Trey’s mind was set because he didn’t need to be protected, especially from a vacation raffle. Companies did raffles all the time as a PR thing. Plus, the woman’s reasoning about making sure the winners deserved it made sense to him. If anyone was worthy of a vacation, it was definitely him and Cat. Hehadto win. He absolutely had to because his marriage needed to be rescued, and this was a surefire way to fix it.
Arriving home later that night, he found Cat already asleep, curled on her side of the bed, facing the wall. He wanted to wake her, talk to her, have some fun conversation like they’d had in thebefore times, or, at the very least, mold his body around hers and press his face to her neck. This last option was too much to resist. After taking a shower, he slid between the cool sheets, carefully scooting nearer and draping his arm around her middle. Trey breathed her in, filling his lungs to their capacity with her sweet vanilla scent.
His wife was pretty with a delicate, petite bone structure and shoulder-length warm brown, wavy hair that she frequently swept back on the sides, holding the strands in place with a clip or two. His favorite thing to do at the end of a long day was to remove any clips, sink his fingers into her hair, and pull her into a deep kiss. Her hair and those beautiful, expressive eyes, the color of warm cinnamon, were some of the first things he noticed about her.
Catalina Rosario blushed easily, laughed fully,and had electricity firing through her veins. She once told him she was used to being overlooked, underestimated, and maybe it was because she had a family full of firecrackers. She found it easy to get lost in the mix. But she had captured his attention the first moment he’d spotted her.
Except these days, she’d rather remove the hair clips herself, skipping the whole kissing part altogether. She gave him nothing but the bare minimum. For someone who still adored the woman he married, it was a hard way to live. He yearned for her, grasping for anything. He pulled her against himself, pressing a soft kiss to her neck.
In a sleep groan, she said, “Stop. It’s too hot,” and used her shoulder to push him away, scooching closer to the edge of the bed. It was a crushing way to end the day, and he’d forgotten all about the raffle by this point.
A week later, he received a surprising call from an unknown local number.
“Hi. May I please speak with Trey Schuster?”
“This is he.”
The woman’s voice automatically switched to something perkier. “Mr. Schuster. Hi. My name is Sasha. Congratulations! You’ve been picked as one of our winners for the Cancun vacation getaway from Vacations4Fun.”
“You’re kidding!” He could hardlybelieve it. His brother was going to feel foolish for doubting him, and Trey couldn’t wait to share the news with Cat. His mind was so occupied with planning the big vacation reveal he’d do later, he wasn’t paying attention to the woman who was currently holding a one-sided phone conversation with him.
“So the trip must either be taken from August third through seventh or from August fourteenth to the eighteenth. Which one would work better for you, Mr. Schuster?”
“Oh, uh. I have to choose right now?” While he remained on school break for the summer, Cat hadn’t had a real vacation from her job in the last three years because there was always a reason why she couldn’t. Getting her to commit would take work.
“You don’t have to pick right now, but you’ll need to decide soon since available spots are filling up fast. I can give you a callback number to use.”
Not being pushed into making a decision at this moment made things better, but having only two options to choose from would make the situation hard. “Why does it have to be those dates?” A free vacation should be a free vacation.
“As I mentioned, these are the dates reserved by Vacations4Fun, in exchange for attending the presentation. If you will not be able to attend, we’ll have to give the spot to another person on our list,” the woman replied.
“Presentation?”
“Yes, Mr. Schuster, as I said before, it’s like a timeshare presentation. We want the opportunity toshow you what a company like Mankind…uh, Vacations4Fun can offer someone like you and your significant other and the unique position you’re in.”
Trey had to ponder this for a moment because he didn’t quite understand her meaning. “Oh, like people in need of a vacation?”
She laughed. “Yes, exactly. And all we ask is that you at least listen. You’ll still have plenty of opportunity to enjoy your vacation and reap the benefits of an all-inclusive resort.”
“And all-inclusive includes food, right?”
“Yes, the resort will provide food and drinks.”
This was all he needed to hear. If there was anyone who could benefit from a relaxing, tropical vacation with free food, it was Cat. She didn’t eat breakfast most days while rushing out the door to beat traffic. If she hadn’t been so overworked, maybe he wouldn’t have accidentally caused the rift between them in the first place. Even if this was part of a timeshare thing (oh God, telling Cat this part already made him cringe) it might all be worth it in the end.
But as much as he tried to talk it up later, explaining how this vacation was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Cat listened to his exciting news without much of a reaction. It was worse than he had anticipated, especially when she interrupted to say, “You want me to take time off from work in order to go to a sales pitch?”
“Come on, Cat. You’re looking at this all wrong. We can still have a lot of fun.”
“Uh-huh. Right.” Based on her flat expression,Cat wasn’t in the mood for fun, at least not with him.
He didn’t know what else to do and figured Vacations4Fun would give their spots away to some other lucky-in-love couple. Except the next day he received a text message from her while she’d been at work.
Okay. Fine. I’ll take the sales pitch vacation.
His sandwich, made from discounted ham and cheap bread, nearly fell out of his hand.
Really?!?!?!?!A slight feeling of hope lit inside his chest. Perhaps she had spent time thinking the whole situation over and realized a vacation would be good for them, good for their marriage.
