by Claire Adams
Copyright © 2017 Claire Adams
Chapter One
Tristan
“Fuck, sorry man,” I said for the second time in ten minutes. “I’m going to have to put you on hold again.”
Jason laughed. “Geez, ever since you opened this latest resort, your old friends have become second class citizens, huh?”
“All except you,” I assured him. “You’ll always be a VIP in my books. It’s just I told my assistant to patch through only the really important calls and…”
“I get it,” he replied, with an amused laugh. “Go ahead, I’ll hold.”
“Good man,” I nodded before putting him on hold. I pressed a button on the intercom and switched lines. “Ben?” I asked. “What is it?”
“I just got a call from a Ms. Renata Mendez requesting a suite and two rooms for four nights from the twenty-fifth to the twenty-ninth,” he replied.
“We’re not opening to the public till after Christmas,” I reminded him, slightly annoyed that he would interrupt my call for this. “It’s only invited VIP guests till then. You know that.”
“Renata Mendez is personal coordinator to Joseph Everett,” Ben replied dryly.
I frowned. “That name sounds familiar… Wait… Senator Joseph Everett?”
“The very same,” Ben replied, sounding smug. “Should I tell him to fuck off?”
“Very funny,” I replied sarcastically. “Contact Alani and tell her to get the rooms ready. This will bode really well for the resort’s reputation.”
“Should I put the senator in the deluxe suite or the superior suite?”
“The grand suite,” I said promptly. “It’s the best.”
“They’re all occupied.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “We have five grand suites. They can’t all be occupied.”
“Three of them are, and the remaining two are still under construction. They won’t be ready for guests until the second week of December…at least.”
“Fuck,” I groaned. “Fine, move my belongings to one of the vacant superior suites and give the senator my grand.”
“I’ll get it done,” he replied.
Once Ben had hung up, I switched back to Jason’s line. “Sorry, bro,” I said. “Duty calls.”
“So how have things been going?” Jason asked.
“Smoother than my last two openings,” I admitted. “I think I’m finally getting the hang of this. The trick is to hire a few competent coordinators and then delegate effectively.”
“Is that all?” he teased.
“Trust me, it’s harder than it seems,” I said. “By the way, I can’t thank you enough for introducing me to Jordan and Manning. I don’t think I would have been able to get this resort opened had it not been for their investments.”
“They were looking to invest,” he said, blowing off my thank you. “I just pointed them in your direction. You’re the one who managed to win them over.”
I smiled. “I guess you didn’t do much then, huh?”
“Not really.”
“And to think, I was going to offer to fly you down to Oahu to spend a couple of weeks in one of our luxury suites.”
“You know… Now that I think about it, those contacts were pretty significant.”
I laughed, and Jason joined in. “I’m serious about that offer though,” I told him. “Just say the word, and I’ll have a plane ticket and a suite ready for you.”
“I appreciate that, man,” he replied. “But I’m swamped with work at the moment. There’s this new acquisition deal in the works, and I need to be there to oversee it.”
“You’re buying another company?”
“Stoles,” he replied. “Heard of it?”
“Of course I’ve heard of it, fuck,” I said. “I actually own a pair of Stoles. Their shoes are great.”
“I agree,” Jason agreed. “Hence the acquisition.”
“Damn,” I said. “And, I thought I was doing well for myself.”
Jason laughed. “I think it’s safe to say we’re both doing pretty well for ourselves,” he said. “Personally, I feel it has less to do with our talents, and more do to with our superior good looks.”
“Oh, I couldn’t agree more,” I laughed. “Everyone has talent in some form or the other, but not everyone can look like us.”
“Too true,” he laughed. Then his tone softened into seriousness. “Sometimes I can’t quite believe it. Did you ever think we would get this far, this fast?”
“Fuck, no,” I replied. “I wasn’t even sure I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps.”
“I remember,” Jason agreed. “You were dead set on being a rebel. What was your life’s goal again? Musician?”
I snorted. “DJ,” I admitted. “I was fairly decent at mixing tracks.”
Jason laughed. “I remember that New Year’s party during our junior year. You bulldozed the DJ, what was his name… Z-crack?”
“It was Z-track,” I corrected. “And, I didn’t bulldoze anyone. The dipshit was stoned off his ass and passed out after the third cover. I had to take over.”
“You weren’t half bad,” Jason laughed. “Is it possible you missed your calling?”
“Nope,” I said confidently. “I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.”
“Your dad would be so proud of everything you’ve been able to achieve.”
I fell silent for a moment. Thinking of Dad was always hard for me. We had clashed a lot when I was a teenager. I had thought he was too hard on me, and he was worried I didn’t have what it took to run the business he had built from scratch. It was only after he had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s that our relationship had started to shift.
The knowledge that we didn’t have very much time left with each other lifted the strain between us. I became more involved with Dad’s projects and started to understand why he had been so hard on me growing up. He was trying to prepare me, he was trying to groom me to take over, and that required a staunch work ethic and a lot of sacrifices.
“I think he would have been,” I replied. “I just wish he could have seen it all happen. He died just before my first hotel opening in LA, so he never got to see the hotel’s success.”
“I remember,” Jason said. “But you still managed to get it done.”
“I promised him I would,” I recalled.
I turned around on my swivel chair to look at the spectacular view before me. The ocean was rippled with competing hues of peacock green and aquamarine blue. Its surface seemed to be encrusted with millions and millions of diamonds cascading down from the sun’s gentle rays. The soft, powdery white sand of the beach had a glowing look about it, and the leaves of the ironwood and coconut trees that lined the coast blew gently in the breeze. It was an idyllic setting and by far the most beautiful location of all my hotels and resorts.
Dad had always dreamed of opening a resort in Hawaii, and I was finally seeing that dream come to fruition. It was a bittersweet sense of accomplishment to know that he would never see it.
“So, anyway,” I said, trying to focus on the conversation at hand. “How are you? How are things with Brittany? Or was it Cassandra?”
Jason laughed. “Brittany and Cassandra were both three years ago, man.”
“Seriously?”
“Yup. The current lady in my life is work, and to be honest, she can be a bit of a bitch sometimes.”
“Hey, I feel you,” I nodded. “There’s no time for relationships anymore.”
“That was why Simone and I broke up in the first place,” Jason told me.
“Simone!” I exclaimed. “That was her name. Sorry… Continue.”
He laughed. “I was just working all the time. I kept bailing on dinner dates, disappearing right after sex, taking phone calls during our time together.”
“She broke it off?”
“Yeah,” he said. “And honestly… I was relieved.”
“Sounds like the story of my life,” I shared. “The same t
hing happened with Megan last year. She kept getting frustrated with the hours I worked. She actually threw a hissy fit at a business dinner I threw. I broke up with her that night after the dinner.”
“Cold.”
“I think that’s when I realized that I was attempting too much,” I said. “Juggling a new relationship and a fully-fledged empire is not easy. I had to choose—and my empire won.”
“I hope you didn’t say that to her.”
I laughed. “She’s the type of woman who throws things when she’s angry, so no, I didn’t say that to her. In any case, casual flings are just more convenient.”
“Amen for casual sex,” he agreed.
I laughed. “Anyway… How’s the family?”
“They’re doing great,” he replied. “I’m with them at the moment actually, down at the parents’ house for the weekend. Mom’s busy with her book club and her charities, and Dad… Well, you know Dad. He’s still working like he’s in his twenties. Molly’s here, too.”
Molly. It had been years since I’d seen her. She was Jason’s younger sister and one of those timelessly classical beauties. She had sultry blue eyes, soft features, and the simple elegance of a 1960s movie star. In fact, she looked very similar to a young Grace Kelly.
“How is Molly?” I asked, trying to keep my tone light and innocent.
“She’s…okay,” he replied.
“You don’t sound sure.”
“She’s a little upset, to be honest,” Jason replied, with a sigh. “She just got laid off.”
“What?” I said, in surprise. “She’s amazing at her job.”
“The company went through a major downsizing…bad management, apparently. They let go of over two thousand employees and only the senior members of staff got priority. Since Molly’s only been working there two years, she got the boot.”
“Fuck, that’s terrible,” I said.
“She got a decent severance package,” he told me. “It should hold her for a few months, but she really loved the job and the people she worked with. So, she’s disappointed.”
“Of course,” I nodded sympathetically.
I wondered what Molly looked like now. The last time I had seen her, we had both been closer to kids than adults. Had she changed very much or was she the same shy young girl I remembered? I wondered. I realized that I had frozen her in time and created one brilliantly clear image of her in my head that never wavered. It was the image of her in a white dress, standing under streams of holly.
“I have an idea,” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
“Uh… What?”
“Why don’t you send Molly down here?” I suggested. “Since you’re not going to be able to use that plane ticket and suite on offer, Molly may as well make use of it. It might help cheer her up. And who knows? There could even be a job in it for her.”
“You’re offering my sister a job?”
I hesitated a moment, wondering if there was a hint of suspicion in Jason’s tone. I decided I was simply over-thinking. “Well… I still have a few staff positions I need to fill. I need a head of human resources, and I know Molly’s great at her job.
“But, of course, there’s no pressure. It would be up to Molly to decide if she wanted to take the job or not. She can spend a few weeks in Oahu, relax and unwind, and see if she likes the atmosphere. If not, she’s got a free vacation in Hawaii. It’s a win-win, right?”
I wondered momentarily if I was overselling a bit.
“Fuck,” Jason breathed. “That’s a great offer, man. But…you know you don’t have to do this for me.”
Of course, Jason would assume I was making the offer because of our friendship. It was obvious that Molly had kept silent about what had happened between us all those years ago.
“Hey, what are friends for?” I said. “Besides, what’s the point of owning a luxury resort if you can’t help out a friend every now and again.”
“Geez, you’re a fucking star, dude,” he said. “I’ll pass the offer along.”
“Great,” I said. “Anyway… I’d better get going. I have a meeting with my Japanese investor in seven minutes.”
“Man on the go, huh?”
“Always.”
“More power to you, bro,” he laughed. “Talk soon.”
After I hung up, I turned back to my perfect view. I tried to suppress my feelings, but it was impossible to deny how much I was hoping Molly would accept my offer to stay at the resort. I wondered if I was being a complete fool, opening up a can of worms best left in the past.
Chapter Two
Molly
I scrolled down to find a grainy picture of Martin Lithgow getting into his car, besieged by a storm of reporters. He was wearing dark sunglasses, and the collar of his coat had been turned up so I couldn’t really see his face, but I hoped he was feeling the burn of his latest mistake.
All the papers basically printed different versions of the same story. None of them gave me any sense of satisfaction. I couldn’t help feeling depressed when I thought about my next move. Starting all over again in a new company was never easy, and all I had was a stock recommendation letter that was probably handed out to every single other employee who was given the boot.
I sighed and looked around my childhood room. Three of the walls were white, and the fourth was a soft ocean blue. The white walls had been covered over with a plethora of posters. Over my bed, there were two framed posters, one depicted Thirty Seconds to Mars, and the other was a poster of Clockwork Orange.
Mom had kept my room like a shrine, and while it was always comforting to be back in the room where I had done my most profound maturing, today it made me a little sad. For the first time since I’d graduated, I was unemployed and floundering. It made me feel like a complete failure, especially compared to my brother’s meteoric rise to the top.
That was only part of the reason for my deflated mood, however. I kept thinking of all the people I had worked with who had been laid off, too. I knew their families and their problems, and I couldn’t help but feel for them.
I was interrupted from my haze of self-pity by a knock on the door. “Come in,” I called. A second later the door opened, and Jason walked in. “Think of the devil,” I smiled.
“You were thinking about me?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I was brooding, to be honest,” I admitted. “And feeling very inadequate.”
“Come on now,” he said, ruffling my hair with his hand. “You’re far from inadequate.”
I pushed his hand away and ducked out of his reach. “Maybe not in comparison to the average twenty-something-year-old. But in this family, I am decidedly inadequate.”
“You want to explain that to me?” Jason asked, humoring me as he sat on the edge of my bed.
“Mom is the president of several charities that make a ton of cash for foundations all over the world. Dad was running, like, a dozen companies before he hit fifty, and then you came along and surpassed his track record in next to no time. Oh yeah…and you’re not even thirty yet. Which was something Forbes mentioned about thirty fucking times in five paragraphs.”
Jason let me vent. The moment I finished, his face broke out into a huge smile.
“Mom showed you the article, huh?”
I rolled my eyes. “It was a bit heavy-handed if you ask me.”
“The interviewer was fantastic,” he laughed. “Did you check out Tristan? He was number thirty-four.”
“I saw,” I nodded.
Tristan had been Jason’s best friend since college, and for the ten years that I’d known him, I had been head over heels in love with him. Not that he’d ever really noticed. My mind flew back to the family Christmas party six years ago, but I forced the memory away.
“Fucker beat me,” Jason was saying. “I was number thirty-eight.”
“You made the list,” I reminded him.
“Still,” he replied, as though that were a valid answer.
I couldn’t help bu
t smile. “Did I ever tell you how proud I was when I saw the article?”
“You didn’t actually,” he said.
“Sorry… I guess I was busy being a petty bitch.”
He laughed. “You are not petty,” he insisted. “And, you’re certainly not a bitch. Trust me; I’ve known you your whole life. I would know.”
“You’re sweet,” I smiled. “You really are perfect. The perfect businessman, the perfect son, and the perfect brother.”
“Please…”
“No really,” I said jokingly. “I’m glad you’re so perfect. It makes up for all my failures. Mom and Dad have one child they can be proud of.”
Jason narrowed his eyes at me. “Are you done feeling sorry for yourself?”
“Umm no,” I said. “The whole reason I came down to spend the week with Mom and Dad was so that I could really dig my heels in and feel sorry for myself. You know, get a really good pity party going.”
Jason guffawed. “You’re funny; you know that?”
“I try,” I replied seriously.
He shook his head at me in amusement. Then I saw his eyes slip to the computer screen behind me. “Been doing some trolling, have you?”
“Please,” I said. “Trolling is not my style. Though if anyone deserved to be trolled, it would be Martin Lithgow.”
“What’s the internet saying about him?”
“Apparently, there’s talk of an SEC investigation being opened up,” I replied. “I’m not sure if it was really bad management or money laundering, but either way, he’s not going to be able to get away that easy.”
“That’s something.”
“I guess,” I nodded. “I just… I really liked working there. The atmosphere was great, the people were great, and even the money was decent.”
“Were any of your friends laid off?”
“Seven.” Jason let out a low whistle. “I was closest to Anita. She’s a single mom who really needed this job. I keep thinking of all the other people who depended on this company to keep them employed so that they could support their families and pay their mortgages.”