"How far out is this place?" I asked. We had left the Juan Santamaria International Airport nearly four hours ago and it had been at least an hour since I had seen any sign of civilization. I was tired and hungry and I had no idea why my wife had booked a $7000 hotel without asking me, especially when I needed this time to be collecting funds and planning my campaign.
The driver looked back at me from the front of the town car. "Almost there, sir," he said in a thick accent.
I refocused on my cell phone. Great. I was down to maybe half a bar of 3G reception. Websites were out of the question. E-mails took five minutes to update, but still worked.
"Look! There's a monkey over there!" exclaimed Lydia, pointing out her window into the rainforest.
I glanced over. "Cool."
"Oh come on, are you going to be grumpy this whole trip?"
"That depends. Is it really going to cost me seven grand?"
"What's the point of having money if you aren't going to spend it? I thought we needed some time away from everything. You've felt so distant recently. I miss you."
I sighed. "I'm sorry, babe. I've just had a lot on my plate with the campaign."
"I know. But your campaign isn't here. I am."
"What did Julia and Mike say about this place?" I asked, changing the subject.
"They said that it helped them to reconnect when they were going through a tough spot. So I thought it could do the same..."
My cell phone buzzed. I glanced down to see that an e-mail had updated and I had a new message from my campaign manager, Stacy.
"Would you be more interested in this vacation if I gave you a free pass?" asked Lydia.
I looked up. "Huh?"
"A free pass. You can flirt with other girls all week if you want."
"Is this a trick? This feels like a trick."
"Julia told me that her and Mike having free passes for the week was part of what improved their sex life."
"So you get a free pass too?"
"I guess so, yes. So what do you say?"
I gazed out the window and thought about it. Then all of a sudden the rainforest parted and a high-rise building appeared out of nowhere. We pulled up under the porte-cochère. In the lobby, I could see a group of beautiful women in heels and tiny bikinis. I immediately turned to Lydia. "If that's really what you want, then I guess we can do the free pass thing."