One Night in Stockholm

This story is a sequel to The Erasmus Experience, which is set 2 years after Yara's departure from Denmark after her Erasmus project concluded, serves as a prologue for the new series called Stories from Mayotte, where Yara's dream continues, this time as a 23-year-old illustrator who headed on a 2-month business trip to Sweden, where she reunited with her boyfriend Niels despite her workplace shenanigans and by the end of her business trip, ended things with him due to them not being on the same page and reunited with her actual boyfriend Lael in her dreams, before actually going on a date to the countryside with him, starting the story of "Stories from Mayotte". 

Like The Erasmus Experience, some parts of the story has been edited out to the nature of this blog as well.

September 1st, 2031.

Yara is a 23-year-old illustrator working for a game company in Germany. 

One day, she headed on a business trip to Sweden for a meeting with a client company, where she stayed at a business hotel in Stockholm for the night.

The next day, she was sitting on a bench, working on her laptop, when she heard whistling noises out of nowhere.

“Wait, where is this coming from?”, she said.

She kept to herself for a while, until the guy that made the whistling noises walked and showed up to her.

He tried to flirt with her multiple times, to the point where she repeatedly told him to leave her alone and back off.

Instead of respecting her wishes, he refused and continued to catcall her, only for her to attack him in the face with her right elbow, and soon, Niels and a male bystander showed up to punch him in the face and grab him by the collar.

“Severin, who the hell do you think you are to my girl? Leave her alone!”, Niels said to the man.

“How did you know my name?”, Severin responded.

“I’ve heard your name from the girls, who told me that you’ve been spiking their drinks at a bar. Since you won’t leave her alone, I’ll make sure that you’re already done for.”, the male bystander told him, before Niels taught Severin a lesson by beating him up.

After getting beaten up by him, Severin ran off from the scene crying, but it was already too late for him, as two male bystanders managed to apprehend him until the police came to the scene, while a female bystander recorded everything he did and uploaded the video online.

“You okay, Yara?”, Niels said to her.

“I’m okay Niels, thanks for saving me.”, she responded.

“You’re welcome.”, he replied in return, before sitting next to her and hugging her in the bench.

After they were done hugging each other, she looked at the time on her phone, and it was 2:50 PM, a mere 10 minutes before her scheduled meeting with the client company was about to begin.

“I’m sorry babe, but I don’t have enough time, as I have a meeting scheduled in 10 minutes. See you after work!”, she said, before standing up from the bench and packing her things into a bag.

“Okay. See you after work too, babe.”, he replied, while waving his hands at her.

Eventually, Yara made it to the client’s office for the meeting.

There, she saw the male bystander, who saved her a few minutes prior.

“It’s nice to see you again, Ms. Idahcar. I’m your business partner, Axel.”, the bystander said to her.

“Actually, I’ve seen your art online, and all of them are amazing to the point where my boss likes to see you in person, so she scheduled a meeting with your company that day. Are you ready for the meeting?”, he continued.

“I’m ready, Mr. Axel.”, Yara said.

“Great, now, let’s go to the meeting.”, he replied.

As they arrived in the meeting room, they saw his boss, who turned out to be none other than Tatiana, a 39-year-old entrepreneur, who was more than happy to see her in person.

3 hours later, the meeting was finally over.

After they got out of the meeting room, Axel gave his business card to Yara, thanking her for remaining calm throughout the meeting before they exchanged phone numbers.

She then asks him about what happened to Severin afterwards, to which he told her that after the other bystander posted the video, the guy received immediate backlash and was immediately arrested for his crimes.

Afterwards, they eventually parted ways with each other, and she headed back to the business hotel.

While in her hotel room, she checks on her phone and finds out that she has two months left in Stockholm.

She took this as an opportunity to rent a cheap apartment for the remaining 2 months.

After moving to her new apartment, she held a party at a bar and invited not only her colleagues, but her business partner Axel and her boyfriend Niels to the party.

After the party was over, her colleagues left, except for the three of them.

Upon seeing her sister Machel being unconscious on the table, Yara tells her “Go home Machel, you’re drunk.”

She wakes up, and said “You got me Yara, I was just sleeping!”

“It’s too dangerous for you to stay here, Machel. Let’s get out of here as soon as possible.”, Axel responded, before he left the bar with her.

Now, it was just Yara and Niels at the bar, and soon, they immediately left as well.

Then, they were at her house and while in her bedroom, they saw a photo of them with Joakim outside of the concert hall from 3 years ago, on her laptop.

“Remember that time we went to his concert when we were exchange students in Denmark 3 years prior?”, she said to him.

“Yes, I do remember. It was amazing.”, he replied, before continuing with “By the way, is there anything you want to show me?”

“Yeah, there’s something I want to show you.”, she told him and continued with “Can you give a massage?”

“Okay.”, he said, before giving her a massage and soon, he helped her prepare for an important business meeting in Gothenburg before leaving her house.

The next morning, she got up from her bed and headed to an important business meeting with a business partner in Gothenburg, where things would take a turn for the worse.

However, around the time that she was in a meeting, she was instantly fired from her company despite being one of their best and hardworking employees without any valid reason and had to leave the meeting earlier than expected.

She then immediately ran to the café and sat next to the barista, who had no idea what had happened the whole time.

Her boyfriend Niels showed up at the café, walking and sitting next to her, who was crying at the table in front of the barista himself.

“What’s wrong, Yara?”, he politely asked.

“I just got fired from my company for no reason.”, she answered, before explaining to him about everything.

He got angry and said “That’s horrible. How can they do this to you even though you’re one of their best employees just because of your educational background? You don’t deserve them in any way.”

Upon hearing their conversation, Aleksi, who was working as the barista, was understandably pissed off and gave Yara some advice to sue her employer in Germany for wrongful dismissal, to which she listened to it.

Soon, Ingeborg, an experienced lawyer from Germany, showed up to get her coffee, and after Aleksi told her everything about Yara’s wrongful dismissal, she asked the latter if she can represent her in court, to which she agreed, before the lawyer left the scene.

After drinking their coffee, the couple left the café and headed back to Stockholm, where Lasse, a close friend of Axel, approached Yara with an offer to work for his newly created company, which specialized in art.

Afterwards, she completely forgot about her former company, and 2 weeks later, while working at a nearby café, her former boss Lothar showed up and tried to blackmail her with a forged document, only for her to call the barista and tell her to call the police on him.

The police came over to take Lothar away from the café.

“Thanks for saving my day.”, she said to the barista, before paying for her bills and leaving the café.

“You’re welcome, Ms. Idahcar. Have a great day!”, the barista replied.

1 month later, Yara moved out of her apartment in Stockholm and moved into an apartment in Helsingborg.

4 days later, after she left the mall, Niels walks in and asks her if he can help her out with her groceries, to which she agreed.

Soon, they arrived at her house and after they were done putting everything in place, they were now sitting on her couch.

“Remember when we were a couple 7 years ago?”, he said.

“I do remember, but that was a VR experience.”, she responded.

“Shall we do it in real life then?”, he told her, who nodded yes.

They head to her bedroom, where things are about to take a weird turn.

The next morning, after everything was over, he wakes up to cook some pancakes for the two of them and wakes her up to come eat the pancakes he cooked for them.

After they were done eating the pancakes, they decided to discuss her life after her 2-month business trip.

One month later, Yara resigned from her job at her current company and parted ways with her former colleague Lasse, who was sad to see her go after her business trip had come to an end but wished her all the best in her future endeavors.

Later, she stayed in a hotel room near the airport in Stockholm and ended things with Niels, by parting ways with him due to them not being on the same page after 3 years.

The next day, she headed to the airport, where she saw Lael, who was more than happy to see her for the first time in 6 years.

“Hey, Yara! It’s been a few years since we’ve last met! How’s things going in Sweden?”, he said to her.

“It was great, despite the wrongful dismissal and all of that stuff going on.”, she replied.

“Since you’re leaving, can I get some hugs and kisses from you and join you in your country?”, he politely asked.

She hugged and kissed him before letting go of each other, and soon, they both held hands with each other, and headed to the plane back to Paris.

Upon arriving in Paris, they hopped on a flight south to Marseille, where they met some of her dad’s close friends from school and got in touch with them, before heading back to her home island of Mayotte, where her family welcomed her with open arms.

Soon, Yara and Lael went to the town hall to enter a civil partnership, and moved in with each other to a comfortable home, in which they ended up having two children: Helmi and Topias in 2032 and 2034, respectively, before getting married.

Turns out, it was all a dream the whole time, as Yara woke up in the real world, on her bed in April 2025.

“What was it about, my love?”, her actual boyfriend Lael asked, while sitting next to her bedside.

“It’s about my trip to Sweden, our own life as a couple, not to mention having our own ideal family.”, she answered.

“Ah, I see. Stockholm sounds cool. I’d love to be there with you one day.” he said back. 

“Same as well.”, she said.

“Wait, I have an idea. How about we spend our vacation in the countryside?”, she suggested to him.

“Good idea.”, he said to her.

One week later, on the day of their spring break, Yara and Lael headed to the countryside for a vacation full of farming, picnics and raising livestock.

And so, the story of the countryside vacations of Yara and Lael begins.

Will Yara and Lael manage to have a great time in the countryside? Find out next time in the new series, Stories from Mayotte!

THE END