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.

He confined himself to the first class compartment of the aircraft, paying less attention to the flight deck's route that the two pilots had flown the aircraft from the Australian terminal to the French runaway that linked the principality of Monaco to other airports overseas across the globe, despite the fact that his flight had been delayed due to unanticipated weather conditions before the aircraft departed late from the airport. He also had a safe and uneventful return to Monaco without experiencing any difficulties on the way.

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 was aware that his arrival in the city marked a significant departure from the well-known prince of Monaco, who was always under strict security wherever he went. However, he was less concerned about his infamous choice to blend in with passengers on a late-night flight who were wearing muftis, knowing that they would not be concerned if he revealed his identity in a showy and flamboyant manner. A large portion of him was preoccupied with the idea of spending the evening in one of the recently renovated five-star hotels in the city where his flight landed. He had read about these hotels online, and they had been the main motivation for his decision to land in Monaco city rather than on the original course.

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, to whom he purposefully sent a text message indicating his decision to return back to Monaco this weekend. This was in stark contrast to how anyone in his shoes would feel upon having to arrive at an airport terminal alone in the middle 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 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 had planned to stay the night rather than simply lying in his cozy room, so he didn't waste any time getting a shower after receiving the keycards to his room, which was on the fifteenth floor of the skyscraper, or taking a brief break after eating dinner earlier than the other visitors staying in the hotel next to his room before departing to fulfill another agenda.

 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 the French immigrants with his bloodshot eye, hoping to find beauty, but he was unable to find anyone who caught his attention. Although he saw attractive French women having fun with other men, he was certain that they were too busy chatting up their familiar faces to notice the foreigner sitting at the counter, his head cocked due to the heavy influence of alcohol..

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. The bartender had left him by himself to talk to a coarse man with thick, broad shoulders and a shaggy beard that he wore in two pigtails. His thoughts briefly returned to his first date with Gabriel, when he saw a man holding a woman's curly black hair on her cheek while the other males in the group were middle-aged buddies. 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 allowed herself to be seduced by his good looks, which she found to be a little more sophisticated, and she intended to use the opportunity to be entangled in the arms of a dashing man who claimed to know her. She was trying not to ruin it for a man who she felt had the special qualities she yearned for in any kind of man, but it was clear he wanted to get to know her using the same flimsy strategy most men she had encountered typically do anytime they want to have their way with her.

 "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. Even though he sensed something different as he began to get intimate with her in his bedroom behind closed doors, he was even more excited to touch the most delicate parts of her body. As a result, his ecstatic, frantic coupling with a woman he met in a bar continued past midnight, and he didn't fall asleep until one o'clock in the morning under the blanket next to her on his bed in his hotel room.