Help Me Heal

Chapter 47

As part of the assignment Voight Detective Services had taken on from Giulia Matsudo, Hank had taken Kalinda to the hotel the Matsudo family owned in order to review the customer experience. They had both been pleased to discover that it was a four star hotel, and had several expensive suites. Hank had decided to book one of those since all expenses would be charged to Matsudo via the detective agency.

"This is lovely, Hank," Kalinda said after her first walk around the suite. "Shame it's only one night we've got in here, but we can make the most of it."

Hank spread his arms and smiled. "Nothing's too good for my woman if I'm not paying for it."

Kalinda laughed loudly at his stupid humour. "You're a charming man sometimes, Hank Voight. So, room service food?"

"Room service food and some vacation planning. We need to make a decision on where we want to go so we can get somewhere booked."

"You're right, we do need to do that. We've spent time looking at places. Let's just make a decision and book somewhere. Maybe we can be a little impulsive."

"Impulsive, huh? Alright, we can do impulsive," Hank said.

Kalinda came to join him on the couch he had decided to settle down on. "Why don't I take out my phone, search for places that are hot at this time of year, and we'll go to the first one that comes up?"

"As long as it isn't Australia or something. I'd rather not fly crazy distances."

"Let's see," Kalinda said, typing her request into a search engine. She tapped the go icon.

"Cancun," Hank read, looking over her shoulder. "That's doable."

"Where is it?" Kalinda asked.

Hank laughed. "Where's Cancun?"

"Yeah. I've heard of it but can't think where it is. It's somewhere I've not been, so there's that."

He felt a little bad for laughing at her, but she seemed not to have noticed, or at least not to have taken it to heart. "It's southern Mexico. Picture the closest bit of Mexico to Cuba. That's where it is."

"Geography isn't my strong point. But Mexico sounds good. Let's book a place now?"

"How about ordering room service and we can book while we wait?"

"An even better idea," Kalinda said, getting up to fetch a room service menu from over by the TV.

It took them a few minutes to decide what to order. He ended up opting for a bacon and cheese burger, figuring he deserved the treat, while Kalinda chose a shrimp cocktail. Hank called the order through, adding a bottle of wine.

When that was done, he sat back down with Kalinda. They spent some time looking at different resorts in Cancun before settling on one. Kalinda made a good point that they would likely not spend much time in the place anyway, since warm waters and even warmer beaches would be on offer.

The knock on the door from room service arrived with near perfect timing. Hank was paying for a week at the Cancun resort as Kalinda went to the door.

"Let me know what half of it is and I'll transfer you the money," she said before opening the door.

Hank wasn't going to waste time or energy arguing the point. He knew by now that Kalinda both expected and wanted to pay her own way in their relationship. He expected there would be a conversation about dividing up household expenses in the near future.

With the vacation paid for, albeit with flights still needing to be sorted, Hank took one last look at the pictures of the resort. He was looking at the place where he was going to ask Kalinda to marry him. It made the whole thing feel closer to becoming a reality, and he felt very happy about that.