I would have liked to have hit the snooze button and rolled over for another hour of shuteye, but Alex had to be at work. He rolled out of bed in a sour mood and with a raging hangover. I got up to lend moral support. Then I made coffee in the bathroom while he showered and got dressed. He looked nice in his suit and tie when he kissed me goodbye and left to go downstairs and meet with the hotel officials. I got dressed in my new bikini and sunglasses, then grabbed a beach towel. Stepping out the back doors of the hotel, I had only to walk a few hundred feet over smooth concrete before I was standing on the sand of the beach. I had the towel wrapped around my body, not because I was cold, but because I was embarrassed. I had been so bold in selecting the tiny bikini back in Hope Falls, though even then I forced Alex to step into the dressing room to see it rather than coming out. He hadn’t liked it at all. He said it exposed too much that should have been left to the imagination. But I insisted, he caved, and I got it.
