Love in the Maldives 2023

Rae Parker is a writer for Icon, a magazine for the modern woman, her column, Reservation for One, focusing on adventure travel for the single person. In her work which is her life, she, single, travels the world on solo adventures. While she has a small but dedicated following, she will have to expand her brand when Icon merges with the more upscale Lady Day London to become Lady Icon. Rae balks at the first assignment she is given by her editor, Shelley Stevens: the Marata, a luxury underwater resort in the Maldives. The resort itself is already outside of Rae's general "roughing it" mentality, but she has to find a story within this setting to appeal to that broader upscale market, one that Shelley wants to be more personal, Rae failing which may mean the end of her column. At the resort, her primary liaison is Jared Joseph, the Experience Director. While Jared tries to steer her more in the direction of a new program he is developing called Clarity and Connection Yoga Meditation, Rae is more excited by the notion of the legend of the Vakkankurun, the legend being it a cargo ship that sunk one hundred years ago carrying treasures back to England, it never found. That legend also posits that it moves with every monsoon season. As Rae and Jared spend time together in trying to find the right item for her column, and as Rae spends time with fellow guest Debra Hoffman, arguable Lady Icon's demographic in she taking this trip as an adventure in trying to get on with her life following being widowed five years ago, Rae and Jared start to fall for each other. Beyond the logistics of living in two different worlds, whether there is a path to a future for Rae and Jared together may depend on the story Rae submits to Shelley, with Rae's job on the line if it doesn't meet Shelley's approval.—Huggo

Jocelyn Hudon

Rae

Juliana Wimbles

Jules

Patricia McKenzie

Shelley

Jake Manley

Jared