Mixed Fortunes

Chapter 1 - A life of success

Sally earned a seven figure salary a year. She was head of legal services for a global company. She travelling regularly around the Pacific rim on business, living most of her life on the go, staying in hotels, flying business class, attending endless meetings.
Between meetings, she had numerous documents to read, emails to reply to. She was a slave to her mobile phone, checking texts, endless telephone calls.
She did not have to worry about meals. Most of her meetings were fully catered. Other companies tried to impress her by holding meetings in restaurants.
If she had a spare hour or so, she'd go to the hotel gym or swimming pool. If it was not too hot, she'd go for a run around the streets.
Her life was totally dominated by work. She never had a day off. She was available 24/7. Sometimes she relished her time in-flight. Her phone was finally silent. She could switch off, but not for too long as she had her paperwork to catch up on.
She looked forwards to her holidays when she could finally relax on the beach in Bali, Thailand or other exotic places.
However, her holidays were often cut short due to some legal crisis in another country that needed her attention.
Despite the pressure, she considered herself to be healthy. She thrived on the stress.
Her family life was difficult. She tried to keep up with what was going on via FaceTime and such. Other relationships were impossible to maintain for anything more than a few days.
Occasionally she worried about her biological clock ticking away, but she did not see herself as a mother, or a wife.
Indeed, she tried not to worry about looking too far ahead. She bounced from crisis to crisis. She didn't have time to feel lonely or bored. She had plenty of aquaintances, but no real freinds.
She was slim, her wardrobe consisted of smart formal suits, something to work out in, a swimsuit and something to sleep in.
She had to travel light because she was always traveling. She did all her shopping in duty free shops at the airport. Sometimes, she'd throw something out and buy something new simply because she did not have the time or the facilities to was it, or get someone else to wash it for her.