Flight SQA016 (The Flight Series) Read online

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  Table of Contents

  Books in The Flight Series

  Acknowledgements

  Dedication

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  About A.E. Radley

  Other Books from Ylva Publishing

  Popcorn Love

  All the Little Moments

  Blurred Lines

  Bunny Finds a Friend

  Coming from Ylva Publishing

  Rewriting the Ending

  Grounded

  Books in

  The Flight Series

  Flight SQA016

  Grounded

  (Book 2 – Coming Autumn 2016)

  Acknowledgements

  Unlike many, if not most, writers I never harboured dreams of being a published author. Therefore, I’m eternally grateful to the people who have helped, and sometimes literally shoved, me towards getting this book completed. All stories must have a great beginning and I have to thank Fletcher for mine. She saw potential in my original manuscript and opened the door for everything that came afterwards.

  Thank you to Ann, you’ve been a great sounding board and have helped me to shape so many stories. Your advice, wicked sense of humour and reminder to do my taxes on time has been invaluable.

  Writing can be a lonely task so thank you to Peggy for starting such a wonderful group and thank you to everyone in the group, your support means so very much.

  I’ll always be grateful to Astrid for taking a chance on me and to Gill for being a great editor and teaching me so much.

  AJ, thank you for the three percent.

  Most of all thank you to my wife for always being there and always knowing what to say.

  Dedication

  For Emma.

  CHAPTER 1

  If First Officer Tom Kent piloted a Boeing 747 with the same laidback attitude he drove his red Chevrolet Camaro he’d have been fired from Crown Airlines immediately.

  He weaved in and out of traffic with one hand lightly resting on the wheel while the other busily gesticulated to his tense passenger. “But, Em, you’re used to those itty bitty planes, this,” he said and smiled, “this beautiful piece of engineering is a Boeing 747-400, four Rolls Royce engines, the best in the business!”

  Emily White stared straight ahead out of the windscreen, her gaze fixed on the blurred line of cars they were overtaking. If she was going to die she wanted to know which make and model took her from this world.

  “And what are the odds that we’d occasionally fly the same schedule?” Tom asked as he happily smacked his hand down on the wheel. “It works out perfectly, I can drive you to and from work on those days. I have to admit this journey was starting to get a bit boring but now I have someone to talk to.”

  He turned to Emily and offered a big, friendly smile which she quickly returned so he could refocus his attention back to driving like a bat out of hell. He slammed his foot on the brake then weaved around another car that had joined the freeway.

  “You okay?” Tom asked with a frown. “You’ve not said a word since we left home?”

  “Yeah,” Emily quickly answered. “Yeah, sorry Tom, I’m just a bit out of it. Nervous, I guess.”

  “You’ll be great.” Tom enthused. “You completed all your training, you’re good to go.”

  Emily laughed at his childish enthusiasm for everything. “It’s my first time serving first-class passengers, real ones! Not just people from the training course putting on a posh accent.”

  “You’ll be fine,” Tom said. “How bad can it be?”

  “Three weeks of intensive training before you’re even allowed on a real flight says they think it can be pretty bad,” Emily said with a chuckle. “This is nothing like I’m used to. In my old job you didn’t have different classes, you just sat them down, checked their seat belts, did the safety demo, and tried to sell them as much over-priced merchandise and gifts as possible before we landed. This is proper service, they pay a lot for these seats and they expect the earth.”

  “And you’ll be great,” Tom reached into the centre console and picked out a sweet from an open bag and threw it into his mouth. “You’ve had the training, you passed the course. And think of the money.” He rubbed his thumb and finger together.

  “That’s the only reason I’m doing this.” Emily sighed. “The schedule stinks and I’ll hardly see Henry but the money makes it worthwhile.”

  Tom nodded half-heartedly. “I still think that two transatlantics a week are going to be too much for you, Em. You’ll burn out,” he said seriously.

  Emily shrugged. “It’s the only way I get to spend time with Henry. What’s the point in having time off if I’m in the wrong country? And the more I work, the quicker I can pay you and Lucy back.”

  “You don’t need to pay us anything. We love having you and Henry stay with us.” Tom’s reply was genuine.

  Emily smiled and reached over to gently squeeze his shoulder. “You’re both so kind but you know me, I have to pay my own way. I’ve gotta pay you guys rent, not to mention pay Lucy for all her baby-sitting services. Especially now! She’s going to see Henry more than I am. He’s only five, he’s going to think she’s his mother.”

  They both shared a laugh and Emily stole a sweet before returning her hands to her lap and nervously rubbed them together.

  “Lucy loves Henry, she loves watching him while you’re away. You don’t owe us anything, you focus on paying off your debts first.”

  “Okay, I’m getting depressed,” Emily told him with a sigh. “Tell me more about this fancy plane of yours. Any advice?”

  “Well, we seat three hundred and sixty-seven passengers in total,” Tom began as if reading from a well-rehearsed presentation. “Two hundred and seventy-one in standard, seventy-two in premium and twenty-four in first-class. There are ten cabin crew on board and your senior cabin crew manager is Iris Winter, have you heard of her?”

  “Nope.” Emily shook her head.

  “She’s a bitch,” Tom said simply. “Don’t mess with her, do what she tells you and you’ll be fine. If you don’t agree with something, ignore it, it’s not worth it. I’ve heard stories of her busting first-class cabin crew back down to economy for talking back to her and that would be a hell of a pay cut for you.”

  “What?” Emily cried. “Surely she can’t do that?”

  “Her husband is head of cabin operations in New York, she does what she likes and he lets her.” Tom shook his head. “Needless to say, she rules with an iron fist because she can. So keep out of her way.”

  “Gotcha.” Emily nodded.

  “First-class has four cabin crew. Two attend to the upper deck first-class area while the other two look after first-class at the front of the plane, the nose,” Tom explained. “If you can get the nose, do. There are fourteen seats on the upper deck but only ten in the nose. It’s quieter and more of the frequent fly
ers take the nose because it’s nearer the door for disembarking.”

  Emily nodded. “Okay, try to get the nose, got it.”

  Tom looked at his watch. “Wheels up at seven this evening, so we’ve got three hours until then. You’ll have an hour in the debriefing room and then an hour on board until passengers start to arrive.”

  “When do we land at Heathrow again?” Emily asked.

  “Seven-thirty in the morning. This will be a busy flight because it’s Sunday evening. Another who does a week’s work in London wants to get there for early Monday morning so this is the flight.”

  “One hell of a commute.” She laughed.

  “Not if you’re in first-class.”

  Emily groaned. “True. Oh, I hope they all just want to go to sleep.”

  “They will,” Tom said. “They lose a few hours going to London. We take off at seven in the evening and land at seven in the morning but it’s only a seven hour flight, so between take-off, and landing they only have five hours to sleep, max.”

  They arrived at JFK airport and Tom pulled into the Crown Airlines parking lot and his assigned space. Emily fussed with her deep-purple skirt to ensure it was as pristine as when she removed it from the dry-cleaning bag that morning.

  “You look great,” Tom reassured.

  “Great isn’t good enough,” Emily told him. “I need to look impeccable all the time.”

  She smoothed her white shirt down and got a compact mirror out of her bag to examine her hair and makeup.

  “It’s okay for you guys,” Emily continued as she fussed with a few strands of long, blonde hair that had fallen out of the intricate up-do she had chosen that morning. “White shirt, tie, black suit. Done.”

  “Don’t forget the hat.” He placed his First Officer’s cap on his head and slung his uniform jacket over his shoulder.

  Emily opened her carry-on luggage and removed her matching purple jacket. She replaced her flat shoes with the impressive high-heels she was supposed to wear when not serving. She fiddled with the high collar of her jacket and then picked up her name badge from her bag, affixed it to her lapel, and looked at Tom for approval.

  He smiled at her and nodded. “Perfect, you look one hundred percent Crown first-class.”

  “Good.” Emily zipped her bag up. “Let’s hope I still look like this after a nine-hour nightshift.”

  Tom lifted out her carry-on luggage and gestured towards the Crown Airlines staff entrance. They walked across the car park and into the building.

  CHAPTER 2

  Emily walked confidently along the carpeted corridor dragging her wheeled, work-issued luggage behind her. She looked out for the cabin crew debriefing room for Flight SQA016 to London Heathrow. Animated chatter drifted from a nearby meeting room. Emily poked her head around the door and asked, “Flight sixteen to Heathrow?”

  “Yes, and you must be Emily White?” a friendly Australian girl replied.

  “That’s me.” Emily held out her hand.

  “Jessica, Jessica Martin,” she shook Emily’s hand. “I work first-class so hopefully we’ll be paired up. I used to work with Michael, who you replaced.”

  “What happened to Michael?” Emily asked.

  “Promotion, he got a cushy desk job over in Training,” Jessica sighed. “What we all want when we’re sick of waking up and not knowing what day it is or what country we’re in.”

  “Well, that should be a little easier for me now.” Emily smiled as Jessica led her to a small table with assorted refreshments. “It’ll either be London or New York. If I’m in a hotel, then it’s London.”

  Jessica laughed. “After a nine hour shift you’ll still get confused, trust me. Have you done transatlantic before?”

  “No,” Emily admitted quietly. “Never even been out of this country. With my last job, I was on short-haul all over the place, really fast paced. Will be nice to not have to deal with turnarounds.”

  Jessica filled up a small coffee cup and nodded. “Yep, when we’re done with that plane, we’re outta there. No going straight back for us.”

  “So are you on the upper deck?” Emily asked casually as she took the cup Jessica offered her.

  “No, I’m in the nose, fewer passengers.” Jessica winked. “I just hope Iris keeps it like that.”

  “The cabin manager?”

  “Yup, she’s a bitch,” Jessica said softly.

  “Yeah, I’d heard.”

  The chattering in the room suddenly stopped and the staff fell silent as a well-groomed, short woman with light brown hair entered the room and looked around at the group.

  “Good afternoon, crew,” she said as she parked up her luggage. “Two hours until take-off so let’s get this debriefing underway.”

  Emily was quickly introduced to the team by Iris who gave her the quickest of polite smiles. A wave of relief washed over Emily when it was announced that she would be paired up with Jessica and they would be taking responsibility for the forward first-class compartment, the coveted nose.

  The briefing lasted exactly forty-five minutes. Emily wasn’t at all surprised that the agenda was adhered to with military precision.

  After the meeting, the cabin crew scrambled to get their bags and to get to the gate to begin boarding preparations but Emily found her exit from the room cut off by Iris.

  “Miss White, I’m glad to have you with us,” Iris said in a frosty tone.

  “Thank you, Mrs Winter.” Emily said, keeping her professional face firmly in place. “I’m eager to get started and be an asset to the team.”

  That seemed to please Iris and she gave a stiff smile. “Good. Welcome to the team. Stick close to Miss Martin, she knows first-class very well and will be able to show you all the intricacies of working onboard a real flight. Things that they probably don’t teach you in training.”

  “Absolutely.” Emily nodded, deciding that the less she said, the better.

  Iris stepped to one side and Emily quickly exited the meeting room. She was relieved to see Jessica waiting for her down the corridor, for although she had worked in JFK before, she had never even set foot in the long-haul sections of the airport, so was unsure where to go.

  “Hey, thanks for waiting.”

  “Been sufficiently welcomed to the team?” Jessica asked with a knowing grin.

  “Yeah,” Emily said. “I feel all warm and cosy now.”

  Jessica laughed. “If you’re lucky that will be the last time you talk to her one-on-one, aside from when you call her onboard to say we’re ready for take-off or landing.”

  “Fingers crossed.” Emily smiled as they walked through a set of security doors.

  * * *

  A few passengers had gathered at the boarding gate and looked up with interest as the glamorous cabin crew glided past.

  Emily glanced out of the windows along the airbridge and admired the sheer size of the 747. She stepped onto the aircraft where some of her colleagues turned right to head towards the economy section while she followed Jessica to the left, up towards the front end. They passed through the premium section before dropping their bags off in the first-class crew galley.

  “Have you seen the new first-class cabins?” Jessica asked, removing her dress jacket and hanging it neatly in the galley closet. “They have only been in service a couple of months.”

  “No, the training course had the old stock,” Emily replied as she hung her jacket next to Jessica’s.

  “Ta da!” Jessica threw back the curtain that separated first-class from the galley.

  Emily stepped through and looked around with an impressed nod. She walked further into the cabin. There were ten luxurious seats, five on either side of the aircraft, narrowing towards the front but still enough to give each passenger privacy. There was a faint glow of purple in the dimmed ceiling lights. Even in the low light Emily could see that everything about the cabin was magnificent and she understood why people would choose to fly in such luxurious surroundings.

  Jessica expla
ined the layout. “So the seat rows are six through ten. On the left we have seat A and on the right we have seat K, that’s just so we’re compliant with the seating in economy.”

  Emily nodded and looked up at the row numbers to familiarise herself with them.

  Jessica approached seat 8A and began a quick demonstration. “As you can see, the chairs all have a separate, high-backed, curved wall behind them which gives the passenger behind more privacy, and there is a large storage bin below the window. All seats fully convert into flat beds.” She sat down and pointed at the screen embedded in the shiny wall in front of her. “They also have a private touch-screen television, which is dead simple to use and the ground crew check it as part of their maintenance routine so we don’t need to worry.” To the right of the screen sat a permanently fixed stool with a half-height back on it. “These are for people travelling together who want to work during the flight or dine together.” Jessica pressed a button on the wall next to the television and a panel popped out. She lifted out a table and folded it out to full size. “These new tables can accommodate two full dinner services.”

  She folded the table away and stood up. She indicated a panel of buttons to the side of the seat and identical buttons at eye level on the curved wall. “You can use either of these panels to make the bed,” she explained, pushing a button that caused the base of the chair to slide forward while the back reclined automatically. “When the chair is a bed the stool becomes the end of the bed.”

  Emily nodded as she took it all in. “And we make the beds for all the passengers, right? We don’t want them to do it themselves even if they want to.”

  “Right, health and safety,” Jessica agreed. “Most will say they want to go to bed and will go to use one of the three washrooms over by the galley. When they go, you need to lower the chairs, get the padded bed sheets, the pillow, and the quilt from the galley and make the bed up. We stagger the meals slightly to make sure that everyone doesn’t want to get ready for bed at the same time. As with all service, we move from the back to the front of the cabin.”