Page 4 of The Dangers of Daydreaming

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-proclaimedAnne of Green Gablesgroupie. 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, realityneverlived 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 toplana tour to PEI—it would have been the highlight of my career.

To plan the tour.

For other people.

My well-worn copy ofAnne of Green Gableswas 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 Ihadto 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?”

Chapter 2

Surprises Suck

Finn

Itossedthekeysinto the air, grabbing them again as I used my back to push out the bakery door. Tour pick-up days weren’t my favorite. There was an air of awkwardness, tons of opportunity for delay, and frankly, it was monotonous. But pickup days always led to tour weeks, and after a long winter and slow spring full of working on my own or with Pops on minor fixes around the farm, I was even looking forward to a day like this.

---