When Clara is off on her business trip — ready to take her career to an entirely new level, she meets a random woman who turns out to be the bearer of bad news. And the end of her marriage. What will Clara do next?
Usually, I enjoyed traveling alone. Especially when it came to work — there was just something about being a stranger in a different place. Even if it was fleeting.
Work trips were often easy for me to be away from Tom, my husband — because I knew that he would be sitting at home watching TV and eating junk food until I returned.
“I’m not going to do anything else,” he would laugh, ushering me out the door with my luggage.
Except, this time was different. Tom was going off on his own business trip.
So, gearing up for this new business trip had me feeling all sorts of things. Firstly, this was a big deal — we were about to franchise our restaurant. And our meeting with investors was going to secure that.
“Don’t you worry about a thing, Clara,” my business partner, Malcolm said. “You just go and present everything we’ve been working toward for the past six months. And be yourself!”
“You should come with me,” I said.
It was the day before I flew out, and Malcolm still didn’t think that he should join.
“I have faith in you. Besides, I can’t risk leaving town. I’m going to be a father any moment now.”
At least he had his priorities right.
“You’ll be fine,” Tom said, as he dropped me off at the airport. “You’ve done these things without Malcolm before.”
“Yes, but this time there’s more pressure,” I said. “We’re asking for a ridiculous amount from the investors.”
“And they wouldn’t even be entertaining you if they didn’t think that you guys were worth something. Relax, sweetheart. Be yourself and they will love you.”
He was right. There had to be something promising about our proposal — they wouldn’t have set us up at such a fancy hotel if not.
“Besides, it’s just a few days and we’ll both be right back home,” he said.
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