Zen and the Art of oven-ready Lasagne

Conny Oberrauter

Description

Isabella had it all. A young, driven career woman making her way to the top. She didn't have time for romance. Enter Jason, the man of the dreams she didn't know she had.Two months later her life is as perfect as it's ever been. Happy in love and a promotion at work, then just as suddenly it all comes crashing down. She wakes up, sick, single and unemployed. How did that happen?She withdraws and discovers daytime television. Can she overcome her latest addiction to infomercials and get her life back on track?

Sujets

• Romance

Informations

• Publié par: eBookPartnership.com
• Date de parution: 04 octobre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781909270541
• Langue: English

Extrait

Zen and the Art of Oven-Ready Lasagne
Conny Oberrauter
* * *
Dedication:
For Guy, for always, for everything. It’s you!
* * *
© 2012 Conny Oberrauter Conny Oberrauter has asserted her rights in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by eBookPartnership.com First published in eBook format in 2012 eISBN: 978-1-909270-54-1
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
All names, characters, places, organisations, businesses and events are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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Contents
Today
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Today
"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit", I screamed reaching over my pillow to glare at the malfunctioning alarm clock on my bed side table.
9.30 am it blinked back at me with its red vengeance.
I was so screwed. Late for work and today, well right now in fact, was that huge presentation I was supposed to give, I groaned to myself as I got up. My head was pounding and my stomach lurched. I guess that explained why I overslept.
Oh my God, what on earth happened here? I glanced around my bedroom floor. Clothes littered every inch of the carpet. An empty bottle of champagne lay on the dressing table. Another empty bottle was on the chair. No wonder I felt like death. It felt and looked like I had a huge party.
Okay so where was my gorgeous partner in crime who should be lying in bed with me. I looked around and there was no-one, just me. What the hell went on in my head last night?
Then it hit me like a hurricane. I was officially unemployed. My boss fired me yesterday.
Oh double shit. Now what do I do. Where was my phone? Damn that, first priority, painkillers. I got up and steadied myself on the edge of the bed. I wobbled out of the bedroom to the kitchen. I must’ve been in a colossal rage. There was stuff everywhere: magazines thrown all the way down the passage, torn up newspaper and the phone book has a small tear on the front page. The champagne probably made me feel like superwoman.
I shook my head in despair. I grabbed the headache tablets and popped two in my mouth. I filled up a glass of water and drank it quickly. Not a good idea. I ran to the bathroom and made it just in time. What a waste of two tablets. I lay down on the cool bathroom floor and let the tiles soothe my bruised head. Emotion spills from my tear ducts.
I can’t remember a time when I felt so crushed. How did I get to this point? Last week I was the boss’s favourite and making my way up the so called ladder of success. I had it all just waiting for me to reach out and grab it.
Damn fuzzy alcohol head. I couldn’t think straight let alone sit straight without heaving. I was having a pity party de luxe: just me, myself and I.
"Jason." I shouted out. My skin broke out into a cold shiver and my stomach heaved again. My soul wrenches out a deep sob and I disintegrated. I curl ed into the foetal position on the bathroom floor and let my body shudder out every last sob.
Hours later I crawled out of the bathroom too weak to stand. I made my way to the kitchen and attempted to keep down the next lot of headache tablets. I opened the fridge hoping for something big and greasy to make me feel better. With it being summer I was on one of my health binges. Nothing but salad and vegetables. A few chocolates hidden in the back but those would not make me feel better.
I switched on the kettle and made myself a cup of coffee. I took a sip and threw it away. Time to find my phone. At the very least I could order a pizza.
I found my phone lying under my bed switched off. Or rather taken apart. I started looking for my phone battery and found it lying in my new boots. My gorgeous new tan leather boots that were going to look so fab with my purple dress for today’s presentation.
I put my phone back together and it began to beep ferociously. There were a few text messages from work colleagues trying to find out what happened, two from my brother and one from Jason.
" I’m sorry babe. Call me please, love you xo."
"Aaaarrrrggggghhhh," a low guttural sound escapes my mouth as I hurled the phone on to the bed. "Screw you, it’s all your fault, you love me? Yeah - just enough to ruin me you arrogant two faced bastard."
Jason was the reason I got fired. How did this all happen? Let’s rewind a few months.
Chapter 1
"Hey Nikki, IsaB here, give me a call when you can. I want to chat about this weekend. Thanks."
I hated leaving voice messages and my best friend Nikki was always stuck in some meeting or lunch or training or something. She may as well have a pager instead of a phone.
I was on my way to work driving through the mid morning traffic. I’d just finished a presentation at Max Ideals, a potential client. I felt excited. If I could bag this one it would certainly help my promotion chances.
I am a marketing executive in a large cosmetic manufacturing company. We make other peoples dream come true. Cosmetic Creations Inc is my employer. Part of my job is to go out and find big clients that outsource their manufacturing to our competition and lure them away. The more politically correct term was to increase our market share. We had some small clients who had one or two magic creams they sold. We took good care of all our clients but it was the big chain stores that we were after. Big business meant big profit.
My meeting had gone well. The executives looked impressed with what we could offer. Hopefully we would have an answer later that week and my weekend party plans could really take off.
CC Inc was expanding rapidly and my boss, Erica was largely responsible for that. She is the marketing director. She is incredible. It was her idea to approach big chain stores and encourage them to start their own cosmetics line. I felt lucky to be her little protégé. I had so much to learn but I was a fast learner.
Arriving at the office a few minutes later I parked my car at the far end of the parking lot. We were expanding alright. First come means best and closest parking to the office. I grabbed my laptop out of the car and walked into the office.
"Hey Mary, how are you?" I asked our receptionist.
"Isa, you look beautiful. That colour brings out your green eyes. You should wear it more often. Did your meeting go well?"
"Thanks M, it was super, hold thumbs. Has the lunch man been around yet?"
"I bought a feta and avocado wrap for you, here we go." Mary handed me a wrapped package.
"You’re a star." Wonderful Mary, mother to us all and always thinking of us. I would probably starve to death without her. Maybe it would be easier to keep those extra kilos off.
Our reception is an open glassed area. Behind the reception desk is a large glass panel through which you can see the open plan office of all the admin staff. The marketing offices are in little cubicles to the side of the open plan. The directors offices are at the far end on a mezzanine level overlooking the offices on one side and the factory on the other side. Most meetings took place in the boardroom to the left of the reception. The research and development facilities are also based in the factory. I loved going in there. All those high tech machines, glass beakers and other fancy scientific stuff always amazed me. One day I would ask Jenny, the lab manager, to let me play. As soon as I got the courage. She was a very serious scientist and did not let people in her lab sanctuary too often.
I got into my cubicle and noticed Erica waving me over. I got a few appreciative glances from some of my male colleagues. The green, knee length dress did wonders for my curves. I pulled my shoulders back just that little bit more and walked over to Erica’s office, casually flicking my long, brown hair over my shoulder as I walked past Andrew.
"How’d it go angel?" Andrew winked at me.
"Lovely, just lovely, dahling," I gushed back in my best English accent.
Andrew is my office flirt. He is tall, dark and most definitely not handsome. We like to play around and joke with each other but it will never go further. The attraction is the punch line.
"So Isabella, how did your presentation go?" Erica always used my full name. She said it was more professional. Nick names were for school children and friends only.
"It went very well. All the top brass were in the meeting. I was even invited for lunch afterwards." That was another no-no. Lunch before the deal was signed was not on, no matter how lucrative the deal could be. Once the deal was signed then all the boozing and schmoozing could happen. I often wondered how her mind worked.
"They were very impressed with our offering, especially the R&D facility," I told her happily. "Their current manufacturer has had some issues in the technical department." Of course we already knew this since we had just hired their star development chemist.
"Did they ask a lot of questions or where they listening more?" Erica judged her audience