To Sir with Love

CHAPTER 43

Jess set off at midday to go to Manchester airport to pick Peter up. She'd dropped Ruby off en-route at her mum's house rather than taking her to the airport, thinking if Peter's flight was delayed that she would get bored. Peter had moved to New Zealand when his work had a vacancy come up over there five years previously. As he was single it seemed too good an opportunity to pass up and he'd worked his way up to middle management in those five years. This was the second time he'd been home to visit since moving there. Jess had always got on well with him as there was only a year between them and she'd been looking forward to seeing him again. He'd put a letter in with her Christmas Card the previous year saying he would come to visit in the first half of the following year.

Drawing up at the airport car park, Jess walked across the bridge into the terminal and waited in the arrivals level. The monitor said his flight had just landed, so she knew she had around half an hour or so to wait. Checking her phone, she saw that Jason had texted her to remind her he would pick her and Ruby up the following day at 10am and that he was looking forward to seeing her. A smile crossed her face as she thought about him. He had messaged her after work on Thursday to let her know that he hadn't been able to stop thinking about her all day. On the Friday she had the day off and had arrived back from the gym to see the postman about to take a package back to the post office, as she'd been out when he'd knocked a few moments earlier. Ripping the packaging open, she saw it contained a box of very expensive looking French macarons, along with a message from him saying once again that he couldn't stop thinking of her. She had messaged him to thank him for the present, thinking he was really trying to make her feel special with the messages and gift. Jason had replied to her towards the end of the day asking if there was anything special she wanted to do while they were in London. She had mischievously replied that she wanted him to make good on his promise to kiss her all over at some point. Smiling widely when he'd replied back that he'd be doing a lot more to her than kissing her if she let him.

'Jess!!!!!' a voice called, tearing her thoughts away from Jason, as a large crowd of people emerged through the double doors leading from the baggage reclaim area and her cousin caught sight of her standing to one side as she waited for him.

'Peter!!!!' Jess shrieked, running towards him as he caught her up in a tight bear hug and squeezed all the air out of her.

'Oh my god! Look at you!!!!' Peter remarked, holding her at arms length so he could look her up and down. 'How gorgeous do you look! Being separated from Steve agrees with you, Jess. He took in her skinny jeans and light blue sweater and thought she looked amazing. 'You been working out cuz?' he asked, shooting her a sideways glance as she pointed at the Car Park sign and told him to follow her.

Jess flushed slightly and nodded. 'Yeah, I've lost a bit of weight and I've been going to the gym three times a week.'

'You can tell. So is this because you hooked up with a new bloke? James isn't it?' Peter asked, trying to remember the small amount of info his aunt had shared with him the last time he'd spoken to her to arrange who was picking him up at the airport.

'Jason. That's his name. Yes, he's really fit and Steve was less than complimentary when we split about how I looked.  So I decided to do something about it.'

'Fit as in he keeps fit or fit as in handsome?' Peter joked, winking at her cheekily.

Jess blushed, thinking both expressions of the words would be how she would describe him. 'Both.'

'Well I'm glad. Will I maybe get to meet him while I'm here?'

'Maybe next week. Me and Ruby are away in London with him tomorrow night for a couple of nights.' Jess replied, shooting a smile in his direction as they reached the car park as she waved away his offer to pay, as he took his wallet from his back pocket.