It was a cold December's night, a light beautiful blanket of soft white snow gently covered the airport of New York and as the plane landed with a halt, Connie's eyes shot open awoken with shock. She rubbed her tired eyes and gazed out of the tiny window at the new surroundings, trapped in her own little world, completely unaware of anybody else around her. She was so excited to be seeing her daughter after four long hectic months of working flat out, Grace would have 100 percent of her attention at all times for the next two weeks. 'Two weeks' Connie thought to herself, that definitely was not enough time for them to do all of what she had planned. Plus, she figured that since both of those weeks fell over the Christmas period that Sam would want to spend quite a lot of time with Grace too. It would be his first ever Christmas with his daughter and Connie couldn't take that away from him, she'd had all of the 8 Christmases with her so far so it was only fair that she let Sam have his share, he was her father after all.
'Hello mum, dads making me go 2 bed now. I cant wait 2 c u. Love you xxx' Connie read the text from her daughter over and over again, and smiled to herself. She tapped out a reply as she waited for her luggage on the huge conveyor belt.
'I can't wait to see you Gracie. I'll be there when you wake up sweetie. I love you too. Xxxx' She pressed send and chucked her phone into her handbag, now even more excited to see her baby.
"Connie..." Sam stood speechless in the doorway, staring at the beautiful woman before him. "You look..." He composed himself, stepping aside, "Come in."
Connie smirked, shaking her head slightly as she carefully made her way inside, "I expect Grace is asleep?" She slipped her jacket off and placed it in to her ex's arms, "A large glass of wine would be delightful."
"I see 'Princess Connie' hasn't changed." He scoffed, hanging her coat up, raising an eyebrow, "Come through." He added, showing Mrs Beauchamp through to the tastefully decorated kitchen.
"Oh please, I prefer Queen, Mr Strachan." A half smile playing sexily at her lips as she leant against the kitchen counter to be rewarded with a small laugh from Sam, who was busy searching for two wine glasses from the cupboard. There was a long awkward silence as he did so, until Connie finally asked, "So how has Grace been?"
Sam poured red wine into two large glasses and handed one to the clinical lead, "Well she's definitely her mother's daughter." He laughed, "She's been great. It's been so good to have her here with me, all I've ever wanted is to be able to see her every single day. Who'd have thought we'd have made something so amazing together?"
Connie sipped her wine and smiled, "Well, like you said she's definitely her mother's daughter. She gets it all from me, of course." Sam laughed at his ex's arrogance, and nodded, "And she's a handful. But perfect all the same. I don't think I should have expected any less when reproducing with Constance Beauchamp." Connie laughed and sipped her wine, not taking her eyes off of Sam, looking at him properly for the first time in years. He hadn't changed much, he'd put on a bit of weight, gained a few wrinkles and grey hairs but still had that sparkle in his eye.
"So anyway, Constance, how are you these days?" He asked, knowing that it probably still annoyed her when he called her by her full name. Her response was a roll of the eyes and the infamous death stare, "Great thanks. I've seen and been to places I never thought I'd ever encounter, I've lost and I've gained. All in all, it's been challenging, shall I say?"
"Oh yes." Sam nodded, "Your brief stint in prison. I've told you before, Con, you can't just eat the Pic'n'Mix in the shop out of the tubs, you have to pay for them." He added with a half smile playing at his lips. Connie giggled and covered her mouth with her hand to prevent the wine she was about to swallow from spilling out of her mouth.
"Sam! That was once! After that time we went to that awful dreadful bar and were ridiculously intoxicated!" She laughed, "Goodness, that must've been nearly ten years ago now." Sam watched Connie, smiling, he couldn't remember the last time they had had a conversation without one or the other snapping at the other person. All of their happy memories together were suddenly flooding back into Sam's brain like lightning, making his smile broaden.
"Ten years, yeah. Bloody hell, now I feel old." He laughed, shaking his head whilst topping up both of their glasses.
"You are old, Mr Strachan. Since when did you have so many frown lines?" She asked with a wicked smile, their faces ever so close as he finished pouring wine into her glass.
"I wish I could say the years have took their toll on you too, Mrs Beauchamp, but the truth is, they really really haven't at all." He whispered, tearing his eyes away from her seductive gaze. She was still as beautiful as ever, if not even more so. There was always something about this woman that made Sam feel incredibly free, electric pulsating wildly through his body.
Connie shifted away slightly, feeling the tension grow between them. She looked up at Sam, and interrupted the long beautiful silence between them, "Are you going to give me a tour of the house then?"
Connie closed her eyes as she relaxed in the bath, and took in the beautiful scent forming around her from the dimly lit candles. It was definitely needed after the long day she'd had travelling. She looked around Sam's bathroom, and wondered who had chosen the design and décor. It definitely wasn't her ex. This had a 'woman's touch', most certainly. She wondered who this woman could be, and where she was now. She obviously didn't live there now, Grace had never mentioned an evil step-mum and surely Sam would have informed Connie if there was another person in their daughter's life, well someone as important as a wicked step mother. Connie knew that Sam had obviously had relationships after their very brief one but she never thought that he'd had quite such a serious one as of yet. Not that she was bothered about him being with another woman, she was just concerned for Grace's sake.
Mrs Beauchamp decided not to question her ex boyfriend on the subject of what influenced the décor of his bathroom as she slowly got up out of the bath to be greeted with the fact that she had no towel and there were none lying about in the bathroom. She mentally slapped herself for not remembering something as essential when taking a bath. She couldn't shout Sam to bring her towel, she didn't want to take the risk of waking her daughter up. She opened the bathroom door slightly and prayed that Sam was in the next room, "Sam! Saaaam!" She hissed. After five minutes of whispering his name, she decided to try and run to the spare room, hoping she'd succeed without being seen. She opened the door slightly wider, and folded her arms across her bare chest and looked cautiously to the left and then the right before counting to three and running out of the door to the spare room. As she reached the door, she felt victorious, she'd made it!
"You still have the best bum I've ever seen." Connie jumped almost out of her skin, shutting her eyes tight in embarrassment, she turned her head slowly, to see Sam standing in the doorway opposite her room, grinning like a Cheshire cat. She shook her head, unable to speak, before quickly escaping into the bedroom her cheeks flushing crimson.
Sam grabbed a fresh towel from the airing cupboard before gently knocking on the bedroom door, Connie opened it slightly, stood behind protecting what dignity she had left. Sam held the towel out to her, "Don't be embarrassed, Con. It's nothing I haven't seen before." Connie gratefully took the towel and wrapped it around her body before opening the door fully, "Yes but that was ten years ago, Sam. I really don't fancy the idea of being naked around you, anymore." She snapped, a little nastily, as if her were poison and totally undesirable. Sam looked at her, "You're definitely still the same. A complete and utter bitch."
They both glared at one another for what seemed like an eternity before Sam plunged forward towards her and Connie wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling their two bodies hard against each other as their lips touched causing fire to course through their veins. Sam pushed Connie into the bedroom as he kissed her passionately, kicking the door shut behind them ready for a night of steamy passion.