The author is a man of particular tastes: Room accents include serving trays from a 1930s Douglas DC-3 airliner, a WWII-era coffin trolley turned coffee table, and reclaimed jet navigator chairs used as bar stools.
After John returns in the evening bubbling with self-aggrandising chatter, he quickly falls prey to a ferocious case of sleep apnoea that exacerbates Charlotte's own case of jet lag and eventually leads to a series of accidental, then not so accidental, encounters with Bob in the bar.