Only You by Jerry Cole (the top 100 crime novels of all time TXT) 📕

and what-have-you. It’s not going anywhere. So again... what do we do about it?”

This time, no one made to offer a response. Sherman, still standing at the head of the table looked down its length and tried to catch someone’s eye. None were offered, with every single person in that room staring at their hands or feet or whatever they could as a means to avoid eye contact with their slightly unhinged boss.

Eventually, Sherman managed to catch one set of eyes. But those were just Nick’s looking vague and a little bored. Nick was just there for support more than anything, as he wasn’t a part of the marketing team. Rather, he worked in Human Resources, which had always seemed kind of strange to Sherman as Nick was the kind of guy most likely to end up in front of his HR rep, rather than actually being one.

He gave Sherman a big, closed mouth smile and then a shrug as if to say, “what are you gonna do?”

Sherman felt his body deflate. As the Assistant Manager of DreamLine Travel, the number two travel company – and all things travel related — in Australia, his job was usually pretty stressful at the best of times. DreamLine Travel was a multi-million-dollar company after all, responsible for the travel priorities of nearly half of Australia. Today was another problem entirely.

Six months ago, a couple of guys in the research and marketing team had come up with the brilliant idea to offer a ‘singles package’ for those wishing to travel through Europe, but not spend the whole-time partying and hooking up. It was supposed to be an alternate option to why most single people went to Europe and where it had sounded like a good idea at the time, everyone involved was very quickly realizing that it was a fool’s errand.

It seemed that single men and women didn’t want to travel to Europe unless there was a chance of meeting other singles; this was usually done through drinking, partying, drugs and then eventually sex. None of that was offered on this tour, instead opting for a more ‘culture’ based approach. As such, it was sinking fast.

Today’s meeting was called by Sherman to figure out a way to save the package. Everything had already been paid for by DreamLine Travel, which meant that if they didn’t sell the tickets and fill the seats, they’d lose millions. Something had to be done! Unfortunately, and so far, the only options being given were to offer the trip for less.

But then Sherman saw a hand go up. He whipped his head up, and rolled his eyes when he saw that it was just Nick. Nick wore a chuffed smile, looking rather pleased with himself.

“Nick,” Sherman sighed.

“I was thinking.” Nick groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. A large man by any rational measurement, he wasn’t necessarily fat... just big. He was well over six foot tall, he had large shoulders, a large chest, a large stomach, large arms and large everything else. Even his beard was big, bushy and boarding on overgrown. “And I know, I won’t try too hard, it might hurt me.”

He paused for laughs, and was greeted by a smattering of them.

Sherman rolled his eyes. “Go on.”

“Why don’t I go on the trip – by myself. I could document it, ask the other singles why they chose it, what turned them off etcetera... and maybe meet one or two while I’m at—”

“And I’m going to stop you there.” Sherman indicated for Nick to sit down, which he did. “I admit... sending someone on the trip isn’t a bad idea,” Sherman conceded. It actually was a pretty decent idea, to be fair. “But it’s not going to be you—”

“How come—”

“Because,” Sherman raised his voice. “You are not the target audience. The fact you even mentioned hooking up is proof of that.”

“So, I’m not allowed to want to meet other singles on a singles trip?”

“Not on this one,” Sherman countered. “That’s the entire point!” He wrung his hands in the air. “This trip isn’t about hook-ups and random one-nighters. It’s about culture, the arts and maybe making a friend or two along the way – maybe!”

“I like art!” Nick protested.

“Show me your phone,” Sherman said immediately.

“Huh? Why...?”

“I want to see your Tinder account right now. I bet my salary that you already have a date lined up for tonight. Am I right?” Sherman raised an eyebrow right at Nick.

The smile Nick offered was one of pure delight. He even looked around the room, meeting a few eyes as if to brag silently. “Two actually,” he winked. “I haven’t decided yet which one I’m going to —”

“And that’s my point. Come on people!” Sherman clapped his hands together. “That idea was... it wasn’t bad – and that’s what I want more of! Ideas that aren’t that bad. Fuck, eventually we might stumble onto a good one.”

But there were no more ideas to be had. By the time the meeting ended some thirty minutes later, DreamLine Travel’s deluxe ‘Single’s Package’ was as hopeless an idea for a getaway as that luxury cruise into the Bermuda Triangle that an intern had pitched last year. Maybe even more so as now Sherman was almost certain he was going to have to just scrap the thing entirely and count his losses.

“Hey! Yo!” Nick called after Sherman as he hurried from the meeting and back toward his office. “Great meeting today.” Nick towered over the much shorter Sherman and when he reached him, Sherman thought for a moment he was going to rest his hand on his shoulder like a walking stick.

“Funny,” Sherman said without stopping. He loved Nick, but sometimes the guy was a little too... happy-go-lucky. Nothing seemed to ever phase or worry him. And that included the job.

“I wasn’t trying to