Call of the Vineyard

“Where the hell are you, Lori? We are about to take off!” Isra asked calmly through her perturbance when her assistant finally picked up the call, as she adjusted herself on the leftmost seat at the middle aisle of the airbus . The next two seats were suddenly filled up by two young men who flashed a flirty smile as soon as they saw her, but she was too annoyed with Lori to even care

 “Iz, I won’t be able to join you.” Lori remorsefully said on the other line, “I’m sorry, but our senator client in Florida made this last-minute adjustment few hours ago. I have to fly to her otherwise she’d fuck us up.”

“We were together last night, how come you never mentioned about this?” Isra sighed as she shook her head. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier that you're not coming? Why were you not answering your phone? God, I thought something terrible happened to you.” There was silence on the other line and she could tell how Lori looked right now. “What?” she asked again waiting between Lori’s nervous hums.

Lori let out a heavy sigh few seconds after, “She emailed at 2 am. I didn’t bother texting you because you might be dead-tired already. And I was busy packing and stuff.”

“Thank you for being considerate but I don’t like surprises and you know that. So, I’m going solo… This is what it means.” Isra rolled her eyes as she slacked into her seat. The flight attendant came beside her and told her to buckle up.

“I didn’t intend to, but yeah. Consider it as a vacation, Izz. I think you need it.” She chuckled, “but I’ll be sure to catch up with you, Izz, so we can hit Ibiza!” Lori beamed, waiting for her response. Despite Isra’s calm character she didn’t want to get into her nerves.. Besides being a close friend, Isra was still her boss.“Mhmm. To work solo as a vacation treat. Right.” Isra smirked, shaking her head, “Well, do your thing with the Andersons and you can come over when you’re done.” She said, as the intercom started announcing that gadgets should be turned off as they were about to take- off. Then she remembered something, “By the way, tell Danny I need to see the final output. Send it to me tonight.”

“Roger that, bossanova!” Lori beamed “And hey, I learned that this Lucas guy is hoooottt!” her voice slurred teasingly.

“Oh God, Lori. Shut up…” Isra rolled her eyes as she put the phone off.

Isra leaned back on her seat, crossing her legs as she scanned her cellphone to a playlist that she hadn’t listened to for years. It’s been a while since she went out of the country, true. And to have a project again overseas was sort of a relief. Her business had been picking up in the last five years and since then, she never had time to indulge away from it because even on holidays she had to put her nose down. And sitting on an airplane again, felt a little peculiar.

The next minute, the plane was already above the ground, and the alternative music started playing through her headphones. It’s been 6 years since she last visited Spain.  It was a brief trip to the north, in the Basque city of Bilbao. This time, per Lori’s insistence, it will be at the southwestern Mediterranean part where she’d be staying for a month  Thinking about the food, the beaches, the Andalusian tours and the cultural experience she will be having in the next few days made her anxious as she sat looking at the digital clock on her phone screen. Seven hours and forty minutes till arrival, she calculated mentally. Then after that, she would travel another one and a half hour from the airport to the rental pad Lori arranged for her. Although annoyed with her earlier, she suddenly thanked her assistant-turned-friend for taking care of her itineraries.

She straightened on her seat and closed her eyes attempting to get a nap but her mind wouldn’t let her. Her brain raked through the possible scenarios of this whole visit to the Madiera Wineries, to meet the notorious vintner family and their elusive mysterious heir Lucas Madiera whom she never saw a profile in all of social media. Not a photo of him except for the one throwback childhood picture posted in his sister’s account. All the press releases for his infamous world’s most expensive wine only showed, either, his father or sister. There was a little to no mention about his age or marriage life. One article from three years ago suggested that he was engaged to a supermodel named Andrea Perez. Sure, there was a lot of Lucas Madiera profiles out there since the name is quite generic especially in Spanish- speaking countries. There is a paint artist Lucas Madiera as there is a pianist, a high school teacher, a doctor and even a lawyer but none of them belonged to the wine tycoon. She figured out he could be somewhere her age or older and must be good- looking, as Lori claimed, since his sister looked unarguably gorgeous at 50. She wondered how he'd be like. Maybe a mean old fart who holds a wine glass all day with the girl-toy clinging beside him all the time?

The flight attendant cut her thoughts with a trolley of meals. She straightened up when the pasta and a cup of coffee that she requested came. The guys beside her also woke up to the commotion around them.

Time ticked fast and she barely realized that four and a half hours already passed.

“Flying alone?” A smooth baritone voice asked for her attention. She turned to her side to see a charming blue-eyed blonde man smiling at her.

“Mmmmm…Yes.” Isra returned the smile.

“I’m Andrew. And this is Franco.” They extended their hands and Isra took it for a firm handshake. Franco flashed a warm smile as he uttered in a sexy Italian accent “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” The feel of his warm hand wrapped around hers, and the way he was peering through his curly eyelashes, made uneasy.

“So, Isra… Where’ll you be at?” the blonde guy spoke.

Isra pursed her lips deciding whether it was a good idea to tell them. “Just around Seville. You guys on college break?”

Andrew laughed, “No, we are done college. We are just going for business trip.” He said and Franco affirmed with a nod.

“We’ll good luck guys.” She said blushing at her own prepossession.

Franco peered through his friend’s head so he could see her face and a sexy smirk escape his lips. He looked more matured than she previously thought, with crows feet visible on the side of his eyes.

“Are you going for vacation? Or the Sherry festival?” Andrew asked.

“Some project. And yeah, sherry festival, why not.” She smirked.

“What do you do?” Andrew asked, his eyes squinting with amusement.

“You are so beautiful by the way.” Andrew added as Franco nodded with a wink.

Isra disregarded his remark as she uncomfortably straightened herself in her seat. She was not used to this anymore.

“Nothing special.” She said as she paused for a bit. Most of the time, she wouldn’t tell people about what she does at first encounter. But her answer came by default than she intended. “I’m a producer. Short film documentaries, mostly for branding.” She glanced down phone and figured out she can use the time chatting with these sinfully- good-looking guys to escape boredom while waiting for the aircraft to land.

“Wow! How coincidental!” Andrew’s blue eyes brightened like sapphire flames as he spoke. “Franco and I owns a restaurant chain. Actually, we have been looking for someone to make a documentary about us. We're just talking about it earlier.”

Isra nodded nonchalantly.

“Let’s exchange numbers, my business card is in the luggage...May I?” Andrew insisted as he took his phone out and handed it to Isra to dial her number. “We should see each other around. How about we meet within the week?”

“Sure. We’ll keep in touch.” She was hesitant but then they were a business opportunity so she entered Lori’s number instead. For seven years, she had been living her life like a hermit, avoiding men. . Especially after Lori joined her company, she didn't need to meet or entertain anyone. But Lori was not around, this time.

“Where in Seville are you stayring?” Franco asked leaning forward to meet her gaze.

“Uhmm.” She thought a bit, but again the words came out unwillingly. “Oh...Uhh-- I’ll be going down to Jerez first.”

The two guys were winking at each other as they mumbled some obsucre language and giggled, then Andrew beamed, “You know what, we are going Jerez too. Not joking.

“We will be staying at Azul Hotel. If you’d like we can hit up the bar tonight.” Franco chimed in with his sexy accent that she imagined would send Lori to the peak of orgasm.

Isra smirked. “We’ll keep in touch.” 

The intercom announced that they had landed succesfully. She suddenly regretted she engaged in conversation with these men. Hermitage seemed to have damaged her intrapersonal skills and conversing was one of them. She felt shesaid  things she should never had. Her nerves started to feel jittery knowing how Franco was looking at her. And this was what Lori meant; she would develop a social anxiety disorder. She only hoped she won’t run into them anywhere in Jerez. She didn't seem ready to meet new people. But how would she meet Lucas Madiera alone? She sighed as gathered her thoughts. You'll be fine, Isra Koc. This is like one of  those good ol' days.