her legs around him and they kissed, right then and there, as if they were kissing in bed.  Which, Alex knew, was exactly where he was taking her next.

And when they got into the limo, sitting so close they were shoulder-to-shoulder, it was Alex’s enthusiasm that wasn’t lost on Kari.  He even held her hand.

“So,” he said, as he slouched down in his seat and leaned his broad shoulder closer against her small shoulder, “how’s life in Apple Valley since I left?”

“Boring,” Kari said.

Alex laughed.  “Good,” he said.

“But for real,” Kari corrected herself, “It’s been okay.  Just busy as usual.  What about life in New York since you’ve been back?”

“Boring,” he said and they both smiled.  Then he added: “You weren’t here.  What do you think?”

Kari laughed.  “Yeah, right.  The city that never sleeps boring just because I’m not in it?  Yeah, right,” she said again.

Then her cellphone rang.  When she pulled it out and looked at the Caller ID, she didn’t hesitate in answering.  “Hello, Dezzamaine.  Hello lady with the most countrified-ass name in America.”  Although the phone wasn’t on Speaker, Alex could hear Dez laugh over the phone.

But while Kari crossed her legs and listened to her devoted secretary, Alex glanced down at those legs.  She wore a long-sleeved white, cotton, button-down blouse, and a form-fitting powder blue skirt that dropped just above her knees, and the sight of her thighs caused his dick to throb.  Whenever he was with Kari, she became wetter faster than any woman he’d ever been with.  Sometimes all he had to do was rub her very gently, an procedure he was looking forward to.  He leaned his head back, and squeezed her hand.

But Kari was totally focused on that phone call.  Finally she replied to all she had been hearing.  “What do you mean it bounced?” she asked into the phone.  Alex didn’t look at her.  She was entitled to her privacy.  But he listened carefully to that call.

“The check bounced,” Dez, on the other end, said to her boss.  “There were insufficient funds, and it bounced.”

“Oh, geez!” Kari said.  “I forgot to move it from my savings!  Wait a minute.”

Kari quickly went to her bank’s mobile website on her phone, transferred money from her ever-dwindling savings account into her business checking account, and then pressed Send.

“Okay, it’s done,” she said to Dez.  “Give it a few minutes and then try again.”

“Will do, Boss.  But I still don’t know why you just don’t link your savings account to your bank account to avoid these problems.”

“My bank won’t let me link a business account with a personal account.”

“You need a new bank.”

Kari nodded.  “I agree.”

“Bye, Boss.  And thanks!”

Kari thanked her for handling the situation, and the entire business while she was gone, then ended the call.  “Sorry about that,” she said to Alex.

At first, Alex said nothing.  Kari looked at him.  Then he spoke.  “You have not used the card.”

Kari could tell he didn’t like the fact that she hadn’t used the card, a card he gave to her for moments like this.  “No, I haven’t,” she said.

“You prefer to suffer?”

She attempted to smile.  “I’m not suffering.”

“Then what do you call it,” Alex asked with edge in his voice, “when checks are bouncing and you’re forced to move money from here to there?”

“That was just a mix-up, Alex.  It’s not an everyday thing.”

Alex nodded.  “You prefer to suffer.”

“I don’t.  But . . .”

“Go on.”

“Look, Alex, you’ve already done too much for me.  Benny told me how you paid him thousands of dollars for his legal services when Jordan was arrested.  I can only imagine how much you had to pay those high-powered Miami lawyers and investigators and all those other people who worked that case.  It had to be a fortune.  You did what I could never have done: you saved my son from what was certain to have been a long time in prison.  I’m eternally grateful to you for that.  But my cleaning service?  That I can handle.  I got that, Alex.  I promise I got it.”

Alex stared into her eyes.  He’d never met anybody like her.  They hugged.  Then Alex reached over and placed his hands between Kari’s legs, squeezing her vagina over her panties, causing her to laugh.  “I miss that,” he whispered in her ear.

Kari reached over and squeezed his penis, causing him to grin, because she missed that too.