This weirdly felt like I was talking to a self-service kiosk trying to return an online order.
I sunk my beer into the dirt next to my foot, unlooping one of the pockets of my cargo pants to fish out the ice pack that had long since melted and grown mildly toasty from the fire. I’d been holding onto it like some fucking up keepsake memento, if only to immortalize Blake caring for me for those ten minutes.
Holding it up to show him, I said, “He gave this to me earlier. Just wanted to give it back.”
The second he reached out to take it from me, I snatched it back. His hand paused, mirroring the confusion of the rest of the group.
“I can give that back to him,” he said.
I plastered on another smile. “Yeah, but then how am I going to use this to butter him up into getting the cooks to give me another cup of bread pudding?”
The rest of the group, besides Talos, laughed. In the dim lighting, I watched as his eyes narrowed slowly, his fingers twitching while he slowly lowered his arm back down to his side. The suspicion was evident but with nothing to pin it on, he had no reason to call me out for it.
Not at this stage, anyway.
I was good at playing the innocent and bumbling fool that everyone thought was only slightly smarter than a box of rocks. That was my home field advantage and one I used quite often when going into a rather tough meeting with a competitor.
The perks of having a loud and obnoxious personality is how easy it was to sell that image. How simple it was to get people lowering their guard around me in order to collect as much information as I could before flipping it around and using it for my clients.
It seemed as though Talos was slowly starting to peek through the mask I wore. His skepticism gave him a sort of buffer against my charms, causing him to go from curious to suspicious nearly instantly.
Good for him, honestly. Not being easily swindled was a skill not many possessed.
Not naturally, at least.
Among this group of people I’d already won over, he was in a losing battle. The majority were already on my side, seeing my offer as a harmless gesture to thank the camp’s director with a bit of flare added to it for a little flavor. They weren’t seeing what was underneath—my paralyzing need to see Blake again before tomorrow stole him away from me indefinitely.
One last time. That’s all the hit I needed to hold me over.
Talos finally sighed. “The path leading from the mess hall, there’s one around the back that goes to the offices. Head that way. He’s up on the top level. You’ll see the door. The light’s probably still on.”
I threw him a wink. “Thanks. I’ll snag you an extra cup, too, for your troubles.”
His expression flattened again. “I’ll pass. Thanks, though.”
At least Blake had someone solid like him by his side. A man able to see through the bullshit was a valuable asset to have. Especially as the second in charge.
Nodding to the rest of the group and bowing flamboyantly in order to draw one last laugh from them all, I quickly turned and jogged toward the mess hall, leaving my beer behind. I wasn’t going to need it, anyway. I wanted to be stone cold sober when I talked to Blake.
A part of me wanted to apologize to him, though for what I wasn’t exactly sure.
Pushing him past his limits? Getting too intimate too quickly by tucking him in bed with me? Not kicking him out the moment we both had our breathing back to normal?
Whatever it was, if it got me the old Blake back, I’d fucking do it.
Even if I didn’t mean any of it.
Following Talos’s directions, I jogged until a large house came into view. It was two stories with an outside staircase leading up to the second level. A lone lightbulb was lit up on the second floor, right above the door with a few bugs bouncing off of it. The night was quiet with no signs of life other than that.
I flexed my hand around the ice pack and sucked in a breath.
I took the stairs two at a time, getting up to the landing in record time. The window facing out toward the camp was covered by a thick curtain, leaving no light spilling through from the other side, and no way to tell if anyone was actually in there.
Thetappingof the moths bouncing their small bodies against the light met with my heartbeat, a steady rhythm that felt loud enough to hear through the blood rushing in my ear. There was a strong possibility if Blake was in there, he wasn’t alone.
Lifting my fist, I pounded it against the door a few times.
His grandfather had expressed wanting to stick around the camp for a while. Staying overnight wasn’t a huge stretch.
