Heated Arabia

Anzelle wakes up with a shock. Confused she looks at her clock radio next to her bed.

“Oh no, why didn’t the alarm go off” she says aloud to herself. She throws the blankets off her and gets up. It’s a quarter to nine already and she has to be at the airport by ten o’clock to report for duty. Today they are flying to Saudi Arabia. This will teach her to hang out with her girlfriends until the early hours of the morning. She runs into the bathroom and opens the taps of the shower. Quickly she takes off her pyjamas. The water is not completely hot yet and catches her off guard as she gets into the shower. It makes her gasp for breath and she feels the hangover headache pounding in her head. That is the result of all the tequila she knocked back last night.

There is no time to drink coffee. She will get coffee at the airport. For now, she has to get herself presentable. Her ironed uniform hangs against her closet door. She did it yesterday before she went out with her friends. She packed her suitcase for the upcoming flight yesterday, because she knew there will not be time for it this morning.

She quickly washes her body, but leaves her hair for now and get out of the shower. Her hair is very thick and it will take too long to dry. She doesn’t have time to make herself pretty. She ties her long hair into a bun and grabs a makeup brush and quickly applies the basic makeup. She will do the finer makeup at the airport while they wait to board the plane. She puts on her uniform and grabs two headache pills from her bedside table drawer. She swallows it too fast and chokes on the water. When she gets her breath back, she grabs her suitcase and car keys and run out the door. In her haste she almost falls down the stairs of her townhouse. Her hand grips the balustrade clumsily and she manages to keep her balance.

She jumps into her little car and ends up on the highway where the cars are moving very slowly. If the day starts like this, then she don’t know how it is going to end, Anzelle thinks to herself when she impatiently hoots at a motorist who cut in front of her.

“Can’t you see I’m in a hurry!” she shouts impatiently and hit the steering wheel with her hand. She wishes she can shout into the idiot’s ear that is driving in front of her. She gives him a dirty look when she finally goes past him and says “you stupid fool!” when she gets in front of him.

She parks her car and hurry to the entrance of the international flights. She runs to the elevator with her suitcase behind her and doesn’t look up when the door of the elevator opens. When she wants to climb into the elevator, the heel of her shoe get stuck into the slot between the elevator floor and the floor itself. She falls forward into the elevator. The only thing she sees is a pair of strong hands catching her before she lands on the ground. When she looks up, she looks into a pair of green eyes. He helps her upright.

“Are you okay, did you get hurt” he asks as he bends down to take her shoe out of the slit. “Yes, thank you, I didn’t get hurt.”

When he stand up in front of her, she can see he has a slightly tanned skin, pitch black hair, with green eyes that looked like emeralds shining in the sun. His lips are full and lure one closer to kiss them. Her eyes slide over his body. He is neatly dressed and his shirt tightens around his big arms and broad chest. He is much taller than Anzelle because she has to look up to him. He has narrow hips and muscular legs. The strong hands holding her shoe are to dream of. She wonders where he comes from, because he is not wearing traditional clothing that she can identify. He is dressed very modern.

Amir is still standing with the shoe in his hands. He looks down at the girl in front of him. She has beautiful blue eyes and blonde hair that frames her pretty little face. She has a small nose that bounces slightly but fits perfectly in with her small face. Her lips are full, red and kissable. She is much shorter than him, but what a beautiful girl. He stands amazed as if enchanted by her beauty. Both experience a Cinderella like moment. Suddenly the elevator door closes behind him and knocks him on his elbow. He takes a step forward, back into the elevator. After the two of them stared at each other, it is Amir who first comes to life. He holds the shoe out to Anzelle. She blushes as she takes the shoe from him.

“Thank you, if you didn’t catch me then I do not know ...” she says shyly and blushes even more when their fingers touch. Hundreds of volts of electricity go through both of their bodies and out their toes.

“It looks like your shoe is broken” Amir says as he pulls the heel away from the rest of the shoe. Surprised, Anzelle looks at him.

“You can speak Afrikaans!”

“Yes, my mother is from South Africa. She is currently visiting her sister who has cancer. I accompanied her on her trip here. My name is Amir.”

“Please to meet you. My name is Anzelle” she replies as she places her little hand in his massive big hand which he holds out to her.

She must stop herself from pulling her hand out of his, because there is a hot glow that goes through her body. It burns where their hands touches each other. Slowly Amir let go of Anzelle’s hand. He felt it too.

The elevator doors open on the first floor. Unevenly Anzelle steps out of the elevator with just one shoe on. Luckily she has an extra pair of shoes in her suitcase. She turns around and looks down at the broken shoe in her hand.

“Thank you very much for your help.”

“Pleasure” he replies and their eyes merge again as the doors of the elevator closes.

Very confused, Anzelle looks at the shoe in her hand. She turns around and walks to the sitting area where her fellow air hostesses are waiting for her. She can’t decide if what happened just now was a dream or a nightmare.

“Wow girl, what happened to you” asks nosy Bettie.

“What does it look like?” Anzelle says bitchy as she holds her shoe out to Bettie and clicks her tongue. She put her suitcase down on the floor next to the sofa and sits down. She opens her suitcase and takes out another pair of shoes.

“Good morning sunshine” a brunette greets Anzelle.

“There is no sunshine in my morning, thank you.”

“Why, what is wrong girlfriend?”

“You know what my grandmother use to say about oversleeping and accidents always happen three times in a row?”

“No man, those are old wife’s tales. Nothing can go wrong today. Has the plane ever crashed with us if you or I have overslept before?” Sunette asks Anzelle with one eyebrow raised.

“No, it didn’t. But everything went wrong so far this morning. First I overslept because we drank too much last night. I have a hangover with a headache and it feels like I have a desert in my mouth. When I took headache pills this morning, I choked on the water. Then I almost fell down the stairs at the townhouse on my way to my car. When I got onto the highway, there was a dumbass driving very slow in front of me just to irritate me more. When I got in the elevator, the heel of my shoe got stuck in between the floor and the elevator. Look here, the whole shoe is broken” she says as she holds her shoe out to Sunette.

“Everything happened because you were in a hurry” Sunette consoles her.

“No, my grandmother always said that accidents happen three times in a row. First I overslept then I choked on the water. On my way to my car I almost fell down the stairs. And now my shoe broke, what’s next?”

“No man, now you’re talking nonsense. If you count carefully it’s four incidents. Don’t be such a doomsday prophet.” Sunette says and taps Anzelle on her shoulder.

“Put on your other pair of shoes. It’s almost time to go on board.”

Anzelle puts on her other shoes. She gets up and throws the broken shoe in the trash with a click of the tongue. They get ready to board the plane and walk through the hallway to the door of the plane. In front of them are the captain and the pilot. The captain peeks over his shoulder at Sunette and she blushes.

“I see how Henk looks at you. He’s a dangerous man. He’s going to mess with you.”

“I’m just playing along. I know he will break my heart. But he is such an attractive man. A little bit of attention won’t do any harm” Sunette says innocently.

“Yes, that’s what you’re saying now. Once that man takes you into his arms, you will melt like butter. I don’t know you from yesterday. Come on, we have a lot to do.”

They have an hour to organise everything on the plane. After all trolleys with the food and the refreshments are ready, Sunette walks through the empty plane to the cabin and knocks lightly on the door. Henk opens the door.

“Hello beautiful, how can I help you?”

She blushes slightly as she look into those blue eyes and says “you can let the control tower know the passengers can board the plane Captain Henk.”

“I will, thank you” Henk says with a wink.

Sunette turns around quickly and walk down the aisle before she and Henk kiss each other. When the other air hostesses see something like that they will never hear the end of the story. They will gossip that they are in a relationship. The other girls are so jealous of each other. The pilot that accompanies Henk is not an attractive man at all. Poor thing, Sunette thinks when she thinks of Jan. He is very shy and barely talks to the air hostesses. He makes sure he boards the plane first and waits until the last passengers and crew are off the plane before making his appearance.

Today Anzelle is on duty in the small kitchen in first class. Sunette welcomes the passengers and take them to their seats. Sunette also helps them to put their hand luggage in the overhead luggage compartments and make sure they are closed properly.

When all the passengers are on board, the doors are closed. Sunette makes the necessary announcements over the loudspeaker system that they will take off soon and that everyone must put their seat belts on. She explains how the seat belts work. She also explains what the procedures are during an emergency and how the oxygen masks should be applied. She demonstrates how to put on the life jackets and how it will inflate on its own if you pull the string attached to it.

Sunette takes her seat just in time before the plane begins to accelerate and they take off. The plane’s engines are very powerful and they are in the air soon after. It is a flight of twelve and a half hours and can get laborious with so many passengers on board. When they are in the air, Sunette gets up and announces that the passengers can unbuckle their seat belts and are allowed to move around in the plane. Lunch will be served in an hour’s time.

Anzelle starts serving lunch from the kitchenette which is situated in the back of first class. She is almost done with all the passengers. As she want to ask the next passenger what he wants to eat, she stares into those emerald green eyes. She immediately recognizes those green eyes and sees that it is Amir. She greets him and asks him what he wants to eat. He answers her politely and she hands over his food. Their fingers touch for a moment. This breaks Anzelle’s concentration completely. She almost drops his food, but quickly regains her balance. She is thrown by the shockwave that ran through her body and causes her to almost forget about the last few passengers. When she finished serving lunch, she goes back to the kitchenette where Sunette is busy getting the refreshment trolley ready.

“What happened, where does that blush on your cheeks come from?”

“Go and serve the drinks first, then I’ll tell you. When you reach the last few passengers look at the big strong man with the black hair and green eyes in the second row from the front.”

Sunette does as Anzelle said and gasps for breath as she looks into Amir’s enchanting green eyes. Sunette thinks that he is very attractive. Now she is curious to hear from Anzelle what happened between her and that handsome man, but quietly continues to serve the rest of the passengers.

When she parks the trolley in its place, she asks “wow Anzelle who is that handsome man and why does he cause you to have such a blush on your cheeks?”

“It was him who caught me when my shoe got stuck at the elevator. When the elevator doors opened, I didn’t look up. My shoe got stuck and I fell forward. All of a sudden I saw these strong hands catching me. If it wasn’t for him, I’m sure I would have ended up face first in the elevator. When I looked up, I stared into those green eyes. We looked into each other’s eyes and neither of us got a word out. When we finally snapped out of it, we introduced ourselves to each other. He is very well built. Apparently he accompanied his mother who came to visit her sick sister. He said his mother is from South Africa. That’s all I know about him.”

“He is a very attractive man. Those eyes of his are enchanting. I’ve heard the Arab men like blondes, so you have to be careful. Just now he kidnaps you. Maybe he will put you in his harem in his palace.”

“You must be joking. How do you know from which country he comes from?”

“What is our destination on this flight? Where are we flying to?”

“You have a point” Anzelle says and feels like a real dumb blonde.