Free Around the World in 80 Men by Brandi Ratliff Page B

your flight leaves in less
than two hours, are you ready?” Julianne called through the
bathroom door.
    “Just...about....there,” the girl replied,
holding locks of hair between her lips as she gave her hair a few
final touches of the flat iron.
    Julianne opened the unlocked door and
propped herself against the wall, staring at the young girl. She
anxiously looked down at her watch, then back up at Morgan. Even
with two hours until the flight, Julianne hated to cut anything
close, and for the first job of her new apprentice, there was no
room for error.
    “Look...look at this!” Julianne laughed as
she pointed to all of the beauty paraphernalia that was still lying
about the bathroom counter. She grabbed Morgan's beauty bag, and
with a sweep of her arm, she knocked an assortment of blushes,
bronzers, lipsticks and eyelash curlers into the bag.
    “Hey!” Morgan protested, retrieving her
lipgloss from the bag, “I need this!” Morgan smiled at her, gave
her hair one last pass of the straightener and unplugged the
device. She wrapped it in a heat protection sleeve and stuck it
into the floral beauty bag and pushed her lipgloss deep into her
back pocket and slid her sunglasses over her hair, acting as a
headband more than UV protection.
    “Okay, I'm ready, how do I look?” Morgan
excitedly did a spin for Julianne, showing off her travel
attire.
    “Like a trillion bucks, now let's go,”
Julianne seemed less than amused. Morgan slung her beauty bag over
her shoulder and reached for her suitcase, Julianne stopped her.
“Have we not learned anything, child?” With the push of a button, a
hotel attendant arrived at their door, grabbing the bags before
Morgan could even ask.
    “Ladies need not to carry luggage,” Julianne
answered Morgan's questioning look.
    What are we allowed to do? Morgan thought. Right on cue, Julianne seemed to
have read her thoughts again, although, this time, Morgan figured
the look on her face may have given it away.
    “You just be beautiful, and provide
excellent companionship, my dear. That's it. You don't worry that
pretty little face. Just remember all that we've talked about and
you'll be perfect,” Julianne assured her.
    This time, Morgan was sure
her look gave it away, Julianne continued, “oh, it's not that much to remember.
You make them open doors and carry things for you! It's not that
hard.”
    They continued their argument all the way
down the elevator and out to the limo. Morgan enjoyed giving her a
hard time. In all truth, the whole process had gone more smoothly
than she could have even imagined and more so, it really wasn't
that hard.
    “Okay, your flight leaves at 10:36, you'll
be flying for about six and a half hours, but you'll get there
right around noon. Got it? Finlay will be waiting for you, so keep
a look out when you get there. I'll send you a picture of him so
you can remember exactly what he looks like,” Julianne continued
her speech.
    Morgan smiled at her and even if it wasn't
ladylike, she quickly wrapped her arms around Julianne and quietly
thanked her and told her that she would do her best to make her
proud.
    Julianne patted the young girl on the back,
“you've already made me proud, dear. Now go, on with you!”
    With that, Morgan climbed into the limo and
Julianne shut the door behind her. With a last little wave, the car
pulled out of the lot and headed toward the airport.
    *****
     
    As Morgan stepped into the Akron/Canton
Regional Airport, she instantly felt as if she had been dunked into
a pool tied to cement bricks. For the first time in days, she
didn't think about sex, food, shopping, Scotland, or even Finlay.
She was going to have to fly, and not just fly, she had to fly over
the ocean.
    After a few long moments, she finally
mustered the courage to go to the counter, check in her bags, scan
her ticket, go through security and ask for directions to the right
terminal. As she paced around the the lobby, she applied another
thick coat of lipgloss,