As Dayna clicked the Polycom off in the conference room, she could barely contain the grin on her face as her eyes darted around the room at her colleagues, trying to assess whether they were as excited about the news as she was. Brian and Luke had neutral expressions on their faces as they jotted down a few notes in their notebook about the meeting.
"What do you guys think?" she smiled giddily. Her dark brown eyes crinkled at the corners and twinkled with glee, while her long dark locks flowed around her shoulders.
"About?" asked Brian, not quite sure what she was talking about.
"The trip!" Dayna replied.
Brian and Luke looked at each, puzzled, wondering where she was going with this conversation.
"Uh, I think we're flying to the UK for some meetings, then we stay in the hotel til Wednesday, then go to the conference, then fly back home," Luke responded in his usual semi-arrogant manner, returning his gaze back to his notebook to record a few more notes from the teleconference.
Dayna sighed heavily, "Guys, with the customer meetings happening the week before the conference, that means we have a company-paid four-day weekend in the southern part of the UK during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee! We need to DO SOMETHING, I don't want to sit in a hotel for four days watching BBC."
A look of annoyance crossed Luke's face. He traveled to the UK frequently and had no burning desire to drag Dayna through London sightseeing, even if she was his manager. He would be perfectly happy to sit in the hotel and do some work on his computer while nobody was around to interrupt him.
Brian sensed the tension between the two - Dayna's giddy exuberance often clashed with Luke's more reserved and introverted nature. Brian's personality was also quite different from Dayna's, but she was a beautiful woman and a decade younger than him - no red-blooded American male could resist the charms of a woman like her. Well, except for Luke, apparently. Even though their relationship was strictly professional, with Dayna as Brian's manager, there had always been a closeness between them and Brian liked to make Dayna happy.
Luke was a jaded traveler, but Dayna had only been to the UK a handful of times. Whenever she went, she was usually on such a tight schedule that there was no time for sightseeing or tourism. Brian offered a compromise, "Here's an idea - why don't we rent a motorhome and drive through the countryside, maybe go down to the coast. It's beautiful there this time of year, and we won't get caught up in the crazy tourism near London for Jubilee."
"Sure, sounds great! I'm up for anything! I just don't want to blow my weekend sitting in a boring hotel," Dayna's smile was back on her face as she practically bounced in her chair in excitement.
"Faaaaaaantastic," Luke replied coolly.
Brian rolled his eyes at Luke, "I'll have our secretary make the arrangements."
***
Arriving at London's Heathrow on-time after the red-eye, Dayna, Luke, and Brian walked through the airport terminal groggily, hauling their luggage, looking for their driver. Dayna was the first to spot the man they were told was named Paul, dressed formally in a tuxedo as he stood with a placard listing their names. "Over there," she pointed as the trio began walking towards Paul.
As they approached, Paul greeted them cheerily, "Welcome! I trust you had a pleasant flight?"
"Yes, it was lovely," Dayna replied graciously.
"Wonderful, I'm happy to hear it! Right this way, the car is waiting."
Paul led them out to a gorgeous black limousine and assisted them with their bags.
"Oh baby, a limo!" Dayna giggled to Brian, who laughed and shook his head as they piled in. Their customer meetings were in a town an hour west of London, and Brian was happy to tip his head back and try to rest until they got there.
Dayna sat up in her seat, looking out the windows excitedly, trying to take it all in. She couldn't wait until the weekend for their mini-vacation.
***
The four-day customer meeting seemed to drag. There were so many technical details to be reviewed, and with the new personnel on the customer team, Dayna, Brian, Luke, and their UK-based colleagues had to work extra hard to try to get the new staff to understand what they wanted to build for the solution.
Throughout the week, Dayna had grown weary of Damo and his team. Damo was the customer's program manager; he was polite and professional, but whenever she was in the UK, she always felt that men looked down on women in business. Maybe she was just being paranoid, but she was used to being treated as an equal and not feeling like she had to work harder to be taken seriously. Trying to stay on her toes at all times had been tiring, and it didn't help that she found Damo to be attractive.
He was slightly older than Dayna, and always impeccably dressed in a well-tailored suit and expensive Italian shoes. He was tall - about 6'2" - with broad shoulders, an expansive chest, muscular arms, and a narrow waist. He had long, smooth strawberry blond hair that fell down to his shoulder blades and the bluest eyes she had ever seen. His voice was deeper than you'd expect, and ohhhhh that accent was so sexy. Despite his fair complexion, Damo had a dark, sensual look in his eyes, like his mind was often wandering in appropriate directions. Her mind often wandered, too, wondering what he looked like under that suit and what kind of a guy he was outside of the workplace. But she had to quickly snap her attention back to the meetings to ensure she stayed on top of the conversation at all times, ready to answer any question Damo or his team dealt out.
