Roatan Plunge | Love Travels #2

Ten - Óscar

Truthfully, I have no idea what we're doing this morning and less than two hours to figure it out. Which is not a good look for a man who usually has a staff to do these kinds of things. A staff who just quit and left Marcia to pick up the slack.

But I'm not even going to ask her to help me because she's sworn herself an impartial judge of the situation. So she'll definitely not be helping me. Especially after Lorena charmed the pants off her with the negotiating and the agreeing to sign the documentation. Marcia's job just got twelve times easier and I know she'll never forget that.

I might sign her paycheques, but she runs the show, and she never lets me forget it. Or at least that's what she would say.

And this might be the very first time I wished she didn't run everything for me. Usually I want nothing better than to get out of doing the work, but now...

My eye draws back to Lorena, typing away on her phone in the corner of the room, towel sliding down to reveal her shoulder as she does.

I have to turn away to avoid getting so distracted I fail this mission outright. I don't just want to win any more, I need to. Irritating her is the most fun I've had in... well, maybe ever. Another depressing thought I'll have to push away if I want to get anything done.

"Looking up fun things to do in Roatan?" Lorena's voice cuts through the hum of the air conditioner and Marcia's newly manicured nails tapping against the keyboard.

"No." I will not turn to face her. I will not show weakness.

"Then why is the Roatan tourism page pulled up on your phone?"

"Why are you looking at my phone?"

"Because I can," she says, shrugging. Then she walks herself into the bathroom and the door clicks shut between us.

The shower starts running and I'm still sitting on Lorena's bed staring at the door. But I can feel Marcia's eyes on me.

"Don't start," I say, peeling my eyes away from the door to collect my things from the bed. "I have an excursion to plan and it has to be good enough that Enrique and Bianca don't notice what's going on."

"Have you considered just dropping this and letting her have her thing? I mean... don't you sometimes wonder if you don't already have enough?"

And that has me frozen. "I wonder it all the time," I force out. "But sometimes I also wonder if I have anything at all."

She doesn't follow me when I leave. And I'm grateful for it because I'm going to have to call in some huge favours to get this done. I don't need anyone watching.

* * *

The excitement for 'Lorena and Óscar's mysterious excursions' today is so great that my mother is here. My mother.

She's wearing a floor length floral number that is skin tight to her knees and then flares out. I think the ladies call it a mermaid style but it doesn't look like a mermaid. When I saw her standing in the middle of the assembled wedding party, I almost spit out my tea thinking of what I'd pulled off this morning. And still now, sitting on the bus winding through the narrow roads, I keep letting a little smirk slip out at the thought of my mother and the 'mysterious outing' I have planned.

Lorena, who is sitting right beside me to keep up the appearance that we are working together, keeps shooting me death glares every time I smirk. Which is making it even harder not to laugh. It's a ridiculous and entertaining cycle. I can't wait to see the look on her face when she figures out what I've been smirking about all morning.