When Ordinary Isn't Ch. 03

Peggy's cellphone rang as she drove home.

"This is Doctor Foreman," she answered on the hands-free.

"Doctor Foreman, my name is Monica Sanz. I will be piloting the aircraft Mr. Reiter has dispatched to Orlando for you. Do you have some time for me to ask just a few questions?"

Captain Sanz requested Peggy's home address which she located on Google Maps. Considering the little information Mr. Reiter had provided about the passenger, the captain was somewhat startled by the appearance of her passenger's residence on the satellite and street views, but decided it wasn't her concern, or any of her business.

"Ma'am, the airplane will be ready to depart at six o'clock tomorrow morning. You'll need to be aboard no later than 7:40. You're free to board anytime between. I will forward you the address to the facility from which we'll be departing. You'll have it within the hour. If you have any specific requests, please don't hesitate to mention them in a reply. You'll be served breakfast on the aircraft."

"Um, okay," Peggy sheepishly replied.

"Have a good evening, Doctor Foreman," the pilot said before disconnecting the call.

"What have I gotten myself into?" Peggy whispered to herself.

She pulled into her driveway just after 8:00pm and walked into her house. In her bedroom, she stared blankly in her closet, having no idea what to pack.

No luggage restrictions or fees. Yeah. It's a private freaking jet! Sheesh. Maybe I should just take everything.

Peggy spent a half-hour to settle on four different business suits, two with pants, two with skirts. She decided she'd be more comfortable flying in the light gray suit, so she left it on the rod and began packing a medium sized hard-side suitcase with other sundries and casual attire.

She heard her phone chime with an incoming iMessage. It was from Captain Sanz. Opening it, she found a geo-pin which, when tapped, opened Apple Maps. The pin was situated in the parking lot of a building directly adjacent to a large hangar.

The pilot had decided Orlando Executive Airport to be the most convenient facility to Peggy's residence which was also capable of servicing a Cessna Citation.

Peggy punched her address into the "From" field and was given a route estimating a twenty minute drive from her home. She set an alarm for 5:15 AM, only a half-hour earlier than any typical workday's. She finished packing, dressed for bed, turned out the lights, and stared at the ceiling for almost two hours before she finally fell asleep.

The next morning, Peggy had no problems locating the facility, though found the whole following experience to be disorienting. She'd never once flown in anything other than a typical commercial airliner, with all the annoying hustle and bustle, hurry-up and wait chaos.

As soon as she entered through the front doors at 6:45, a young man working the reception desk stood and approached her.

"Good morning, ma'am. May I help you?"

"I'm meeting a plane here, I think."

"May I have your name?"

"Doctor Margaret Foreman."

"You came to the right place. Please, follow me. Your plane and crew are standing by."

He relieved her of her suitcase, and she followed him down a long hallway to a fire door. She followed him into a world with which she was completely unfamiliar. She stepped into a cavernous hangar holding a half-dozen aircraft. Another was chocked immediately outside the high-bay doors. She saw an airplane, brightly lit, landing on a runway a few hundred yards distant. She could hear the high-pitched squeal of the parked plane's auxiliary power unit. Its plumes of heated air refracted the landscape behind the plane.

As the two neared the aircraft, a uniformed man approached her.

"Doctor Foreman?" he said with his volume raised to be heard over the sound of the aircraft's APU.

"Good morning," she acknowledged.

The receptionist handed her bag off to an individual who was wearing a bright yellow safety vest. The former turned and went back to the door they'd passed through, and the latter took her bag directly to the plane and stowed it.

"Right this way, ma'am," the uniformed man said, walking her to the airstairs.

No check-in lines, no baggage check, no taking shoes off for security, no body scans or x-rays of carry-ons. No lines anywhere, no hassles of any sort. Three minutes after closing her car's door, Peggy was escorted aboard the airplane.

A woman significantly older than herself, who bore four stripes on both epaulets of her well-tailored uniform, greeted her at the steps.

"Good morning, Doctor Foreman. I'm Captain Sanz. Welcome aboard."

The pilot gestured to the steps, and Peggy climbed in. She had to crouch slightly as the door and cabin were a bit too confined for her to stand fully upright.

"Ma'am, I'm Danny Harper, your host," the uniformed man said. "Please take whichever seat you prefer."

The cabin was configured to seat six with three seats on each side of a narrow aisle. The forward-most seats faced each other while the aft-most pair faced forward. Peggy chose the first plush leather seat which faced forward on the port side of the luxuriously appointed cabin. She removed her suit coat which Danny hung in a closet opposite the small galley. She watched the copilot pull the airstairs in. The interior was quieted.

"If you're comfortable, please buckle up," Danny said.

She did.

"Ready to head north, Doctor Foreman?" she heard from the cockpit.

"Yes, Captain," Peggy answered.

"This is a short hop. We'll have you in Atlanta in about an hour."

"Okay, thanks."

She chuckled at herself because, until that point in her life, the only words an on-duty pilot had ever spoken to her directly were 'buh-bye' as she disembarked a commercial flight.

Not one minute later, the engines spooled up and the airplane began its taxi. It was airborne five minutes after she'd boarded.

The flight was comfortably smooth. Peggy considered the breakfast she was served to be beyond compare. The printed card describing it made Peggy's stomach growl because she was seldom one to shy away from exotic fare.

It consisted of an omelet of goose eggs, caribou sausage, Gruyere and Fontina cheeses. It was presented with the cutest little bottle of Tabasco sauce Peggy had ever seen. It was served with a toasted bagel alongside a small tub of cream cheese. A bowl of prepared berries rounded the meal, and a cup of gourmet coffee was provided which Danny kept full. He sat in the aftmost seat on the opposite side and checked in on her only a few times. He displayed the perfect balance of attentiveness without being obsequious.

He collected her tray just before she heard the landing gear deploy. Four minutes later, they were on the ground at Atlanta's Fulton County Airport, taxiing to another hangar.

Peggy's eyes widened when she saw Eric through her window. He was standing near a Mercedes-Benz, appearing as the man she saw in the photograph. Incredibly distinguished and impeccably attired, he exuded the same confidence and strength. He seemed so completely unlike the man with whom she'd spent a very pleasant day and a half.

She waved at him when his eyes found hers in the window, and he smiled and waved back. The settled to a stop, and its engines were shut down. She observed safety-vested people scurry around the plane before Danny came to fetch her.

As she walked down the short aisle, the pilot looked over her shoulder and said, "Have a pleasant morning, Doctor Foreman. We'll see you later this afternoon for the flight to Oklahoma City."

"Thank you, Captain Sanz," she responded before descending the airstairs.

As she stepped out of the door, she saw a crewman hoist her suitcase into the back of the Benz and close the trunk. The driver opened the passenger doors and waited. Eric stepped sprightly to the aircraft and offered his hand as Peggy reached the final step.

"Good lord, Eric, you look incredible. Is it really you in there?" she asked with an appreciative up-and-down survey.

He laughed his discomforted laugh, so she knew it was definitely the same man.

"Yeah, it's me." He smiled. "I know, I know, I'm way overdressed. I hate this kind of showy crap, but it kinda comes with the territory on days like today."

He leaned in toward her and whispered in her ear, "You look absolutely stunning , Peggy. I can't tell you how desperate I am to kiss you right now, but it's not the right time or place."

Only then did she notice a few photographers standing behind a cordon, all with optics pointed straight at them. The images they captured wouldn't show her stunned look of confusion because she'd instinctively turned her back to them. She nodded her understanding.

Eric guided her to the Mercedes and helped her into it before closing her door. He walked to the other side and entered the vehicle. He didn't need to say anything. As soon as his door closed, the driver briskly drove away from the mild chaos.

"Holy crap, Eric. Will you please tell me what the hell is going on? The last sixteen hours have been absolutely insane. You have to tell me what this is all about. If I'd have known I was going to be paraded in front of a bunch of reporters or whatever those people were, I probably would have stayed home."

"I apologize. I guess the Oklahoma press caught wind of this somehow. Please, Peggy, listen to me. Remember what I said yesterday on the phone. I'm me , okay? All this crap and foofaraw is nuts, and I get it."

"What the hell does all that mean?"

He watched her body language and expressions. She seemed exceedingly tense and nervous, if not embarrassed. He knew he didn't need to ask her the question.

"Eric, are you going to tell me—"

He kissed her softly, stopping her words. She grunted in opposition for a split second before her senses caught up. She then returned his kiss slowly and with equal tenderness. He was freshly shaven, and she enjoyed the texture of his smooth-as-silk skin as her lips contacted it. His familiar scent, flavor, warmth, and soft lips re-centered and balanced her. She looked ahead to see if the driver was watching. There was a screen between the compartments. Only then did she realize the vehicle was an executive limousine.

She took a deep breath, clutching Eric's hand fiercely in her own. He enveloped it, holding it with both of his. She looked at him and saw his warm smile.

"It's me. Do you believe me?"

"Yeah. I remember you," she said with a soft smile.

"Okay. We've got about a half hour until we get where we're going. What do you want to know?"

"Well, for starters, exactly where are we going?"

"The offices of Jacobs and Sterns, a law firm. They're managing the contracts and all the garbage which goes along with the endowment I've offered to the hospital."

"Huh? Contracts? Don't you just write a check and it's done?"

"Don't I wish. No, there's an awful lot more to it than that, and it's why I have attorneys to deal with it all. I've retained the firm for years and years and trust them more than the local firms in Oklahoma. Since you'll be new in the room, it'll be a little bit of a meet and greet, lots of handshaking and introductions. Several members of the board of the hospital will be there, and they're going to try to grill you with questions.

"Answer them if you want or defer them until tomorrow. No one but me is expecting you to be here today. That was a purely selfish thing on my part." He smiled. "Think of today like a warm-up for tomorrow. You'll be fine. It'll probably be sort of like when you defended your thesis."

"How did you know I wrote a thesis?" she challenged. "Most MDs don't."

"Is that really what you want to ask right now?"

"Yeah. That can wait."

She stared at him for several moments.

"Eric, exactly who the hell are you?"

"There it is. Like I said, I'm the guy you met a few weeks ago. But there's more fluff and nougat to me, I guess you could say. Now you know I co-founded Reiter-Marlin, and I sort of walked away from it. You don't know it wasn't my first rodeo. Lance and I… you talked to Lance yesterday, yeah?"

She nodded.

"Lance and I started several companies over the last fifteen years. Our first was a flop. We were right out of college and were looking to conquer the world, but it was a total disaster. We declared bankruptcy within two years. Our second one broke even, and we sold it to the venture cap firm which financed us. Cleaned up the bankruptcy of the first one with the leftovers.

"Our third was… well… it was successful. Very successful. We both walked away from it. It made us an awful lot of money. We'd been living on peanut butter sandwiches and ramen for years, and, all of a sudden, we were eating steaks in Manhattan. That was when I had the same sort of experience as you last night and this morning.

"Lance and I were called at midnight one night and were told to go to the airport where a jet was waiting. We didn't even think to pack anything.

"We landed in New Jersey three hours later and were escorted to a pilot's lounge where we were able to catch some zees. A bunch of suits walked in at nine that morning, made us an offer, and wire transferred nine digits' worth of dollars into each of our bank accounts.

"Those same suits then left in the same plane we'd just gotten out of a few hours before and flew off to wherever.

"We were left in the same street clothes we'd put on like twenty-four hours earlier. They got what they came for and left two suddenly very wealthy boys with no ride home. We'd just sold our business for millions of dollars, and we're sitting in an airport in Teterboro, scratching our heads, and wondering what the hell we were going to do next. That's when it got weird." He chuckled dryly.

"It wasn't already?"

"Huh-uh. We took a taxi into Manhattan for lunch and enjoyed the best steaks we'd ever eaten. The maître d' had to lend us sport coats, because our clothes didn't comply with the restaurant's dress code. We'd struck it rich, and thought we were on top of the world.

"We flew back to Oklahoma that evening. Commercial. Coach, even. It was so weird, you know? We went back to our offices the next day, stood there in the lobby for a few minutes, just staring blankly at each other because we suddenly realized we didn't run the place anymore. Only then did we realize we didn't even have jobs."

"Then what happened?"

"Hundreds of people lost their jobs, and shit hit the fan. The company that bought us out had no intention of keeping our people employed. They only wanted our intellectual property and patent portfolio and shut the company down.

"Lance and I learned a few days later how our employees, our former employees, arrived to locked doors when they came to work the following Monday."

"Oh my god."

"Exactly. We were ignorant and naive. We were immature and impulsive. We were suddenly the enemies to an awful lot of incredible people. Lance and I vowed to never make that same mistake again. We made it right, though, or at least we tried."

"How?"

"We continued our former employees' salaries for six months under a paper company we put a bunch of money into."

"That's fantastic."

"You'd think, but it didn't satisfy everyone."

"Is that why you keep asking me if I know who you are?"

"Partly. It's sort of scary how people come out of the woodwork as a former employee or relative of one and make things difficult. Then there's the other side."

"What's the other side?"

"That's going to take more time to explain. We're almost there. I'll answer anything you ask later. I promise."

"Eric, this is all so sudden. It's so weird. Am I going to be okay?"

"I'm sure of it," he said earnestly. "You've got this. Today is only an introduction."

"An introduction for what?" she asked because she didn't have but a fuzzy picture of what she would be expected to discuss.

"Right. So you read the article in the paper about the endowment. It mentioned I'd added a proviso requiring the consideration of you for the position of research director."

"But what if I say 'no?'"

"If you don't want to do it, that's fine. It's entirely up to you, but don't answer either way until you've soaked on it for a few days.

"I think you're a perfect fit for the position. I downloaded your thesis after Lance gave me your full name and your credentials. That's how I know you earned both an MD and Ph.D. I read it and some of your other papers. That's why it took me a couple of hours to call you back. I knew in an instant you'd be a perfect fit. You told me enough about your history and experience to at least take the risk.

"The final requirement for the endowment is for them to consider you for the position. I will not be pushing you on them. It'd be both improper and unethical. I only want to introduce you and let them do their thing. They may choose to decline to make you an offer. You may decline to accept it if they do. Either way, they've still fulfilled the requirement. I'll fly you back to Florida, and that'll be that."

"What if we all say yes?"

"Well, I imagine you'll have a hell of a lot of work to do, which, if you plan on practicing medicine along with research, will include getting licensed in Oklahoma. Probably better ethically and for liability reasons to do that anyway."

"True," she acknowledged.

"You ready?"

She hadn't realized they were stopped in front of a high-rise. The driver opened Peggy's door, and she stepped to the curb.

What followed were some handshakes and lots of legal gobbledygook of which she stayed clear. A phenomenal catered lunch was served, and Peggy had to consciously fight the urge to gorge on the delights because she didn't want to appear gluttonous.

Eric saw the bird-sized portions on her plate and whispered in her ear, "We'll have a nice dinner later."

She chuckled at him with a knowing smile.

The meeting, such as it was, wasn't nearly as arduous or taxing as she'd feared. She was relaxed when it adjourned.

"Where's everybody off to?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"It's only three o'clock. I figured this would be an all-day thing."

"Well, several of them have to be back in time for tomorrow's meeting in OKC, and they're flying commercial. We'll probably land there before some of their flights depart."

"Showing off?"

"Just a little bit." He grinned, gesturing a small gap between his finger and thumb.

"Jeez." She looked out the windows of the skyscraper. "What have I gotten myself into?"

"Too much?"

"I wonder." She sighed cautiously.

"Hey. Come here," he requested with his arms held apart.

She walked to him. He pulled her into a comforting embrace.

"Is it really just Eric? Or is it always going to be Mister Eric Reiter?"

"I'm sorry, Peggy. This is kinda my life right now, but the guy you met back in Orlando can't wait to show up. Like I said this morning, I really hate all this showy crap, but it's expected by certain folks, and it's what I do. You were fantastic, by the way, so I know there's some secret sauce about you, too."

"Oh?" she challenged with mock offense.

"Your wit. Your confidence. It was really exciting for me to see your professional side. You're more like me than you think. I saw a few weeks ago how you're fun, you're funny, you're playful as all hell, you're… well, it's awesome to see your professional side blend perfectly with your off-hours persona."

"Yeah?"

"Yes." He smiled. "You ready to head to the airport?"

"Sure."

"I'll let Monica know we're on our way, and have the car come fetch us," he said as he began tapping two texts on his phone.

They rode down the seventy-seven floors in an elevator, enjoying a few moments of silence with some of the same closeness they'd enjoyed the first time they rode in an elevator together.