The note read, "Bryan - when I opened the door and let my mother and aunt in today, I was totally embarrassed by the condition of the apartment. Maybe I demand too much neatness in my life, but it's something I just can't compromise on. You are either unable or unwilling to make the effort to keep the house tidy, and I just can't live my life like this. Thank you for some very wonderful times, but please take your belongings home, and please don't see me again. Goodbye - Laura."
When she returned home later that evening, the clothes and all traces of Bryan were gone. When she got to work on Monday, her voicemail had a brief message from him: "Laura, I'm sorry about the apartment not being kept up to your standards. I do really care about you, but I find it hard to make the top priority in my life the picking up of every single item I use and returning it to its proper place immediately. I'm sorry it didn't work out - and thank you for some very wonderful times. Goodbye."
That was the end of the relationship, and Laura had thrown herself into her work to help forget it. Whenever regrets set in, she had only to remember the humiliation she had felt that Saturday morning to feel that she had done the right thing. Overly obsessive or not, she was stuck with this need to have her surroundings kept orderly, and she methodically went through the rooms now, putting everything in order as she waited for the cab which would take her to the airport.
The final items to be picked up were on top of the dresser. She gathered up the plane tickets and the sheet her printer had spit out at work, confirming that she had a ticket for the evening performance of the Grand National Horse Show and Rodeo at San Francisco's Cow Palace Wednesday 7:30 PM, Section 15, Row H, Seat 1. As she put the items in the purse, she thought fleetingly that the show might provide a little excitement to offset the work of the seminar.
She had no idea that it was going to provide more excitement than she had ever experienced, or would ever hope to.