Chapter 4.
The next few days where a whirlwind of press interviews, meetings with the lottery people. They were very helpful, with all kinds of financial advice. There was one thing he was advised against, he wanted to give £1 million to each of his friends who were in the pub with him on the night of the win. There were 5 of them. Three of them played golf with Jeff, the other two not so much. Those two both had good jobs, so maybe just £500,000 each for them. But in his mind, Jeff was secretly always going to give Stuart his best friend £2 million. Stuart was a window cleaner who also did painting and decorating work with his brother Paul. Giving it some thought he wasn't too keen on giving Stuart's brother Paul a lump sum. Not because he didn't like Paul, but because if Paul ever got a divorce from his bitch of a wife, then she'd get half. He'd have to come up with some sort of a plan; he'd have to sort Paul out on the quiet. There was one thing he wasn't too happy about, and that was handing in his notice at work. Jeff had always loved his job, but he knew in his heart of hearts with £145 million in the bank, to keep working as a paramedic would be an impossible obstacle to overcome. He did however like the lottery people's advice of "just standing back taking a deep breath and going on a holiday, Somewhere Warm". Which just happened to fit in with his plans, and the promise he made to Sharmini the girl in the shop where he bought the winning lottery ticket. After all she had given him her phone number, and as it happens he had already given her a call and made plans to go out with her next Saturday.
So when Jeff picked Sharmini up, he was pleasantly surprised to see she was wearing makeup. This was the first time he had ever seen Sharmini with makeup on. She no longer had her head bowed or had it covered. Her hair was black long and silky, cascading down her back, wearing a beautiful long length flowing green and gold dress, she looked amazing.
Jeff wanted Sharmini to meet his friends, Stuart and Sue. So he took them all out to The "Chateau Napoleon," one of their local up market restaurants. The night went well. Sharmini got on well with everyone.
As far as the holiday went, the obvious choice was to ask Stuart and Sue to go to Florida with them.
With a couple of million coming his way, Stu wasn't hard to persuade, but his wife Sue was in a job that wouldn't allow her time off. But after Jeff, Stu, and Sue took Clive, "Sue's boss," for a few drinks talked about golf, and had a great lunch at Quaglino's restaurant. Clive, who was always known as a cool guy and a keen golfer, relented and gave Sue special leave for three weeks.
Preparing for their trip, Jeff and Stu decided not to take their old golf clubs with them. They were going to buy all new stuff in America, after all "They thought, why not, they're millionaires." All set for his first ever 5 star holiday, Jeff bought four 1st class air tickets to Orlando on Virgin Atlantic, and then he booked them all into the best rooms Disney World had to offer. Two days later at 08.00 am, a limousine, courtesy of Virgin Atlantic turned up and picked up Stu and Sue. They then went round to Jeff's house. The driver's name was Chalky who turned out to be a very funny coloured guy Jeff used to know some eighteen years ago in his army cadets days. After Jeff's initial surprise, and a raucous meeting with Chalky they went on to pick up Sharmini. On arrival at Sharmini's shop it appeared that the whole family had come out to see her off and wave her goodbye. Sharmini looked every bit an Indian Princess, with her long black hair flowing down her back, a beautiful long flowing, blue and white Indian style dress, and a fantastic makeup job that must have taken her hours. She looked beautiful. Jeff thanked the family, and told Sharmini how beautiful she looked.
They set off for the airport, "Chalky told them to help themselves to anything from the limos bar." After rummaging round the bar, and pushing and clicking all the switches they could find, they settled down to the journey, fighting through the rush hour traffic it took Chalky about one and a half hours to get to Heathrow Airport, they were greeted by Virgin Airline staff who were waiting at the curbside for them.
Jeff was expecting to be dropped off at terminal 3, and booking into 1st class like all the other 1st class passengers, but to his surprise they bypassed terminal 3 and stopped at "The Exclusive Clubhouse Lounge." Jeff had only seen this place from the outside. He had often dropped people off there, but now he was actually going to see it from the inside. They were all greeted like VIP's. But
Just before they were all whisked away, Jeff was able to turn and give Chalky a £40.00 tip. "Telling him he'd see him when they got back."
How good was this, they were fast tracked straight through passport control, and immigration, then it was into the Clubhouse lounge. They were told they could help themselves to anything they wanted, there was an extensive buffet, or if they prefered, they could have specially prepared food, free drinks. They could have a massage, take a shower, or just relax.
As it was still early morning, and 2 hours until take off, they settled for an assortment of teas, coffee, and hot chocolate. Sharmini had a salad, whilst Jeff and Stuart ordered omelettes, Sue said she wasn't hungry, but went along with Sharmini, and nibbled at a small smoked salmon salad. After they had finished eating, they settled down in the comfortable chairs, ordered more tea, and coffee, where upon Jeff and Stuart demolish a very expensive looking strawberry cake. Sharmini was getting on famously with Stuart's wife Sue, and warming to the way Jeff was putting her at her ease, even trying to playfully false feed her some of the strawberry cake. Taking care of her was no hardship, not only was she easy on the eyes, she was also a very nice person.
2 hours later, they took their seats, on the airplane, and after being seated for only a few minutes, a stewardess arrived with a tray of drinks, asking them if they would like Champagne or orange juice. Jeff and Stu had the Champagne, whilst Sharmini and Sue had the orange juice.
After they had taken off and the seat belt sign was extinguished, a stewardess asked them if they would like to have a drink at the bar. Stu said, "It would be rude not to." So off they went. Imagine their surprise when they entered the bar area, who should be there, none other than Richard Branson. All teeth and a great smile. He welcomed them like long lost friends. Obviously not one to let any promo or photo op pass by, Richard handed them all special VIP black cards for future use and VIP treatment when travelling on Virgin Airlines. They spent a pleasant few hours talking with Richard. The obvious questions about Richard's Necker Island, and much talk about the lottery and what Jeff was going to do with his new found wealth. Richard was somewhat surprised and impressed with Jeff when he told him he wanted to hold an annual £1 million Charity Golf Tournament. With all proceeds going towards various NHS hospital departments, Jeff told him he was going to be the hands on distributor, no middle man, no chance of any sticky fingers. There and then Richard wanted to be involved, and pledged £100,000. They parted company with a handshake and Richard's private phone number safely tucked away in Jeff's pocket.
Back in their seats and after being served with freshly cooked gourmet meals, Champagne and wines, they settled down to watching their own individual movie screens. At various stages they all succumbed to the quiet and peaceful ambiance of 1st class travel, and slipped into a restful and comfortable sleep.
Their arrival and subsequent transit through US passport control, and customs was seamless. Their Virgin Atlantic American stretched limo was ready and waiting to take them to Disney World where again after a smooth ride everything went without a hitch.