Girls Who Travel Read Online Free

office,” answered an impatient, too-cool-for-you voice.
    I pictured his PA, Bae Yoon, adjusting her headset, which she always seemed to be wearing—even on social occasions—like it was some sort of high-tech fashion accessory.
    â€œBae Bae! It’s Kika. You have got to help me,” I started.
    â€œHold please,” she said without emotion.
    I tapped my foot. She didn’t put me on hold properly, and I heard her whole conversation through the phone:
    â€œYes, I did just get it cut, Mr. Jørgensen. Do you really like it? You don’t think it’s too short, do you?”
    Bae was a notorious flirt who considered bagging rich men pure sport. At any industry event she could be found shamelessly coiling up the arm of the wealthiest guy in the room like some poisonous snake.
    I spanked my palms onto my desk: “BAE!”
    â€œ
Forgive me, Mr. Jørgensen—oh, okay
,” (sickly sounding giggles) “
I’ll call you Sven. What a privilege. Forgive me, Sven, but I have to attend to this call
,” Bae said in the background.
    She came back on the line. Irritated, she asked, “Yes?
Who
is this?”
    Bae and I spoke roughly three hundred times a day.
    â€œIt’s Kika Shores, from VoyageCorp. Look, I have a serious problem.”
    Bae sighed, fluttering and wet like a horse. “Don’t you
always
, though.”
    â€œNo, seriously, this is not a drill. I repeat: This is not a drill. Holland is coming to your office
right now
to meet with Richie Rich, and I totally forgot to schedule it with you,” I said in one breath. “Is there any way to get a meeting with Holland on the books, like,
now
, so they can meet?”
    Bae let out another lengthy stream of air, which I
really
didn’t have time for.
    â€œSo let me get this straight,” she started in her snippy, nasally way. “You forgot to schedule a meeting with Mr. Richmond—excuse me, with
Richie Rich
—wasn’t
that
what you called him?”
    I dropped my head back and grimaced at the ceiling. She wasn’t going to forget that anytime soon.
    Bae continued: “—and now you want
me
to
find
Mr. Richmond,
interrupt
him, and tell him that he has a
meeting
with Holland,
like, now
, so that
I
look like the
screwup
who didn’t put it in the
books
?”
    (Sorry for all the italics, but that’s how Bae Yoon really talks:
in
alternating
italics
.)
    Bae always took this sort of superior tone with me because back in the day, we were up for the same personal assistant position for Richie Rich. A man named Prescott Darling, the father of one of the families I babysat for, was a financial advisor for the Richmond Group, so when he got word that Richie Rich needed a PA, he got me the interview, even though I was less than qualified with my tourism and travel management degree.
    When Richie Rich chose Bae over me, he passed on my résumé to VoyageCorp as a courtesy to Prescott Darling.
    Bae acted like she won this big competition when I really couldn’t care less as long as I had a job. And at least for now, I had a job.
    â€œBae, please,” I implored. “Just get someone—anyone—from the Richmond Group to meet with Holland. Look, he’s been on my ass about Dubai, and if he finds out I forgot this, I’ll be fired.”
    There was an unwelcome silence on the end of the phone.
    â€œWill you now?” said Bae in a cool, clear voice.
    Unexpectedly, I felt my bottom lip twitch. Sure, I didn’t exactly
like
this job, but it was really hard to get one. I only got this position because of the personal favor.
    Just then the situation became serious. If I lost this job, itwould takes ages to get a new one, and I could kiss any hope of traveling in the immediate future good-freakin’-bye.
    The line went quiet again. “Maybe I can help you,” Bae finally said.
    Now I was the one exhaling. “Bae, thank you