Gogoll A Few Days of Tenderness

1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-3-95609-108-7
Verlag: el!es-Verlag
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 224 Seiten

Gina and Teri meet while cruising along at about 10,000 feet. This unlikely pair decides to spend Christmas together, and then their ways will part again. Gina, the rich heiress is to return to her jet set life; Teri, the furniture designer to her work. But Teri falls in love. Gina, however seems to slide effortlessly back into her life full of affairs. Were a 'Few Days of Tenderness' really all Teri could hope for?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gogoll, Ruth

Leseproben

1

“You don’t like flying, I suppose?”

Teri barely heard the voice next to her through the noise pounding in her ears. “No,” she replied with difficulty. “If I could avoid it, I wouldn’t fly at all.”

The voice laughed. “Don’t be afraid. We’re not going to crash.”

Teri glanced painfully over at the seat next to her on the plane, in the direction of the voice. “If you say so . . .” She didn’t seem to be convinced.

“I fly all the time,” the woman said as she looked at Teri with interest. “And so far, I’ve never yet fallen out of the sky.” She laughed again.

“There’s always a first time,” Teri replied sullenly.

“You’re right.” The woman still eyed Teri. “But not while we’re in the air. What do you say?”

“I need to listen to my CD to calm down. I’m sure it’ll make me feel better, soon.” With trembling fingers Teri tried to plug the headphones into the device she had on her lap, but she couldn’t make it connect.

“May I help?” Her neighbor’s steady fingers reached over and grasped hers, taking the plug from Teri’s hand and inserting it into the MP3 player’s tiny hole. “There. Now you can distract yourself.” She smiled at Teri.

Teri felt as though she had to apologize. “You don’t know what it’s like . . .”

“No, I don’t. I’m never scared,” the other woman explained. “But there’s no shame in it if you are, you know. If you need any help, just let me know.” She held out her hand to Teri. “My name is Gina. Gina Lichtenburg.”

Teri was too confused to take her hand right away and her fingers still trembled when she finally did. “Thanks,” she said. “Teresa Dengler.” She grimaced. “But no one calls me Teresa. Everyone calls me Teri.”

“It fits you better anyway.” Gina Lichtenburg gave her a friendly smile. “You’re much too young to be called Teresa.”

Teri shrugged. “There are definitely different opinions about that.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Gina Lichtenburg’s smile deepened. “Are you flying home to see your family? For Christmas?”

“I . . .” Teri gulped. “I don’t have any family anymore. My parents died in a plane crash.”

“I’m so sorry. Now I understand why you don’t like to fly,” Gina nodded. “I understand it very well.”

“Yes, I . . . it’s hard to stop thinking about it when I’m on a plane,” Teri confirmed. “But sometimes I have to fly for business. This time my company sent me to New York and now I’m on my way home.”

“What do you do?” Gina asked.

“I design furniture,” Teri said. “Actually, I’m an interior designer but I could never find the furniture I had in mind to for the space I was planning, so I started to design it myself.”

Gina smiled approvingly. “Very creative. I’m not like that at all.” She laughed. “I just buy the furniture that’s out there.”

“Well, there’s lots of it,” Teri said. “For every taste. I’m just very particular.” She smiled wryly. “I’m sorry, Gina – I really need to listen to my hypnosis CD now, otherwise –”

“Have fun,” Gina replied with a smile. “If you fall asleep I’ll wake you up before we land.”

“Fall asleep?” Teri raised her eyebrows. “When I’m flying, not even a hypnosis CD can help me relax that much.” She put the ear buds in her ears, leaned back and closed her eyes.

Gina watched her thoughtfully as the plane was gliding over the clouds. She didn’t expect to meet somebody on this flight who interested her the way this woman Teri did. Teresa . . . Come on . . . impossible. She smiled slightly.

To be honest, she had to admit that she didn’t even want to be interested in anyone in that way right now. She had to break up with Claudia first, anyway.

And she didn’t want to get involved that way. Not that quickly, anyway. Sex . . . yes, but no relationship, nothing emotional. It always ended with a disaster. How often had she experienced this and how often did she promise herself to stop getting involved? And yet she did it again and again. There were simply too many attractive women to try to ignore them all.

She looked through the window, and then at Teri again. Why did she always have to smile while looking at her?

Teri’s eyelids twitched. She was probably trying to get into some kind of trance so she could make it through the awful ordeal of the flight.

Gina shook her head slightly. This was something she really didn’t understand. She loved challenges. As for fear . . . she didn’t know fear at all, so she had a hard time grasping the feeling even theoretically.

But maybe she should have let it overtake her at least once. It might have helped her avoid falling for one or the other of the women. On the other hand . . . she smiled, amused . . . not everything she experienced because of her fearlessness was all bad. Just the opposite.

But right now . . . she sighed inwardly. She had to leave Claudia and she knew it wouldn’t be easy. Claudia stuck to her – and to the comfortable life that was part of Gina’s money and lifestyle – like a barnacle. Claudia wouldn’t give her up that easily.

Gina figured it would be the best to pay her a settlement. But did she really want to do that? And if so . . . how much would be enough? Claudia was pretty sophisticated.

Gina leaned her head back and let the clouds drift by, watching Teri out of the corner of her eye. Unlike Teri, she found flying to be very relaxing. She probably would never have gotten enough sleep if she didn’t travel so much. On solid ground she was constantly way too busy to sleep.

After a while her eyes closed automatically and the clouds became pillows for her sweet dreams. She slept and glided through places that had nothing to do with her daily life.

Teri tried hard to concentrate on the voice in her ear buds, and to forget where she was. The man’s deep, sonorous voice was calming and should’ve helped her, but today it seemed to be harder to let the hypnosis sink in.

Maybe she was so keyed up because of the excitement before the departure. It had been so hectic. She arrived at the airport at the very last minute and had to run through the terminal like an Olympic sprinting champion in order to catch the flight. Not being the athletic type, the spurt not only caused her heart to pound wildly in her chest, but the fear she had of flying seemed to multiply and explode; she was still trying to recover.

The woman next to her, however, had something calming about her. As her fingers had touched Teri’s to take the headphones, Teri had felt a natural serenity, a complement to something she was lacking.

Gina Lichtenburg seemed to be so self-aware, so confident. A woman who knew what she wanted, and most likely got it.

Usually Teri didn’t fly business class. This was an exception – the New York company she was working with apparently booked business class all the time. Teri was pleasantly surprised when the flight attendant had shown her her seat.

It was nice. The seats were much bigger and more comfortable, and the service attentive. And flying tourist class, she wouldn’t have met the woman sitting next to her.

She sighed. It was no use. The CD wasn’t working for her. Well, it wasn’t really a CD, either, but she still called it that, even after she transferred the file to her MP3 player.

She opened her eyes. Maybe she could concentrate on something else to distract her. She always reserved an aisle or middle seat so she wouldn’t have to look out of the window. She let her eyes wander.

Her neighbor sat by the window and of course, she didn’t seem to mind at all. Because of the wider seats in business class, Teri was sitting pretty far away from her.

But as she looked over to Gina’s seat, she couldn’t help glancing at the partly cloudy sky outside, and startled, she held her breath. She gasped quietly.

In less than a second, the flight attendant was at her side. “Can I bring you something?”

Teri turned away from the window, facing the woman in her neat uniform. “No. No, thank you, I . . .” But then she remembered that in the first class, drinks were free. “A glass of whiskey, please,” she said quickly. “With soda.”

“Certainly.” The flight attendant nodded and turned around to get the drink from the galley.

Teri avoided looking at her sleeping seatmate again. Unlike Teri, she seemed to find flying relaxing.

Teri sighed deeply. If only they had landed already . . . To walk on solid ground again . . .

The flight attendant returned. She opened the small folding tray in front of Teri, and set down the glass of whiskey. “Anything else?” She gave her a professional smile.

“No.” Teri shook her head. “That’s all, thanks.”

“Call me if you need anything,” the flight attendant offered courteously. She walked slowly down the aisle, keeping an eye out to see if any passengers required her services.

If I have to fly, maybe I should make sure to fly first class from now on, Teri thought. The service compensates for quite a few things.

But not for her fear of flying....