“See?” She turns to face her fiancé, who scoffs at her but pulls her in for a kiss. “Ye of little faith.”
“Where is the waterfall?” Hannah says from behind us. She’s moving in circles on the clearing and squinting her eyes in every which way. She’s always been my favorite of the guys’ girlfriends—no nonsense and doesn’t take herself too seriously. I see her smile and roll her eyes, then walk in the direction of her boyfriend. “Babe.”
“Wait a minute,” Elle says, pulling out her phone again and scrolling furiously through it. “Are we in the wrong place?”
A beat of silence.
Then Jack groans. “No, babe. No, no, no.”
“Okay, but…” Elle starts, already doing that thing where she talks fast when she’s spiraling. “I swear this is what the email said. It had a photo of the train station and the trailhead. There were rocks and trees and a freaking waterfall. This is all of those things.”
“Is it though?” Hannah mutters, pointing to the sad little trickle of water sliding down a mossy rock wall about thirty feet away. “Because that looks like someone left the tap on uphill.”
Cash holds up his phone and zooms in. “Yeah, no, this is a seasonal fall. Like, it only shows up after major rainfall or snow melt.”
“Why does Switzerland even have seasonal waterfalls?” Elle snaps, waving her arms around like she’s been personally victimized by an entire nation.
Hannah and Amelia are doubled over laughing now, hands braced on her knee. “I’m sorry,” Amelia wheezes, “but we climbed a hill for two hours for a glorified leak?”
Jack looks at Elle with a soft smile, like he finds the whole thing charming. “Still builds character.”
She glares at him. “Yourcharacteris about to be tested.”
“Why don’t we just go to the restaurant and get lunch, babe?” Jack says, hugging his bride and slightly pulling her in the direction of the building a hundred yards away. “You get grumpy when you’re hungry.”
Manuela snorts and smiles, sliding her sunglasses on her face. We walk the rest of the way there, Banks complaining about how he’s dehydrated and needs to sit down and eat or he willsimply perish.
The restaurant—which happens to be a hotel at the top of this specific peak—ends up having a private dining area on the side that resembles a traditional Swiss chalet. Wooden beams, native flowers in window boxes, tables set outside with checkered cloths like it’s trying to mirror a Pinterest board. But the view is unreal. Mountains in every direction, clean air, and enough sun to make the whole thing a reward for surviving the hike.
We get seated at a long table by the floor-to-ceiling windows on the side, which give us unobstructed views of the valley below. Everyone starts peeling off layers and setting phones down and debating what kind of cheese they want melted on bread or potatoes. Sterling is already pointing at the menu like it’s a negotiation.
“C’mon, babe, if I get the rösti and you get the fondue, we can?—"
“I’m not sharing with you,” Hannah says, stealing his menu. “You hoard the good bites.”
Jack and Elle are locked in their bubble at the far end of the table, heads leaned together, whispering about the wine list and the overlap with the ones they selected for their upcoming nuptials. Cash is trying to order in French, which would be impressive if we weren’t in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.
And across from me, Manuela is running her fingers through her hair. She’s flushed from the hike, freckles visible now in the sunlight, and there’s a quiet glow to her I don’t remember seeing before.
It hits me out of nowhere.
That feeling like she belongs right here. Not in thesurrounded by finance bros in Europekind of way, but just—here. Existing. Effortlessly next to me.
She catches me staring and raises a brow. “What?”
I shrug. “Just surprised you made it up the hill in those sneakers.”
She snorts. “Please. I’m from a mountain town. I was pacing myself. Not my fault the rest of you went full Everest on the first incline.”
“Banks cried,” I whisper.
“Twice,” she adds with a grin.
A waitress comes by with bottles of water and a few charcuterie boards and sets them on the table.
“Oh my god,” I whisper, leaning toward her. “I’m positively dehydrated. Thought I was going to have to start drinking from the stream.”
She rolls her eyes, but I see the corner of her mouth twitch. There’s something in the air between us now. Lighter than lastnight but still charged. Like we’re both aware of it, just not naming it.
