Chapter Four
The setting sun reflected across the rippling waters of the stretching ocean, seeming to turn the water and everything else delicate hues of gold and pink. Even though she had lived in Hawaii for her entire life, the sight of the beautiful sunset never failed to amaze MJ, causing her to stop whatever she was doing and watch as the sun sank lower and lower and the night began to take control. Even now, as she headed toward the staff lounge of the Grand Waimea, she found herself taken aback by the splash of color that made every moment of waiting on rich guests almost seem worth it.
For the moment, the private beach, open only to the big spending guests of the hotel, was silent, as only a few guests were enjoying the sunset. MJ could faintly hear the sound of a live jazz band playing on the patio of one of the close, upscale restaurants and it seemed to compliment the atmosphere. If only every moment was as perfect as this one.
Pulling herself away from the sunset, MJ continued her walk toward the employee entrance at the side of the grand hotel. She hoped to find several of her friends inside the lounge and see if they wanted to join her and Chris at their favorite spot for after-work drinks. After hitting the numbers that would allow her access to the building through that door, she entered, blinking to let her eyes adjust from the vibrant colors to the dimness of the hallway.
From the lounge, which was really nothing spectacular but one of her favorite places nonetheless because there was no one ordering her around, MJ could hear the faint sound of voices. She pushed the door open and saw a handful of employees standing around, gossiping among one another as they changed into more casual, comfortable clothes.
Among them was the teenager she had met earlier, Ashlee, standing by herself toward the back of the room, trying to pull the tent of a maid's outfit over her head. MJ smiled slightly to herself and headed over to the girl, who managed to wrestle out of the heavy cotton, tossing the outfit to the ground. "I see you're still here, which must mean that Nicole didn't fire you." She remarked and Ashlee looked up, not expecting to see someone who knew her. "I guess that makes you an employee of the fabulous Grand Waimea."
Ashlee sighed and rolled her eyes half-heartedly. "Yeah, whoopee." She mumbled, bending down to gather her rumpled uniform. "One guest wanted me to iron every piece of her wardrobe for her while she sat in her room and talked on the phone. And she didn't even tip." She tossed the uniform into the clothes hamper along with the other black and white outfits.
MJ nodded sympathetically and patted Ashlee on the back. "Welcome to the Grand Waimea." She remarked. "But, since you're now an employee, you can join me and my friends at a little place down the beach where we bitch about our lives and squander our paychecks on drinks and pool." She winked.
Ashlee smiled. "Sounds like home." She remarked and MJ smiled as well. "Where do I sign up?"
The door opened once more and Tessa came inside, muttering to herself and looking much more stressed then her sister felt. Ashlee looked up, brightening slightly and called her sister's name. It was then that she noticed that Tessa wasn't alone, carrying a small crate with holes in the sides and a mesh door.
"What is that?" MJ questioned when Tessa had joined them in the other woman trust the crate at her. MJ saw that there was a tiny dog inside the cage and it didn't look too happy.
Ashlee looked at her sister. "We got a dog?" She questioned. "Cool."
"No, we didn't get a dog." Tessa correctly shortly, sighing and attempting to keep her anger stored up for the person that deserved it. "Nicole is making me watch this thing until the person it belongs to shows up."
MJ set the crate on the ground and unsnapped the latch, allowing the dog to bound out happily. She picked up the white fuzz ball and smiled. "It's so cute." She looked at Tessa, who didn't seem to agree. "Where's its owner?"
"In California." Tessa answered promptly. "With a bad plane ticket and no luggage." She sighed. "Nicole decided that my new job title included babysitting a dog." That sort of stuff would only happen to her.
Ashlee looked at the dog, squirming in MJ's arms, and then back to her sister. "And what are we supposed to do with that dog?" She questioned. "You hate dogs."
"I know." Tessa said, shrugging her shoulders. "I have no idea what to do with it; Vincent is trying to arrange to have the luggage and the dog sent by plane back to California but that could take days, especially because its a live animal."
MJ laughed as the dog licked her cheeks and Tessa wished that she was as excited about the rat with hair. "Nicole gave me her speech on responsibility," she continued, "about how if anything happened to the dog it was my fault and the hotel's and I'd better take better care of it then I do myself."
Ashlee smiled at her sister, even though she knew that she wasn't telling a joke and Tessa just rolled her eyes. MJ put the dog back into its cage, and it proceeded to whine and scratch on the mesh door. Tessa narrowed her eyes. "If it does this while I'm trying to sleep, I'm throwing it off the balcony."
MJ stood. "Why can't Nicole watch the dog?" Tessa's stare answered her question in a way words never could; Nicole was far too busy remembering what it was like to be self-involved, with a fiancé that wasn't so doting, and a beautiful wedding coming up. It was much easier to stick responsibility on someone else. "You seem like you could use a drink."
Tessa sighed and nodded her head. "I could use several."
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The Surf Shack had many things going for it and, while a creative name was not one of them as far as Tessa was concerned, its other attributes more then made up for that simple little faux pas. The shack was an outside bar, with bamboo beams, a palm leaf roof and a Tiki bar, which was were she was, helping herself to another Strawberry Daiquiri -her alcoholic vice-, when Jason tapped her on the shoulder. He smiled when she turned to face him. "I haven't seen you here before." He remarked, then looked as though he realized he had just used one of the worse pick-up lines in history.
Tessa couldn't help but smile, taken aback by how adorable he looked at that moment and took her drink from the bartender. "MJ decided I was ready to be let in on a local-hot spot." She explained, taking a sip of the chilled drink.
The bar, though Tessa figured that was using the term loosely, was filled with people, gathered around the tables anchored with sand, and the several pool tables as though there was no where else to go to get a decent drink in all of Hawaii. Jason smiled and followed her back to the pool table where Ashlee was currently setting up for her next shot, playing against the bartender at the Grand Waimea, Frankie. When she'd left her sister moments earlier, she had been taking Frankie for all he was worth and it didn't seem like much had changed.
Jason watched approvingly as Ashlee knocked the white ball into the right side of the table, causing it to knock into two solid balls, depositing them both into a pocket. "So, you can play pool too." He remarked and Ashlee looked up. "Is there anything you can't do?"
"Legal or illegal?" Ashlee questioned as she set up for her next shot and Jason couldn't tell if she was being serious or not. Tessa smiled and sipped at her drink, so he decided to take the comment lightly.
After Ashlee sunk her remaining two balls, Frankie shook his head as though he couldn't believe what had just happened. "Remind me never to play against you again." He muttered, giving the girl a half smile as he handed her twenty dollars.
"That's just change." Tessa remarked to Ashlee, nudging her in the side. "You used to play for higher then that."
Ashlee smiled at Frankie. "I know, but I thought I'd go easy on him." She said and Frankie rolled his eyes. "What's the fun if I can't beat him tomorrow?" Frankie scoffed and headed toward the bar. "Amateur." She remarked with a smile.
Chris Remsen, who had been for the most part watching the game in silence from his spot standing beside MJ, spoke up. "Everyone looks like an amateur next to you, Ashlee." He remarked. "Where did you learn how to play?"
Ashlee picked the square of chalk off the side of the table and proceeded to chalk the tip of her cue stick. "Tess taught me." She explained, looking over at her sister, who smiled modestly.
Jason looked at Tessa. "I didn't know you could play." He said. "You've never tried to play before."
Tessa shrugged, suddenly feeling self-conscious, an emotion she had never felt before in her life. "I'm not really that good." She mumbled, finishing off the last of her drink and setting it in the sand.
Ashlee finished chalking her stick. "Tess, you've never been modest before." She remarked and handed the stick to her sister. "She's even better then I am."
Jason picked up Frankie's discarded stick and chalked the tip. "That's something I'd like to see." He said, looking at Tessa. "You wanna play?"
"Why not?" Tessa said with a smile, removing the balls from the pockets closest to her.
Ashlee smiled, looking from her sister to Jason and then back again; she'd known Tessa her whole life, so naturally, she knew just how her sister acted around guys, whether she liked them or not. And she wasn't acting that way around Jason, not bothering to put on an act on the off-chance that she might want something in the future, but acting more like the Tessa that she had grown up with.
For a moment, Ashlee remained beside her sister and watched Tessa break the balls, starting the game, but then she realized just how boring it was to watch someone else play pool. She looked over at MJ and Chris, but they seemed captivated by the game of eight ball.
Unnoticed, Ashlee slipped away from the pool table, heading toward the back of the bar and toward the beach, where she intended to get her first good look at the ocean before her. Who knew that concentrating so hard on doing a job for a prima-Donna could make you forget that you were in Hawaii, one of the most beautiful places in the world. She kicked her shoes off and walked barefooted, wishing that they had places like this back home, with no floor and no wall, just the sand and the sky around.
Before she reached the back of the bar, Ashlee spotted someone that she had seen a lot in the past several hours: Nicole Booth, walking down the beach with a man she had never seen before. The man was saying something that caused Nicole's brow to furrow, looking as though she didn't quite agree what he was saying but she remained silent.
Interested and not knowing why, Ashlee slipped closer toward them, realizing that they were heading toward the building and leaned against the wall that separated the bar from the kitchen in the back so that she could listen in without Nicole catching sight of her.
"Nicole," the man was saying as they got closer, "Vincent isn't just going to sell the hotel willingly, you know that. Hell, everyone knows that. Sometimes has to happen to make sure that he has to sell, willing or not."
There was silence for a moment. "I know, Morgan." Nicole said finally. "But I don't like the idea of making that something happen on purpose; the Grand Waimea is where I work, I have friends that work there."
Ashlee slowly peered around the side of the wall, trying to pick out Nicole and the man out of the darkness but she couldn't see them.
"It has to happen somehow, Nicole, are your father will never the hotel." Morgan told her.
Nicole let out a long sigh. Ashlee tried to inch closer, but someone's hand dropped on her shoulder, causing her to cry out in surprise and stumble forward, crashing into the sand. "Whoa, sorry." The person apologized, though he didn't sound at all sorry but amused.
Ashlee sat up and turned around to Jason standing behind her, giving her a bemused look. "Are you all right?" He questioned, offering his hand and helping her to her feet.
"Don't do that again." Ashlee mumbled, brushing sand off her shorts and tee-shirt. "What's up?"
Jason looked at her for a moment, as though trying to figure out just what she had been doing without speaking the question. After a minute, he said, "Tessa wanted to see if you wanted to play a game of pool with her."
Ashlee was silent, trying to figure out why Tessa hadn't come herself and saw that her sister was racking the balls in the center of the table. Wordlessly, she nodded and followed Jason back toward the table. "How'd your game go?" She questioned.
Jason let out a sigh, pursing his lips. "Tessa won." He remarked. "And now she's thirty dollars richer."
Ashlee smiled at him. "I figured."