Did I just join the mile-high club?

Turns out A2’s father is some big executive with a mining company.  This company owns a corporate jet.  This jet is just happening to be going to the Gold Coast for two days to pick up his dad.  There is a beach there and it’s warm. Do we want to go?  He’ll yeah!  Lucky I brought a couple of swimsuits with me just in case. This is the case!

Margaret and A2 and I arrived at Essendon private airport just outside of Melbourne to find a sleek white Cessna Citation waiting for us in the hangar.  Aboard were two pilots and a hostess, who offered us an Australian sparkling wine called ‘Deviation Road’.  This was the fruitiest, creamiest champagne I’ve ever tasted, and within thirty minutes, the party on the plane had well and truly started.  The luxurious off white calf leather seats faced each other, one each on either side of the aisle.

Margaret and A2 could not keep their hands off each other.  She got up and sat on his lap. They needed to get a room.  They acted as though the hostess and I were not present. 

Melbourne is footy crazy

Melbourne is footy crazy. It is also the sport and fashion capital of Australia. Our club (we have no choice) is H or ‘the Harriers.’  The iconic MCG is where they are playing this afternoon, against another Melbourne rival team, ‘the magpies’.  A2 reckons 50, 000 people will turn up for this mid-season game.

After untested sleep, I awoke this morning to a dreary winter’s day, punctuated by the hot sounds of lovemaking coming from the room next door.  All I was in the mood for was coffee, quite frankly, and it was only at 9 am that a smiling Margaret emerged, freshly showered with the biggest, shyest, smile on her face.  I have not seen her so happy in a long time.

Margaret and I sat by large picture windows overlooking the rain-swept city of Melbourne while A2 deftly worked the espresso machine. Hopeful waves of the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans wafted over us while Margaret told me how happy she was and how positive she felt about her decision to move Downunder.

Hello Melbourne

God bless Margaret.  She arrived at Heathrow with five overweight Louis Vuitton leather pieces plus hand luggage.  The overweight charges cost as much as the flight tickets, and it took us some time to get through. But she was unflustered and fabulous. 

We finally got through to the lounge where we could relax.  Margaret triumphantly returned from the bar with pink gin and tonics in hand gushing, “Darling, here’s to a fabulous transition and a lot of fun.”

I sipped on the drink and felt the alcohol taking effect right away.  I began to think about how drastically my life had changed within the last month and what it was transitioning to.  I indeed felt freer and was excited about my recent adventures, but what, I thought, was I transitioning to? 

Any doubts I had, soon were overcome by the effects of the alcohol on an empty stomach.  It seemed like minutes before our flight was called, and we boarded the plane, a brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Prior to the appointment in the country

“Hi, Darling, can you drop by on your way from the airport?” were the words I was not happy to hear from the manager as I listened to my saved messages while waiting in the queue to get through Immigration at Terminal 5.  I had just travelled for twenty-one hours from Melbourne, Australia and had before me a further two-hour drive to my family home in Gloucestershire.  “It is really important,” she had emphasized, “since you’re in London, the client lives out your way, but you need training for this one and I need to talk to you in person.”

The thing about starting a new job, career, school year etc., is that you really want to set the tone from the beginning, to make a good impression and to be taken seriously.  “Okay,” I found myself agreeing, as I climbed into a waiting black cab and directed the driver to take me south of the river.

When I arrived at the Shard office, the manager was busy, but a petite and attractive goth-like woman with tattoos over most of her body and one of those nose piercings, among others, smiled at me and asked in a gentle voice, “Ruby?  Please follow me”

An appointment in the country

Not wanting to be late, I had the driver pick me up at 10 am, sharp on Monday morning.  Forty-five minutes away lies St. Briavel Castle, which is located on a spur dominating a position above the River Wye, on the edge of Forest Dean.  Further along, is the woods near Lower Meend, and on a long, dark lane overshadowed by centuries-old yew trees, is an ancient hidden dwelling, made of hand-hewn stone from the valley below.

As the car negotiated the dark shadowed  curves in the roadway, I felt a trickle of sweat run down my armpit.  It had been a long time since I had dressed in leather from top to bottom, and I had never worn a leather bra before, or black make-up, both courtesy of the Goth. It was clear that the driver had negotiated this laneway before, but that fact gave me little comfort.  As we drew closer, my senses heightened, and when I lowered the window to get some air, the sound of the tires on the gravel driveway of the imposing mansion only served to increase my anxiety levels.  Finally, the car stopped. I opened the door and put my leather-clad sandal onto the gravel. “This was it,” I thought.

My husband is cheating on me and I wanted revenge

I had known Margaret since our primary school days in Cardiff, Wales. We were fast friends. I was the quiet one, she was outgoing. She was the life of the party and it was no surprise when we lived together as roommates on campus, that she always had a boyfriend in her room.  It was also no surprise when she fell pregnant in our final year with Gary, one of her few boyfriends that I did not like. They married a week after graduation and their child was born four months later.

I had lost contact with Margaret over the years and was surprised to receive a message on Instagram from her saying that she had divorced Gary and was in London, could we meet?

She was free on Saturday night and we agreed to meet for drinks at the American Bar in the Savoy Hotel and then have dinner at The Grill.

My husband had agreed to take care of the kids somewhat reluctantly, as I had dumped the kids on him in the morning for four hours while I was at the beauty parlour.  The session had fortuitously been booked in preparation for the interview on Monday and besides a haircut, a mani and a Pedi, it painfully involved the removal of a great deal of body hair from everywhere.