Memories of Flight 727 (Camren)

Chapter 2

One great advantage to being a VIP of sorts on the twice daily flight, was that Camila was off the plane before just about anyone else, and her luggage was waiting for her by the time she got to the terminal. Along with a cab that got her to her hotel while others were still waiting for their suitcases. By the time any of them reached their hotel check ins, Camila had already unpacked, changed into a comfortable, sleeveless black blouse and a cream colored skirt, and was heading for the casino to try her luck.

"There has to be some mistake," Camila heard a woman's voice say as she crossed the lobby.

She automatically turned in the direction it had come from. In this case, the front desk she had checked in at a short time before. Normally, she would've just continued on her way, but Camila found herself stopping in her tracks when she saw that the voice belonged to the woman from the plane.

Curious, and in no real hurry to lose her money at the blackjack table, Camila moved a little closer to see what was going on. She walked up to the small display of pamphlets on the far end of the counter, picking one up about helicopter tours and pretended to read it.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but I've checked it twice," the white haired desk clerk, whose name tag read George, said as he looked away from his computer screen. "We don't have any reservation for a Lauren Jauregui."

"But I know the girl who does our company's travel arrangements made the reservation," Lauren insisted. "It has to be there."

The clerk gave a shrug of his shoulders, as if he believed that the woman was just another person who'd shown up without a reservation and was trying to bully her way into a room. He'd seen it too many times to give it credence, but he went through the motions and checked a third time, with the same results.

"Wait a second," Lauren said before he could move on to the guest who was waiting behind her to check in, "check under Griffin, Lauren Griffin, they might have put it under there."

The green eyed businesswoman remembered at the last minute that she'd hadn't informed the personnel director that she planned to go back to using her maiden name now that her divorce was final. That might be the reason for the mix-up.

"Sorry, no Griffin either," the exasperated clerk said as he now insisted that Lauren step aside and let those with valid reservations check in.

"Oh my God. Jauregui!" Camila gasped as the memory she had been trying to earlier recall suddenly became crystal clear.

The name might not have hit home with the hotel clerk, but it certainly did with Camila . The girl had only been nineteen when she'd met her for a brief moment some five years before, but she'd made a quite lasting impression.

It had been on Flight 727, the redeye out of Newark to Los Angeles, and now that she'd made the mental connection, Camila remembered it like it was yesterday. Lauren had been one of the two women who'd had an in-flight sexual encounter in the bathroom while most of the other passengers dozed their way cross-country.

One of the reasons Camila remembered the incident so clearly was, aside from having been incredibly turned on by them as she listened outside the door, the then senior flight attendant had given her card to the older of the two, Lucy Vives, as she disembarked. On the back of the card had been her number and an invitation to dinner. An invitation that the New York based lawyer had taken her up on.

Much more satisfying activities had followed dinner, to be repeated two more times while both of them were in Los Angeles. They had never crossed paths again, but the memory of that weekend had remained in her mind. How amazing it was, Camila thought as she put the flyer back in the cardboard holder, to run into the other half of that daring duo after all this time.