Save Me

Chapter 2

I purposely got to the office early just so I could make sure I finished booking the rest of the trip before my normal work day began. The hotel, airfare and rental car, confirmations were sitting in my printer tray before I even finished my first cup of tea. I thought I was ahead of the game until I saw Kelly. Silly me.

"Hey Vivie?" Kelly said, ducking her head into my office, "I got the email you sent about the trip with your nieces in June and I think there might be a conflict."

Lovely. Exactly what I needed to hear.

In retrospect, I should have known better and waited until I talked to Kelly. She has practically ran everything in my life. Since I was lucky enough to have her as my assistant, I haven't booked my own anything.

On second thought, maybe I should have used a little restraint when drinking wine and planning what is turning out to be a pretty expensive trip especially around what I know is a tight travel schedule.

"Wha'd I miss?"

Sighing, I opened my calendar.

"You're supposed to be leaving for Kisangani on June seventh." She said, pointing to the day which according to my calendar, wasn't scheduled, "And, you're gone for three weeks."

"It's not on here."

"No, not yet but we talked about it last week. I'll see if I can move it to the following week if you want."

"Yeah...can you? Maybe move it to a Monday departure from Chicago." I explained, "I need to make this trip happen especially now that I've told the girls and put out all this money."

This conflict wasn't necessarily a deal breaker for the trip but it would definitely make the run up to me leaving for Chicago ridiculously hectic. It also wouldn't be the vacation I was hoping for because I knew I'd be working every free minute I had. The concert was on Friday and I'd have to be prepared to leave Monday. Talk about one thing right after another.

"Lemme see what I can do."

"Please." I begged, "Please, make it work somehow."

Kelly nodded as she walked out to hopefully work some magic. At this point, I couldn't unring the bell. In my mind, this trip was happening no matter what so I needed to work in the rest around it. I simply could not disappoint Kenzie.

For the next hour, I worked on other projects until I couldn't take it anymore and went to find Kelly. She'd have to know by now. Everything being up in the air was starting to stress me out and I already had enough of that. Heading out of my office, I saw her sitting at her desk having just hung up the phone.

Before I could even ask, "All good." She smiled, "As it turns out it actually works better moving things around. While you're in Chicago you'll need to pick up supplies at University of Chicago since you're right there. Saves trying to ship it."

Crisis averted! Thank GOD!

"Fantastic...thanks Kelly!"

I felt like a huge weight had been lifted. Holy shit, I was relieved.

"I added it to your schedule as well as the birthday trip so there's no more confusion."

"You are the absolute BEST!"

Kelly laughed, "Yes, yes I know."

Strolling happily back to my office I sat at my desk feeling happy and excited once again. The stars were back in alignment and I was grateful. Pulling up my schedule I looked over the next few weeks. Although some of my other commitments needed to be rearranged, nothing overlapped. That was the most important thing.