The only place Tam had seen so much marble was in the mausoleum where her grandmother's ashes were interred. Marble floors, marble walls, marble shower, sink, tub. Half of her apartment could fit in this bathroom. Attached to it was a luxurious, tropical bedroom with a vaulted, thatched reed ceiling, canopy bed, and French doors that opened onto a deck with stairs leading down to the beach. She stepped outside and imagined sitting there, watching waves lap at the shore through the spindly stalks of palms.

Two minutes of calm and then her phone chimed. Goldie needed to see her in the sitting room. The view of the waves disappearing as she stepped inside, but the sound of water crashing against land permeated the house. The violent rhythm carried her downstairs.

"Oh my God, Tamara, what do you think? Do you love it?"

"I love it."

Squealing, Goldie hugged her. "I knew you would. I want to get started right away."

"You want to start filming now? Isn't Jasper comatose?"

"We don't need him immediately. Besides, he's not the only one who can handle a camera. I can too. But Paul will probably do most of the filming. Come on." She pulled on Tam's wrist and they stepped out onto a veranda and then down into a small sunken garden with a semicircle stone wall closing it off from view of the house. "This part," she said with a lowered voice, "is only for you and me to know about. Can I count on you?"

No one should count on her. "Of course. What is it?" The waves folded around their voices, blocking out their conversation from prying ears as though the whole ocean meant to be in on the conspiracy.

"I'm going to disappear tomorrow."

Tam's throat tightened. "You're what?"

"Not literally. Oh my God, you should see your face. I have somewhere to be, that's all."

"It's not on your schedule." The only thing she'd put on Goldie's calendar while they were at Morinda—at Goldie's direction—was to have fun and make the best EpiGold ever!

"I have a life outside of a schedule. And some parts of my life are private. Like, I tell you everything, Tamara—almost everything. No one else knows I have plans aside from you. You're as close to a confidant as I can get."

A confidant with whom she wouldn't truly confide in. "What about Jasper?"

"Jasper especially must be kept in the dark."

"But I thought you two were really close."

"Do you tell the people you're really close to everything, Tamara? Does your family even know you're not sitting in your sad little apartment in California right now?"

"That's different. I don't have the same type of relationship with them."

Goldie puckered her cheeks. "It must have been so hard for you growing up in that family. What your parents did..."

Tam stepped back, but the sun that was Goldie still seared down onto her. Not even out on the beach yet and already she was getting burned. "What do you know about it?" She made her voice lilt up at the end so that it appeared a lighthearted inquiry instead of the piercing accusation she felt it to be in her heart.

"Enough to make me want to take you under my wing like a mama bird with her fledgling." Ignoring the personal space bubble Tam had formed around her, Goldie draped her arm around Tam's shoulder. "I can pay for a therapist if you need to work out some of that childhood trauma. I went to one once and it helped me a lot."

"Right but... back to tomorrow and your mystery plans."

"I'll be gone when you wake up. You'll alert everyone to my disappearance."

"Wait, you actually want me to pretend you vanished? Like, you got abducted by pirates or something?"

"Pirates are so overplayed. Don't use that. Go with something vague, like you went to check on me and my bed didn't look like I'd slept in it and you can't find me anywhere. Maybe start crying a little. Then let my mother and Jasper fill in the details themselves."

"Goldie, they're going to be worried about you. Like, franticly worried."

"It will only be for a few hours. Then I'll come back and tell everyone I went for a walk to check out spots to film in, chatted with a honeymooning couple from Berlin at one of the other villas, then lost track of time. And my phone died of course."

"You've put a lot of thought into this."

"I put a lot of thought into everything I do. You're going to have to trust that this disappearing act is part of my artistic process."

"But why? Why can't you just tell everyone you have plans that are none of their business and then go."

She squeezed Tam's arm and kept her tucked close. "Make sure Paul has the camera rolling. It's going to be fabulous!"

The weight lifted from Tam's shoulders as Goldie released her and sashayed away. "Go put your bikini on and then wake up Jasper. I need you both on the beach. It's time!"

"Time for what?" Tam's voice echoed down the path, her only answer, the continuous rush of sea against shore and a tingling sensation in her fingertips heralding the anxiety attack that would likely proceed unavoidable doom.

#

She knocked several times on Jasper's door. "Jasper?" Then a bit louder, "Hello?"

Courage failed her. If it had been anyone else, she would have opened the door and aimed a blare horn their way to get them out of bed, but this was Jasper DeAngelis she was dealing with. He already hated her; a hatred marked by cold avoidance. If she provoked him by say, barging into his room, he might decide heated despise was more her due. She didn't need that.

Tam was one step away from heading to the beach without him when Goldie's mom, Becca, exited her own bedroom down the hall and approached. Large sunglasses and a sun hat showed off the high angle of her cheekbones. She only vaguely resembled Goldie, physically speaking, but they shared a certain presence. When either of them walked into a room, heads were bound to turn like owls scoping out prey. Beach towel in hand, Becca paused near her.

"If you want to go in there, dear, just go."

"I don't want to. Goldie told me to wake him up. But he'll be angry at me."

She sized up Tam's body, which Tam had stared at in her full-length mirror for a full ten minutes before building up the nerve to leave her room in nothing but Goldie's webbed bikini. A black fringed wrap tied around her waist did little to change the fact that she was barely clothed. "I know my stepson well enough to say it's doubtful he's every been angry at a naked woman waking him up."

"I'm not naked."

"You will be if you stay in that room with him long enough."

Becca might know Jasper well enough, but she didn't understand Tam's unique ability to repel men like him. "I'm supposed to wake him up. I don't even want to. This is an order from our fearless leader."

"Well then." Becca opened his door wide. Tam had enough time to catch a glimpse of a large form curled up in a mahogany bed before the woman slammed the door shut as hard as she could.

Muffled swears emanated from the bedroom.

"Job done. You can thank me for sparing your virtue later." Becca straightened her hat and marched down the hall, leaving Tam to await Jasper's wrath.

"What the hell?" He opened the door, bloodshot eyes shifting down the length of her body before shooting back up. He focused on a point past her face, as though he'd assessed the empty hallway as more interesting than her. "I take it that Goldie needs us for act one."

"Act one?"

"In which the demure assistant attempts to resist the lavish excesses of her famous boss but can't quite resist the charms of the handsome boss' brother."

"Are you for real?"

He turned back into his room and began to rummage through his duffle bag. "I don't make the rules, clearly, or I wouldn't be here. It's an educated guess—the roles Goldie wants us to fall into for the sake of drama. It plays well to her fans. That's it. Don't take it too seriously."

"How am I supposed to take it then?"

Facing away from her, it was impossible to see him ponder her question, but his back went still. His fingers ceased their search for unknown items buried in the depths of his bag. "I'll meet you downstairs in five."

It ended up closer to fifteen. Jasper immerged from the front doors of the villa smelling like sandalwood soap, freshly shaved. He hid his eyes behind sunglasses. "Gotta look my best. I assume Paul is filming?"

"That's what Goldie said." She played with the fringe on her wrap. "Why are we doing this again?"

"Because we're planets and she's the sun. If we're in her orbit, we have no choice but to spin."

She rubbed at her eyes. For someone she had nothing in common, they'd still managed on their own to compare Goldie to the sun.

"You could be Pluto."

"What?"

He nodded towards the path that would bring them to Goldie. "You don't have to be a planet anymore."

She stepped past him. She'd be the one in the lead. "So, what you're saying is, I don't belong here."

"You can take it that way if you want."

"What planet are you, then. Venus?"

"More like Mercury. I'm just the messenger."

She picked up her pace. "I preferred the version of you that spoke to me in monosyllables."

"Don't worry. As soon as this EpiGold wraps, I'll be back to that."

They reached a blinding white stretch of sand. Goldie waved to them from a cabana towards the beach's southern end. Her parents were already there, stretched out atop lounge chairs.

"Look, Tam," he turned towards her and for the first time since arriving here, made eye contact. "Goldie has family do all the filming and editing for EpiGolds for a reason. It's how she passes them off as reality, but they aren't real. They never have been. They aren't about authenticity or the truth."

"What are they about then?"

"Fantasy." He said it like he assumed it was obvious. "In EpiGolds, I'm charismatic and charming, but I'm not romantic. I don't want to settle down. You understand?"

"I understand that that sounds closer to reality than fantasy."

He frowned. "What I'm saying is that Goldie has been waiting a long time for my character to progress."

"Your character?"

"The Jasper in front of the cameras. That guy. I bet you everything I own that's what she's got planned for this trip. Her fans want to see me display my romantic side."

"Your romantic side. Ah, so that's where the fantasy part comes in."

"And you think I'm an asshole. Fuck it." He walked towards Goldie. "Play along so we can get this over with. You can go back to reality. Leave the solar system or at least leave me the fuck alone."

Conflicting emotions made her face flush. Anger that he'd speak to her that way, relief that he thought whatever was about to play out would be over soon, confusion as to what she even wanted to happen. She swallowed a terse response to him and followed, sandals sinking into hot dry sand.

"Oh my God," Goldie stood and clasped her hands together, angling herself so Paul, off to her left, could film her profile while also catching Jasper and Tam as they approached. "You two took forever to get here. What were you up to all alone in the house together?"

Jasper flashed her a toothy grin, his mirth evaporated for the sake of the EpiGold. "I hope you're not implying that I've been anything less than a gentleman."

Goldie laughed. "Since when have you ever been a gentleman? Besides, I'm merely putting two and two together. Two sexy people alone at the house and then showing up here at the exact same time."

"You told us to be here." Tam regretted the words as soon as she'd spoken them.

Goldie's lip wavered, then set themselves in a frown.

A warm hand pressed against her bare back. "That's right," Jasper said. "You did want us to join you here, but... Let's just say we lost track of time. I mean, can you blame me?"

Goldie's face softened again. "Jasper DeAngelis, you and Tam are both my employees. I hope you report whatever it is that's going on between the two of you to our Human Resources Department."

"Isn't our HR department just Paul?" Tam asked and to her relief, everyone laughed, even Becca, who she'd assumed was paying more attention to her pina colada than their conversation.

Goldie hopped across the sand and gave Tam a side hug. "You don't have to tell us what's going on. I get it. Relationships must be given space. Okay, come and sit."

Conveniently, a double lounge chair had been left open for her and Jasper. Jasper lay a towel down on it for her and gestured to it. "For you."

She sat and he sat. His arm cushioned her neck. The spotlight left them temporarily as Paul trailed Goldie around, getting different shots of the beach.

"We'll edit all of this later," Jasper told her. "Most of what's filmed gets scrapped in the end."

"Can you remove your arm while the camera's off of us?"

He did as she asked. "Don't let her talk you into doing anything that makes you uncomfortable."

"All of this makes me uncomfortable."

"Right. What I mean is, she's going to want to, like, catch us in the act before this trip ends. You don't have to do that."

"You said I should go along with whatever she wants in order to get it over with."

He took off his sunglasses, leaned back and closed his eyes. "Do you have a line that you don't want to cross? Don't cross it. Not for her."

"What about you?"

"Definitely don't cross it for me."

"No, I mean, have you crossed your own line for her?"

He opened his eyes, keeping them focused on the sky above them. "I'm just the asshole messenger, remember? I'm Mercury. The fuck do I know anyway."

Tam stared up at the same sky Jasper studied. The beach, the sea, the salty air that tingled her nose—this was the setting for the new Tam, the one who embraced life. The one who viewed luxury as an entitlement rather than a fairytale. It could all be that perfect, if she shut down the parts of her that believed everything was too good to be true.

She wanted this but didn't want this. She wanted the private deck leading from her room back at the villa, but being out here, her body exposed and her emotions on the verge of spilling over was the price she paid for that private deck and that mausoleum of a bathroom.

By the time Goldie and Paul returned, Jasper's arm back in place around her, an easy grin replacing his scowl, Tam was ready.

"What's up you guys. You look comfy."

"Yeah," Tam stretched and then curled herself closer to Jasper. "We were thinking of heading back up to the villa soon."

"What? But you just got here."

"True, but..." She spider walked her hand down the length of his chest, stopping above the waistband of his swim trunks.

"Jesus," he took a quick intake of air.

"Oh my God, you two. Here I am totally single. I can't take it." She tossed her towel at them. "Get out of here. Go feed your hormones."

Tam hopped out of the chair, pulling Jasper up with her. Two steps forward and she screeched as he lifted her off the ground, carrying her from the cabana. She made sure to lift her head above his shoulder so Paul could capture her enraptured face as she let Jasper carry her away.

------

Thanks for reading Chapter 3. A tropical vacation sounds great, but would you be willing to play along with Goldie's schemes? 

See you next week for the next installation!