ONE NIGHT STAND

It was not until an hour before dusk that the flight Gabriella's spouse boarded from the winter regions of Australia arrived at the Nice Côte d'Azur Airport in France after a four-month tour of sightseeing notable natural landmarks in a different continent several miles away from the comforts of his matrimonial home, especially his royal wife.

Even though his flight had been delayed due to unforeseen weather conditions before the aircraft departed late from the airport, he safely had a smooth air travel on his scheduled return to Monaco without undergoing any difficulties on the way not to mention that he had confined himself to the first class compartment of the airplane where he had paid less attention to the aviation route which the two pilots at the flight deck, had flown the aircraft from the Australian terminal to the French runaway that linked the principality of Monaco to other airport overseas across the globe.

He could have taken a private chopper directly to Monaco city which would land him at the Heliport in the district of Fontvieille but he had intently taken a detour for him to enjoy his absence from the responsibilities he shouldered ever since he got married into a prestigious royal family.

 Unlike the few people he knew to have been bestowed royal entitlements particularly his wife's father, he was not bothered by the fact that there was nobody to welcome him at the Nice Côte d'Azur air terminal minutes after the airplane landed in France nor was he unfazed by the thought of having a grand entourage waiting for him to set his foot on the French city. He knew with no doubt that his arrival in the city was a sharp contrast to the prince of Monaco whom everyone knew well enough to be a public figure who was strictly guarded at all times and wherever he wants to visit but he was less concerned about his infamous decision to blend in a late hour flight with passengers dressed in mufti whom he knew would care less about his identity if he were to flamboyantly reveal who he was and more focused on spending his evening in one of the newly refurbished five star hotel in the city where his flight landed of which he had read on the internet and of which had been the underlying reason of him taking a detour instead landing directly on Monaco city.

 Contrary to what anyone in his shoes would feel after having to arrive at an airport terminal alone in the midst of a busy crowd of passengers waiting to board their flight with none of his family members seen at the terminal when he got out of the air bridge, he was thrilled with the fact he had discreetly arrived in the city with no one, not even Robert and Gabriella knew that he had scheduled his flight to arrive in Monaco a day earlier than what he had previously mentioned to them especially Gabriella whom he deliberately sent a text message indicating his decision to return back to Monaco in the weekend. He did this to at least grant himself more free time to have fun relaxing away from his duties and obligations towards her as her trusted spouse without being monitored by the existing guards of the royal family particularly Robert.

 He had only his hand luggage with him when he entered the terminal and thirty minutes later, he left the airport in a taxi cab which took him straight to the hotel where he had wanted to spend the few days he had left on his vacation. He did not waste a moment to get a shower as soon as he got the keycards to his room which was located on the fifteenth floor of the skyscraper nor did he take a minute or two to rest after eating his supper earlier than the other guests residing in the hotel next to his room before leaving to fulfill another agenda, he had planned to spend the night instead of lying in the comforts of his room.

 Clad in a grey denim jacket and clean green pants, he left the hotel briefly taking along with him his only wallet and his cellphone just in case he received a warring phone call from his royal relatives, especially his wife. Within an hour of departing from the hotel, he found himself drinking cold whiskey with a single glass alone at the counter in a pub, a mile away from the entrance of the hotel he had lodged a few hours ago. He knew he craved something more than his habit of listening to a series of boring old countryside music and cool Jazz being played repeatedly while drinking liquor which had been the only compelling thing that had driven him out of the comforts of his hotel room.

 He was certain his evening was going to end up badly like the nights he spent in Australia trying to derive merriment from drinking and relating with the folks residing close to his temporary residence as he kept drinking away the few minutes, he had spent inside the pub but one thing he was satisfied was having to enjoy a lot of lone time ever since he left Monaco for a vacation after a slight misunderstanding with his wife. He was thrilled he would not have to remember the events surrounding his fight with Gabriella and feeling light-headed, he giddily looked around the crowd of drunkards and the uninterested snooker players to pick out who might end up making his evening a splendid memorable one. He scoured with his bloodshot eye hoping to see beauty amid French indigenes and found no one of personal interest whom he deemed would worth his attention though there were pretty French ladies having fun with the other men in the pub but he was sure that they were all too preoccupied with their familiar counterpart to notice an expatriate sitting at the counter with his head tilted down as a result of alcohol bearing heavily down on him.

Twice, he was disappointed to find no one interesting to chat with particularly the few ladies he found a bit prettier than his wife residing in the prince's palace in Monaco. Even the bartender had left him alone to converse with a boorish man with flat sturdy shoulders and a hairy beard he weaved into two pigtails. For a moment, his mind traced back to a brief memory of his first date with Gabriel when he caught sight of a man cuddling the cheek of a lady with wavy black hair in the company of middle-aged men who were his friends. He peered intently at the duo, ruminating about the memorable circumstances surrounding his first date and he was sure that it was not out of a sheer desire of his heart to conjure a similar presence of his wife in reality nor his underlying hatred for her extreme uptightness that his eyes accidentally fell on someone sitting behind the couple who had stricken the same facial appearance with his wife.

His heart skipped the very moment he first saw her and thought at first, that his secret adventure had been exposed. It was his wife's face beyond any reasonable doubt and he felt like he had landed himself in trouble by returning from his holiday earlier than expected. He got up when he was sure that he was not dreaming and kept looking straight at the woman he was contemplating to be his wife. Not only was astonished at his discovery, he was perplexed at the kind of casual outfit the woman appeared to wearing. he found it too peculiar for Gabriella to appear in an odd public gathering and felt mystified to have. His thoughts were divided and were of two opposing halves when he left his seat to confirm his findings. He sees the conflicting reality of his wife casually dressed in a black sleeveless gown that fits tightly against her body and ends above her knees coincidentally sitting amid a crowd paying less attention to him and much attention to the other men who were too busy joking around with the ladies enthralled by their jokes. 

He drew closer to the gathering after leaving his empty glass behind at the counter and felt not only the need to find out if what he had phantom the first time was true but believed he might have a wonderful evening after all. He lost his confidence when he saw that the men were seemingly too territorial with the females and retired himself back to the counter. He hopefully decided to wait for the men to dwindle from the gathering and fortunately, the men started exiting the pub one after other earlier than he had hoped. Then he felt his chance to make himself known to the woman he thought was his wife came when three of the men including the couples left the pub with smiles on their faces but it was the mysterious woman who took the initiative of the absence of her acquaintances and came to the counter obviously to order one last drink from the bartender before retiring for the night.

 He thought she would recognize him but he was disappointed. He watched the bartender served her the drink she ordered in two glasses with ices cubes inside them, believing that she was most likely avoiding him since he had a light disagreement with Gabriella prior to his departure to Australia and with this thought in mind as well as him fancying the elegant way she dressed, a side which he never saw in Gabriella until now, he decided to make his night a perfect one of having to spend it with woman in bed.

 "Hey, there." He said and smirked as soon as he appeared close to her.

 "Hi…" she replied in French which he did not understand and grinned shyly the moment she noticed his handsomeness. He feigned at her strangely and she felt perplexed.

 "And who are you?" she asked in English when she realized he did not understand her the first time.

"A good-looking stranger called Scott." He answered looking at her suspiciously in a sort of way that she was finding it difficult to figure out his intentions, "Don't you recognize me or are you playing dumb not to know who I am?" He gave a straightforward question.

 "Playing dumb? This is the first time we have met and…" she paused not wanting to ruin the sensation she had been feeling seated next to him. Usually, she would have told him to back off if she had no interest in talking with him after his response but she could not deny he had impressed her with his aura of manliness which was something she felt was credible enough to buy her attention as well as her desire to keep her temper in check. She had let herself be swayed by his attractive stature which was a bit more fancy looking to her taste and she had intentions of not missing the chance of getting locked in the arms of a handsome man who claimed they knew each other. It was obvious he wanted to get acquainted using the kind of flimsy approach most men she had come across often do whenever they want to have their way with her and she was hoping not to ruin it for a man whom she fancied had the unique features she craved for in any type of man.

 "Say it," Scott said blatantly, still wrapped in his opinion that he was speaking with his wife, Gabriella.

 "And…. I'm not pretending."

 "Really? In that case, we should get to know each other then."

 "Not interested." She said, baiting him to keep speaking and took a sip from the liquor. They conversed at length till it was almost midnight and when it was time to leave, she followed him to his hotel apartment, drunk and hormonally vibrant to spend the night together. Although he felt something different as he started to get intimate with her inside his bedroom behind closed doors, he felt even more pleasure having to touch the barest parts of her sensitive body to the point that his ecstatic frantic coupling with a woman he met in a pub lasted longer into midnight and it was not until one pm in the morning that he fell fast asleep underneath the blanket beside her in his arms on his bed inside his hotel room.