Page 2 of The Dangers of Daydreaming (Love Connections #2)

“I’ve pulled each of you in here because I feel that you could bring something incredible to this job,” Shannon said.

I scooted to the edge of my chair, ready to bolt as soon as possible and dive straight into this new project. My hand itched to reach down and grab my purse even though the meeting had barely started.

“So, I’ve decided to give each of you an opportunity to head up the project. A little competition of sorts, if you will.”

Each of us? Competition?

Understanding—horrible, ice-cold understanding—dawned on me, and my spine went rigid.

My proverbial sails deflated. What? My eyes shot to Shannon’s, but she was looking at the other two employees.

When her gaze swung back to me, her glance was so quick I’m sure she couldn’t have computed the expression of terror glazing over my features.

A moment later and she looking at her stack of papers, thumbing through them.

After a few more seconds, in which it felt like the room was spinning and I was falling down an Alice in Wonderland -type hole, she found the paper and pulled it out with a flourish.

“I have a list of seven locations we’d like to have prepped by mid-July for the pilot of this program… and I’ve decided to let each of you pick one location to head up. I’m talking two weeks to physically scout, plan, and prepare an entire literary tour. Completely paid for by the company. ”

“Oh my gosh, isn’t that a dream?” the coworker I didn’t know said, leaning back in her chair with an easy, excited expression that clearly stated she, at least, had not had the rug of a promised promotion pulled out from under her.

Gary was nodding along, his hand extending for the paper Shannon held.

She offered it to him, and the woman I didn’t know—Brooke, maybe?

Bryn?—leaned to read it over his shoulder.

As I watched, Gary pointed at something on the list, and Maybe-Bryn nodded her head enthusiastically.

That dumb competitiveness rose in me. Gary might get my promotion?

I tried to swallow my frustration. This was not my promotion. Clearly.

Shannon’s eyes fell on me, and her smile was broad. Not at all Disney-villainy like I would have expected after she pulled a move like this. My bracelet slid up my arm as I grabbed the papers–I should have worn the one that gave luck.

Shannon had said I was perfect for this position. She had said I would be thrilled and she couldn’t wait to talk more about it with me.

“Didn’t I say you would be thrilled?” she said, smile not wavering.

Well, yeah. I was just remembering that, actually.

“Once you see this list, you’ll understand why I thought you’d be perfect as a candidate for this position. A certain location might be an option on there.” She winked. Winked! And turned back to the other two.

“I need your acceptance of whether or not you’ll be putting your hat in the ring for this position by the end of today.

I know, I know—it’s short notice. I wish I had more time to give, but we’ve been rushing to get to this point as is…

and I’m hoping to have you flown out late next week.

By the end of June, I want each of you to be back and giving your proposals to me and a few company executives.

In the meantime, we’ll review your work history with the company.

Then, we’ll decide who seems best fitted fo r the manager position on the team, and, bonus, we’ll already have three locations planned. ”

“Could my wife come with me?” Gary asked, looking up from the paper.

“She would have to pay her own airfare, but otherwise I don’t see why not.” Shannon was clearly loving this, eating it all up. They all were. Except me.

Logically, I could see where it had all gone wrong in my head.

Emotionally, though? I was ready to stand, throw down my figurative gauntlet, and demand to know why I wasn’t being handed the position.

Even if Shannon hadn’t essentially promised it to me last week, I was a perfect fit.

Right? Not only had I been with the company for years and proven my worth that way, but it was common knowledge how much I read.

Heck, I’d started an unintentional lunch book club after getting so many coworkers in on my favorite novels.

Had I ever seen Gary enjoying a book on his lunch break? No.

Sure, I didn’t know Maybe-Bryn enough to say if she was just as qualified, but she was brand new. And now I had to compete against them both for my perfect job? I was simultaneously incensed and depressed. I needed baked goods and a new book.

“Take some time to think it over,” Shannon was saying.

Maybe-Bryn had stood. Gary was pushing to his feet.

Shannon handed out a packet of papers to each of us.

I was the only one still sitting. My body was lead, and I didn’t know if I could lug it and all its newly accumulated depression from the chair.

“And let me know by the end of the day. If two of you want to scout the same location, we’ll give priority by seniority. ”

Shannon gathered up her things and left the room as I endured the latest gut punch. Gary had me on seniority, so he would get first dibs if we wanted to go to the same place.

If I took the challenge. I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

Not because I was a sore loser—I was, but that’s not why I wasn’t sure I wanted to go on this trip.

No, the real reason was that aside from being a little shell-shocked by the turn of events, I, Lucy Sinclair, top performing travel agent… had sworn off travel.

I was cursed. After she got back on her feet, Mom and I had spent almost a decade traveling together—at least one vacation a year—but a pattern had emerged.

February 2020: California. Wallet stollen, had to expedite a new ID to get back on the plane.

July 2021: London. Food poisoning landed me in the hospital with severe dehydration.

October 2022: New Orleans. Hair caught on fire from a stray Mardi Gras parade sparkler, had to rock a bob cut for a year, and it didn’t look good on me.

The list was longer than that. Trust me, you don’t want the gory details. I’m pretty sure a vacation led to my parents’ divorce, even. Maybe they'd have been fine if I hadn’t gone with them.

Basically, I’d given up on travel. It wasn’t worth the risk anymore, but it didn’t matter too much.

I spend my days planning trips for clients down to the last detail, so I still feel like I’m traveling now.

Plus, Utah is a great place. Tons of national parks.

Lots of sights to see. Cool events. Nice history.

It's wonderful—why would I need to go anywhere else?

Not to mention that the best escape is into a good book, of which I read many, so I really was well-traveled.

.. just not literally. But rather literature-ly.

I did have a passport—it was company policy to keep one up, and they covered the cost. They also often sent agents on travel tours; I just never go.

My phone buzzed in my purse, reminding me of twenty minutes before, when it had embarrassed me at the start of my promotion meeting.

If I weren't so close to crying, I might have laughed.

But the vibration jolted some life into me, and I shot to my feet, grabbing my purse and the papers.

I blinked a few times, trying to erase the residual dejected expression from my face, then I ducked out of the conference room, avoiding eye contact with just about anyone until I got back to my office.

Office was a generous term. It was practically a cubicle, but it had a window and a door, so office was the title it got. And now, as I closed the door behind me and dropped into my chair, I was so grateful for the personal space. My head fell onto my desk.

I was an idiot. Clearly, I had taken Shannon's excitement regarding giving me the opportunity to gain a promotion as excitement to give me the promotion.

And as I pulled out my phone, which had just buzzed again, and read the name of the group message that had been going off, another wave of embarrassment swept over me.

My cousins had been texting away in our Cheaper Than Therapy text thread.

Dani: Good luck today, Lucy!! You’re going to crush it!

Avery: You’ve got this!

Chloe: Lucy, I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again… They would be idiots not to give you the job!

Sadie: Can’t wait to celebrate your promotion with you!!

Poppy: Your horoscope says that when you open your heart to new adventures, the universe is waiting to pave the way for them to find you.

Huh. That last one felt a little too much like Poppy’s “inner eye” had seen this whole thing coming. Too bad I didn’t have that skill.

I shook my head. My thumbs hovered over the messages, torn between admitting my stupidity and just ignoring the messages for now.

Admittance won out. I needed to talk to someone about this mess .

Lucy: I didn’t get it. Apparently, I wasn’t getting a promotion… I was getting entered into a promotion competition. I’m so stupid. They want to send me to—

I stopped typing. In my extreme disappointment, I hadn’t even looked at the literary tour locations.

Setting my phone on the desk, I reached for the papers.

They were a little crumpled in the middle on the left side, where I'd grabbed them and ran from the conference room.

I flattened them out, flipping past the preliminary details Shannon had covered until I found a page with a list of seven locations and a small summary of each author or book the location would cover.

My eyes landed on number three as if by divine force.

Prince Edward Island.

I froze, not even curious about what the other six options were.

Something that should be known about me is that I am a self-proclaimed Anne of Green Gables groupie.

A devotee. A fanatic. I’ve read them all.

Multiple times. Multiple formats. Various editions.

A cute Anne doll even sat on my bed at home, and it is important to put it out there that I'm not a doll or stuffed animal kind of girl.

But Anne... Anne was my best friend growing up. Lucy Maud Montgomery was my namesake.

I was obsessed. And I was proud of that obsession.

I scanned the rest of the list. A location in England, a few in the States, one in Italy... but eventually my gaze was back on Prince Edward Island. It would be a literal dream to visit there. Even under these circumstances, where I’d been planning on a promotion and not gotten it.

Except I was cursed. Plus… I hadn’t traveled with anyone but Mom in, well, ever. And she wouldn’t be interested in coming with me this time. She had a new travel partner. And wedding planning to do .

So, while this should be my dream vacation, there was this person in the back of my mind who had turned on the fire alarm, and rightly so.

If something happened to ruin the world Montgomery had made, amidst everything else going wrong in my life, I didn’t think I’d recover.

And as evidenced yet again by today’s events, reality never lived up to expectations, so as stupid as it might sound.

.. I wanted to keep a select few dreams unsullied by real life.

But... my eyes hovered over those three little words. Prince Edward Island. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was ridiculous that I wasn't jumping up and down with excitement over it. I would have been thrilled to plan a tour to PEI—it would have been the highlight of my career.

To plan the tour.

For other people.

My well-worn copy of Anne of Green Gables was still peeking out of the slightly ajar drawer. Was that a sign? Pinching my lips to the side, I returned to the cousin text. They would tell me to go. And maybe if they did, I could swallow my doubts and just move to the excitement part.

Lucy: —They want to send me to Prince Edward Island to plan a literary tour from top to bottom... and then the best tour creator will get the promotion.

Lucy: I should go... right?

I stared at the phone, the irony not lost on me that I thought myself competent enough to gain a massive promotion at work, but I couldn't commit to a dream vacation all because I was scared to shatter the idyllic world formed in my head with a possibly (but not probably) fictitious curse.

The texts pinged in quick succession. Commiseration over not getting the job. Indignation on my behalf .

And a resounding, absolute agreement across the board that I had to go.

I was still holding the phone in my hand when a knock sounded at the door.

“Come in,” I called, and Ellie, my intern, popped her head in.

“Hi, Ms. Sinclair, I wanted to check in and see what you had for me today.”

Her perky eighteen-year-old smile was bright and expectant.

Usually, she helped me with files. Drafted emails, did groundwork, wrote out travel plans, but…

I glanced back at my phone, subconsciously squaring my shoulders.

I was worthy of the promotion I thought I’d had in the bag.

I was capable of planning the heck out of a travel itinerary.

Nothing would go wrong this time. No need to get all sweaty and nervous over it.

I could do it.

What better way to show that I had managerial potential than to help my little intern thrive in her position?

If I was going to do this, there were a lot of loose ends to tie up in the next week.

It would be good to have some help in planning my own trip…

especially the bookings and travel times.

Then I could focus on the research for Lucy Maud and creating the best tour this agency had ever seen.

“Ellie, how would you feel about trying your hand at booking a trip?”