At last Jackie and her husband Clive managed a toast, they thought, and the telephone rang.
“I’ll get it” said Clive.
“It might be for me” said Jackie and it was. It was Frank. There were problems with the computer in the firm and they needed her.
“Frank, are you sure? Couldn’t it wait for an hour at least. I am just having dinner with Clive.”
Frank was not happy. “Your housewife duties do not interest me Jackie. We have problems, nothing is moving here, everything blocked. This is costing us money.”
“Clive, do you mind dear? Frank has a computer dilemma and it’s costing he says.”
“No problem Jackie, just take your time. You drive off to the company and solve it and I will keep everything warm until you get back. Business goes first” Clive said.
She was so glad to have such an understanding husband.
Jackie had been gone for a few minutes and Clive had a look at his various mails on the computer in the meanwhile. “Oh no, what are they doing” He had received a message from the company office in Asia and this was not good. It seems that their rival company had brought out a new model on the market, for half the price and with the double capacity. This was a threat to survival on the Asian market. Clive had to handle this one and quickly. He managed to book a flight to Hong Kong, leaving the airport in four hours and started to pack.
Two hours later Jackie returned home, red faced and slamming the door.
“They are complete fools” she said. Of course the computer is blocked when it has a virus. I told them to stop the staff using those social sites in the tea break and now we have the result.”
“Could you solve it?” asked Clive.
“No problem” she answered “but it took longer than I thought. I had to go through all the records of today’s transactions to find which computer it was. Clive what is your suitcase doing in the hall? Going somewhere?”
“Sorry dearest, but I have to go to Hong Kong. My flight leaves in two hours. I hope you don’t mind.”
Of course Jackie did not mind. It was all in a day’s work. She remembered her first encounter with Clive. His firm needed a new computer system and her company was chosen. She attended the meeting to decide things and it was there that she met Clive. “Love at first sight”, she thought and realised how true this was, when she awoke in his penthouse bedroom the next day. They had breakfast in bed together while they watched the latest stock exchange developments on his television in the bedroom. It was a whirlwind courtship and they were married two months later at the local registry office. He had just returned from a business trip to India and she had just finished installing the new computer for the Chinese government. They decided to pack while the iron was hot. It could be the last chance to get married for a few months. Afterwards they were working in different parts of the world for a few weeks, but in between they met for a few hours. Jackie moved into Clive’s luxury apartment, as they never got round to finding something else together: so little time and so much to do.
Jackie was glad that Clive was not one of those men looking for the ideal housewife. She never really learnt how to cook, there was no need when you can engage catering companies to do it all for you.
Now she was home again and Clive was leaving. It did not bother her. After solving the company computer problem, they said there had been a similar crash in Sweden. She decided she would not tell Clive her flight was leaving for Stockholm the next morning. She would send him a telephone message as soon as she arrived. No good spoiling the day completely.
“So dearest, here’s to us, our success and our life. May it continue to be as happy as it has been up to now.”
and they raised their glasses of red wine and they clinked in togetherness. And they waited, but all was still. Clive had an hour before he had to leave and Jackie had a brilliant idea.
“Clive, I love you so much.”
“Jackie I love you too”
“What about a quickie Clive?”
Before Clive could say yes, the phone rang.
“Sorry Jackie, but it might be important.”
It was. It was the airport calling to say that his flight had been delayed for two hours due to fog. It was still a quickie, but a longer quickie.
So is life in the modern business world.
No comments:
Post a Comment