"Costa Rica? Why Costa Rica?" she asked.
"Consider it a working vacation."
"You know I don't like the water, right?"
He gave her that patronizing look she found so annoying before saying, "Oh, come on. A little water won't hurt you. Besides, we'll be at a very nice hotel most of the time, so the closest you're gonna get to the water will be sitting on the beach drinking a mai tai."
In spite of the condescension, he'd been so good to her that she let a lot of things go. She'd been working for him for six months, and although he'd never come right out and said it, she was sure he had romantic feelings for her.
He'd hired her when she desperately needed a job, and for that she really was grateful. He was also a reasonably attractive man of 51, but no amount of gratitude could make her suddenly have the same kind of feelings for him. And those two things aside, she was tired of being talked down to, and he often said things she found somewhere between unnecessary and downright mean.
But he was her boss and she was his executive assistant, so if this was a working vacation, she knew she'd be going with him. And the truth was it was so unbearably cold in Chicago that she had to admit a vacation in a warm place sounded pretty nice.
"You promise? No water?" she asked, not kidding in the least.
"Would I lie to you?" he said in that same tone of voice while not answering her question directly, something else he often did.
This time, the look wasn't patronizing. It was just...smug.
There were times when she had to admit working for him was quite pleasant. He was smart, efficient, and knew the business inside out. And yet somehow, his financial acumen aside, the business was struggling financially, something that was outside her purview.
Lately, however, those enjoyable times seemed fewer and farther between with these traits she disliked surfacing more and more often. But Joe Ferguson was someone who shared her world in a sense, having also gone through a terribly bitter divorce three years earlier, and that was one more thing that kept her working there. That and the small detail of having a daughter in college and the need for a steady paycheck. Joe paid her quite well, far more than she believed she was worth, and that was more evidence in her mind that he might have expectations outside of her role as his secretary.
"I hope that's a rhetorical question," she replied, a touch of annoyance in her voice.
He moved a little closer to put an arm around her, so she stepped aside and looked away causing him to ask what was going on.
At the same time she ignored his question and said, "If I have your word."
"Yes. Of course. No water. Got it. So can I get you to book the flight for the two of us?" he asked with a smile before adding.
She sighed then told him that was fine even as she wondered why she was agreeing. Yes, she worked for him, but she didn't have to travel, and that was the one thing she'd insisted on when she took the job. But not going would only create even more friction, something she didn't need.
On the other hand, a big part of it was easy to understand. Chicago winters were brutally cold, and in spite of having lived in Illinois her entire life, and the last five in The Windy City, Fallon Daniels hated the bitter cold.
She'd taken off nearly 15 years to raise her daughter after marrying the man she planned on being with the rest of her life and giving birth to their first and only child. Lisa Daniels was now 19 and a freshman at the University of Illinois where she was a pre-med major. Her father was picking up the cost of tuition, the only thing she'd asked for outside of her half of the profits from the home she'd kept after he informed her he was in love with another woman.
Fallon hadn't just been hurt by the unexpected announcement, she'd been completely blindsided. She'd worked so hard over the years to take care of herself and do everything in her power to look nice for her husband, and this had been her reward.
During those years, she routinely received compliments from both men and women as to how good she looked, and even today, at 44, that still happened fairly often. She'd been 41 when her now ex-husband broke the news to her, and she still looked sensational. Or so she was often told.
Joe had been taken with her beauty the moment he saw her and had hired her just minutes into the interview. So all that worked together to give her this feeling that a part of her, the part that valued loyalty, owed him. But beyond her loyalty and hard work, she couldn't see that she owed him anything else.
Since the divorce, Fallon had tried dating a few times, but the entire 'scene' was so frustrating it always felt more like work than fun. She couldn't understand why it had to be so difficult, but the men she'd gone out with either had some secret they were hiding—like a wife—or had ulterior motives and only wanted her company for one reason. And she was nowhere near interested enough in them to allow them to have what they wanted from her no matter how expensive the dinner and wine they'd paid for had been.
Her dating life aside, Fallon wasn't ready to give up by any means, but for the time being she was content to focus on her job and her daughter. Temporarily at least, dating could take a backseat. And it could stay back there until she met someone who provided that elusive something she felt was so essential to any relationship. Even then it might not go anywhere, but with no spark to get this, well, heated up, she couldn't find any good reason to continue dating. And there was definitely no spark with Joe Ferguson.
As all those thoughts ran through her mind, the thought of a couple of weeks on a warm beach, or rather—not too near one—suddenly seemed very appealing.
She looked at Joe who was now smiling at her, and she blurted out, "Okay. Fine. I'll go!"
"Yeah?" he said as he walked toward her again.
This time he got a hold of her before she could duck. Joe hugged her tightly and said, "That's my girl!" before giving her a kiss that landed on the cheek as she turned away at the last moment.
That evening she gave her daughter a call and let her know she'd be out of the country for few days.
"And would that be with a handsome man named Joe, by any chance?" Lisa teased, not understanding how her mother really felt about her boss.
Her mom sighed then said, "Yes. Yes, I believe it would."
"Mom? Is something going on with him by any chance?" her daughter asked somewhat hopefully.
"I...like Joe. A lot," Fallon said as though she were mounting a defense.
"He is kind of hot...for an old guy," her daughter said, continuing the teasing.
"Hey! He's not that much older than your mother, okay?"
Lisa laughed then said, "Mom. You're hot, too. And hotties date hotties. That's just how it is."
Fallon smiled then asked her daughter if she was seeing anyone to get her away from anything related to Joe.
"Ha! Pre-med is brutal. I may not date until I'm Doctor Daniels. And maybe not even then because of residency," Lisa told her, only partially kidding.
"Well, you're a beautiful young woman, honey. And smart. Any guy would be lucky to go out with you."
Lisa drew a deep breath, sighed audibly, then said, "Having a career and a family isn't easy."
She paused for a moment then said, "You know that a lot better than I do, Mom."
Her mother thanked her before saying, "But unlike you, I'm not young anymore."
"Stop! You act young, you think young, and you still got it goin' on, Mom. So give yourself some credit because any guy would be lucky to have you."
Fallon thought back on how she'd felt so sure she'd been the lucky one when it came to Lisa's father, but just two years into the marriage, his work became more important than his family. By year ten, they rarely talked beyond saying things that had to be said, and made love even less often. Even so, she'd have stayed with him for their daughter's sake, but when he set her down and told her point blank he didn't love her anymore, staying together made no sense.
She also thought about the large number of her friends her age who'd told her they'd either stopped having sex altogether, started having affairs, or left their husbands and moved on. As a result, she couldn't help but wonder whether or not that was the norm for most marriages or if maybe she'd done something wrong. She knew she hadn't, but being conscientious to a fault, she couldn't help but engage in some more self-examination.
The truth was there wasn't much more she could have done. That was especially true when it come to keeping her body fit or her skin looking smooth and young. And being a genuinely happy person, she was unfailingly cheerful and as supportive as any woman could be. But in the end, it hadn't been enough, and now she was...middle-aged...single, and even her 19-year old daughter realized she was a lonely woman who seemed incapable of finding someone who'd feel lucky to have her.
"So, Mom. Tell me about you upcoming vacation," Lisa said, interrupting her thoughts.
"Working vacation," her mother corrected as she came back to the present moment before sharing what little she knew about where she'd be.
"Even so Jaco is a beautiful part of a beautiful country, Mom. I know how much you hate the water, but it's such a nice place, and I can't imagine you won't love being there."
Lisa had gone there for a week after high school graduation, the trip paid in full, courtesy of her father. It was his way of trying to buy his daughter's love with money the way he always had, because he was too busy with yet another new woman not much older than Lisa to actually spend time with her.
"I remember you saying that, honey, and I did a little checking online. It looks fabulous, and the weather should be sensational."
"Pretty much anything beats January in Chicago, right?" her daughter said.
"Oh, my gosh. This winter has been...ungodly cold! And speaking of warm weather, I need to find a couple of nice, one-piece bathing suits!" her mom said causing Lisa to tell to hold on.
"Wait. One-piece? You're one of the only women I know who's, you know, over 40...and can still rock a bikini. So don't hide in a one-piece, okay? You never know, maybe some hot, young Costa Rican guy will catch sight of you and...rock your world!"
Fallon managed not to laugh at the thought of anyone rocking her world or 'hiding' in a bathing suit of any kind, but she loved hearing her daughter say something else so nice.
The truth was, she really could still wear a bikini, but it just seemed...wrong. Wrong in the sense of wearing a skirt more than three inches above her knee—something she could also pull of were she of a mind to do so.
After all, weren't women of a certain age supposed to dress with a little bit of decorum? Or at least that's what she'd always thought anytime she'd ever seen a woman even close to her current age wearing something she should have given up 10-15 years earlier. That said, there weren't many women in their mid-40s who had a body that looked like hers, but still...
"We'll see," her mom said, pretty sure she'd stick with the safer choice.
"Mom? I have a ton of studying left to do, so as much as I'd love to keep talking..."
