Page 3 of Just Like You
“If there is anything I can do to make your journey with us more comfortable, then…”
I had to stop because he stared at me. Right at me and it made my heart jolt.
“Spare me the bullshit,” he said, in a voice dripping with venom. “I fly this route once a week and this? This is fucking ridiculous.”
“Mr Andrieu, if you could please mind your language,” I said, side-eyeing the family in the row in front, with the snotty toddler who was now standing on the seat holding a particularly sticky sweet in their hand. Ugh. Children. I tried to smile sweetly at the child, and less so at the mother who made zero effort to control the small human who was now smearing snot and sticky stuff on the headrest in front of Mr Andrieu, who looked suitably disgusted.
“Please,” he said. I had no idea if it was a plea or another sarcastic remark to once again remind me of who I was. A nobody. Someone who had worked far too hard in the past week and who just needed a friendly face and a… Fuck.
Not that kind of…fuck. I needed dick like a bullet to the head, but now the toddler had chucked the sweet onto Mr Andrieu’s suit and if I didn’t resolve this?
I had no seats. No staff travelling who I could move. I had nothing, and it was summer and all these families with small children were doing my head in. Everything was a little too much. Drama. Constant problems and issues and disappointed people thinking I had some kind of magic wand and could fix everything and anything with a flick of my wrist.
“Mr Andrieu,” we were discreetly interrupted. “I’m Aurelia, and I will be looking after you today. Unfortunately, I need to borrow Julian here for a second. I will be right back with some wet wipes for that…sticky…”
She reached out and took the sweet out of Mr Andrieu’s pinched grip,and I? I fled.
“He’s a massive wanker,” Aurelia whispered in my ear as I slid through the galley. “The passenger in 4C just complained of chest pain, Mario is on the radio to MedLink, and I think the Captain is throwing a tantrum. He’s got tickets to the Matinee of Wicked and…”
“On it.” I rolled my eyes as she smiled.
“It’s one of those days.”
It definitely was. One of those, where nothing was straightforward and everything seemed to just go wrong. One thing after the other, as someone with a massive pushchair tried to enter the galley, blocking my way. How they’d got that thing down the aisle? Beyond me…and physics.
I was stuck here, and Aurelia was trying to wave her hands to get the pushchair out and…and…
And now Kieron Andrieu was standing in the galley, right in front of me, all…impressive six feet of him. Built. Broad. Imposing and… I had to think it. Dangerously handsome.
Also a straight bastard, because I wasn’t stupid or delusional.
“I need to wash my hands. And I will be sending you the dry-cleaning bill for this suit,” he barked out.
This Kieron Andrieu was obviously a nasty piece of work and our Captain was a selfish wanker and whoever was in 4C was getting offloaded, this very minute, alongside this monstrosity of a pushchair. I didn’t care. Not today. This Mr Andrieu was staying in his crappy seat, and the sooner this sector would be over? Thesooner I would get back into a nice, clean hotel bed and try to regain some of my sanity.
Chapter Two
Kieron
As if my day could get any worse? I usually didn’t mind the air travel. The lounges were alright, enough to grab some grub, and then I’d board and get some work done before some well-needed shuteye. No chance of that today, and some stern words would be had with the airline. Which, as always, would be delivered by my current assistant…slash PA, slash dogsbody and target of my usual bad temper and would no doubt result in some hastily gifted air miles and a curt copy-paste message of apology from this shitheap of an airline. And my delightful PA would once again turn all that back at me and in the end? I’d sit in my office feeling like I should be crying in the toilets like an intern on day one.
Losers. Weaklings. Useless piece of shit humans who I simply couldn’t stand.
They couldn’t stand me either, but that was a whole different set of parameters.
The way the world turned, I’d long given up on calling out to the humanity of large corporations because simply put? There was none.
I was the living proof of that because I’d given up on my own, years ago. Uni did that to you. Followed by getting headhunted straight into my company of choice, and even as a junior dogsbody at Delaware Financial, I’d marked my territory and got my priorities in check.
I did my job, and I did it well. Climbed the ladder, greasing the right people with the right attitude and the ones below me with restrained contempt. Sometimes even not so restrained.
Which made me a complete arsehole, I was well aware of that. I didn’t smile. Didn’t do anyone any favours. Why would I? Would anyone offer me any back? Absolutely not. The world didn’t work like that, and rather than live my life with grudges and fears, I just did what needed to be done. Casualties lining my path as I waded through the cesspit that was financial aggregation.
Yeah. That was me. Had nothing to do with my aggressive nature either, because that’s what people said. I was made for this. Pitching services against one another and getting the best deals for whatI could sell. Electronic media that floated around on the world wide web. Clever programming that did everything it promised and more, delivering perfection every time.
All things you couldn’t touch. And that no money in the world could buy.
Sometimes I thought perhaps it was all in my head, these imaginary results I was touting to our clients.
