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Chapter 1
Hazel
I am here for a vacation.
A much-needed vacation.
I know I should have ignored the email from my manager that came in just as the plane touched down in Honolulu, Hawaii, an hour ago.
But—typical me—I opened it.
I read it.
Then, while the pearl-white shuttle bus whisked me to the Hanu Bay Resort, I read it a couple more times, and the worrying set in—hard.
Right now, I’m totally stressed. The kind of stress that belongs at my work-from-home station in New Hampshire.
Not here, in this pristine setting.
A group of pink flamingos stares at me as I pin my phone between my ear and shoulder and accept my rolling suitcase from the shuttle driver. I pass him a ten and then drag in a breath of salty ocean air.
“I can’t believe she has the nerve to ask this of me,” I moan into the phone. “I already checked my dashboard, and she marked it ‘urgent’ with one of those awful red flags. She wants this taken care of by the end of the day.”
The whir of the Stairmaster Alexis is dutifully slogging up purrs in my ear. I can picture her view: the gray Windsor Rec Center parking lot, sprinkled with some form of nightmarish wintry mix.
“Oh, come on, we knew she wouldn’t let you out of her talons for a whole week. This was bound to happen. Here’s what you do: You turn off your phone. You stop checking email. You go dark, and take a week for yourself, and ignore?—”
“Are you kidding me? I can’t go dark. Devina would freak out. Not to mention my mother. You know she texts me a million and one times a day.”
“Hazel, girl, listen to me and listen good. You. Are. On. Vacation. This is self-care time. Self. Hear that word?”
“I know, but…”
A salty breeze kisses my face, and I catch my first glimpse of the aquamarine ocean out behind the spread of the resort.
The waves glitter like they’ve been sprinkled with magical fairy dust. The sand is a pillow of fine white crystal and quartz. I want to sink into a fantasy of how soft and warm it will feel on my bare feet. But now, all I can think about is the work Devina sneakily assigned me.
“I think I have to take care of this one thing,” I murmur with a wince. “I just hope it doesn’t take too long. It’s for those Shopping Shark clients I told you about the other day.”
It feels so surreal that days ago, I was at the Rec Center with Alexis, getting in a workout while looking out on a flurry of snow and the dreary February-in-New-Hampshire landscape.
And now I’m on an island.
An actual, honest-to-goodness island surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. I’m drenched in sunlight that feels absolutely tropical.
“The Shopper Shark clients are super nit-picky, right?” she asks.
“Over the top. This time, they’re all up in arms about the email marketing sequence we made for them. This guy Chad is head of marketing for them, and I guess he’s saying that the sequence is below average, hardly generating any revenue.”
“So, why’s that your problem? You didn’t write the darn thing.”
“Yeah, but I’m a Sales Lead. Everything’s my problem. Devina wants me to get together with Jack Morgan to figure out how to make it better. Like he’ll have a clue. Apparently, he’s here too. He got the same reward trip that I did. But there is no way I’m wasting my time having an actual meeting with him. Fixing the issue will be way faster if I just do it on my own.”
“Jack Morgan… Jack Morgan… Why is that ringing a bell? You’ve talked about him before, right?”
“He’s the one who’s always screwing up. He thinks he can do his job while barely knowing anything about the products and services we’re selling. Just a bunch of charisma and big promises. There is no way I’m bringing him into this.”
“You shouldn’t have to be even thinking about this. You should be thinking nothing. Your brain should turn to a pretty puddle of jelly this week, so you come home refreshed. You’re in freaking Hawaii! What is it like? Tell me it’s gorgeous. No—don’t tell me. I’m already dying of envy.”
