“I’m staying with Louise Curtin’s family,” Vicki said. “At least for the first few trips.”
“Louise Curtin?”
“She was in my class at the University of Illinois,” Vicki explained. “Her family lives down here. When I wrote that I was going to be on the Tampa run, she phoned me the minute she got the letter and insisted that I absolutely must stay with them on my layovers.”
“It’s nice to have friends,” Cathy sighed. “Much better than a hotel room.”
Federal, like all other airlines, provided hotel accommodations for their crews when they were away from home. In New York, Vicki shared an apartment with several other Federal Airlines stewardesses.
“That reminds me. I have another friend in Tampa,” Vicki said. “I’ll have to look him up.”
“Ah!” Cathy said, brightening. “Do I smell romance in the air?”
Vicki laughed. “I hate to disappoint you, Cathy. But Joey Watson is a boy who works here in the Federal warehouse. He’s an orphan, poor kid, a cousin of Bill Avery, the pilot who taught me to fly.”
Cathy’s eyes widened. “To fly? Don’t tell me you’re a pilot as well as a stewardess!”
“I’ve had my private license for two years.” Vicki smiled. “But I don’t have a chance to get in much flying time when I’m in New York. Anyway,” she went on, “Joey was dying to learn to fly, and Bill asked me if I’d mind putting in a good word for him with Federal’s personnel department. There happened to be an opening here, and Joey got the job. So, you see, there goes your romance. I’m afraid Joey thinks of me more as a mother.”