Torrential Downpour

I turned the flip-flop over in my hands. It was dripping wet. The straps of my sandal were broken.

"Shit," I whispered under my breath as I looked down at my feet. One foot had a sandal still intact, and the other one was bare. I'd ducked out of the office to grab a bite to eat, but had been caught in an uncharacteristic Sydney downpour.

I ran the remaining stretch back to the office.

"What happened to you?" Pandora asked as she surveyed my appearance. "Is it that bad outside?"

She glanced out the window and saw the bucketing rain.

"Yeah. It's a torrential downpour. I was about to head home on the train, but now my shoe is broken. Are you working late tonight?"

"We'll be another hour or so," Pandora said. "We've got the car, so I'll just give you a lift. Let's do dinner together at our place."

"Amazing. Thanks!"

I turned around, sat at a spare hotdesk, and opened my laptop.

"Bad weather?"

A tall stranger in his mid-thirties was sitting opposite me on the island of desks.

"Terrible," I laughed. "And my shoe decided to spontaneously break in the middle of it. Are you new here? I'm Nikki, by the way."

"Hey, I'm Dave." He reached out his hand to shake mine. "And no — I'm just in Sydney for the day and thought I'd swing by to check out this place."

He asked me what I was working on, and I showed him. I asked him what he was working on, and he showed me. We started chatting about startup stuff — experiences, lessons, the usual. And then he said it...

"Oh! You're Nikki Durkin! I read your failure article years ago and sent it to a bunch of people. You really captured the essence of the emotional rollercoaster. Not many people speak about failure like that."

I blushed. I still found it weird when people remembered that story, years after it was published.

"So, do you just work from Sydney now?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "But I'm about to head to northern Thailand. I've heard it's a great place to get shit done."

"And way cheaper than Sydney."

"Yeah, for sure," I laughed.

"How long are you staying in Thailand for?" he asked.

"Maybe two or three months. I don't know. I figured I'd just buy a ticket and see if I like it."

An idea popped into Dave's mind. "Oh! If you're open to relocating, you should apply for the Hotdesq program in Queensland. It's a government grant initiative designed to attract entrepreneurs to share knowledge and grow the local startup community. I might be doing it in Brisbane if everything works out. I can introduce you to Richelle, who runs it. I'm sure they'd love to have the Nikki Durkin."

I'd never been to Brisbane before, but the whole idea sounded exciting. I especially loved the thought of meeting other international entrepreneurs in a cohort. I still felt quite lonely after Jesse left.

"Are you ready to go?" Pandora asked.