The Business Trip

A business man in his 30s, with an expense account, checks into a hotel, exchanging smiles and pleasantries with the desk clerk, a woman of beauty and style. Once in his room, he listens again to a voice message on his cell phone: his lover tells him she is breaking up with him; he is not spontaneous; she has found someone else; don’t call. He throws his phone down. When he reaches beneath the bed to retrieve it, he finds a Polaroid photograph of a partially nude woman posed provocatively; it includes a phone number and a sexual question. He opens a beer and stares at the photo. If he calls, what then?