FATED (3 page)

Who would have thought it, me Frankie Jones flying first class?

I had only ever had one trip abroad before; I knew this was way beyond my usual means. We weren’t a well-off family, and although in the last year I’d had some lucky breaks this had to be the best break yet. I put my earpieces in and relaxed into my music.

Two

I felt the drop in temperature almost immediately the plane door opened. I pulled my black parka coat around me, feeling pleased that I had gone shopping for the coat and snow boots, Bella had insisted I was going to need. After all, she had experience of being here and I had only recollections of seeing New York in November on English TV. I vacated the plane and joined the rest of the first class passengers heading towards arrivals. 

I heard Bella before I saw her, ‘Frankie, over here,’ she shouted. Her voice carried over the hustle and bustle.

I caught sight of her then, all blonde hair and flailing arms, waving above her head. My best friend was simply gorgeous and I realised in just that minute how much I had missed even the sight of her. A few steps and screams later, she pulled me into a massive hug. Clutching on to each other as though our lives depended on it, we jumped up and down.

‘Gorgeous girl, I can’t believe you are finally here, New York isn’t going to know what’s hit it this weekend. Have I got a plan!’ she said, with a huge grin and a twinkle in her blue eyes.

I stood back slightly, to take a good look at her. Using Skype just hadn’t cut it. She stood taller than me by a couple of inches; this is how we had first met at school. We were the tall girls, the ones who had freakishly hit adolescence way before anyone else.  Our friendship had seen us through multiple boyfriends and break-ups, family problems and bereavements. Although I had to say, the boyfriends and break-ups were mainly on Bella, whilst unfortunately the family problems and bereavements were on me.

‘I can’t believe I’m here,’ I said, gazing around at JFK arrivals.

‘Well you are, so let’s go. The first surprise of the weekend is our lift. You are so not going to believe how we are going home this afternoon.’ She motioned towards a black limo waiting outside of arrivals. Turning towards me, she stopped, grinned and waggled her eyebrows laughing.

‘OMG, Bella,’ I shouted, ‘you shouldn’t have.’ Grabbing hold of her arm and linking mine through it, I pulled her quickly towards the beautiful car.

‘Oh I didn’t, this is one of the perks of your new job.’

The very large driver of the limo waited patiently outside of the vehicle. As we walked nearer he smiled a genuine smile, ‘Miss Jones?’ he questioned, I nodded opening my mouth in amazement.

‘Edwards, Miss Jones,’ and he lifted his hand to shake mine. ‘While you’re in New York, I am going to be your driver,’ with that, he opened the door to the limo for Bella and me to get in. I had never seen the inside of a limo before and faltered on the threshold for a few seconds, admiring the leather seats and a champagne bucket awaiting us.  Edwards very competently stowed my luggage in the boot.

‘It’s got to be said Frankie, I don’t think I have ever seen you speechless before,’ Bella retorted. We both jumped in on the bench seat and roared with laughter. Just being here with Bella made me so happy, we laughed over nothing in particular, and that left me clutching my sides and realising this was just what I needed, a complete change.

Our laughter was broken by the sound of music. ‘What the hell’s that?’ enquired Bella.

A light lit up the inside of my handbag. Fumbling inside, I pulled out the iPhone that had been supplied with my new job. The music was indicating an incoming text message. We both instinctively started chair dancing along to the beat. Bella was still roaring with laughter, as we recognised the track as
Welcome to New York
by Taylor Swift.

Welcome Frankie!

I do hope your journey was as pleasant as possible. You will by now have met Edwards. He is one of my most trusted drivers and is at your disposal from now and all the time you are here with us in New York. He is under instructions to take you back to Bella’s apartment this afternoon. Although if you change your mind and would like to stay in the accommodation offered with your position, please let me know and we can move you immediately. That would please me greatly. I wish you an enjoyable weekend with Bella.

I thought the text tone was appropriate!

Keep safe

Yours Alex Blackmore

CEO Blackmore industries

‘So, tell me about your new job?’ asked Bella, literally lying on top of me, trying to read the text over my shoulder.

We sat back, warm in the limo, drinking the champagne provided. Talking as if we had never been apart and I explained how I had been head hunted.

Back in England I had been working at Foxworth House. I provided physiotherapy for injured service personnel. It had been an awe-inspiring experience, but too damned close to home after losing JJ. I needed a change and jumped at the chance to come to New York to be with Bella.

‘Well, Bella, I’m going to be physiotherapist to Nathan Blackmore, do you know the Superbike rider?’

I watched as Bella’s eyes widened with disbelief, her tongue jutted out through her teeth to lick her lips. ‘Wow, you don’t say, he’s yummy with a capital Y.’ She stretched out, crossing her legs at the ankles and placing her hands together on her stomach, interlinking her fingers. ‘Mm mm, what I could do with a man like that,’ she spoke, but I wasn’t sure if she was still talking to me, or just out loud. ‘No wonder we get the limo ride home, Miss Physio to the rich and famous.’

I slapped her thigh playfully. ‘You have me at a disadvantage; I have no idea who he is really, apart from the medical records I received last week explaining his accident and subsequent injuries.’ Shrugging my shoulders, I shook my head and looked at Bella, waiting for answers.

‘You are untrue, where have you been, bloody Antarctica? Well let’s put it this way,’ she grinned at me, ‘you won’t be disappointed. Put that iPhone to good use and Google a picture of him.’ It took me just a few minutes to do so.

Bella was fanning her face with her right hand and laughing at the expression on my face as I magnified the image on my phone of Nathan Blackmore. The picture showed a tall, dirty-blond haired, gorgeous man. He had, well half had on his white bike leathers, the sleeves were tied around his waist. It revealed a naked, well muscled, lean, tanned, tattooed torso. But it was his face. He wore a cheeky lopsided grin and with oddly recognisable sparkling hazel eyes, the complete package seemed to give you the idea of a very bad boy.

‘Mm, mm, mmmm!’  left my lips. She was right I wasn’t disappointed.

We settled again hardly speaking, but holding hands tightly, enjoying the excitement and the closeness of our friendship. We sat back just watching New York slide past the windows of the limo. The second bottle of champagne we found in the fridge went down slower than our first, and I relaxed into the comfort of our friendship and the leather upholstery of the limo, and started to doze.

Three

‘Frankie, Frankie, wake up,’ I vaguely heard, but it was the sharp elbow I received from my so called best friend, straight to the middle of my ribs, that brought me back to the land of the living. ‘When we have finished here, we are SO having a chat.’

‘Finished where?’ I replied, looking out of the limo window into a green park area. Gingerly I rubbed at my ribs.

Edwards opened the door and extended his hand to first help Bella and then me out. ‘Miss Jones, Mr. Blackmore asked me to show you the accommodation available to you, in case you might want to use it.’

I glanced at Bella and shrugged my shoulders at her, ‘Erm... OK.’ My English politeness was obviously taking over. Because all I really wanted to do was to get to Bella’s apartment in Hoboken.

Bella stood beside me in stunned silence; it was a day of firsts, as I don’t think I had ever witnessed it before. I followed the gaze of her eyes to the magnificent building in front of us. ‘You don’t know where we are, do you,’ she lowered her voice so only I could hear her, hopefully, ‘the green area is Central Park and this is 5
th
Avenue,’ she sounded awe struck. I sort of had an idea that this was possibly a good place to be living, but other than that the address went straight over my head.

We followed the very large frame of Edwards as he entered the foyer of the building. He stopped to have a quick conversation with the security guards and motioned us through to the lift furthest away from the entrance. ‘This is the elevator we have to use, as it’s the only one that goes straight up to the penthouse level,’ he looked down at us expecting at least a modicum of understanding.

‘The, where?’ Bella almost screeched, grabbing me by the arm and gripping me so tightly I could feel her long finger nails through my coat. ‘Bella’ I whispered, trying to pretend that this happened to me every day. We almost danced into the lift.

Edwards just looked amused and glanced at us both. The lift rose quickly and stopped suddenly; we all disembarked into a large square marble hallway. I took in my surroundings, the cream marbled floor, a central arrangement of greenery and the four solid oak doors each placed next to a corner. We followed Edwards to the left and after he had swiped the key card, he held the door open wide for us to enter. ‘I’ll leave you to it ladies, have a good look around and meet me downstairs in the foyer when you are ready,’ and with that the door closed behind him.

The room was enormous, with floor to ceiling windows overlooking New York; I stood still, taking the beautiful place in. The seating area was central to the room, to reach it you stepped down, leaving the dark hardwood floors behind and stepping onto a luscious, expensive, cream carpet. The cream settees were positioned in an L shape, pointing towards the corner window and the spectacular view of the park. The room was finished in tones of browns and creams, with the piece de resistance being a free-standing, open fireplace.

‘WooooHoooo!’ Bella ran quickly past me and jumped onto the nearest settee ‘Will you just look at this place, Frankie.... Is this for real?’ I couldn’t help smiling when I saw the look of glee on her face. ‘How big is it? Could we both stay here?’ she waggled her eyebrows at me, a telltale trade mark of Bella’s when she was excited. She used her left hand to sweep away the hair, that running and jumping had caused to fall onto her face.

Three doors led off the main room; upon further investigation we found a kitchen and two symmetrically huge bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms.

‘Could we?’ I questioned Bella, ‘what about your apartment?’

‘We could stay here for as long as your job lasts and then go back to mine afterwards, I mean it is closer to my job, which would be nice not having the commute for a while,’ her convincing argument came out so quickly. The words almost tripping her up in her haste to get me to say yes.

Frowning, I pursed my lips together, thinking, ‘Oh, bloody hell, why not?’ She was in my arms almost immediately and together hugging, we jumped up and down. The doorbell sounded and then the door swung open. Edwards appeared in the doorway, almost filling the void with his frame, carrying my luggage ‘Am I wrong?’ he questioned, smiling at both of us.

‘No,’ I replied, smiling back at him, ‘bring it in please.’

Edwards took Bella back to her apartment in Hoboken so she could get her stuff. I made an overdue call to my aunt and uncle back home, to put their minds at rest, and to tell them of mine and Bella’s good fortune and new address.

Strangely my aunt wasn’t at all surprised, which was unusual as she normally questioned everything?

Oh well never look a gift horse in the mouth.

After I had unpacked and showered, I sat down on a settee with a cup of tea. You can take a girl out of England, but not England out of the girl, I thought laughing to myself.

On the coffee table in front of me was an envelope, I hadn’t noticed it before. The stationary was blue and expensive looking. Opening it, I read;

Hi Frankie

No don’t worry; there will be no additional music to accompany this. I am pleased you like the place enough to stay; I hope you and Bella will enjoy your time here. The building is safe and I know you will be in good hands. It is ideal for your physio sessions with Nathan, as he will be in the next apartment to your left from sometime on Sunday.

If you need anything, please let me know.

Yours Alex

Christ, was I that predictable to Alex, I corrected myself Mr. Blackmore?

I ran my fingertips slowly over the beautifully composed handwriting.

Getting up and going to the door, I glanced across the empty hallway; looking instinctively for the door mentioned in the letter. I heard the lift coming up and waited for Bella to arrive. Doing so, I caught an unmistakable masculine scent of a fresh, clean, ocean smell. I must be delusional; no, more than delusional... I really needed to get a grip. Pulling myself together, I waited for Bella.

We spent a further couple of hours settling in. Bella had so many clothes, it took an age to find them all a home, and some even encroached into my wardrobe.  Finally, we sat down, in an exhausted heap, wearing our pyjamas. ‘Sexy, huh?’ I laughed.

‘Oh, that’s reminded me,’ Bella stared at me, ‘talking about sexy, care to share the interesting dream you had in the limo earlier?’ Her blue eyes stared into mine, ‘Good old Jabby again, I can’t believe you haven’t moved on, Frankie?  Horny, much?’ she laughed.

I shoved her over away from me and the take away pizza.

Sighing and chewing my bottom lip I began, ‘All I have to do is close my eyes, Bella and he’s back,’ I told her about my embarrassment on the plane. She sat shaking her head at me in disbelief and amusement, stuffing an oversized slice of pizza into her daintily sized mouth.

‘More now than ever before, you need a man!’ I could always trust Bella to say it just how it was, whether I liked it or not. ‘Well this maybe your first night in New York, and we are in with a pizza, but tomorrow you are so out with me! Let’s see if we can create some new erotic memories, eh?’ Her grin was positively catching; I knew she meant business. I swallowed hard, in anticipation and dread.