Chapter 7: Conference Preparations and an old friend

The next day, being a Saturday morning, Rayla and Brad had the day off work, and being th Weekends and although they didn't do very much, it was time spent together as a family around the table to eat breakfast together.

"Brad, I am going to a conference next month, so I will not be home next month to look after Rachel while you are at work." Rayla said as they had breakfast together, being a Saturday morning. "Oh yeah that's right, that's your annual conference interstate thing, isn't it?" Brad said to her softly. "Yeah, that's the one." Rayla said looking at the morning newspaper, seeing what the news is in the economy and finance.

Brad just stares at her for a moment then looks down to eat his breakfast with Rachel. "What are your plans today?" Brad asked Rayla kindly, as he fed Rachel. "ummm…. Not sure, why?" Rayla asked, "Want to go somewhere?" Brad asked her kindly. Rayla glanced at him for a moment, thinking that is out of the normal that he would ask her such a thing. "What for? We have a house?" Rayla shrugged, as that would be the normal response that he would give her when she would ask him to go out together, she was just giving him a taste of his own medicine, is what she thought.

"You don't want to go on a date?" Brad asked her softly. Rayla looked up at him for a moment, "What's gotten into you?" She thought to herself with contempt at him. "Honey, I am just so tired from a busy week, how about you and Rachel go? She would love it, maybe ask your folks if they want to go with you? They would love cherry picking over at the farm down the road?" Rayla suggested as a plan for her husband and Rachel to go out for the day together as the local farm down the road. Rayla was just over it and couldn't handle any drama, she just wanted to stay at home away from it all.

Brad looked at her for a moment then looked away, "suit yourself…" He said saddened voice and got ready to take Rachel out for the day with his parents, as he called his parents and made plans to go out for the day. "Fine, I will take Rachel and my parents will go with me to the farm" Brad said. Rayla glanced at him, "That's fine, have a good time" she smiled at them softly, watching as they walked out the door.

It was just Rayla home to herself. Brad, giving her the space she needed to cool down, left with Rachel to meet up with his parents, who only lived ten minutes away from their house.

That afternoon, she received a text from Evan, "apologies to disturb you on your day off, but I am told you are the best person to ask, can you email me the figures for the last three financial years?" Evan requested in the text. "Yeah sure, give me a half an hour to bring them up, I have to go through the company files" She replied, as she walked into the office, she found the reports, and scanned and emailed them to him. "As requested," She wrote and put in a protected encryption email.

"Got it, thanks." Evan replied to her email. "Why'd you need those on a Saturday, out of curiosity?" Rayla asked in a text. "I needed them to prepare for my presentation at the conference." Evan replied. "How's that coming along?" Rayla asked in response to his message. "Well..." Evan replied not so confident.

Rayla chuckled shaking her head at the phone. "Poor guy got his work cut out for him haha." Rayla thought to herself. "If there is anything else you need, let me know. Take care." Rayla texted to Evan and decided to go for a shower, whilst her husband was with Rachel at the Park with his family. Ever speaking their language, again speaking about his wife, "She should join you, Brad, a wife should go wherever her husband goes…" his mother said, when suddenly, "She's tired from a long week, mum, give it a rest..."

Brad shrugged off. "Are you sure she is not committing an affair?" His mother questioned with suspicion and intrigue. "Mother!" Brad grunted, when suddenly, Rachel started to cry out of nowhere, sensing her father's anger. His mother looked at Rachael and her son, Brad took a deep breath. "Nothing like that at all, mother…" Brad sighed as he calmed down. "she wouldn't do something like that, she has her beliefs on the matter and besides…." Brad thought to himself, but the thought still lingered in the back of his mind from time to time however, but he didn't show it or mention it.

That afternoon while Rayla was home and had the house to herself, she organised the conference from home, from the venue, flights and accommodation, she had everything organised and confirmations sent to and fro, and confirmed who was going and who was not. She even arranged for her boss to have a special room for him and his wife to attend the conference also. Her boss was very pleased.

"Everything is organised, boss" she said to him on the phone. "Thank you, Rayla. Please also contact Mr. Yoshida of IT industries and confirm that he and his team will be at the conference, also contact Mr. San Yan from FMT Company to confirm his furniture company will be on display." Mr. Sony, Rayla's boss said. "Yes sir, consider it done" Rayla said as she took down her notes, being in the office that morning and made all the phone calls her boss asked her to do.

All her phone calls were done for the afternoon and considering the different time zones, she got all calls confirmed and made sure emails were sent off containing details of the conference and also arranged for conference speakers to attend.

Meanwhile, Brad and the family were at the farm down the road, and as they were having a good time cherry picking and decided to have a BBQ, Brad ran into an old friend whom he knew when he and his wife were dating years ago.

"Heyy Chad!! How have you been man?" Brad said excitedly to see his old friend.

"Yeah great man, this is my wide, Charlotte" Chad said introducing his wife to Brad, "An honour to meet you, I wonder what you see in this guy?" Brad said jokingly to Chad's wife, as he and Chad went way back, from the time they were young teenagers to adults.

"Where do you live now, man?" Brad asked him. "I am in Southern Suites", which was a suburb about 20xmin drive from where Brad and Rayla lived. "Man you are not far, we should hang out sometime man" Brad said cheery. "Of course man, give me your number" Chad said, exchanging numbers with his old friend. "How's Rayla?" Chad asked. "Yeah she's good man, she's just at work" Brad said. "Oh yeah, tell her we said hello" Chad said kindly, as and his wife left.

"Who was that?" his mother asked him. "He is an old friend of mine" Brad said writing his friend's number into his phone. "He and I go way back, back when me and Rayla were dating… at the time, me and Rayla were only dating for about six months at the time. He is part of our story" Brad said smiling, thinking of the time he and Rayla and Chad went to play billiards at the time. Brad chuckled to himself when he remembered when Rayla said that Chad was in a relationship, but he didn't believe her at the time.

That day, Brad decided to call Rayla.

Rayla is at home, when her phone rang, "Rayla" Brad said on the phone when she picked up. "Brad, hey what's up, everything ok?" she asked him confused. "Yeah no I just wanted to tell you, have a guess who I bumped into today?" Brad said to her. "Who?" Rayla said organising her papers in the office as she walked back and forth putting papers away. "Chad, he's married now" Brad told her. "Oh yes, I remember him, how is he?" Rayla asked him. "Yeah, well he's been married for about a year now. No kids" Brad told her. "That's nice" Rayla said simply. "Did you eat?" he asked her. "Yeah, I had something" Rayla said, not to get into too much details. "you better go, sounds like you're busy" Rayla said, hearing Rachel in the background crying for her father's attention. Brad shook his head, "Alright, see you home later" Brad said and hung up.

"He's the one who wanted to go out" Rayla thought to herself. She remembered too the time when she, Brad and Chad would go to the Billiards together when she and Brad were dating. She chuckled to herself for a moment. "I told him Chad was in a relationship, he didn't listen to me" she chuckled to herself, looking at old photos of her and Brad when they were dating together in her phone. She sighed for a moment, "seems so long ago now, doesn't it?" Rayla said to herself.