He chuckled. “Not professional, no. But we did just fly in from Portugal. Ever hear of Ericeira?”

“No, but from the look in your eyes, I’m going to guess it was pretty awesome.”

“It was insane.”

“You travel a lot?”

“Used to, but not the good kind. The grind ended a couple months ago, though. From now on, I’m free as a bird and plan on staying that way the rest of my life.” He drank some coffee.

“Good for you. I know all about the grind…and what does it get you? I mean, I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do. Studied hard, never skipped classes. Since I don’t have a…you know, passion for anything in particular, I chose a business major. Can’t go wrong with that, right?” Hearing herself get all ramped up, she set her fork down and washed the taste of syrup away with some milky coffee. Just thinking about all this made her stomach squeeze.

“You going to tell me how it all went sideways?”

Why not, right? It’s better than bawling my eyes out alone in my hotel room. “I had a plan. A very good one. My boyfriend—” You have to stop saying that. “The guy I dated in college…okay, let me go back a little bit. Keith and I decided to take a class together, and we partnered on an assignment where we had to put together a business plan. We chose my hometown, because it has two really big tourist seasons. We did a bunch of research and figured out the one thing it needed was daycare. You know, you’re on a family vacation, and Mom and Dad want to go out to dinner without the kids, or maybe they want take a harder hike, go skydiving, whatever.”

He nodded like, Makes sense.

She drank some more coffee to melt the knot of fear in her throat. “It was such a good idea that our professor asked if she could use it as an example in future classes. That got us thinking…why not really do this? So, while everyone else was applying for grad school and jobs and freaking out about their futures, we were busy starting a viable business.”

His brow furrowed.

“Correct. This story has a bad ending. So, for the past two years, I’ve been taking jobs to save money, getting licenses and permits, lining up contractors and real estate agents.” Now, the smell of food was making her sick. She pushed her plate away. “My boyfriend—” Dammit. “My ex went home after graduation. The plan was to work and live at home until we saved up enough money to launch our business. That was five months ago. Well, the perfect location became available, so I made an appointment with a realtor, and…” She hunched her shoulders in a gesture of helplessness.

Eyebrows raised, he sat back in his seat. “And?”