I couldn’t help but smile at the question. It seemed that the wives always booked these flights, and the husbands always seemed uncertain once they got here. I even had flights where the husband had no idea that his wife had booked the tour with the sole purpose of getting it on mid-flight. The expressions on their faces when they saw the bed in the cabin were priceless. It kind of cracked me up since I always figured guys were less shy about sex. Which may still prove to be true since I hadn’t seen a single guy yet turn down the opportunity offered by my special charter flights.
“If you will follow me this way, you can see how we’ve set the Cherokee up so that you will have plenty of room in the rear cabin. Once we are in flight, I will draw the privacy curtain and wear noise-canceling headphones during the flight. I will be able to communicate with the tower but won’t be able to hear anything from the cabin. Any of your activities while on board will be as private as possible.” They both nodded and looked at each other while blushing.
I walked the couple towards the plane, showed them the bed area we had fashioned by removing four of the seats, and asked them to sit in the rear-facing seats during takeoff for their safety. If the hot looks they were flashing each other as they buckled up were any indication, they were ready to go.
“Enjoy the refreshments, and I will let you know when it is safe to move about the cabin,” I said as I got settled into the cockpit.
As I prepared for takeoff, I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself about the irony of me helping couples to spice up their sex lives. I wasn’t exactly qualified to do so except for piloting the plane. I couldn’t really be described as very experienced in the bedroom. Yet, I have turned my beloved Cherokee into the equivalent of a by-the-hour hotel room.
chapter 1
“Honey, I’m home,” I yelled out to my best friend Aubrey as I entered our suite. I was thrilled that she and I could be roomies when I made the switch to living on campus this year. The upside to the extra cash that came in with the mile high flights was that I could afford the brand new dorm that offered suites on campus. Blythe College had built the dorm in an effort to compete with the off-campus apartments. Our suite offered us our own bathroom, a common area, and two double bedrooms that my best friend and I shared with two other roommates. There were six suites on our floor, and we all shared a kitchen and entertainment area where we could hang out and watch television if we wanted.
I was excited to get into this dorm. It meant we could share a room without my dad harassing me about us living in each other’s pockets. He wanted me to make new friends at school, and I was happy to have the compromise of two more roommates in the suite so he wouldn’t try talking me into rooming with someone else. I couldn’t begin to imagine living on campus without Aubrey at my side. We met on the first day of kindergarten and have been besties ever since.
I hadn’t been excited about my first day of school and being away from my dad. I was a total mess when I got to the school that first morning, clinging to him like I would never see him again. It was crazy when you considered that I didn’t usually spend all day with him anyway, but I was terrified of what would happen when he was away while I was at school. Separation anxiety didn’t even begin to describe how I had felt that day.
Aubrey’s mom was with her and quickly realized that my dad wasn’t handling the situation very well. Luckily, Mrs. Silver stepped in to help us out by introducing me to her daughter, who glommed on to me instantly. Aubrey was the youngest of four with three older brothers and was thrilled to see another girl at school. She had been afraid that she would be stuck with boys all day long since her brothers’ friends from school were boys.
She was a great distraction for me as she chattered away about what to expect since her brothers had all filled her in on the school experience. She was dressed up in a frilly dress, with ribbons pulling up her curly blond hair and shiny, buckled shoes on her feet. I didn’t really know how to react to her and found myself swept away by her enthusiasm.
Sometimes I wonder if I hadn’t been the first girl she met that day if our friendship would be the same. It was like I became her favorite pet, with her dragging me everywhere and trying to dress me up. Now that I think about it, things haven’t really changed that much between us over the years.
It was great living with Aubrey, but I didn’t think we had won the roommate lottery this time around. I hadn’t taken much time to get to know the other duo that well. Faith and Natalie were way too high maintenance for my taste, and it seemed like they had only come to school to chase boys. We’d only lived together for less than three weeks and they had already hit six parties and skipped classes several mornings to sleep in. Only time would tell if we would be able to get along. Luckily, they were a good match with each other and seemed happy to hang out together. Aubrey got along with them fairly well. She definitely had more in common with them than I did. She could talk to them about fashion and boys, but I wasn’t big on either topic.