and went the mechanic route. Or rather, I tried to go that route.”
“It didn’t work out for you?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I didn’t like the people I always ended up working with. I didn’t like the customers, either. So I moved into carpentry. Well, that went about the same. I knew I had to switch gears and find something else, and I landed on programming.”
“That’s a career switch and a half.”
I nodded. “Nobody understood it in the beginning. Caught a lot of flak from my father who was appalled that I would trade in good reliable work for something computer related. He didn’t understand the kind of money involved with this kind of work, of course. He thought I was being lazy and just wanted a desk job.”
She nodded like she knew firsthand what I was talking about. “Did he come around?”
“Eventually.”
“Are you working while you’re here?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I’m taking three months off to figure out if I’m running away from or toward something.”
She smiled slyly and folded her arms over the table. “Oh? So I pegged you pretty well then?”
“Quite well. I’d say you were in my head.”
She tapped the side of her nose knowingly. “It’s all part of the simulation.”
The quip surprised me, and I laughed harder than I expected. It startled her too, and soon, both of us were in stitches over a joke I’d never expected a girl like her to make.
“Tell me about you,” I said. I didn’t want to take up any more time talking about myself. I had too many questions I wanted answered. Where did this girl come from? Why and how had she ended up on this little island? What made her laugh? What made her cry? What was her favorite dessert?
I wanted to know all of the things.
“Well,” she said slowly, clasping her hands together, “I’m a twin.”
My eyebrows rose. “A twin?”
“Yep, I have a twin brother. Not identical. He lives in New York. We’re very much the same. He’s as married to his job as I am to mine.”
“What does he do?”
“He’s a matchmaker.”
“A matchmaker? Like for couples?”
“Exactly like that.”
“Is he good?”
“World famous,” she said.
“So you both work in the business of love?”
She smiled. “Yes, I like the sound of that. He works with couples in the beginning, and I work with them right after their wedding.”
“How did this whole honeymoon-coordinator thing start?”
“By accident,” she said. “I planned a honeymoon for a pair of my friends a long time ago, and they had such a good time that they told their friends, and word of mouth had my name on everyone’s lips in less than a year. So I started my own business, built my own website, ordered business cards, and just started hustling because I loved it so much. Before I knew it, I was booking clients with more money than I knew what to do with, and I was working closely with travel agents. But I lost a lot of money having to split the pot that way.”
“Until what? The El Cartana?”
She nodded. “Yep. I came out here for a friend’s bachelorette party actually. It was a complete accident that I happened upon the hotel. I fell in love with it immediately. I mean, how could you not? It’s stunning.”
“True. I felt like I was driving you to a royal palace the other day.”
“I feel that way every time I go home to the resort. It’s magnificent. Anyway, we met the owner’s daughter here in town one night and I gave her my business card. Three weeks later, I was on a flight back to the islands to meet with the owner and discuss the creation of a new position at the hotel. I was hired and that was the end of it. Now I can’t imagine doing or being anywhere else.”
“It almost sounds like a fairy tale.”
“It feels like one too,” she said. “Except for those stretches where I’m working fourteen-hour days for three weeks in a row. Then it’s a lot less magical.”
Her work ethic was as impressive as she was. Was she one of those women who defined herself by how busy and productive she was? I had a feeling she might be.
Wasn’t she exhausted?
“Do you ever think about things you might be missing out on?” I asked. It was forward of me but I had the impression it wouldn’t offend her.
Katie pressed her lips together and broke eye contact. “Sometimes. When a lot of long days fall back to