Free Old Lovers Don't Die by Paul G Anderson

there in ten minutes because that is all you have before they call my flight. Christian looked at Petrea, fascinated that she would want to know more about him, but also concerned that he did not have a resume as interesting as hers to talk about. He had already decided that he liked her and wondered whether she was just going to be gone in ten minutes. One of those chance meetings beyond serendipity, but which never fulfilled a hidden potential. He decided to give her the abbreviated version of his resume.
    “I’m going to London and then on to Kigali in Rwanda. I’m going to work at a small hospital down on the Congolese border for three months at a place called Garanyi which is where my father once worked as a surgeon.”
    “Wow, impressively concise. So much information in two sentences. Let me see how I decoded it. You are going on the same flight as me, your father was a surgeon, and you are imbued with an adventurous nature and quite possibly possess a philanthropic gene.”
    “Well to be honest, I didn’t really know how to start and you said there was only ten minutes”
    “Well, you have got my interest, and I want to know more and now there’s only five minutes.”
    “Perhaps the detail wouldn’t be as interesting.”
    “No, I’m a fairly good judge if you’ll pardon the expression; I think the detail would only be interesting. How good a judge of character are you? Do you trust me after knowing me for fifteen minutes?”
    Christian looked at Petrea while she held his gaze waiting for him to answer. Everything about her seemed to personify integrity. Even after knowing her for such a short time, he not only liked what he saw but also trusted her and wanted to know more about what she did and stood for.
    “I trust you.” He said with a large querulous smile.
    “Okay, give me your ticket and your boarding pass.”
    Christian looked at her, then reached down into his bag, took out his ticket and boarding pass, and handed them to Petrea.
    “Good,” she said as she stood up.
    “I’ll be back in two minutes. If I’m not, you’ll know that I’ve met someone else and we are both flying to London together.”
    As Petrea walked off towards the frequent flyer service desk, she turned and winked at him without breaking stride.
    Christian sat looking at his passport, suddenly the victim of a wave of post-cognitive dissonance. Was he that insecure that, after being flattered by an attractive woman for fifteen minutes, he had given away his ticket and boarding pass? He could imagine trying to explain it to his mother. He had just made up his mind to go and find Petrea and ask for them back when he saw her stride around the corner holding his ticket and boarding pass in front of her.
    “There you are, and for trusting me, you can sit next to me on the plane to London and fill me in on the details.”
    Christian reached out and took both the boarding pass and airline ticket and was about to put them both back into his bag when he noticed on the top corner of his boarding pass there was a small sticker which said business class. He looked up as Petrea was bending over to pick up her bag. She stood up, looked at him, smiled, and said,
    “That’s what happens when you trust people. Good instincts Christian. You will go a long way following those instincts, so let’s go and board and I can find out more about what drives you, which I’m sure will be interesting. Certainly it will be more interesting than sitting next to Gloria Monkhouse, the mining magnate.”

Chapter 6
     
     
     
     
     
    Christian reached up and placed his overnight bag and laptop into the overseat compartment. It was a tight fit; he needed to move Petrea’s laptop further inside the compartment so that it would close. As he moved the laptop, out of the corner of his eye he saw the Qantas hostess looking at him, a little strangely he thought, as she poured the first glass of champagne. He stopped adjusting the laptop and looked back at