Fighting Destiny

by Annalisa Simon

  “Apology accepted,” Nathan replied, accepting the firm handshake he was offered. He would by no means be lulled into thinking that this was a truce. Darius walked away and left the room and Nathan watched his retreating figure still seething with anger at the veiled insult that had been levelled at him. This man obviously thought everything happened at his beck and call. The faster he could find ways to discredit this man the better and this afternoon would be the beginning.

  On her way back to the conference room after calling the medical team, a familiar voice called out to Candasee and stopped her in the lobby!

  “I know that my only daughter-in-law wouldn’t just pass by without talking to her mother!” exclaimed Marianne after recovering briefly from the shock of seeing Candasee here at the hotel. She was slowly beginning to get an inkling of what might be troubling her son now. He’d never gotten over the divorce and she knew that better than anyone. What was Candasee doing here?

  Candasee whirled around and ran back toward the sound of the voice she dearly loved. They were both about the same height and size but Marianne’s hair was cut in a short, chic style which suited her dashing clothing. Today she was wearing a shell-pink pantsuit with a white inner camisole and beaded sandals on her feet. She was the picture of relaxed island elegance.

  “Mom!” cried Candasee as she ran to embrace the older woman, “I missed you so much!” she said sincerely feeling tears stinging the backs of her eyelids and rolling down her cheeks.

  When Darius introduced her to his mother years ago, they also had an immediate mother-daughter connection. Marianne was the first and only woman she’d felt that motherly bond with and leaving Darius behind also meant that she was leaving Marianne’s love and understanding behind as well and that broke her heart too.

  “Come now, stand back and let me look at you,” said Marianne smiling and holding Candasee’s shoulders at an arm’s length. “Oh daughter of mine, I am so happy to see you! This has more than made my day!” she said pulling her back in for another hug!

  “Oh Marianne, you have more than made mine too!” echoed Candasee.

  “What are you doing here on Derrien Island?” asked Marianne. “Should I be getting my hopes up here?” she asked with a smile.

  “I am working with a regional eight-day arts and media intensive here at the hotel sponsored by Carthswright’s Academy in Barbados. Today is just day number two, so we still have some time to connect with each other!”

  “Six days is not a lot of time! I find it strange that Darius didn’t mention to me earlier that you’d be coming!” she quipped with an arched eyebrow.

  “He didn’t know either! Our hotel had to be changed at the last minute due to damages sustained in the recent heavy rains and Darius agreed to grant our group some concessions to host the event here.”

  “Did he now? Well that’s my son, always helpful. I knew that I raised him well,” she said smiling proudly. “So I take it then that you two have talked to each other?” she inquired leaving the question open-ended.

  Candasee knew she could not hide anything from Marianne; the woman was as sharp and as intuitive as they came.

  “We have talked but I...”

  “I hope that I am not interrupting anything!” said Darius as he approached his mother and Candasee. Seeing her with Marianne reminded him of the close connection they shared and he was pleased that by all appearances it was still there.

  “No, you aren’t Darius,” said Candasee as she turned to look up to him. He was dressed in a navy blue polo with a light grey slacks and he was simply mesmeric to behold. Her eyes drifted from what he was wearing and back to his face and to his eyes as he regarded her intensely. The memories of what they shared on the beach only hours earlier came flooding back into her consciousness.

  “Uh, I have a class which I am supposed to be teaching now and I am sure they are wondering where I am,” continued Candasee making the motions to leave nervously. All it took was one look from Darius to remind her of their flaming encounter that morning and to set all her insides fluttering wildly.

  “Wait Candasee,” said Marianne, when can I see you again before you leave to go home? Six days isn’t giving me much time to spend time with you!” she said quickly looking from her son’s face to Candasee’s eyes. Their mirrored expressions told her all she needed to know. Six days would never be enough for either of them now that they were here together again.

  “Uh, I am not sure, but now that we’ve met I will definitely call you to make plans!” replied Candasee avoiding looking in Darius’ direction at all cost.

  “You’d better! I will be holding you to that promise”, said Darius’ mother.

  Candasee walked quickly across the lobby to get back to her class before Marianne had her confessing all of her feelings in front of Darius. She felt as though she was constantly running from him. As she neared the room she could see Nathan outside looking around and she called out to him and waved knowing that he must probably be looking for her.

  Nathan released the breath he had pent up in his body as his thoughts came up with all kinds of scenarios of what could happen if Darius met her along the path. Just the thought of her alone with her ex-husband was sending his pulse rate into stress and overdrive and he felt so unfocused that he thought at one point he had to talk himself out of going to find her.

  Maybe Solange was right, this was crazy. He was the successful Principal of this academy but here he was pining over his fiancée and the possibility that he could lose her to her ex-husband. If only Solange would cooperate and keep Darius busy, he would have the freedom to sweep Candasee Maxwell off her beautiful feet.

  “Hey, where were you?” he asked a bit roughly, “Your class should have started about ten minutes ago?”

  “Oh, sorry about that, I ran into a close friend of mine who lives here on the island and we just talked for a little while. I am going to make arrangements to see her later. Don’t worry I didn’t forget my class!” replied Candasee nervously.

  At the mention that it was a ‘her’ who delayed Candasee’s return, Nathan felt his body relax and the tension which was mounting inside of him drained away. He gave her a brief hug and let her pass by him and began counting the minutes till four o’ clock when Solange would arrive. He was still working on what he would tell Candasee to get her to go up to Darius’ office at that time. It all had to be synchronized perfectly. Perhaps he would play Darius’ game and beat him at it by asking Candasee to take a copy of the auditions sheet up there. She would go and find Solange looking all cosy and romantic and all her thoughts of reconciling with Darius would be gone. It wasn’t perfect but it could work!

  Suddenly his phone rang and the display showed it was a call from his oldest brother Graeme. What does he want now?, thought Nathan.

  “Hey what’s up Graeme?”

  “I should be asking you that. It’s been two days and you haven’t called us as yet about how the intensive is going”, Graeme stated accusingly.

  “I didn’t think I needed to seeing that I am the one in charge here!” replied Nathan pointedly.

  “You are, but remember this is a family enterprise so we are all entitled to know what is going on.”

  “Fair enough but I don’t need you looking over my shoulder every chance you get either!”

  “Do I need to remind you that I am the Board Chairman and I delegated this responsibility to you,” replied Graeme forcefully.

  “How could I possibly forget when you find a way to mention it every chance you get brother? Fine, you should know that we had to switch from the Meridian to the Derrien Grande Spa Resort and as a result we had to agree to do a show for the “Where In the World Is Sally Flanders travel show. It’s actually being filmed at the hotel right now.

  “Sally Flanders, as in worldwide acclaimed Sally Flanders?” asked Graeme in disbelief.

  “The one and the same!” Nathan replied feeling proud of himself hearing the awe in his brother’s voice. It wasn’t often
that he actually felt as though he was out of Graeme’s shadow and for once he was behind something big that Graeme wasn’t involved in.

  “And you didn’t think that this was something you needed to tell us immediately? Do you need me to come down to help you? It seems like a lot for you to handle alone,” replied Graeme incredulously.

  Nathan ground his teeth in frustration at his brother’s comments. Of course he could handle himself. Why did his family think that somehow he couldn’t do this? He didn’t need to be supervised, advised and constantly watched. He had a MBA for goodness sakes, in addition to his degrees and certifications in the performing arts. Someday he would have his own business separate from his family, he vowed silently.

  “There’s no need to come, the staff and I have everything under control,” said Nathan trying to keep the hostile edge out of his response. There was no need to rile up his brother who loved the idea of being challenged.

  “Well I’ll be expecting regular updates from you now that this has been added to the schedule. We need to make sure that our brand is properly showcased. But before I forget, I really called to remind you about how we’ll be deciding the scholarship winner this year. Remember that Eve Samaroo from Trinidad is going to be the winner. Her parents are willing to replace our government grant if their daughter wins the scholarship prize. Don’t mess this up. Make sure you have all your judges in line about this.”

  “Graeme you know that I don’t like this idea! We can find other ways to raise the money! With this new publicity we can attract donations from a wider field. We don’t need this arrangement anymore,” Nathan argued.

  “If you don’t like it then you can come back here and let me take over running the intensive then. We were lucky to get this offer and I won’t have you messing it up because you are too afraid to implement the big decisions,” Graeme retorted.

  “How do you think it’s going to look to the other judges when I keep inflating Eve’s scores? There is no guarantee that she will even be the best in her classes,” Nathan argued trying to keep his voice lowered to what was now sounding like a loud hiss.

  “Nathan we discussed this already. There are five judges there with you. I already told Blaine and Trudy what I require of them and they value their jobs enough to follow through. You don’t have to worry about that, they will follow your lead”.

  “What about Candasee, she is one of Eve’s instructors as well. I noticed you didn’t bother to try to blackmail her.”

  “I figured you would know how to handle her best, besides Eve won’t be using dance as her final showcase piece so Candasee’s opinion isn’t as important in the outcome.”

  Sometimes Nathan wondered if he’d been adopted. What his brother was suggesting was so unfair that it made him cringe on the inside. These delegates were about to pour their hearts and souls into this event and it would be for nothing.

  “Graeme you threatened your employees to cheat and fix the outcome just so we can keep up the appearances of financial security?” said Nathan shaking his head.

  “Need I remind you that your job is also on the line as well as the scholarships and study programs of the one hundred and fifty students we currently have in our existing programs. How would you like to see that many young people lose out because you don’t have the guts to do what we are asking you to do?” shouted Graeme.

  “Fine, Eve wins this round, are you satisfied?” growled Nathan hating being forced into a difficult position. There was no way he could tell Candasee about any of this, she would never understand it.

  “Nathan, we are brothers and this is for the family, our family, we are all counting on you! We can’t fail Mom now, not so soon. She would’ve wanted us to fight as hard as we could to make sure we kept the academy open,” Graeme said more gently this time.

  “Right, bring our late mother into this to guilt trip me,” replied Nathan unsuccessfully disguising a snort of disgust as he disconnected the call. He would do this but this was the last time he was going to be anyone’s scapegoat.

  Marianne walked around Darius’ office suite upstairs waiting for him to get off the telephone. The glass wall revealed a powerfully, breathtaking view of the coastline, and she could see how it could be a good stress reliever to anyone faced with impossible circumstances.

  Finally he hung up the phone and walked over to her.

  “Okay Mum, I ordered some lunch and it is on its way up!”

  “Darius, are you living from inside this suite still? What’s wrong with us eating in the restaurant?” she asked getting straight to the point.

  “Mum, what gave me away?” he asked with a laugh at his mother’s concerned expression. She was always trying to get him to do more than just working but he just didn’t want to do much since losing Candasee.

  “Nothing besides the fact that whenever we drive past your home, the windows are closed and the house is dark! Are you taking time to enjoy yourself like we talked about?”

  “No, actually I have been immersed in my work here with all that’s been going on so it’s been convenient to just stay here at the hotel,” he replied not mentioning that trying to live at home without Candasee was excruciating to say the least. Everything about that house reminded him of her.

  “Hmm, so I see that Candasee is here and by the looks of it you two still have a lot to work out between you!” she said sitting down on the black leather sofa which faced the glass wall. “Darius honey, could you lower the partial shade, the sun is really warming up the room, don’t you think?”

  Darius obliged her and the room took on a subtle tint reducing the full glare of the sunlight which was streaming in.

  “Mom, you are right, I have so much I need to say to Candasee and I am hoping I can do it justice. I asked her to come and see me this evening, but she never said if she would. I’m just hoping that she will at least try to make it.”

  “I’ve always loved Candasee and this separation between you two has always been difficult for me to accept. I think you need to do all you can while she is here to see if you can work out what went wrong between you!” Marianne advised.

  “I know, and I am working on that but there is a small problem!”

  “What kind of problem?” she asked.

  “Candasee is here with her fiancé slash boss Nathan Carthswright!

  At that revelation Marianne’s eyes widened with surprise. Candasee was engaged to someone else?

  “How do you feel about that?” Marianne asked.

  “To tell the truth, it’s driving me insane! My focus and my concentration is totally messed up right now! I think Portia is convinced that something is wrong with me by now. The funny thing is that I don’t blame Candasee at all; I blame myself for all of this! If I hadn’t made so many mistakes I wouldn’t have to endure this right now.”

  “Well she is a beautiful woman so it stands to reason that she would have moved on with her life,” reasoned Marianne with a shrug.

  “I know that it shouldn’t surprise me that some other lucky guy has realized how great she is but it doesn’t stop me from wanting to rip his eyes out every time I see him looking at her! Darius dropped onto the couch extended his feet in front of him.

  “So have you spoken to him about Candasee?” Marianne asked.

  “Not in so many words but he knows my intentions. Let’s say that we got off on the wrong foot and we are trying to keep things business-like because of our shared interest in the travel show.”

  “So, he despises you, is that what you are saying?”

  “Yes he does but I can’t blame him really. We both want the same woman. ”

  “Does Candasee seem happy with him?”

  “Unfortunately last night they seemed to be blissfully in love, but I’m not totally convinced. She introduced him to me as her boss but when I saw them together later after they had dinner, there was nothing professional about the way he was touching her.”

  “I see, so maybe she was trying to spare your feelings when
she introduced you?”

  “I doubt that very much!” Darius replied with a dry laugh. “She was angry that she even had to be here in the first place. Introducing him as her fiancé would’ve been a good way to rub my nose in the fact that I lost her!”

  “But she didn’t!”

  Damn, this is so frustrating! Even though I saw them together last night I still can’t accept that he’s the one she wants especially after I kissed her this morning. I think she knows now that things aren’t over between us!”

  “Oh this is good news! You kissed?” asked Marianne prodding to know more with her face now shining with happiness. She was such a romantic, but even more so now that it was related to her son.

  “Don’t get too excited yet Mum! Yes, I ran into her on the beach this morning and well one thing led to another. I’m hoping I didn’t scare her off by being too intense. My best bet is that she will come to see me later this evening.”

  “And why wouldn’t she? That girl is in love with you and has been since the day you guys first met in Barbados,” replied Marianne.

  “How can you be so sure of that Mum?” he asked turning to face the woman seated beside him.

  “You are forgetting that I know how you both acted around each other? I saw the way you looked at each other in the lobby earlier as well! Your misunderstanding got out of hand and it caused you to separate for a time, but I’ve always prayed and known that you would be reunited. When I asked her about leaving in the next six days, she looked just as alarmed at the thought of going back home as you did. I’ve always believed that she’s your twin flame Darius, and this misunderstanding between you has finally run its course. Time has simply acknowledged that and brought you back to each other. It is now up to you two to get your marriage back on track,” she said.

  “Mum you make it sound so simple”.

  “It is simple! It’s only you two who are making this complicated. Candasee is a smart girl and she won’t be able hide the truth from herself for too long before her conscience kicks in. I’m sure she will see that she needs to give you another chance or at least give you a hearing!”