The following morning Danielle decided to call Paolo and inform him that she would not be coming into work at all that day. She just couldn’t bring herself to be there during the protest and act like she knew nothing about it. Paolo wasn’t the least bit surprised when she told him she was taking the day off.

“Don’t tell me let me guess; you’re either too hung over or you’re still upstairs in Tanner’s room or both.” he said teasingly.

“Paolo! I’ll have you know I’m none of those things,” she replied indignantly.

“Really? Well the two suit jackets in your office appear to tell a much different story. You forgot to lock your door when you left, by the way. Evidently you were quite distracted by something…..or was it someone?”

“Oh my god our jackets. I forgot about our stupid jackets. Were they noticeable through the door window Paolo?”

“Yes but don’t worry kiddo, I removed his and put it in my own office.”

Danielle paused for a bit before her next question. “Paolo why do I have a sneaking suspicion you tried on Shane’s sportcoat?”

“Well that sure sounds like malicious accusery to me,” he said with exaggerated indignation.

“First of all Paolo, I don’t think accusery is even a word and secondly you didn’t answer my question. You tried on Shane’s jacket didn’t you?”

“Oh Danielle of course I did. How could I resist trying on a $7,000 Benito Bugatti sportcoat? I’m only human.”

“$7,000?! Is that what that thing costs? Well how did it look on you?”

“It cost at least that much and it looked ridiculous on me. I was drowning in it of course, like a little kid trying on his dad’s clothes. Shane Tanner might be a couple sizes larger than I am.”

“He is impressively large….” Danielle said as an image of Shane’s penis flew into her head. Just thinking about his sexual skills brought an ear-to-ear smile to her face. Yesterday’s romp in the hay with him was exactly what she had been needing.

“Earth to Danielle? Please bring your perverted mind back to our conversation for a minute. May I ask why you’re not coming in today or is it personal and confidential?”

Dani reconsidered keeping the protest info to herself and not warning Paolo. He was more than just a work colleague; he was her trusted friend. She decided to give him the heads up and swear him to secrecy about telling their new boss. After all, having sex with Shane did not automatically mean she was on the same side as a possible environmental enemy.

“Thanks for warning me Dani. I really appreciate it. I’ve been receiving some emails from some activist groups lately since Tanner came on board, but naturally they didn’t disclose any actual protest dates to me. You have my word that I won’t thwart them in any way and I’ll say nothing to you know who. Enjoy your day off.”

After the call Danielle wondered if enjoying her day off was at all possible. Her anxiety was increasing in direct proportion to her rising conflict of interest with her job. Admittedly the overall conflict was nothing new. Since it was her job to increase the hotel’s occupancy rate, it was a no-brainer that more guests consequently meant more island resources needed and more waste that had to go someplace. But Dani learned to accept the constant ethical tug-of-war she had with her conscience every single day that she came to work at the resort. Now she could feel that conflict growing as Tanner International’s borderline criminal environmental record and reputation was becoming clearer to her. And then there was the tiny little matter of sleeping with Shane Tanner. Talk about conflicting! The whole thing was getting a bit too uncomfortable for her.

Danielle surmised that if Paolo was getting emails from environmental groups then Shane most certainly was too, and that couldn’t possibly set well with him. She shuttered to think about how he would react to the protesters. She knew she was going to have to level with him about the full scope of her environmental activism eventually and wondered what he’d expect her to do then. She wasn’t about to suddenly abandon her deep commitment to the islands just because she worked for Tanner International. In fact if the rumors about the company were true, her beloved Hawaii was going to need all the watchdog volunteers it could get to keep a close eye on the company’s business practices. Danielle scoffed at the obvious contradiction: How was she going to be an ecological watchdog while she was Shane Tanner’s sex kitten?

* * *

That afternoon Shane stood on the balcony of his suite looking down on the large group of peaceful but clearly angry protesters. His father had warned him (ad nauseam) about the deep love the Hawaiian people had for their islands. They had always been extremely vocal and fiercely opposed to any form of Tanner development there. The island chain’s pollution and environmental regulations were some of the most stringent and costly in the world which was the primary reason the company had refrained from expanding in that state over the years. And as Shane was witnessing first hand, the Hawaiian conservation groups were a huge, annoying pain in the ass.

A few minutes later Margie came out to join him, sipping a cup of jasmine tea. She looked over the railing at the crowd below and pointed, “I like that one! The picket sign with your face covered in dead fish. That’s a good one,” she snorted.

“Well I’m glad one of us is amused,” Shane replied. “But I need to think of some way to get those loonies to leave us alone. Don’t they have anything better to do? What makes them think we won’t be environmentally responsible?”

“Because you NEVER are,” Margie reminded him. “Tanner International has zero credibility in that department. You’re reputation stinks. You know what you need?” she laughed. “A reputation make-over.”

“You know what Margie? As silly as that sounds, you might be onto something there.”

Shane’s mental wheels started spinning and they were spinning around Danielle again. He had woken up thinking about how fiery and sexy she still was and how incredibly great the sex was with her. Now his thoughts turned to her in a business sense. He wondered if he could turn his marketing director into a make-over director as well; someone who would be able to give him the credibility he was lacking. But as was becoming the usual, Margie interrupted him.

“If you don’t mind Shane, I’m going to go down there and mix in with the protesters. Someone needs to infiltrate them and get the inside scoop. I’ve got a lot of protest experience from the ‘60’s you know.” Margie headed for the door with excitement. “Oh this is going to be so much fun. I think I’ll go put on my tie-dyed t-shirt!”

A few minutes later Shane got the inevitable dreaded phone call from his father.

“Shane, goddammit! What the hell is going on over there? Environmental protesters? I’m watching it on the news right now. Do I need to remind you that NOT all free publicity is good publicity when it involves losing money? You better find a way to smooth things over with those islanders and fast. Why do I have the suspicion you’re spending all your time fucking hula girls? Do I have to come out there and do damage control?”

Shane was more than a little pissed at his father’s interference. It was bad enough he could hear and see the mob on the resort property below him, he didn’t need it pushed in his face from 2,000 miles away. And certainly the last thing he needed was to have his old man make a trip out there.

“Fuck could you please just let me handle it father?! I’m working on it as we speak so I don’t need you to tell me shit I already know. And I definitely do not need you here. I’ve got it under control.”

“Under control my ass! It looks more like a five-alarm fire to me. I just hope you know what you’re doing. You need to get those islanders to trust us Shane. You need to convince them we’re on their side so they’ll back off and stop opposing the company’s every move. We can’t have this constant interference while we’re trying to conduct normal operations and expand in the South Pacific.”

Shane tried to reason with his father to no avail.

“It takes time for outsiders to gain the local peoples’ trust here in Hawaii. You know that. It doesn’t just happen overnight. Non-Polynesians are still outsiders. That’s why Hawaiians call foreigners Haoles remember? So unless we have a Hawaiian bloodline that I don’t know about you’re going to have to be patient.”

“I don’t give a shit what they call us. I’m tired of waiting and I’m done fucking around with these goddamn eco-nuts. It’s high time the Tanner brand was as renowned in the Hawaiian Islands as it is worldwide. I don’t care what you have to say or do this time around to make that happen. Just get it done.”

“Will you please just back off and trust me to do the job you sent me here to do so that…..”

Shane was suddenly interrupted by his father’s frantic voice.

“Holy shit! If I didn’t know better I’d swear I just saw Marguarite Grummond on TV in the crowd of protesters!”

That was Shane’s cue to end the call; better to do it before his father positively identified his own crazy secretary.

“I gotta go. Good-bye father.”

Shane looked over the balcony railing to see if he could actually spot the kooky old hippie woman from his perch high above and sure enough he could. Margie stood out like a sore thumb; her fair freckled skin gleaming in the sea of Hawaiian faces was comical enough for him to laugh out loud, but then suddenly the sight of the pale faced “Haole” foreigner gave him a serious idea. Hawaiian bloodline? It was definitely unconventional and he wondered if it could actually work. Could something as simple as that be the solution to our business obstacle? Has the answer been there in front of our faces the whole time?