Affair Extraordinaire (POW: AIR)

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"There was never proud man thought so absurdly well of himself, as the lover doth of the person loved; and therefore it was well said, That it is impossible to love, and to be wise."

Francis Bacon

Affair Extraordinaire (500 words)

"Angie darling, are enough chairs set up for tonight's auction?"

"Yes, Aunt, I'm fairly certain that the millionaires you invited will all be seated."

"Au contrair, dear. Billionaires."

"Fine, Aunt now get out of my hair! Go upstairs and rest. I'm the chairwoman of your affair for a reason. If you want to endow an archeology department chair, let me finish my work." As Carolyn retreated up the frontstairs, Angie swept the hair off her face and looked around. Aunt Carolyn's estate was magically transformed. Tonight everything was perfect. The trees outside glowed with inviting fairylights and inside the staff polished the old place until it gleamed.

Angie perused the list of auction items, despairing it might not be enough: a pair of Eames chairs, a diamond solitaire, camelhair coats, a horsehair sofa, an Audobon watercolor of maidenhair ferns, airline tickets, a mohair sweater, a fairytale resort honeymoon, a sitting with a celebrity hairstylist, eight wingback chairs, an album of airmail stamps, chairlift tickets at a ski resort, an autographed edition of "A Scot's Quair" by Gibbon, an airstream trailer, some ruby hairpins, radio airtime, a safari in what was Zaire (now the Democratic Replic of the Congo), fairway gallery tickets to a golf tournament, a ride in a hot air balloon, a year of fresh angelhair pasta, even a longhaired dachshund and an airedale terrior. As her eyes lifted from the page, Angie noticed a particularly debonair gentleman arriving early.

"Professor Carstairs, I presume." She said airily, offering her hand.

He kissed it with flair, "Ah, you are clairvoyant as well as beautiful. Call me Blair, please. I want to thank you and your aunt for your generosity to the archeology department. If I can do anything this evening, let me know."

Angie blushed, "Aunt Carolyn is happy to help. She went on digs with Howard Carter, you know. She'll be downstairs soon; she's repaired to her lair for now."

Blair grabbed a pair of champagne flutes as a waiter walked past, "to a successful affair" he toasted, then taking her elbow steered her out to the terrace to get some air and view the fairylights twinkling.

"So what do you think of archeology?" he asked as they sat in wicker chairs.

"To be fair, I've never given it much thought until Aunt Carolyn asked me to chair her foundation. I'm just a plain girl who grew up on a dairy farm in the middle of the prairie, far from Aunt Carolyn's coterie of multi-millionaires and scholars who can afford to take airplanes to another place to study history. I'm more focused on the here and now."

"You my dear, are a breath of fresh air! In the rarefied universityair, all just want to suck up to me. It would be nice to focus on the here and now if it included you and your beautiful auburn hair."

"Oh professor! You're impaired! Let's go get this affair started."

"Yes, let's" He agreed wolfishly (with Angie in his crosshairs.)

© Susan K. Barton 2007

This was written for the Play on Words Challenge. The word to be included this week (Week 9 of Fall) is "AIR" See playonwords.gather.com/ for further information. Join the group to join in the fun.

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