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Chapter One
Lena
“Waitasecond.Whatdo you mean, ‘they all quit’?”
The clerk looked up at me and adjusted his glasses a little. He smiled.
“Apparently, the guy has a reputation for being a little … overbearing and demanding.”
When the temp agency called me that morning, I’d practically sprinted to their office with excitement. I’d gotten nowhere after two months of trying to make it as a model in Hawaii. The agencies had a full roster of clients for the Summer, and every set of headshots I sent out was met with either a polite rejection or nothing at all. I wasn’t giving up.
I did need to find some way to pay the rent.
“I don’t understand. This guy fired all his previous PAs … and you think I’ve got a better shot?”
“Who knows? Maybe the two of you will hit it off.”
“I guess.”
“They want to interview. Is ten o’clock okay?”
I tried to pretend like I was thinking about it. Like I had something else to do on that day. There wasn’t much to do for a single woman in Honolulu with no cash. And I had enough trips to the beach for a lifetime.
“All right. It’s set for ten o’clock. The Honolulu International, it’s just up the road from us. If you go now, you can make it on time. I’ll phone ahead and let them know you’re on the way.”
“Okay. And, thank you, Bob. I won’t let you down.”
I got up, shook his hand, and walked out of the room, trying to look like I knew where I was going. But the truth was, I couldn’t possibly have known what I was walking into.
I left the building and walked out on the wide, sunny boulevard which stretched along the southern shore of Hawai’i Island. The palm trees were rustling gently in the breeze, and I could see folks making their way to the beach. I’d arrived just in time for the Summer heat, and it was already balmy and pleasantly warm as I got into my car and drove up the street to the Honolulu International.
I wasn’t exactly optimistic about the job with Honolulu Hotels Ltd. But then, I hadn’t had much cause to be optimistic about anything. My life was at a ‘play it by ear’ kinda moment. When I headed out to Hawaii this Spring for a catalog job, I’d been confident that my name and face would get me steady work. But as weeks turned into months and no more work came, I began to think that maybe my ex, Jared Alson, had been right all along. Maybe I was making a big mistake. But what if he was wrong? I felt sure that if my optimism and hard work held firm, the real work eventually would come.
I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I almost passed up the place. Though how could I have missed it? The Honolulu International was the grandest hotel in town, an enormous, historic building with elegant stonework which gleamed in the sunlight. When I’d finally found somewhere to park on the cramped, narrow streets, I got out of my car and went inside. It was elegantly decorated with blue drapes and white marble pillars. I introduced myself at the front desk.
“Hi, I’m Lena Chambers. I’m here from the job temp agency.”
“Okay, Miss Chambers. Head up the elevator to the top floor and proceed to the waiting room. Alex Alson will speak to you shortly.”
“Alson?” I asked. “Sorry, did you say Alex Alson?”
“That’s correct, ma’am.” She looked at me a little funny, as though it was strange, I didn’t know who he was.
I should have turned around then and there and walked straight out of the building. Deep down for some crazy reason, I didn’t. I was pretending to myself that it was a different Alex Alson. Even though, in my heart I knew that there could only be one person by that name that owned a billion-dollar empire in Hawaii.
And he was the older brother of my ex-boyfriend, Jared.
It couldn’t be. I kept telling myself that as I rode the glass elevator up from the lobby to the top floor of the hotel. I could see the elegant, marble walls of the place and the mezzanine slowly begin to look smaller as we climbed. And I kept telling myself the same thing over and over again. It couldn’t be.
Jared had been my boyfriend back in Los Angeles. We’d met while I was doing some modeling work out there for a catalog. He was a nice guy, with dark brown hair and striking blue eyes. We’d hit it off immediately, and he showed me a side of the city I’d never seen before, taking me on high uptown dates.
Eventually, I began to realize that Jared was not prepared to take the next step in pursuing his dream of opening his own hotel. He spoke many times in increasingly bitter tones about his mysterious brother, Alex, who was a big success out in Hawaii. He was a billionaire. And a war hero. Was that the man I was about to meet?
Despite Jared’s flaws, I would have stuck by him, except there was another reason I knew we wouldn’t work out in the long term. And it was that Jared didn’t want to settle down, he was a party animal. Late nights and parties all the time. It was fun for a while but it always brought with it chaos. Our relationship was like a roller-coaster ride, up and down all the time.
“I don’t see the point of settling down, we are young. We have plenty of time for that,” he told me, one day as we sat savoring the sun on his balcony.
“What about having a family of your own?” I replied incredulously.
