Read tested at 2 hours, 10 minutes. Salty, but not windsational, or even sailtastic, it's just slightly seadyllic.
*
It was 7:30 in the morning but I had already been up for a couple hours. I ran three miles, scanned the news over a cup of yogurt, took a shower and got dressed. As was typical, I still had a half hour before the executive staff meeting so with a cup of coffee in hand, I made my way from my apartment in the back of the resort and down to the marina, wishing a good morning to as many of the staff members and early rising guests that I could as we passed each other by.
To get onto the network of boat docks one has to pass by the quaint 2-story marina building at the edge of the resort grounds on the bay. It housed my corner office, a lobby in front and a storeroom full of water toy rental equipment and life jackets while there was a small one-room unused apartment upstairs. I entered the lobby from the front door and addressed the young man at the front desk. "Good morning, Shawn. How did last night go."
He greeted me warmly and replied, "Pretty uneventful, Miss Gimbal, if you don't count the guy parked in B-7 falling off the dock in the middle of the night. He was clearly drunk again but got himself out of the water on his own in a hurry. I watched it all happen on the security camera but there was no one else around so I let him take care of himself so he wouldn't be embarrassed like the last time." I grinned at that but told him that was the right thing to do.
"Oh," he added, "the new director got his boat in his slip without any problem, but it was three in the morning. I went out to help tie him up and asked him if everything was OK and he said he had a helluva time getting here because he's not used to the boat yet and underestimated how long it would take to get here. That's a big boat for just one guy out on the ocean."
I looked out the window and saw the 35-foot Beneteau sailboat in the slip we had reserved for him. In an agreement with the General Manager, our new director was going to live aboard, his slip being part of his compensation. It was a bargain for us, really. Our new director came with an impressive resume, and we were lucky to have him. He was surely in demand for even larger organizations but after we guaranteed he could live on the water; he took our first offer that we put on the table though we budgeted to go much higher.
After the GM interviewed him, the other directors got a chance to vet him in individual interviews, including myself, and I found him to be quite brilliant. The youngest ever to make VP at Holden R&R, which stood for restaurants and resorts, of which they owned a lot of both internationally and we competed with them in a few markets around North America. At age 36, he was promoted to VP at their Los Angeles headquarters and then abruptly left to go and work for a mid-sized resort in San Diego. After less than a year there, he contacted us with interest in our open Director of Marketing position where he immediately prioritized even more interest in the marina and his living arrangement.
My GM was ecstatic, and after winning over all the other directors, I was the only one with some hesitation about the guy. He was charming and knew what he was talking about, I get that, but there was something I couldn't put my finger on. Like he was hiding something.
"Lillian." Shawn broke me out of my thoughts, using my first name to get my attention.
"Uh, yeah?"
"Aren't you going to be late for your director's meeting?"
"Oh, shit. I mean, shoot. Thanks, Shawn. Have a great day, OK?" I made it to the conference room in the nick of time.
The GM, Oscar Burrell, smiled at me and wished me good morning before addressing the other directors and welcoming our new Director of Marketing, Paul Frank, who understandably looked tired. I looked at him and he smiled at me, I smiled back.
He is handsome without being real handsome, it is hard to describe. When he smiled, he had almost a boyish look with an expressive face, and then when he was listening to someone it transformed into a serious but rugged or weathered kind of look. It was clear that he paid attention. He speaks in a calm but confident voice, carefully selecting his words like he puts a lot of thought into everything he says. I could tell that he probably has no problem charming the pants off of any woman he wanted, which kind of disturbed me a little bit, offsetting even, but it was good that these days I kept mine on with an iron belt. So to speak.
After the meeting I walked with him to his office on the first floor of the east wing of the resort which held most of the staff and administration offices. "I saw your boat this morning," I started, "It's beautiful."
He chuckled and responded, "Yeah, well I didn't have very many nice words for her last night."
"What happened? We were expecting you a couple of days ago."
"Yeah, well, new boat and all. The first leg, San Diego to Long Beach, set me behind and then every leg after that I got further and further behind. I don't even want to talk about bypassing San Francisco. I should have known better."
"Yeah, well you made it just in time for your start date and you're here safe and sound now. Just muscle through today and get to bed early." He thanked me for that as we got to his office. "Hey, sometime when you're ready, I'd love to tour your boat."
"Yeah, sure. Anytime."
"Great. Well, you know where my office is down by the marina, just come and get me."
"Will do. See you around, Lillian."
"Welcome aboard, Paul."
*
It wasn't 30 minutes later when I overheard the daytime desk-agent, Rhonda, from the lobby exchange greetings with someone who entered the building.
Much to my surprise, it was the Director of Hospitality, who walked into my office and sat down in one of my guest chairs in front of my desk. I greeted her warmly, "Hello, Beth. What brings you all the way out to my neck of the woods?" It was easy to remember how many times she had been to my office over the years because that would be zero. She's deathly afraid of the water.
She looked around my office pensively and when her gaze settled on the marina outside my large picture window, she gripped the armrests of her chair a little tighter. "I can't believe you work in this little building. It's so close to the water, if there was an earthquake, this entire place would slide right into the bay." I suppressed a chuckle, having almost forgotten that she was also deathly afraid of earthquakes.
It was hard to believe this woman was afraid of anything. She arguably had the toughest assignment at the resort, in charge of the guest rooms, the private guest casitas scattered about the property, and the harshest of all, Maid Services. On top of all that, the buck would stop with her at every disgruntled guest complaint, from missing pillow mints to the one time a maid stole a significant amount of cash from the room of a state senator who was staying with us. I seriously wouldn't want her job.
Yet I liked her a lot, actually. In fact, I loved her. Like my favorite aunt. She was so good to me and my father when my mother died, all the while trying to manage her own grief for Mom. They had been good friends since I was knee high, Beth even working for her when Mom was director.
I grinned at her, "Oh, Beth. I checked the forecast and there's no earthquakes until later this week."
She chuckled, "You have always been such a goofball, you know that?"
I grinned broadly at her, "At least you call me a 'goofball' and not a 'knucklehead' like Mom used to do."
A look of sadness flashed across her face. I felt a little bad for bringing up Mom at all.
"Can I get you a cup of coffee?" I asked, wondering why she was here.
"No, no, I've had enough coffee for the morning, thank you. So. I bet you're wondering why I risked my neck to come see you." She motioned her hands about the room, "Here."
I raised my eyebrows in anticipation. She leaned forward in her chair like she was going to tell me a secret. "Well. I have to tell you that when I interviewed that man, Paul Frank, I actually had naughty thoughts about him."
I laughed, "Beth! What would Jimmy think?" Jimmy is her husband.
"I know. Right? I've only ever had naughty thoughts about one man in my life, until something came over me, even in just a video conference."
"Well, your secret is safe with me."
