***Monday***
Jonathan and Jennifer had basically spent most of Sunday in bed. It had rained all day, so they spent the day watching movies, sharing a bubble bath, and making love.
Monday found them both leaving the penthouse. Jennifer was going to go to the Times to talk to her boss about coming back to work and Jonathan was headed to the office.
Jennifer put on an orchid colored t-shirt wrap dress, with tan strappy wedges. She looked absolutely gorgeous.
Jonathan had on a black suit with a green striped tie.
He came into the kitchen and found her making him coffee.
"Hey gorgeous."
"Hey handsome".
She leaned up and kissed him.
"We better go before I rip that dress off of you".
He kissed her forehead.
"I was thinking the same thing about your suit. You look hot in a suit, darling".
He poured his coffee into a travel mug and she grabbed her purse, and they headed out.
The car service dropped her off first, and then took him to the office.
"Love you, darling. See you later".
"Love you baby. My me loves your you".
"My me loves your you too".
She kissed him several times and then got out and headed inside.
She headed straight to her bosses office, and knocked on the door.
"Come in".
She opened the door and went in.
"Jennifer! Hi! Come on in".
"Hi. Got a minute?"
"Of course".
"So, obviously, I'm no longer in Australia. And I don't want to take another overseas job. It looks like I will be here for the time being."
"I love that you will be in New York. Unfortunately, I don't have any openings. I can offer you freelance, but I can't guarantee you how many offers will come in a month".
"I see."
"I'm sorry, I wish I could offer you more".
"It's quite alright".
"Here is what I have as far as freelance offers, and I promise I'll call you if something comes up".
She looked over the topics and found that none of them really appealed to her.
"Thank you".
She headed to the bathroom on her way out.
She was in the stall when she heard someone else start talking.
"How did it go this morning?"
"As good as I could expect, I suppose. I can only imagine what will happen when ditzy Jennifer goes before them this week. God, I wish I didn't have to be there all week long".
Jennifer was shocked. She recognized the second voice as Morgan's, and the first voice as another colleague.
"She's not ditzy, she's actually very intelligent".
"Oh please. She's extremely gullible. I brought my brother with me to that dinner I told you about, and passed him off as my boyfriend. And she bought the whole thing. Totally fell for it. Never mind the fact that we had brunch together every week for months, and I never mentioned a boyfriend".
Jennifer decided to make her presence known. She quietly stood up and got herself together, flushed the toilet and came out. She said nothing to them as she washed her hands at the other sink, and then left the bathroom without saying a word.
***Jonathan's office***
Jonathan was on the phone trying to get a report from someone when Jennifer came in.
"Dave, see if you can rustle it up, I have to go now."
He hung up the phone and stood up and came over to her.
"Hey, everything ok?"
"Well, I'm just having a pity party. I talked to my boss and she has no options besides freelance."
"I see. Do you want to do freelance?"
"Yeah, if the terms are right. I don't like the ones that she gave me, though".
"Is that all this is?"
"No, but the rest of it is going to seem silly".
"Tell me, whatever it is, it's ok".
"I was in the bathroom, and Morgan was in there with another colleague. She was talking about being somewhere and she couldn't believe that I was going to be there and she called me ditzy and gullible. She said that guy she brought to dinner when they were all going to meet you was her brother".
"Where was it she said that you will be?"
"I have no idea. It didn't sound like she meant the Times, but it's possible that she saw me go in. The only place I'm going the rest of the week is the congressional hearing, but she wouldn't be involved in that, because she wasn't on the plane and she didn't report the story".
"Well, her opinions are just that-hers. They don't reflect how you really are. She might think you are ditzy, but I know you aren't."
She hugged him for a minute.
"I can't figure out why I'm so emotional today".
"Maybe it's just nerves due to the congressional hearing".
"Yeah, maybe".
She looked up at him.
"Want to go have lunch somewhere?"
"I would love to. Unfortunately, I have a meeting I can't miss and it's a lunch meeting. I would invite you to stay, but everyone would be focused on how gorgeous you are instead of closing my deal".
She playfully swatted him.
"I guess I'll pick up lunch somewhere and head back to the penthouse. I'll see you when you get home, darling".
She leaned up and kissed him, and then he walked her to the elevator.
"Bye darling. See you later".
"Bye darling. I love you".
He gave her a quick kiss and then headed back to his office.
Jennifer hailed a cab and told the driver to take her back to the Times.
She wanted to go to a salad place right across the street.
She walked in and ordered and was waiting in the to-go section when she spotted her.
Ava walked in with Cassie right behind her.
They all started squealing, and jumping up and down and hugging each other.
"Oh, we missed you! Are you alright? We saw on the television where some guy said you were kidnapped?"
"That was just a made up rumor. I'm fine, I'm perfectly fine. I was never kidnapped".
"When did you get back in town?"
"Saturday night."
"Join us for lunch. And we have the rest of the day off, so why don't we go get a pedicure?"
"Sounds great to me".
She changed her to go order to here and sat down with them. She told them all about Australia and Jonathan and Elliott.
"How horrible!"
"Yeah, so Jonathan and I gave our own press conference, where we cleared up the part about him not kidnapping me. I mean, that's absurd. He would never do that to me at all, or to anyone. And then I took him home to meet my father".
"How did that go?"
"Not well at first, but I made them both sit down and listen to me, and we straightened things out. Turns out Pa had listened only to Elliott's press conference and not ours, and assumed that Jonathan had kidnapped me and was angry that I brought him home. And when he invited me, I just assumed he meant us, so he was a little put out that I had brought a guest without asking, so Jonathan said he would get a hotel room, but I wouldn't let him. In the end it worked out fine, because he and my dad got along fabulously".
She took a bite of her salad and then looked at them.
"So, how is Morgan?"
"We don't know. She dropped us a few weeks ago and started hanging out with the ladies in accounting".
"That's strange".
"Yeah, I thought so too. She's been very childish lately. She won't even speak to us".
"Well, I went to the Times this morning to speak to Jessica and then I was in the bathroom. I overheard Morgan saying some unkind things about me".
"Well, she's just turned into a mean girl. I'm glad, I was sick of her rudeness".
"What did you say to her?"
"Nothing. I simply came out of the stall, washed my hands, didn't make eye contact, and left. She was stunned, though. Absolutely stunned".
"That will teach her to not look for feet under the stall next time".
"Yes, I agree."
They finished their lunch and headed to the nail salon.
Jennifer picked a sparkly white for her nails and toes.
They stayed there chatting and hanging out till around 3, and then she went home.
"I'm staying at Jonathan's while he's in town. He has a penthouse at the Plaza. So, if you need me, that's where I'll be".
"Fabulous. Brunch this weekend?"
"I can't do brunch this weekend. I'll let you know about the next one".
"Yay! Just like old times".
She took a cab back to the plaza and got out and went inside.
She immediately put on some capri yoga pants and a tank top, and pulled her hair up. Her focus was on being as comfortable as possible.
She got this intense, wouldn't-go away-have to have it craving for New York style pizza, around 4, so she called the place across the street and ordered their large special. It had 4 slices of meat lovers, 4 slices of cheese, and 4 slices of veggie pizza.
As soon as it got there, she couldn't get to it fast enough. She practically inhaled 2 pieces of cheese pizza and one piece of veggie.
Jonathan got home at 5, and found her in the kitchen finishing off the veggie pizza.
"Hi beautiful, what are you up to?"
"Hi darling. Have some pizza".
"Late lunch?"
"No. I ended up having lunch at Chopped with Ava and Cassie. And then I got home and had this intense craving for pizza, so I ordered one. I can't get enough of it, I don't know why. I saved you the three meat".
She leaned up and kissed him.
"I missed you".
"I missed you too".
She put her plate in the dishwasher and then went to the living room.
He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck.
"I know I look like I'm homeless darling, but I just wanted to be comfortable".
"Homeless? You look absolutely delectable and adorable and amazingly beautiful".
She turned and kissed him several times.
During their last kiss, the phone started ringing.
"This better be important."
He leaned over and picked it up.
"Hello? Hi, yes."
He continued to talk for a few minutes, so she sat down and began working on her computer.
When Jonathan got off the phone, he went and changed clothes and then came back to the living room. He could tell she was struggling.
"What is it?"
"My boss gave me freelance offers, but I don't like any of these".
He took the paper from her.
It was all political topics, along with one about following celebrities.
"Darling, hear me out. What if you did freelance, but not for the Times? You could find your own agent and write what about what you want to".
She thought about it for a moment.
"I love that idea! You're the greatest!"
She leaned over and kissed him.
"I should probably prepare several articles to show them the caliber of my work".
"Great idea".
He watched a baseball game and ate leftover Chinese food while she worked on her articles.
They climbed into bed together at the end of the night, and he wrapped his arms around her.
"You know what, darling? It feels like things are finally starting to fall into place. Not all the pieces, but a few."
"Yeah, I know what you mean".
He rolled on top of her and kissed her, and smoothed her hair out of her face.
"I love you so much".
"I love you too".
They made love and fell asleep happy and peaceful in each other's arms.
***The next morning***
Jennifer got up first and grabbed a shower. She put on one of her new dresses that she bought in Maryland. It was sleeveless, hot pink with a black lace edge. She put on some black stiletto's and switched to a black clutch purse.
Jonathan got in the shower behind her and put on a crisp black suit.
She poured them both a cup of coffee in travel mugs, and they headed down to the car.
The car service took them to the federal building in town, and they were escorted inside.
They were only meeting with the New York senators and congressmen, since Regent Airlines was based in New York, and the flight was headed to New York.
They were ushered into a room and told to make themselves comfortable.
They were escorted into the room and the proceedings began.
"Miss Edwards, we will start with you. Please tell us what happened on the flight, in your own words".
"Everything was fine at first. I had never flown Regent before, and I used some miles to upgrade to first class. We were in pods, instead of seats. Jonathan woke up and realized that things were going wrong, so he woke me up. After that, we just held hands and followed instructions, and put on our oxygen masks and braced for impact".
"Do you remember the impact?"
"No, I don't".
"What is your next memory?"
"Waking up on an island, and feeling like my body was on fire".
"How did you get there?"
"Jonathan. He paddled us to it from wherever we landed in the ocean. We stayed there on the island until we were rescued two days later".
"Mr. Hart, can you give us your account?"
He basically mirrored Jennifer's statement and filled in the missing details.
"So what happened after you were rescued?"
"We were taken to a hospital."
"And we were treated badly by the FAA".
"How so?"
"Well, Jonathan's ankle was broken, so he had to be admitted. And they admitted me, so they could check me out. I was fine, I was almost immediately discharged. But it seemed like from the moment we came into the hospital, we were treated like prisoners. I was told by the FAA agent that I was not allowed to contact my father. I'm an only child, my mother passed away years ago, I am all he has. And I wasn't even allowed to let him know that I was alive. No matter how you look at it, that's wrong. Also, I was discharged without anything-I had no money, no clothes. No identification. Everything I had was lost in the plane crash. The FAA agent basically told me to get out of the hospital and he didn't give any consideration to what I was going through."
"What happened after you left the hospital?"
"Well, Jonathan has an apartment here in the city so we went there and the FAA agent came to speak to us there. He informed us that they were having a meeting with the family members of those who perished in the crash. And he also informed us that at the press conference they were going to announce that we were survivors. We asked them to not release our names, but he insisted that he was going to. And not only did he release our names, he gave the press our phone numbers. I must have fielded calls from the press for 2 hours that afternoon. I am a journalist, I try my hardest to respect the wishes of the subject I am writing about. The FAA didn't respect our wishes in the slightest. So, I decided to write an article about the experience because I'm a journalist, that's what I do".
"And what did you find out?"
She turned and pulled some documents out of her briefcase.
"According to my source, I found out that Regent airlines uses substandard pieces of equipment. For example, a fan blade that should be replaced, is just turned around and reused. Entire planes are made from refurbished parts of other planes. I also found out that they pay the FAA to not cite them over maintenance issues so they can still fly. And they also allow their pilots to fly intoxicated. Now because our pilot perished in the crash, we will never know if the plane crashed because the parts were all worn out or because the pilot was drunk. And I found out that they were originally Priority Airlines, and they were sued and convicted of wrongful death and had to pay 4 million dollars. They changed their name to Regent Airlines after that. These people are literally playing with people's lives as if they are chess pieces.".
"Has Regent Airlines contacted you at all?"
"Not in so many words".
"Please explain".
"I've been accosted twice-once on the street and once in an elevator. And both times, I was told to stop investigating and let it go".
"Did you?"
"No, I didn't."
They asked Jonathan some questions after that, and then released them to a room for lunch.
"We are going to reconvene after lunch, and we might have more questions. Thank you for the documents, Miss Edwards".
They were escorted to the witness room, and placed their lunch orders.
"Someone might be joining you in a minute, due to space reasons. You have one hour for lunch. I'll see you after lunch".
As soon as the door was closed, Jonathan turned to Jennifer.
"Great job, baby".
"Thank you. I was scared to death".
"I was nervous too. But I reminded myself they just wanted to get our side of the story and we aren't on trial."
"Darling, she said someone else would be coming in. I wonder who that would be? We are the only ones testifying today".
"Maybe we aren't".
The door opened and the agent brought their lunches.
"1 grilled chicken salad with dressing on the side, 1 turkey club with fries, and 2 iced teas".
"Thank you. Do you know who it is that is coming in here? I thought we were the only ones who were testifying".
"An heir to the airline is all I know".
The agent left and Jonathan and Jennifer began to eat.
A few minutes later, the door opened.
They both looked up.
"You? You are the heir to the company?"
"That's right".