Undeserved Devotion

Chapter 3

Claire looks around the room. It is really a beautiful room. A second later, she remembers the happy times her and Chris shared in this room. Even though they were dating and lived together, Chris’s parents didn’t allow them to share a room when they visited. Chris would sneak in after his parents fell asleep and then out again in the morning. Those were the days.

Claire’s thoughts snap back to her current predicament… can I do this? Being the methodical person that she is, Claire goes through all the arguments and decides that yes, she’s going to do this. It’s been years, Chris seems to be able to deal with it, and it’s time she moved on too. Plus this is way too big of an opportunity for her to mess up. Finding her resolve, she gets off the floor and gets her things in order.

With a deep breath, she opens the bedroom door and heads down to where she can hear the rest of her team socializing.

“Hey Claire, what’ll you have,” one of Claire’s coworkers asks as she walks into the room. “Cab, if that’s an option, please Steve.” Steve hands Claire her drink and she takes in the rest of the room. They are all in a large open kitchen with a huge dining room table that also connects to a very warm den that has a roaring fire in it. The kitchen bar is laid with a variety of food with a wide selection of drink options at the mini-bar. About half of the team has already arrived and are just leisurely chatting and eating. After about another 2 hours, everyone arrived.

“Good evening everyone, it’s nice to meet you all. As you hopefully all know by now, I am Chris and it is my pleasure to welcome you to this event. I should warn you that it will be hard work, but I truly believe that it will be worth it in the end. The house is for you to enjoy. I just ask that you make sure to close the doors and windows behind you right away. We have some wildlife in these woods that have learned that houses have good treats in them. If any of you have seen the Great Outdoors, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Now, please enjoy the rest of the evening and I will see you all in the office tomorrow at 8:30. Breakfast will be available beginning at 6. We will review the rest of our schedule tomorrow.”

After about 30 minutes, Pat pulls Claire over to the side, “What is going on with you? You’re acting like you’re about to be caught by the police or something.” Claire looks at Pat with large eyes and whispers, “ Do you remember what I told you about my college boyfriend? Well, Chris is um… “

Pat knows that Claire had a “bad breakup” with her college boyfriend but doesn’t know all the details. “Chris is the guy?” Pat says a little too loudly… “SHHH.. I don’t want anyone else to know about that.”

“Guurll, what are the odds? Are you OK?” Claire just shrugs, “I want to be, so I’m going to just fake-it-until-I-make-it, I guess.” Pat laughs, “You’re going to have to try harder because you’re so not pulling it off.”