Present Day

Jessica glanced at her GPS, making sure she was turning on the correct street.  She was as nervous as a schoolgirl and twice on the drive down, she’d nearly turned around and abandoned her trip.  Of course, logic told her she should have called first.  They could have made plans to meet.  But so many weeks had passed, she thought it was past the point of being rude.  Not only had Yuri sent her a beautiful gift – and an expensive one, judging by Kim TaeYeon’s Web Site – but Yuri had also extended an invitation.
 

Come see me.

And Jessica had simply ignored it.  No thank you.  Nothing.  She told herself nothing could ever come of it.  She wasn’t foolish enough to fall into that trap again.  But the scene in the print became too much for her to overcome.  It literally drew her in.  She found herself staring at it, able to hear the waves, smell the air.  If she stared long enough, she was certain to see the rippling of the water, the sun moving higher, the lone pelican in the corner flying away.
 

Come see me.

Every day it grew stronger – the pull.  That invisible string that linked her with Yuri, that string that had never been broken.  Not when Yuri walked away from her, not during their estrangement and certainly not now.  It was stronger as ever, pulling at her, beckoning.

It was a week ago that she sat up in bed, her dream so real she could smell Yuri, taste her, feel her.  Her eyes immediately found the print, next to her bed.  It was at that moment that she knew she had to go.  Not so much the dream, but the fact that she moved the photograph from room to room, from home to office, told her she wanted – needed – to go.  She’d lose herself for hours staring at it, imagining them sitting there, watching the sunrise.  Imagining so much more.

To say her job had suffered was an understatement.  She couldn’t muster the enthusiasm for the work any longer.  She had written her last loophole, drafted her last contract.  She gave them a month’s notice, but when they couldn’t talk to her into staying, not even with a generous pay raise, they terminated her.  She wasn’t really surprised.  It was a cutthroat business and they had their interests to protect.

She wasn’t worried.  Her savings account was full and would be enough to hold her over without her having to touch her investments.  She also knew she wouldn’t have trouble finding a job, but she would never go back to the oil and gas industry again.  In fact, she was very likely to switch side.  She figured there were many environmental agencies and nonprofit groups who would love her expertise to fight the big oil companies.

But all of that could come later.  Right now, she had to find Yuri.

She glanced again at the GPS.  She was only a few blocks away and she took a deep breath, trying to ignore