by Megan McCoy
Almost on cue, her phone rang and vibrated on her end table, it was her little sister Celeste. “Hey Sis, let me guess you just got Mom’s email too,” Monica stated, sounding defeated. She stood up from her chair and walked over to the picture window in her living room. It was rainy and dreary outside, so it matched her mood perfectly.
Celeste’s laughter filled her end of the phone. “Yeah, I did, and I had to make sure that you were all right. So, are you okay?” she asked quietly. “Did you see that schedule? We are spending even more time with Joseph’s family than usual. Mom is really tripping about the breakup; you would think it was her relationship with the way she’s acting. You know Dad is completely indifferent about it, but parrots Mom and her points to keep the peace. She talks about it nonstop.”
Monica sighed and rested her head on the window, closing her eyes. “This is not the 1920s and I can be more than the freaking wife of a douchebag for God’s sake!” Monica snapped, wishing she could just disappear for a while, between her parents - mainly her mother - and Joseph calling her constantly, alternating between begging her to take him back and calling her every derogatory name he could think of when his pleas fell on deaf ears, she was at her wit’s end.
“I totally agree, Sissy, it’s not like he has made it a secret that he doesn’t want you working and just wants you barefoot and pregnant, June Cleaver style. As if you worked your ass off to become a dentist and build your practice to then become a housewife two years later. You would think Mom and Dad would be proud of you for standing your ground and securing your damn future without a man. I mean, what’s next? Are they going to drug you and have you married against your will or something?” Celeste asked, sounding annoyed. Monica loved her little sister; she and Celeste were always prepared to go to war for one another. So, in this case Monica’s outrage was also Celeste’s.
Monica chuckled mirthlessly at the thought and moved back to her chair. “Like I would ever let something like that happen. Mom is just going to have to get over it, either that or marry Joseph her damn self. I don’t want to be anyone’s wife right now, let alone Joseph’s. Just because she was married and pregnant by the time she was thirty doesn’t mean I wanted to be! I will be forty-two in February and I am perfectly happy being single and childless. You know what, Celeste? The more I think about it, the more it really bothers me. If Mom is really determined to shove Joseph down my throat and Daddy is going to let her when I get home, what is the damn point? I might not even come home for Christmas this year,” Monica told her sister, feeling rebellious.
Celeste snorted with laughter. “Yeah right, Monica, if you ever get that ambitious, I owe you that pair of $3000 Manolo boots you ask for every year for Christmas, knowing you’re never going to get them. You are, and will always remain, the ‘good daughter.’ You have never really disobeyed our parents or made waves. The fact that you have dug your heels in with all of this Joseph business still has me in shock, but we both know this is as far as you will go with it. So, save it, and get ready for everything Joseph Davies rocking around your Christmas tree,” Celeste quipped, chewing on ice in her ear. It was a habit Celeste had had since they were little kids and Monica hated it.
Monica felt the annoyance rising in her at Celeste’s ice chewing and her dig. It wasn’t the first time Celeste had referred to her as the ‘good daughter’ or Miss Goody Two shoes. Celeste had made driving their parents crazy an art form over the years, from her several piercings to her tattoos to her constantly dyeing her hair outlandish colors when she was still in high school to changing her mind about graduate school over and over again. Celeste had kept them up in arms about her decisions and Monica saw no reason to argue the fact that she did everything her parents told her to, she really didn’t, she just wasn’t as scatterbrained as her sister and made decisions for her life easier.
Monica opened her laptop, clicked on her bookmarks and scrolled through the dream vacations folder she had saved. There were resorts and Airbnb listings saved in Hawaii, Alaska and her dream destination of Barbados bookmarked.
Monica had had a love for Barbados for as long as she could remember. Having a roommate her freshman year in college from there, had driven home the point she needed to visit at least once in her lifetime. After seeing all of the pictures of Marissa’s home and the pristine beaches and the beautiful clear blue water, she wanted to go there even more than before. But since she had been with Joseph until recently, and he refused to travel out of the country at all, she still hadn’t gone.
A small smile spread across Monica’s face, as the idea of going to Barbados instead of home for Christmas began to take hold. “Well Sissy, I can show better than I can tell you, and I want those boots in a size eight and a half! Love you!” Monica said and blew a kiss in the phone before she hung up on Celeste. She clicked on the all-inclusive resort closest to the beach on her list to check availability.
Chapter 2
“Monica, I know good and damn well you didn’t just say what I thought you said,” Jackie snapped when Monica finally answered the phone a week later. Monica was standing in her office taking a quick break between patients and immediately regretted her decision to finally answer her cellphone and her mother’s call. She had told her office staff not to put her mother through under any circumstances, so her mother had been calling her cellphone nonstop for days.
“Mom, you heard me. I’m not coming home for Christmas this year. I told you over and over again I want nothing to do with Joseph, but you have made it very clear you are going to make sure he’s around for the entire two weeks I’m home. So, I’m making alternative plans for Christmas this year and maybe by Easter you will respect my wishes,” Monica informed her mother, pacing back and forth massaging her temples. The amount of patience she needed to deal with her mother at the moment was giving her a headache.
“Monica how selfish can you be? You are actually going to run away like a spoiled child instead of talking to this man and giving him the real reason of why you’ve broken his heart? We didn’t raise you to behave this way and you owe us all an explanation!” Her mother’s voice was getting louder on the phone.
“Momma, I don’t owe you anything and Joseph knows why I broke up with him, so ask him. Maybe, just maybe, he will be honest for once. I am done with this subject and this conversation. I will make sure your gifts from me will get there before Christmas and I’ll talk to you when I get back in the States,” Monica said ending their call and turning off her phone.
“Girl, I can’t believe you are finally going to Barbados and you are going for Christmas!” her best friend Tracy told her. “I’m so happy for you and mad at you at the same time! How are you going to leave me here while you get to spend the next two weeks in the tropical sunshine with good-looking island men scattered all over the place?” he grumbled, handing her a pair of new sandals off the floor to put in her suitcase.
Monica and Tracy had been the best of friends since their first year of dental school together. Joseph had hated him immediately, thinking he had nefarious intent and wanted to steal Monica away from him, and had hated him even more, once Monica told Joseph that Tracy was gay. Bottom line, Joseph hated anyone who took her attention away from him; he had tolerated her family only because he had to.
“Whatever Tray, like you weren’t planning on flying to Italy and leaving me state-side to deal with the drama that is Jackie Isaacs by myself any damn way! You’re just hating because I took your not-going-home-for-the-holidays idea and made it my own with no coercion from you. You will be just as surrounded by good-looking men as I will, the only difference is I have no interest in paying them any attention,” Monica said, closing and zipping the smaller of her two suitcases and dragging it to sit next its bigger matching one by her bedroom door.
Despite what Monica had just said to Tracy, secretly, the naughty part of her hoped that she would find someone to help her make some of her sexier Christmas wishes come true.
“True, but I wish I woul
d have known it was even an option, Monica, and we could have gone together,” he whined. “We haven’t been anywhere since I kidnapped you for your birthday and took that three day cruise while Joseph was at that conference in San Francisco. And that was no fun because you were so worried about getting caught. I mean really, what in the hell is the point in going on a cruise AND Mexico if you can’t post anything about it?” Tracy pouted, settling back against Monica’s headboard and plopping her straw hat on his head, then folding his arms.
“Tracy, not once did I say you couldn’t come, if you want to come with me, come with me. I would love to spend the next two weeks and the holidays with my bestie. We would have a blast! So, if you want to leave a trail of broken hearts in Italy and come have some fun in the sun with ya girl, I’m all for it.” Monica climbed next to him on the bed, before laying her head on his shoulder, and batting her eyes at him.
Tracy leaned down and kissed her on her forehead. “I’m proud of you, Sis, I really am! I’m telling you, I wanted to throw you a ticker tape parade when you told me you not only finally left that controlling ass man, but left his ass on bended knee in the Rocky Mountains too! Now you are doubling down and doing something solely for yourself for a change and taking a much needed vacay, you are my shero diva!” he announced, pulling his phone out of his pocket, he began scrolling and pressing buttons.
Monica picked up her head to see what he was doing on his phone. She squealed excitedly and jumped up on her knees when she saw he was canceling his reservations in Italy. “You’re coming to Barbados with me?” she asked, bouncing on her knees. “We are going to have so much fun, Tray. I’m talking team no sleep for two weeks!” Clapping her hands happily, she climbed off the bed to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything on her checklist.
Tracy looked from his phone to her, smirking. “Yeah okay, says the woman that has pretty much lived the life of an old married woman for forever and a day, and now you’re telling me you’re a party girl in a matter of months? Yeah, we’ll see.” Tracy returned his gaze to his phone. “Let me tell you right now, I’m eating the price of an entire day on my reservations in Italy for canceling at the last minute. So, I don’t care how much you whine and cry, we are partying EVERY night and I will be needing my own room because I plan on meeting ‘Mr. Right Now’ while we are there!” A wicked grin and a wink accompanied his declaration.
Monica rolled her eyes and grabbed her phone off of her dresser. “Yeah, yeah, I got you, I know how you are on vacation, there were no pictures of me on that cruise or in Mexico, but there were plenty of you and your ‘fan club.’” She logged into the resort’s website to book Tracy’s room. “Just remember, don’t come knocking on my door unannounced either, who knows what might happen with me and those frozen drinks?”
“Oh, my damn,” Monica said softly to herself as she stepped out of her taxi when it reached the Bougainvillea Barbados resort. Everything was so bright and clean; she could smell the salt water from the nearby beach. Every way she turned, she saw beautiful trees and flowers and the warm breeze tickled her skin as she walked inside the building.
Tracy had had a patient come in with broken tooth that needed emergency surgery at the last minute, so he’d had to reschedule his flight. Unlike Monica, he was the only oral surgeon in his practice.
“Celeste, it’s so damn beautiful here, I wish you would have come with me too. It’s like seventy-two degrees here and so green and pretty, and I can see the beach from my room!” Monica put her phone on video call so her sister could see everything she was seeing.
“Wow, Mon, it looks so beautiful! I’m so happy for you, girl. You are finally in Barbados and for Christmas too!” Celeste responded, smiling on the phone screen, Monica could see their parents’ house was all decked out in Christmas cheer behind Celeste, she had to admit she was a little homesick, but there was no way in hell she would trade places with her sister for anything in the world right now.
“So how are things on the home front?” Monica asked moving over to her small carry-on bag that had all of her jewelry in it.
Celeste rolled her eyes at the camera. “You already know. I got here the day before yesterday and all I’ve heard since I crossed the threshold is ‘Monica this’ and ‘Your sister that.’ Girl, she is still fit to be tied and if I have to see Joseph’s pitiful-looking ass one more damn time, I might lose my shit!” She looked annoyed, drinking more from her mug.
“Oh, my gospel, please don’t tell me, he’s hanging around Mom and pumping you for information, Sis!” Monica put her phone on speaker and took off her hoop earrings; she was going to go down to the beach and didn’t want to risk losing her favorite hoops. So, she changed into a pair of bamboo circles and put her phone back on video.
“Girl, he is in my face more than Matt is and Matt’s my man! Every time my phone rings and Joseph’s around, he is all up under me trying to figure out who it is. I had to tell his ass last time, he needed to go somewhere, because even if it was you, he knows good and damn well you don’t have shit to say to him.”
“Damn Celly, that’s all bad. Mom needs to just stop the madness and send his ass home for real. Oh, did I tell you Dad sent me a text and told me he was sorry I wasn’t coming home for the holidays, but he understood why and to be careful?” Monica asked, squinting at the phone because she saw movement behind Celeste and hoped it wasn’t her mom or Joseph.
“I’m not surprised. I think he is pretty fed up with this entire thing. She tried to say something about you being selfish and missing the holidays with your family to prove a point last night. He shut her down and told her you weren’t coming home because of her being a busy body and leaving you no choice but to leave the country to get some damn peace!” Celeste informed her looking impressed and laughing a little.
Monica spotted Joseph coming into focus behind Celeste. “Go Dad! But, hey Sis, I’m about to hit the beach, and watch your back, the enemy is lurking in the shadows.” She ended the call just as Celeste looked over her shoulder and Joseph called her name. She hated to do that to Celeste, but if there were anyone who would tell Joseph to kick rocks it would be her little sister.
Chapter 3
“Sis, where are you?” Tracy asked her loudly over the phone that evening, sounding excited and out of breath. He had finally gotten to the resort and was ready to start his vacation.
“I’m in the main dining room, I made our dinner reservations for seven. Go past the front desk to the end of the hall and turn left, you can’t miss it,” Monica instructed while following the maître d to their table.
She was wearing a bright yellow sundress Tracy had picked for her. It hugged and lifted her full breasts and fell loosely over her curvy hips and apple shaped backside, the hem was just below her knees. Her matching high-heeled sandals gave her 5’5” frame two more inches of height.
Monica had spent the entire afternoon on the beach soaking up the sun, so her already smooth, dark skin was even darker and made the yellow dress stand out more. She had her long braids styled in a French twist, her favorite giant white gold hoops swung happily from her earlobes.
She wore no makeup on her beautiful face, other than a lip tint on her full lips and the eyeliner on the bottom lids of her china doll like eyes. Her dark natural lashes framed her soft brown eyes. Monica knew she looked as good as she felt, and saw she was drawing male attention with every step she took. If she decided she was interested in having a fling, she was most definitely in the right place for it.
“Here you are, Miss Isaacs. Your server Julius will be with you momentarily and I will escort the other member of your party over as soon as they arrive.” The maître d told her after helping her settle into her seat, before moving back towards the front of the dining room.
“Welcome to Barbados, my name is Julius, what can I get you to drink?” her server asked with a heavy accent, placing a menu in front of her. Julius was tall, bald with smooth brown skin, an electric smile and very handsome face.
Damn, is every man that works at this resort required to be good looking? She thought to herself, looking around the dining room. “Nice to meet you, Julius, I’m Monica and surprise me, I’d like something frozen and fruity to celebrate my first night here,” Monica answered with a bright and excited smile.
“Is this your first time here?” he asked her curiously, after writing something down on his notepad before looking at her again.
“Yes, I have wanted to come here for years, but haven’t had a chance to until now. My friend and I are spending the holidays here,” Monica told him, turning her menu over, still smiling like she’d hit the lottery. She still couldn’t believe she was actually in Barbados for two weeks and at Christmas time no less!
Everything was decorated so beautifully. Lights and tinsel shined everywhere, garlands and wreathes were hanging from every post or stand as far as she could see. Even some of the palm trees were decked out in Christmas lights. This place definitely went all out for Christmas and was the perfect backdrop for her fantasy vacation; she was most definitely looking forward to having a little naughty fun here.
“Whew, Girl! Why didn’t you tell me we were on the entire other end of the resort? I took the outdoor walkway here and I’m already sweating like a damn fool,” Tracy announced, fanning himself as he sat down across from Monica, a few seconds later. “I need a drink like ASAP!”
Monica put her menu down and smiled at Tracy shaking her head. Leave it to him to make a big entrance without even trying. “You didn’t ask, but you’re in luck, this is our server Julius. He was just about to put in my drink order, I told him to surprise me; should he do the same for you, cool you off some?” Monica directed Tracy’s attention to Julius who was patiently waiting to take Tracy’s drink order.