Page 110 of What Happens in Paradise

Hearing Stella’s words of encouragement made me tear up for a different reason. I was so happy to hear that despite how I’d screwed up, she still believed in me.

I wiped away my tears and blew out a breath.

‘Thank you. I agree. I have to fight this.’

‘Damn right! Me and Max will be behind you all the way. You’ve got this!’

A warm sensation flooded my stomach. A fire had now been lit inside me.

I was great at my job.

I didn’t deserve to be fired for falling in love.

‘I’ve got to go.’ I swung my legs out of the bed. ‘I need to shower, eat, then prepare to battle.’

‘That’s the spirit!’ Stella said. ‘Go get ’em, tiger!’

41

ALEJANDRO

‘Any news?’ Lola’s face appeared on the phone screen.

‘Not yet.’ I shook my head.

When I told her I had been fired, naturally, she called me every bad name under the sun and reminded me that she had warned me something like this would happen. But when I explained that I loved Jasmine, and gave her more details about all of the things that had happened, she was much calmer and understanding.

I had told her that I was not giving up. That I would fight to get Jasmine her job back and if possible, save mine too.

In the meantime, I had been looking for whatever kitchen jobs I could find, determined to earn enough to continue my monthly payments to Evita.

When I told Evita, she immediately said she would work some extra shifts which I was against because she needed to study and Lola said she would have another look at her finances and see if she could help out too. It would be tough, but we would find a way to get through this.

I had also sent an email to Celine, the founder of the Love Hotel. The more I thought about it, the more I believed that it was Hazel, not me and Jasmine, that had acted inappropriately.

Hazel seemed to get some strange joy from firing people. Like she was drunk on the power she had over us. And ironically, she accused Jasmine of coercing me, when if anyone was pressuring or coercing me to do something against my will, it was Hazel, when she encouraged me to say that Jasmine had taken advantage of me.

It was wrong and making false claims like that undermined the progress that was being made in the world to try and bring the real work predators to justice.

I had said this to Lola and she had agreed and insisted that I gave her the founder’s email so she could contact her too.

‘I haven’t heard anything back yet either. Have you ever met the founder?’

‘Sí. A few times. She was always nice. The hotel is founded on her kind, caring, positive values. I do not think that if she was at the hotel, this would have happened. My gut tells me she is a decent woman.’

‘Good. I suppose all we can do is keep our fingers crossed. What about Jasmine? Have you spoken to her?’

‘No.’ I hung my head. ‘I want to, but she must hate me. Like you, she said this would happen but I did not listen and now she has lost her job because of me.’

‘What you both did was reckless and irresponsible, but sometimes, we’re drawn to people and the force is so powerful, there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Whenever you spoke about Jasmine, your face lit up in a way I haven’t seen since Freya. It’s like Jasmine brought you back to life. That kind of love is rare. One of the biggest barriers to the two of you getting together was losing your jobs, right?’

‘Sí.’

‘Well now you’ve both been fired, problem solved!’ She laughed.

‘Jasmine is also worried about the age difference. She thinks one day, I will wake up and want children and she will not be able to give them to me.’

‘So go and get the snip! Film it and show her the video!’ She laughed again.

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