“So, how come you are on this flight, I thought you were heading south?”
“Well, I am taking a little detour.”
“Why?”
“So I could be with you.”
“Some detour.”
He took out a piece of paper.
“Here, this is my temporary appointment to teach art at a high school during a female teacher’s maternity leave. I am there for three terms only. Is a term the same thing as a semester?”
“What is a semester?”
“It is what we have in American schools.”
I frowned, I was being a bit thick, but the penny slowly dropped.
“It is for the Brighton High School, Sussex, England.”
I stared at him, and broke down into tears.
He held me, as I was just overcome. A stewardess came over.
“Is she all right sir?”
“She is fine, we’ve just become engaged,” he said.
“Oh, how wonderful, congratulations.”
That stopped me crying. I sat up and stared at him.
“What did you say?”
“Well it stopped you crying.”
“Simon.”
“What?”
“You can’t go around saying that.”
“Why not?”
“Because it isn’t true?”
“Will you marry me?”
I stared at him.
“Well?”
“I’m six years younger than you.”
“So, marry me?”
“You are my art teacher for God’s sake.”
“So? Marry me.”
“I’m going mad.”
“Then marry me before they lock you up.”
Everything that was in me that was labelled ‘Common Sense’ screamed ‘NO’ at me. But everything else wanted to be with him forever.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I just can’t.”
“Yes you can.”
I looked into his eyes, and saw all the love in the world.
“Simon?”
“What?”
“Why?”
“Because I love you with all my heart, all my soul and all my lower intestine. I want to grow old with you, and hide your teeth.”
I started to laugh, and he held me close. I only just realised, but we had taken off.
“Well?” he said.
“Oh all right, but we can’t make it official, the school wouldn’t allow it.”
“I don’t have a problem with that. As long as you wear the ring.”
He handed me a box, and opened it. I gasped in surprise, for inside lay the most enormous diamond I had ever seen.
“Simon, I can’t wear that. It’s massive.”
He took it out and slipped it onto my left ring finger. Then he gently kissed me on the cheek.
“Thank you. You have just made me the happiest man alive.”
I went from an extreme low to the dizziest high I had ever experienced. My brain was telling me that I was a fool, but my heart and soul soared along side the Boeing 747.
The cabin crew brought us champagne, and I showed my ring off, I had a huge grin stapled in place, and I was so much in love that I ached inside. I had a fleeting thought of Dave, and with it came a pang of guilt, but then I realised that he knew me better than I had anticipated.
The flight went like a dream, and Simon and I just talked all through the night. We made no plans, as both of us knew that plans were fickle things, we just were prepared to take one day as it came.
“So, I take it you are going back to school now?”
I grinned.
“I hear there is a really hunky new art teacher, so I’ll have to check him out.”
“I’m jealous,” he said, and I kissed him.
“Where will you stay?”
“I hear there is a nice house on the Eastbourne road, some girl is looking to take a lodger.”
“Oh, I don’t know, her fiancé is a real big guy, he might get jealous.”
“Settled then,” he said, and grinned.
“The school are going to go spare. I’m still only seventeen.”
“Going on twenty-five. You haven’t looked in a mirror recently, obviously.”
“What do you mean?”
He picked up the Washington Post, and turned to the fashion pages. He folded it and passed it to me.
“Look.”
I looked at it.
I was on the catwalk and was wearing a dress, which was now in my suitcase. I looked very different to how I thought I looked from the inside, and he was right, as I looked over twenty. It was the eyes more than anything else. Those eyes that had seen people die, and they reflected the pain that I had undergone over the past few years. But there was a confidence and joy, which sprung out of being the person I wanted to be, and the girl in me was just ecstatic to be just that, a girl.
“Hardly a schoolgirl, huh?” he asked.
I smiled.
“Inside I am.”
He gently kissed me.
“You know it and I know it, and we both know you have seen and done more than most thirty year olds.”
“Maybe, but I haven’t had much time as being me.”
“Then we can enjoy that together.”
I snuggled against him, and just enjoyed him holding me. I actually dozed off for a while.
We landed on schedule, at Heathrow Terminal Three, and slowly walked along the piers towards the immigration desks.
We had to split up as he went through the long queue for Non-EC passengers, and I whizzed through and went to the baggage hall. He wasn’t that long, and soon we were locating and heaving the cases off the conveyor.
He laughed at the amount of luggage I had, but then realised that he was going to be the one pushing it. We managed to balance it all on one trolley, and went through the ‘Nothing to declare’ door, and onto the concourse.
“I’ll rent a car,” he declared, and he made for the car rental desks. Being only twenty-three, there was a real problem, so we took a cab in the end. The black cab driver was delighted, as he would make enough from us to take the rest of the day off. I negotiated a reasonable fare with him, and while we were doing so, he looked closely at me.
“’ere, are you that model they call Superbabe?”
“Yes, I’m Sandi Lake.”
“Shit, you made the papers over here. Your old man was shot by the old bill, or something?”
“That’s right. Look, do we have to go through all this again?”
“I’m sorry, but my son has your pictures all over ‘is bleedin’ wall at home. He’ll be chuffed to know you’ve been in my cab.”
“What is your son’s name?”
“Mikey.”
I signed the photo from the newspaper, and gave it to him. I had written, To Mikey, with love from Sandi Lake.
He then knocked off a few quid from the agreed fare, and we were off. Fame has its advantages.
Simon was still cross about not being able to rent a car. I smiled, and thought of the cars in the garage back home.
“Simon, do you like Jaguars?”
“You bet. Why?”
“There is a brand new one in the garage. It’s mine now, so all we have to do is get a mortgage for the insurance.”
“Do you drive?”
“Only a motorcycle. I’ve not had a chance to drive a car. I do have a provisional licence.”
“I’ll teach you.”
“I’ll have to take proper lessons first. You may find driving in England very different to America.”
He grinned, and held me close as we sped out of the London sprawl, and made our way south.
13.
The house was as I had left it. The cabbie came in and I made us all a cup of tea. He was over the moon at being invited in, and I am sure he would dine out on it for the rest of his life. I could see him now, boring the pants off his punters.
“I’ve had that model, Sandi Lake in my cab. She is a right darling, gave me a cup of tea and everything. She has a real nice house overlooking the sea down on the south coast. She is a nice one, she is.”
But he was anxious to return to London, and Simon and I were alone. I felt shattered, as it had been a very long time without sleep, so I went and had a long bath, while Simon explored the house and garage.