“Look, it’s simple. I don’t have anyone else to send. You’re going.” Roger’s tone made it clear that this wasn’t up for debate. He sat on the edge of his desk and finished dropping a pair of alka-seltzer tablets into a glass of water. “We’re on a deadline here, and I need that article before the next issue goes to print. Do you understand me?”

Timothy looked down at the plush carpeting of his boss’ corner office and took a deep, cleansing breath before answering. He didn’t want to go. He didn’t want to leave New York on some stupid assignment to the Caribbean. He didn’t want to actually do anything other than sit in his apartment in the dark and wallow. Unfortunately, bills had to be paid, and despite the events of the last few weeks, he’d actually worked really hard to land his current job.

“I understand,” he said at last without looking up.

“Good.” Roger sounded relieved. “I know you’ve been through a lot lately, but just think of this as a chance to get away from it all for a few weeks. I’m sending Amanda with you for pictures. Just get me an interesting article about the island and its culture. Our readers will be interested in the Anniversary celebration so get me an inside scoop on that if you can.” He took a large gulp from his glass.

“Where, exactly, am I going again?” Timothy looked up. He hadn’t exactly been paying attention when the assignment had first been thrown his way.

“Dammit, Tim, I need you to be more alert. Honestly, I’ve been extremely lax with you lately, but you’ve got to get your head back in the game. I need you to be on top of this. If I can’t trust you to do that, then I’ll give the job to someone else, and put you back on writing reader replies.” Roger appeared to be serious.

There were few things Timothy hated more than writing up the reader reply article. It was mind-numbing work that almost anyone else in the office could do. They’d had the intern writing it before Timothy’s entire life ran off the rails. Again. After that, she’d gotten a job bump and a pay increase while he’d toiled in obscurity. This wasn’t what he’d spent years of college and internships working his tail off for. He’d secured his job as a journalist for a prestigious magazine, and he was determined to keep it no matter what.

“No, no, I’m sorry.” Timothy did his best to appear sincere without begging. “Look, the day you gave me the assignment was the day Jack left. I’m not trying to make excuses, I just had a lot on my mind that day. I’m going to do my best on this article, I just need a quick refresher on the assignment so I can get back on top of this, I swear.”

He knew he sounded like a rookie journalist making excuses and letting his crappy love life get in the way of his job. It was only made worse by the fact that this was only the most recent in a long line of failed relationships.Thankfully, Roger had been been extremely longsuffering.

“Fine,” said Roger, setting aside his glass and running a hand through his thinning hair. “We’re sending you to Catalejo Island. Their current president was married to his male partner last year and is the first openly gay official in the island’s history. They have a three year old son together.” He rose from his desk and circled around behind it. After fishing around in a drawer for a moment he pulled out a brochure and passed it to Timothy.

“They’re holding an island wide celebration in honor of their one year wedding anniversary. The entire island is being turned upside down for the festivities. It’s expected to be quite the affair, and I’m positive that every other rag in the country is going to be there. We can’t miss out.”

Timothy looked down at the brochure in his hands. It depicted images of sweeping beaches, a a lush forest, and a vibrant marketplace. It was a tourist brochure for the island, enticing people to come visit their historic Spanish colonial museum and go snorkeling along the coral reefs. It appeared like a typical Caribbean island and he was certain he’d never been there before. Why then, did Timothy have this niggling sensation that the island was familiar to him?

“Wait…” Timothy turned the brochure over several more times as he tried to process what he was seeing. The images, the name, he knew why the island stood out to him. He felt his stomach flop as a face he hadn’t seen in years came slowly to mind. A face that he had spent the better part of eight years trying to forget. “Matteo…” he breathed, his voice was barely audible.

Memories of the slender, tanned, dark haired, and dark eyed little omega that had stolen his heart in college filled his thoughts. Thoughts that were immediately followed by the pain and agony he had felt after Matteo had left without a word the day after graduation. He’d tried to contact him multiple times, but Matteo had made it clear he didn’t want to be found.

Now Timothy was being sent to the island that Matteo called home.

“Tim?” Roger’s voice cut through his thoughts. “I need to know that you’re up to the task.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Timothy, somewhat uncertainly. “I can do this. There’ll probably be a lot of people to interview. I’ll find an angle and write an article that stands out from the slush pile. Don’t worry.” He felt like he was speaking more for his own benefit than Roger’s.

“Look, Tim, I don’t want to add more pressure to you by saying this but I think you deserve the truth.” Roger looked at him with a grave expression on his face. “You know what this business is like. It’s cutthroat, and I’ve put my neck on the line for you a lot lately. If you don’t knock this article out of the park, it’s not going to look good to the higher ups.”

“So you’re saying my job is on the line?” Timothy had been expecting something like this. He was surprised it had taken them this long really. Roger must’ve really been standing up for him, and he was grateful for that.

“In short, yes.” Roger exhaled forcefully and dropped heavily into the high backed leather office chair behind his desk. “I’ve tried to give you as much time as I can to deal with your personal issues, but at this point there’s nothing more I can do.”

“I understand,” said Timothy. This entire assignment had just gotten way more complicated than he’d been prepared for. Every muscle in his body felt stretched tight and his mind reeled as he tried to figure out exactly how all of this was affecting him. He heard himself mumble robotically, but he was only half aware of what he was saying. “I appreciate what you’ve done. I’m not going to let you down. When am I leaving?”

“Talk to Amanda,” instructed Roger. “She was supposed to put in for the travel expenses and begin making arrangements earlier this week.”

* * *

Amanda was an intelligent, if somewhat blunt, photographer who had become something of a notorious skirt chaser. She always had some sort of camera within arm’s reach, and when she wasn’t snapping photos for the magazine, she was off working on personal projects that usually involved scantily clad models.

Today, however, she was Timothy’s eager partner in crime. Amanda was a born traveler who handled the airport chaos with ease. For some reason, her complete lack of concern with the rigmarole of airport security only made Timothy that much more unsettled.

As a rule, he hated flying. One too many documentaries on airplane crashes as a child had instilled him with an intense dislike of surrendering all control to a pressurized metal tube rocketing through the sky at unfathomable speeds. Once they were through security, Amanda bought him a beer to settle his nerves. However, that only had the unfortunate side effect of upsetting his stomach, making him barf explosively in the bathroom mere minutes before their flight began its final boarding call.

Highly anxious, slightly inebriated, and with the taste of vomit still on his tongue, Timothy took his seat beside Amanda and did his best to shut out the world around him. The next several hours were going to be hell.

Their flight only took them as far south as Miami. Catalejo Island didn’t actually possess an airport capable of receiving international flights. As far as Timothy’s research had revealed there was only a very small airstrip used primarily by the President and other government officials for visiting and receiving diplomats from other countries. All other incoming and outgoing traffic went through the Port of Catalejo on the northern edge of the island.

Thankfully, boat travel was much more in Timothy’s wheelhouse. The gentle motion of the waves as they set out from Florida was actually calming to him. Which was good because they were in for a six hour journey.

“Look.” Amanda pointed across the water as they stood on the deck of the ferry. A pod of dolphins breached the surface a few hundred yards away as they played in the waves. She immediately took up her camera and began snapping pictures. The repeated clicking of her camera shutter made it sound like she’d taken over a hundred photos in less than a minute.

The dolphins themselves were attracting a lot of attention from the other passengers. The sleek, gray animals seemed to know that they were being watched because their acrobatics only increased. Cameras of all shapes and sizes now lined the railing and snapped photos as the ferry chugged along towards its destination.

A slight smile touched Timothy’s lips as he watched the scene unfold. A few of the dolphins darted curiously towards the boat to investigate, but always sped away before they got too close. At one point it almost seemed like they were daring one another to get as close as possible.

Their frivolity nearly made him forget about the nervous knots in his back from the tense plane ride down. Maybe this trip to Catalejo wouldn’t be so bad after all.

If he just focused on his job and ignored the fact that Matteo would be less than twenty miles away from him no matter where he was at any point and time then maybe he could get through it all unscathed. His emotions were still raw from the breakup with Jack. He didn’t need to go exposing himself to more heartbreak and reopening old wounds. He just needed to finish this article and keep his job.

* * *

The island was small and home to roughly twenty-thousand people. There was only a single town on the entire island, and the majority of their economy was based on tourism. What few exports they had were almost entirely fish based. From what Timothy had heard, Catalejo squid was considered a delicacy in some parts of the world and sold for exorbitant prices.

There wasn’t a lot of traffic either. Cars appeared to be a rarity among the locals, and even the tourists opted to walk the streets of La Bonita. The fact that most of the hotels were situated in and around Main Street made this a highly appealing option. However, to Timothy’s dismay, the hotel that Amanda had secured for them wasn’t one of them.

Instead, they were forced to hire a car to drive them out to their hotel.

Sitting in the backseat as the car slowly made its way along the crowded streets was highly frustrating. Shops and market stalls all peddled their wares in a vibrant open-air market that dominated large stretches of the Main street. Tourists and locals alike drifted along the main street without much concern for the vehicle that was trying to make its way along the road.

Eventually, they reached a break in the crowd, and the car was able to pick up a little speed. It turned down several side streets, passing through a residential area where many of the houses looked to be styled after traditional Spanish, colonial architecture. The further they went, the older the buildings got until Timothy was certain that some of them might have been built by the Spanish colonists themselves.

Despite the age, the locals clearly had a lot of pride in their homes. They were well maintained and most of them even had well groomed landscaping with plenty of native plant life. Children played soccer in the streets, interrupting their games to scramble out of the way as the car approached. Timothy watched in amusement as the game resumed the moment they had passed.

The roads slowly became less populated. The shrubbery became more dense and the trees became more frequent. They passed along a long twisting road into the greenery of the forest. Amanda’s camera clicked incessantly as they drove, taking in the various wildlife with the eagerness of a green tourist.

A few colorful parrots watched them eagerly from the trees while a small herd of wild peccaries rooted among the underbrush below. There was a strange feeling that there may be even more wildlife watching from just out of sight as the car continued on the long and winding road.

They finally reached a wide open parking lot that was absolutely overflowing with vehicles. It was almost as if every single car on the island had crammed itself into this small patch of pavement in the middle of the forest. The large signs proclaimed that they had reached The Forest Hotel, but all Timothy could see was a lot of people and what looked like a gently sloping ramp next to a cliff.

It wasn’t until he finally stepped out of the car that he was able to fully appreciate the sight.

A large cliff rose several hundred feet above the parking lot. Perched up on the cliff was a massive building of wood and glass that had been carefully constructed in such a way it almost melted into the forest around it. A long series of ramps switch-backed their way up the side of the cliff in what looked like an absolutely exhausting climb. A large sign pointed to the nearby elevators that offered a quick and easy ride to the top, but there was a long line of people waiting to use them.

“Come on,” said Amanda with a smile as she retrieved her luggage from the trunk of the car. “All of the reviews said this is the best hotel on the island. You won’t believe the amount of crap I had to go through to get us in here.”

“How are we supposed to get back to town?” asked Timothy as he pulled out his rolling suitcase, laptop bag, and back pack. “We’re supposed to be capturing the culture of this island, and from the looks of things that’s all back on Main Street. As nice as this may be, it’s a tourist experience.” He swept a hand towards the hotel and sighed.

“There’s a shuttle that runs between the town and the hotel four times a day,” said Amanda with a grin as she lugged her suitcase towards the ramp. “If we hurry, we can get checked in and be on time to catch the next one.”

“Are you honestly going to climb that thing?” asked Timothy in dismay, as the car they hired pulled away, and he was left standing alone in the parking lot.

“Do you seriously want to stand in line for two hours to ride that elevator?” she countered. “Come on, stretch those legs. You’re a healthy young New Yorker. Haven’t you ever had to climb fifteen stories while your building’s elevator was down for maintenance?”

“Yeah, and I ended up staying with my boyfriend while the repairs were being done,” muttered Timothy. He wasn’t out of shape, but he wasn’t exactly in shape either. They’d spent the last nine hours traveling, and all he really wanted to do was take a shower, get some food, and go to bed.

Still, Amanda was right. The line for the elevator was prohibitively long. So he grudgingly followed after her towards the ramps.

The slope of the ramps was gentle enough that the climb wasn’t too terribly difficult. They also stopped frequently so that Amanda could get shots of the monkeys as they climbed through the nearby trees. All in all, it wasn’t as bad a climb as Timothy had feared, but he was still out of breath by the time they reached the top.

The effort of the climb, however, combined with the heat of summer and the humidity of the forest left him feeling sticky and drenched in sweat. Thankfully, the hotel staff were handing out moist towelettes to everyone as they entered the cool lobby of the hotel.

It took only a few minutes for Amanda to get them checked in before they were on their way to their rooms on the fourth floor.

“Which rooms are we?” asked Timothy as they stepped out into the hallway. He was eager to take a shower and get changed.

“Well,” began Amanda as she dug out the keycards she’d been given and handed him one. “Remember how I said that it was really hard to get a room here? Well, it was also really expensive so in the end...”

Timothy took a deep breath and let his eyes fall closed. Something told him he wasn’t going to like what she had to say.

“In the end we ended up with only one room,” Amanda finished. “But it’s okay. I mean, we’re both gay so it’s not like we’ve got anything to worry about, right?”

“That’s not the point, Amanda,” sighed Timothy as they reached room 416 and she unlocked the door. “The point is that sometimes I like a little solitude.”

The room opened up before them. Actually, it was more of a suite than a room. A large open living area, fronted with floor to ceiling windows that almost made it feel like you were in the trees, filled the entirety of the room before them. A small kitchenette took up the corner immediately to their left, while a very large bathroom filled the corner to their right. Two doors opened up on either side of the living room into bedrooms with luxurious looking queen-sized beds.

“This...this is bigger than my apartment,” said Timothy as he dragged his stuff into the hotel room. He was in awe.

“Pretty sure it’s bigger than both of our apartments combined,” laughed Amanda. “Geez, now I know why it cost so much. They didn’t have these rooms listed on their website, I guess they save them in case someone really special comes through. I had to call and beg to get it booked. It took pretty much our entire travel budget just to get this room.”

“Please tell me that doesn’t include our food budget,” pleaded Timothy. Just when things started looking up, there always seemed to be a catch of some sort.

“Well, not really?” Amanda seemed uncomfortable as she avoided his gaze. “So, I had to haggle with the guys in accounting and basically, yeah we’ve got money for food but not like...a ton. So, if we take it easy and use the kitchenette we should be okay.”

Timothy didn’t feel like arguing with her. There was no point. The damage was already done, this was their life for the next several weeks. The room had no doubt been selected so that Amanda would have a nice place to bring back her potential conquests, food had likely only been a secondary priority to her at the time. If he hadn’t taken so long to accept the assignment he might have had more say in their current situation.

“I’m taking a shower,” he announced after a moment.

“Right, yeah...so should I order something for dinner?” she asked, skipping towards the phone that sat on a small side table.

“You just said we had to be careful.”

“Yeah, but we’re not that bad off. We can afford to splurge a little.” Amanda smiled at him broadly.

“No, just...let me shower. Then we’re going to go over exactly what’s left in the budget.” This trip was already proving to be more of a headache than he’d thought it would be. All he needed now was a broken arm or two.