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A Journey Like No Other  by
Amiee Koos |
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Chapter 1 - Get Ya There Travel |
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Chapter 3 Anniversary Plans “So great to see you, and you look fantastic! I wish I looked that good after a day of work!” he kids her, just so happy to see her. “Oh stop, you know you look good, and you don’t even have to try!” she replies. They begin swapping stories of their days, and their waiter interrupts to take their order. Olivia feels rescued almost at that moment, as she knows that the inevitable is drawing nearer. The waiter walks away and leaves them to their conversation. “So, what else is new with you, how did the rest of your day go?” Asks Brian. Olivia pauses a moment, and then begins to tell him how much she loves him. At this point, he knows something is up because she is acting very strange. Brian says, “Speaking of how much you love me, we need to figure out what we are going to do for our anniversary. I was thinking maybe going someplace warm and tropical, like an island or something. Any ideas? This is kinda your area of expertise!” Now completely panicked, she begins to tell him about her meeting with her boss. She tells him how Keith had dinner last night with an old friend, and how the friend informed him of these great contacts in Europe, and how she has to go and meet with them. “So, Brian, unfortunately, I will be away for our anniversary on this business trip.” The look on Brian’s face said exactly how he felt about Olivia’s trip…he was quite upset. “Can’t you postpone this trip, go the following week or something? I mean, here we are out to make plans, and seems you’ve already got yours made.” Brian responds. Olivia expected this reaction, and earlier in the day when she was thinking about it, she would have reacted the same way had the roles been reversed. “I am so sorry, this was not my choice, there is no one else in the office that Keith can send, and unfortunately these suppliers are only available for that one week.” Explains Olivia. Taking a sip of wine while she awaited his response, he excused himself from the table for a moment to use the restroom. As he walked away, a ringing came from his phone, which was on the table. Olivia figured she’d answer it, as she has answered it before when he’s left it behind. As she went to open it to answer, she looked on the display. “JOG-Paris” is what it said. She quickly answered it “hello?” The voice that answered her back was that of a female in a slight French accent. “Hello, may I speak with Brian for a moment?” The voice said. Olivia was not sure what to make of this woman on the other end of the phone, she quickly replied, “I’m sorry, Brian has stepped away for a minute, may I take a message?” “Ah, okay, no message, I will phone him back later this evening, the later for him, the better for me! Sorry to have bothered you.” Olivia replied, “No bother, may I ask your name though?” Just as she was asking the caller’s name, Brian returned and asked who was on his telephone. Olivia interrupted the caller and advised that Brian had returned. “Hold on, Brian just returned, I’ll put him on.” She passed the phone to Brian, and he began speaking to the woman. “Hello? Who’s calling please?” he asked. “Bonjour Monsieur Brian…it’s me!” the voice said. He excuses himself from the table to take the call. Olivia, left alone at the table, tries her hardest to figure out what JOG-Paris is supposed to mean, she comes up with nothing though. Brian returns a few minutes later. “Sorry for the interruption, where were we?” he asks. Olivia feels her stomach knotting up with an uneasy feeling. She just told her boyfriend of nearly five years that she will be away for their big anniversary and he seemed upset, suddenly some woman calls, and he’s all smiles again? She picks up the conversation from where they left off. “Do you think we could schedule something for the week after our anniversary, or perhaps before?” she suggests. Now back up to speed, Brian re-joins the conversation. “Well Olivia, it’s your job, and you have to go, so I’m sure we can figure something out, we’ll just wait a few weeks and firm up plans after you get back from your trip, okay?” This was not okay with Olivia, something wasn’t right. During dinner, they exchanged idle chitchat about their days, and then Olivia found the courage to ask about the woman on the phone. “Who was the woman who called earlier? Was it a business call?” Brian was well aware of Olivia’s paranoid nature, he found it endearing when she would get jealous of other women calling him. This is not to say that Olivia was a crazy psycho girlfriend, she was just a paranoid one with a very active imagination! “Oh, that was a member of JOG, which is the Judicial Observation Group, a woman in their Paris branch.” He told her. Olivia also had a habit of being overly gullible, however, this sounded a bit far-fetched. “Why would the Parisians want to observe the US Judicial system? I’ve never heard of this organization before.” She said. Now seeing her paranoia grow, Brian tried to calm her. “Olivia, you have nothing to worry about, the woman just needed to confirm the court dates for the next few weeks. She wants a few of her students to sit in and observe.” Still not buying into this story completely, Olivia dropped it, and they ordered dessert. They finished their desserts, paid, and left the restaurant. They walked down the street now, quietly. Brian began to show slight interest in Olivia’s upcoming business trip. “So where will you be going, anyplace fun?” he asked. Olivia really didn’t want to discuss the trip at all, she still felt terrible that she had to go. “Well, I’m flying into Paris, and from there I have to go to Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Munich. It’s a very odd selection of cities, I guess we want to build more interest in Antwerp, and in Amsterdam I’m going to take one of the canal tours so we can present it better to our clients. I guess in Munich, I’ll be going on a city tour, and probably do a few hotel checks while there. Keith hasn’t really given me the itinerary, just mentioned the places, and the dates.” Brian took Olivia’s hand in his, and he walked her to her apartment building. He told her that he’d come up for a little while but he wanted to go over his notes from his briefing earlier in the day. Olivia walked into her apartment and headed straight for her laptop. Quickly she navigated to Google’s website, and typed JOG in the search bar. No results that matched Brian’s story, she typed in Judicial Observation Group next. Well, it wasn’t identical to what Brian had mentioned, but she did find a site for the Judicial Observation Program for International Law Students. Olivia assumed this is what he must have been talking about. After playing a few games of Solitaire, she decided to turn the computer off and watch some TV. Meanwhile, Brian had headed towards his apartment, and on the way, made a phone call. The phone rang, and finally was answered. “That was quick” was the greeting on the other end of the phone. “Well, I walked her home, and we chatted a bit, and now I’m on my way home. But I wanted to call you back and just touch base. Everything is all set up? I can’t wait to see you Jackie!” “Yes, a few details need to be worked out, but as of now, I’ll see you in three weeks!” She replied. “Sounds good, well I better get going, I’ll talk to you very soon! Goodnight!” “Okay, talk to you later, goodnight.” She said, and hung up. |
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What do you think will happen next? |
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