Forever Charmed: Book One Forever Loved

by L. J. Hawke

  Sanur closed the office for a week and sent the orphans to Pattaya for fun in the sun with a trusted friend, the majordomo who ran his own home, Htet. Before they flew out, he, Tania, and the quad helped move the orphanage to a much bigger location. He also paid for protein five times a week, taking this job away from Tania, and made sure the orphans ate at least three meals a day, either at school or at home. The orphans were delighted, especially when they got rooms with actual bunk beds, and Sanur felt the fear and confusion from his past floating away as he helped the orphans flourish.

  Sanur walked Tania to a tuk tuk for the airport. “Please relax, and don't have a single thought of work.”

  “I'll take a lot of pictures and text them to my friends and to you if you'd like them.” Tania was dressed for fun, with khaki shorts, a teal top, and sunglasses. Her red-gold hair was pulled back in a braid and glinted in the sun.

  “I would.” Sanur put her backpack on the seat, handed her up, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Enjoy yourself, relax. The quad is on break too, and I'm headed to Bali to visit friends. Go away, don't look back.” She nodded and waved as the tuk tuk driver drove away.

  The flight was delayed, but Tania didn't mind. It was Tania's first real vacation where she wasn't trapped in a country, taking only a few days off, desperately trying to pay off her school loans. With her cut of the profits, Tania was delighted that she had already paid off a quarter of her loan from Sanur. She read, played video games while waiting for the flight, and relaxed so much she fell asleep on the plane.

  She landed in the Philippines in the driving rain in Manila, transferred to a smaller plane to Caticlan, took a boat, and went to her hotel. It turned out the hotel had been overbooked, so she simply walked down the street until she found another hotel with a beautiful courtyard. She was stunned to find out she could get a huge room with a ceiling fan for less than the other hotel. She put her backpack on the huge bed covered by a mosquito net, turned on the ceiling fan to circulate the air, and came back down, ravenous.

  In the courtyard over drinks and bowls of grilled chicken and rice, she met a woman named Lupe from Spain living in the Philippines because of the lower cost of living there. Lupe had a fall of chestnut hair held at the bottom with a golden clip, a wide smile, a deep laugh, and a gentle demeanor. Tania felt that she had instantly made a friend.

  They made a plan to go surfing at another beach from the one in front of them. The hotel’s host called his tuk tuk driver cousin and promised the cousin would be ready for them early in the morning, along with sliced fruit for breakfast and some juice. They exchanged stories of living abroad for about two hours, then Tania, tired from the trip, went in to get some sleep.

  In the morning after breakfast, the tuk tuk came to take them where they wanted to go. They watched the sunrise, and they stood by the water in front of a white stone temple with numerous pillars, watching the sun rise just above the temple’s tower piercing the sky.

  Their surfing instructor was a muscular guy named Ramon. They hit the waves, and Tania fell off a million times. By the end of their two-hour lesson, Tania was exhausted. She paid the man and stumbled off to get a watermelon shake, chicken on a stick, and some rice.

  They decided to wander back towards their hotel. Lupe regaled Tania with the story about a drunken best friend and a stolen violin. Lupe stopped, pretended to be Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, and did a flip off a tree onto the ground. “So you're a violinist and a gymnast?” asked Tania.

  Lupe laughed. “I played the violin in middle and high school. I've been a receptionist about eight times since I've graduated from college. I need to rise up; I can't be receptionist forever. I have a degree in art history, which doesn't seem to be conducive to having a job.”

  “Have you ever thought about living in Thailand?”

  “What? Why?”

  “I do marketing for a small company. Actually, I run the office in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The company sells art and furnishings from the poor people who make them, enabling them to feed their families. I think you'd be excellent at setting up the photo shoots and doing customer service for Spanish-speaking customers. We have clients in sixteen Spanish-speaking countries. Do you speak Portuguese?”

  “Yes, I do.” Lupe’s dark brown eyes opened wide. “My grandfather is Portuguese. I grew up speaking both languages. In fact, I've spent more time in Lisbon then I have in Madrid.”

  “Our clients use our products in their homes, or when selling a home to decorate it to make it beautiful.” Tania pulled up and showed Lupe the website on her phone, and Lupe pulled it up on her own phone.

  Tania took dozens of pictures of the beach and made a short video for her friends Kandace and Corinne, while Lupe wandered around the online site. Her sister-friends had liked Tania’s pictures about living in South Korea, but they seemed entranced with her life in Thailand. She sent the pictures out to her friends and sent some to Sanur and the quad as well.

  Tania bought them some frozen lime juice from a shop. Lupe caught up, her anklets creating a slight ringing sound as she walked. Tania handed her a cup of frozen goodness. “I'm in,” Lupe said. “You have some very beautiful things on your website. Selling them won't be a problem.”

  Tania laughed. “You haven't even heard about a salary yet!”

  “So what's the salary?” asked Lupe.

  “You can either get a free apartment and one percent of the gross, or you can get a flat salary.”

  “How much is one percent?” asked Lupe. Tania did some fast calculations on her cell phone and held out the amount on the calculator app. Lupe grinned. “Shit!” she yelled. “You had me at free apartment, you idiot!”

  “Did I tell you that the apartment has a pool?”

  “You are a crazy person,” said Lupe. “You don't even know me. I think you are one of those loca women.”

  “You could be as well.” Tania shrugged. “The worst we would be out is a few hundred dollars for the free apartment. We only pay three months in advance.”

  “Okay! I'll do it!” Lupe began salsa dancing on the beach.

  Tania laughed. “No more talking about it until we're on the plane home. And then you'll have a few days to acclimate yourself in Thailand before you start your new job.”

  “Anything you say.” Lupe did a spin of happiness, making Tania laugh.

  They wandered around, going in and out of shops, buying little artistic things, until it was time to get dinner. They found their tuk tuk driver again, but Tania asked him to wait because she found a young boy selling beautiful art. She got the boy’s name and an email address and bought a small painting that she rolled up and put into her small daypack.

  Lupe thought this was a game and found another woman selling beautiful carvings. Lupe got an actual phone number and an email address, and Tania bought several of the woman’s tiny beautiful carvings of elephants, banyan trees, and temples.

  They fed their tuk tuk driver and themselves while they were wandering around finding new artists, then he brought them back to the hotel. The ladies walked around until they found another restaurant they liked. They dined on some amazing veggie skewers and noodles and spent half the night chatting as if they were little girls at camp.

  They took a day trip to the stunning Ariel’s Point for snorkeling, kayaking, and cliff diving. They walked around the island, sampling the sights and sounds. The sidewalks were filled with vendors and parked motorcycles.

  They wandered all over and eventually found the night market. They found several people who were selling things that Tania definitely wanted to sell online. They both got a lot of pictures of the things that were available. There were some excellent items that would be perfect for the website. They found an old man selling stone carvings, bought a few, and got his grandson's email address. They got several business cards and went back to their hotel laden with net bags stuffed with very small purchases.

  That night, they slept for nearly eleven hours straight, exhausted fr
om all the walking and swimming. The next day, after a quick fruit breakfast, they swam and laid around at the beach. When it got hot, they went to a museum and had a wonderful time exploring all of the objects there. Exhausted, they went back to the night market for food and drinks and to sit on a mat to relax in the evening breeze.

  They swam, rested under umbrellas on lounge chairs, ate delicious four-dollar meals including a drink, danced the night away in little clubs, and greatly enjoyed wandering the beach and all around. They woke up, ate, swam, dried off, ate more, drank a lot of coconut milk, and laughed at every opportunity. They relaxed and enjoyed every minute and were sad to board the plane to Thailand.

  Sanur greeted them at the airport. “I am delighted to meet you,” he said to Lupe.

  “I told him all about you,” Tania said with a smile.

  “I have already done a background check. Let’s head to the office and get a contract signed. Come. I have a taxi waiting.” Tania followed Lupe and Sanur, who were happily chatting. They went to the office, and Lupe read her contract and signed it while Tania fished out the larger artwork from their luggage to show Sanur later, along with all the contact information. She left two of the smaller things in her suitcase.

  “Lupe, I’m going to take you to the visa office now. We need to add the contract to the working visa.” He turned to Tania. “You must be tired.”

  Tania shrugged. “Let’s leave the bags here, and I can train Lupe using my cell phone on some things while we’re waiting to get this done.” The wait wasn’t too long, then a tuk tuk brought them back to the office to pick up the baggage.

  Lupe's apartment was in another building but also nearby the office. Lupe’s pool was slightly smaller, but her apartment had a bigger gym on the first floor. “This is amazing!” Lupe said. She hugged Tania. “Thank you!”

  Tania laughed. “Thank the boss man, here.”

  “Muchas gracias. Thank you very much!”

  Sanur stepped back, concerned about receiving an attack hug. “You are very welcome.”

  They left Lupe to acclimate, then Sanur walked Tania back to her apartment. On the way back, Tania showed Sanur the smaller objects she had brought back. “Lovely. You have a good eye.”

  “Actually, Lupe notices even more than I do. She has an amazing eye.” He took note of all of the artists, and once she was at the main door, he walked away from Tania's apartment building and immediately started sending texts.

  Tania made it into the elevator and down the hall to her apartment with her laden backpack, dropped the pack just inside the door, took a shower, and went to bed. She took the next day off, hung out by the pool, and ate street food for lunch and dinner. She was exhausted, so she went to bed early.

  Tania woke up the next day refreshed and rejuvenated. She went into work, hugged everyone, and set out to find out how things had gone in her absence. Everyone enjoyed their vacations, and they talked about beaches in between phone calls.

  Tania had told Lupe to sleep in; all the traveling was exhausting. Tania worked on a new ad campaign, then Lupe came in for lunch and met everyone. Lupe had studied the product line nonstop while on the plane. Tania trained her on the telephone script and was pleased when Lupe asked intelligent questions. Lupe was delighted to take her first Spanish-speaking call. When she hung up the call she said, “I sold...in dollars, four hundred fifty!” She stood up and danced a little salsa. Achara put her hand over her mouth and laughed.

  Tania grinned. “Don’t get cocky, kid.”

  Lupe narrowed her eyes. “I will upsell you.”

  “Outsell,” Tania said. “Outsell means you sell more. Upsell means you get people to buy more little things, which is how you outsell me.”

  “I will do both,” Lupe promised.

  “You’re on,” Tania said. They bumped fists.

  Sanur took everyone out to dinner, and they laughed at each other’s stories of their travels. It was as if Lupe had always been there, from the very first day.

  Tania found the new schedule to be very interesting. She swam in the mornings after her workouts right after her morning meditation when she would be too tired to argue with herself about whether or not to work out. She ate fruit and noodles for breakfast at a time that was previously her lunch. She worked on her own marketing clients, then went into work.

  Lupe took a lot of work off her shoulders. Lupe came in a little later than their opening time to hit up more of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking clients. She wore a noise-canceling headset with a very long range and would pace all over the office, even out into the courtyard, racking up enormous sales. Tania always knew when she made a huge sale because she would dance the salsa.

  Lupe ordered some frighteningly expensive equipment and put up some rattan walls in a corner of the second floor near a window, turning it into a set for photoshoot extravaganzas. She was often there in the early morning when the light was just right, doing shoots with the teenage boys. She had them hopping like frogs but slipped them extra money and fed them well. Tania had the girls circulate in on the shoots to learn the skill from a professional.

  They had many new artist-clients from Boracay, and they found lots of new products to showcase, such as paintings, weavings, carvings, jewelry, and lightweight furniture made from wood. Lupe took pictures of them, and Sanur loved it all.

  Tania concentrated on the online marketing, making the photo shoots count in a variety of social media ads. She also did all of the sales tracking, and was pleased to realize that they were grossing far more money since Lupe came in.

  Three weeks after Lupe started, Sanur took Lupe on a tour of Central and South America to find new undiscovered artisans that made products that could be sold worldwide. Sanur specialized in orphanages around the world. He found a great deal of raw talent, and a way to benefit teenagers who needed to find a way in the world before they were kicked out on the street. Girls, especially, were denied an education and even became victims of sex trafficking. Tania and Lupe fully supported Sanur in preventing that horrible crime from happening by buying work from these young artisans.

  While Sanur and Lupe were gone, a young woman named Aaliyah Netsebe from the Democratic People's Republic of the Congo sent Tania a YouTube style video with many local artists, many of them single women. Aaliyah included a phone number, and Tania gave her a call after checking the time zone first. “Hello, this is Tania Brussell from Kaung Import-Export for The Home. May I speak to Aaliyah Netsebe?”

  “Tania! It is Aaliyah. Did you like the products?”

  “I like them so much that I want one of each!” Tania said. “Please email me a product list with prices and your PayPal. I’ll give you a shipping tracking number, and that will pay the shipper for both packing and shipping for anything you want to send.”

  “That is amazing,” Aaliyah said. “I had hoped...this is beyond anything I had hoped. The women...they must feed their families. So many have nothing. I mean, really nothing. We have formed a collective to keep everyone alive.” She sighed, and Tania heard the tears in her voice.

  “Please take pictures, lots of pictures, of your fabrics. I would like to use them to make logos for the product line. Your textiles are amazing, and I can use the colors as backdrops for the ads. We’ll add the cost of shipping to the prices, and you’ll just use the tracking number I’ll give you so that shipping is free for you.” Tania saw that she had already received an email with the products and prices. She went over it as she listened to Aaliyah cry from joy.

  A week later, Tania ended up with everything from paintings to tapestries, wood carvings to jewelry, even beautifully painted tiles, from DNR Congo. Sanur and Lupe, exhausted from their trip, loved what had been sent. Sanur told Tania to do as she wished, that the African line would be hers.

  Tania put up a completely new page on the website, contacted free trade initiatives who in turn contacted artisans all over the enormous African continent, and soon Tania had to fill whole segments of the warehouses just on
the African things from DNR Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda, Ghana, Niger, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Tanzania with plans to acquire items from other countries as they went along.

  Tania used Lupe’s equipment and her own artistic eye to showcase the products from Africa and ran special ads. At first, the income from this line trickled in, but as more and more people gave stellar online reviews about the artistry of the products, the sales climbed up and up, quadrupling in a single month.

  The sun was beginning to set on another scorching day in Lagos. The noise in the restaurant on the first floor of Sanur’s hotel was not quite deafening, from patrons, wait staff, faint shouts from the kitchen, the noise of the traffic outside. The air-conditioning worked and the hotel had a backup generator. The restaurant, one of the best, served kilishi, marinated, sun-dried meat, and dambu namba, shredded chicken served in vegetable “cups.” The drinks were ice-cold, part of why Sanur had picked the restaurant and this hotel. Sanur ordered Coke. The local Nigerian alcohol drink, ogogoro, was fermented palm tree juice. Sanur did not want to end up under the table, so he avoided the drink. The Coke came quickly. He ordered another one with lime when he saw an unexpected visitor cross the room and sit directly in front of him.

  Supayalat looked cool in a golden linen sheath dress. Sanur wondered where she had hidden her knives and decided they were probably in her upswept black hair. Sanur wore khaki pants and a light blue linen shirt, setting off his coppery skin in the lingering light of dusk. “Why are you here?” Sanur asked his vassal and cousin. He had expected her to be searching for the missing Somchair and Malee. Betrayals could not be allowed to stand.

  “You need a bodyguard. They think you are some warlord paying your way through drugs or black market goods, going into the poorest sections of town with impunity, spending money on motorcycle couriers.”