In bed the next morning, Dani rolled over and noticed the clock on the nightstand said 10:25AM. She glanced over at Shane and noticed he was sound asleep so she gently shook him until one of his eyes peeked open.

“Honey, you need to get up. It’s late – the morning’s half over already.”

Shane didn’t budge. “It’s okay Danielle. Don’t worry about it,” he said groggily.

“But aren’t you super late? Don’t you have meetings to go to?”

Shane slowly sat up and yawned. “Nope. My work is done here. The harassment suit is being settled out of court. Didn’t you hear me on the conference call early this morning? The attorney for the four plaintiffs accepted our offer.”

“No I didn’t hear you at all. I must have been zonked out. Well that’s great. But what happened all of a sudden? I thought the company was at a stalemate as far as negotiating a settlement?”

“They were at a stalemate. But only because unbeknownst to me, the company didn’t want to take financial responsibility for the actions of the slimy dick-wad manager who was in fact harassing the four women. I watched the surveillance videos and interviewed the pervert myself. There was absolutely no defense for his predatory and discriminatory behavior; just a ‘good ol’ boys’ club protecting him. I fired his despicable ass yesterday. I didn’t want to talk about it last night because the whole thing made me sick and I didn’t want to ruin our perfect evening.”

“It was perfect Shane. The opera was sublime and the dinner was out of this world. It was totally magical. Thank you again for the wonderful surprise.”

“And I’m happy to say my other surprise panned out as well. I wanted to be spending the week in Sydney by your side, not sitting in meetings listening to a bunch of suits arguing in favor of some lecherous asshole. Now we’re free to spend our time in Australia together in any way we choose.”

“That’s so wonderful. So why was it even necessary for you to come over and settle this? Why didn’t the company just pay the women and end it?”

“Because they wanted to pay the women only half of what they were asking for which of course was rightfully declined. It was insulting. I had the power to authorize the plaintiffs’ proper settlement which I promptly did once I gathered all the facts.”

“That’s my man,” Dani said proudly. “You gave them the full amount. You’re incredible.”

“No I doubled the amount they were asking for actually. I wanted to make a loud and clear statement on behalf of Tanner International to show our position on the treatment of women within our company.”

Dani was floored by the conviction of Shane’s words. At that moment she realized it would be practically impossible for him to amaze and impress her any more than he just had in the past twenty-four hours.

She threw her arms around him and kissed him as she marveled at the man she was just now beginning to understand on a much deeper level.

Dani and Shane spent the next four days living it up in Sydney; dining at the finest restaurants, playing darts and sampling Aussie ales at the quaint pubs, strolling down the romantic waterfront walkways, and checking out the local music scene. They were having a fabulous time vacationing “down under” without the slightest care in the world.

To Dani’s delight the time had arrived for them to finally head up to the Great Barrier Reef to go diving. They boarded the Tanner jet for the short flight up the Australian coastline and Danielle planted herself excitedly in a window seat. With her nose pressed against the window, she could hardly wait to see the famous reef from the air. While the plane lifted up off the runway she mentioned to Shane how her stomach was feeling funny. He smiled and rested his hand on her abdomen.

“Hey you don’t suppose we already have a child in there do you? I guess it’s gotta be possible with all the rabid fucking we’ve been doing.”

Dani laughed in agreement. “Of course it’s possible. We’ve certainly been working hard at it.”

The words had barely left her lips when she had a sobering realization. The possibility of her actually being pregnant was very real indeed, which meant she could not go scuba diving. The Great Barrier Reef would just have to wait. Her heart sunk. Her lifelong dream was so close but how could she take the chance and go diving? If anything happened she’d never forgive herself. She tearfully relayed her fears to Shane.

“Are you sure it would be that dangerous this early on?”

“Maybe nothing would happen at all. But what if it did? How could we live with it?”

“Why don’t we do a quick internet search on scuba diving and pregnancy?

Shane took out his phone and started checking out the available info on the subject. After about two minutes he looked up at Dani with a grim face.

“All the diving sites recommend against diving while pregnant. Period. Some women do it and report no problems but there is not enough data to prove it’s safe. I guess that’s that. I’m so sorry Danielle. I know how much you were looking forward to that dive.”

Dani bit her lip and steadied her voice in an attempt to hide her overwhelming disappointment from him.

“Well I guess I can still have a nice time watching you dive from the boat. I suppose I can also still snorkel too.” She tried her best to feign enthusiasm but Shane saw through it.

“Danielle there is no way I am diving in that reef without you. I would not get a shred of enjoyment out of that. We’ll simply come back another time that’s all. Now I’m going to tell the pilot to change course. I’ve got a different destination in mind.”

“A different destination? What different destination?”

“Just because you can’t dive doesn’t mean we have to go home yet. How does Fiji sound to you? It’s warmer there too – probably about 80 right now……nice warm water too.”

Dani was ecstatic. She could happily accept that substitution.

“Do you mean it? Fiji sounds fantastic. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you Shane Tanner. I love you so much.” Her eyes were welling up again but they were happy tears.

“Are you kidding me Danielle? Having you in my life is truly humbling. Every day I wonder how I could be deserving of a woman of your caliber. A woman who puts the mere possibility of our child’s existence ahead of her own needs and desires? Even ahead of her own dreams….. I can’t tell you how overwhelmingly touched I am by that level of love and sacrifice.”

He took Dani in his arms and kissed her tenderly.

“I love you so much Danielle.”

Shane dabbed her eyes with a tissue and then headed to the cockpit to notify the captain of their new flight plan. Dani could feel the plane veering to the east and heading away from the Coral Sea.