Page 1 of That Birthday in Barbados
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That Birthday in Barbados . . .
What is it about turning forty that makes a woman take a look at where she’s been and where she’s going?
For ActivGirl CEO Catherine Camilleri, it is a crossroads that has her wondering where she went off course. Divorced without children, life isn’t what she had pictured for herself twenty years ago. Not up to admitting any of this in front of friends and family, she bails on the surprise party being thrown for her and books a last-minute trip to Barbados for a stay at the luxurious hotel where she’d spent her honeymoon ten years before. Is she going back to mourn the marriage she’d thought would last forever? Or in an attempt to chase out of her heart for good a betrayal that forever changed her?
Anders Walker might be just the ticket for that. After a brief career on Wall Street and a life experience that turned his world upside down, Anders took off the golden handcuffs and walked away for good. When he spots Catherine checking in on arrival at the hotel, he challenges her to try his spin class. He sees a woman who no longer considers herself someone a guy like him would be attracted to. Except that she’s wrong. In Catherine, he recognizes a woman who defines herself by rejection. He sees, too, that she has made work her life. But he’s learned that there is so much more to living. Simple things like swimming with sea turtles. And watching the sun sink on a Caribbean horizon. He’s got two weeks to prove it to her, to make sure she will always remember that birthday in Barbados.
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Map of Barbados
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Prologue
“My life is a train and it has derailed.”
? Amelia Mysko
Catherine
LATER, I WOULD ask myself how betrayal could go completely undetected, unless, of course, I was simply naive or considered myself someone that kind of thing never happened to. And I guess, in all truth, it was both.
But that morning, on the day my life changed forever, I never imagined it happening to me.
That morning, I was thinking about other things. It was a big day. A huge day. A day I’d dreamed about but never believed could actually happen.
I would have loved to sneak into my office, close the door and give myself a private pep talk. But as soon as I stepped off the elevator, everyone knew I’d arrived `a la the click-clack of the Louboutins I rarely took out of the closet. I usually showed up in workout clothes, but on this day I had to look the part of CEO. And they were all staring at me because they knew today was different. In the hours ahead, I would be completely changing our company culture from small, private company to publicly held cog in a much larger wheel.
At the tap of my heels, heads bobbed up, smiles broke out, hands got busy tapping keyboards. Someone yelled out, “We’re going public, baby!”
The words sent a missile of apprehension cruising through my stomach. I smiled and gunned it down the hallway, click-clacking the entire way. Outside my office, my assistant, James, vaulted from his desk and grabbed the cup of Starbucks he’d picked up for me from the store near our building.
“You look ravishing this morning,” he said, following me. “Those attorneys you’re meeting with rate better than yoga pants?”
“First impressions,” I said, taking a sip of my still hot coffee. “And I can handle one day on Wall Street without my running shoes.”
The glass door to my office was wide open, and I stepped inside, shivering. “Why is it always freezing in here?” I asked, setting my coffee on the desk.
“You’re freezing. I’m sweating,” James said, wiping the back of his hand across his forehead.
“It’s New York. I’m not sure I’ve been warm since the day I moved here.”
“It’s that South Carolina DNA,” he said. “And you need more body fat. That’s your main problem.”
“And your problem is that you stay out late partying. You’re detoxing before my very eyes.”
He barked a laugh. “You should try it sometime. All work and no play? ”
“Keep Catherine from having a hangover,” I asserted.
“And from having a good time,” he added.
“With the current work load here, I’m afraid a good time is not in the cards for me.”
“Have you ever thought about slowing down? Like hitting the brakes and taking notice of the trees outside your window? Well, actually, the trees in Central Park.”
