Page 5 of Irresistible Temptation

What I wasn’t prepared for was my head being on a swivel to see if a certain man was anywhere in plain sight. He wasn’t, and I don’t know why I ever thought it could be a possibility. The Las Vegas airport is a lot bigger than the one I’m working at here in Florida. Now, to tell my heart to catch up with my head. Really, how silly is it of me to get my hopes up only for them to be crushed when Tysen never even called?

“You’re a godsend,” I say, pulling myself out of my head.

“That’s what all the men say, honey.” He pops a hip out to the side, drops the bag of trash in the container outside of the terminal, and I nod at the person behind the counter while she holds her hands out for the lost items. A phone is pressed to her ear and shoulder, clearly multi-tasking, and I don’t want to be a pest to try and introduce myself. I’ll save that for a later date.

“Thanks,” I say to her. She nods before going about her business and stashing everything behind the counter.

“Okay, hand over the phone. It’s time to salivate and figure out how not to eat everything in sight.”

“Try not to drool too much,” he says with a wink. We fall in step with one another, me staring down at his phone, salivating over the plethora of sandwiches, soup, and desserts. They even have a trio deal where you can get all three, which might put me in a food coma, until I see that you can do a half sandwich with soup, too.

“Samuel, you didn’t tell me trying to decide what to eat would be the hard part,” I tease him while handing his phone back. We walk through the terminals until we make it to the food court. The plus side to working on a smaller airline is that it seems more like a family, your home base is easy to get in and out of, and yet you still get to go the bigger airports and see other places. Today, we’re in Charlotte, a layover for the last passengers and for us to pick up new passengers to then head to another airport, this time to Texas, and then we’ll come back to North Carolina before heading back to Florida. This is all in one day, and that’s if there are no delays.

“The good news is, we’ll be here again, so you can work your way down the menu. Here we are.” We stop at the entrance to the restaurant, the cash I stowed in my pocket handy, just in case, and I take in the sights.La Bellelooks like it’s been air dropped from another country. It’s cute and has the aura you’d find on a Parisian street; the only thing missing is a better view.

“My wallet might not think it’s great, but my stomach sure does. What are you getting?” I ask as we move into the restaurant. There’s a hostess where you can be seated inside or right outside to people watch, or you can get it to go. We’re doing the latter and will eat in the employee lounge since time is of the essence. I really do think I’ll be packing my lunch, especially if it’s going to be a longer one like today.

“The Croque Monsieur, of course. I’m going to skip the soup today and dive right into the crème brûlée. You?” Samuel has me second-guessing what I was going to order, but maybe I can snag a bite of his if he offers.

“The Pain Complet au Fromage,” I butcher what is essentially a grilled cheese. “I’m also going to try the soup, the one with the vegetables and beans. I’d say the name, except I’d slaughter the pronunciation worse than the other. I’m also going after the lemon soufflé.” I’m having serious FOMO,fear of missing out, and since I’m only going to allow myself to indulge sparingly, I may as well go big or go home today.

“Damn, that sounds better than mine. Now I want to switch my order.” Samuel taps his toe on the linoleum flooring.

“How about we share a bit of each other’s, because literally same.” I suggest, which is what Mom and I do whenever we go out.

“Perfect. I knew we’d be the best of friends,” Samuel replies. We move through the line, waiting our turn to order at the counter. He’s chatting it up with the employee while I’m busy taking it all in, watching the people coming and going, listening to conversations.

“What can I get you?” I’m asked a few minutes later. I give her my order, tempted to add on a macaron, but I decide against it. A glutton for punishment in the form of not being able to move easily doesn’t seem like a great idea, especially with being on a plane and in a confined space.

I hand over my cash and file suit beside Samuel to wait for our food to come out. Luckily, our meals come with drinks, and that we’ll have to do ourselves.

“Hey, what do you want drink wise? I’ll grab them if you wait for our food,” I offer to help cut down on our time spent.

“Lemonade, pink if they have it,” Samuel says with a wink as if yellow lemonade is beneath him or that they have a different flavor.

“And if they don’t?” I reply.

“The regular is fine. Ugh. That’s the worst, though, and if they don’t have lemonade, period, surprise me.” I let out a laugh and turn my back to him in order to go about grabbing our drinks. The drink fridge has bottles to choose from, and luckily, they have Samuel’s pink lemonade. I grab his desired choice and a lemon lime soda for myself. I walk back toward the counter right as they call out our names.

“Luck is on our side today. Being in and out this quickly is a miracle in itself,” Samuel announces. I grab my to-go bag, he takes his drink, and we head out the door.

“No kidding. More time for us to decompress before round two,” I state on our walk toward the employee lounge. I’d have absolutely no idea where to go if it weren’t for my new friend.

“Okay, I’m obviously not giving you the best directions since we’re just walking and I’m not showing you the signs to look for, but next time, I will. I’m absolutely famished, and the way your stomach growled, you are, too, so please forgive me,” he says as we take a left, heading down a corridor, and takes his badge out of his pocket. I do the same, following his lead again.

“I could always ask someone. Don’t be too hard on yourself,” I tell him. The door opens up, and a wave of nausea smacks me right in the face. “Can you hold this? I’ll be right back.” I push my food at him, look around for the bathroom until I finally lock my eyes on the door in the corner, and I run.

I move as fast as I can, in my heels, and thank god no one is in the bathroom, because the second I clear the stalls, I drop to my knees and lose whatever I had in my stomach. There’s nothing worse than being sick like this, and it’s even worse when it happens at work. I flush the toilet to get rid of the evidence of my demise and breathe through another bout of nausea. Surely, I’m not getting sick with a stomach bug on my first day of work, because while I had a nervous start to the day, I’m a lot calmer now.

“Knock, knock. You okay, Maci girl?” Samuel walks through the bathroom door. I hear the turning on of the faucet, a wringing of a paper towel, and then there’s a cool cloth placed on the back of my neck.

“I’m okay, or I think I am. I think that’s the last of it.” I move away from the toilet, stand up, and hold the stall wall to make sure I’m steady on my feet before moving toward the sink to rinse out my mouth and wash my hands.

“Thank god. I was so worried.” He hovers beside me, keeping a watchful eye on me the entire time.

“I’m better now, and I’m starving. I think it was the jitters, only having coffee, starting new job, and flying.” I shake off the thought and get to righting myself. I don’t have time to dwell on the reason why I just tossed my cookies. We’ve got a lunch to eat and work to do. I notice there are mini toothbrushes, toothpaste, and mouthwash. I go through the process of scrubbing my teeth to get rid of the yuckiness; it’s quick, but it’ll have to do. I spit, rinse, and toss out my trash in record time.

“As long as you’re sure.” Samuel eyes me warily.

---