Out in the woods, hiking up a mountain to reach the peak.
Three days without coming back to base camp and seeing Blake.
Three fucking days before I was going to be able to touch him again.
Fuck my life.
“So, who’s this mysterious partner of mine...”
If he picked up on the defeat in my tone, he completely ignored it. “Her name is Elaine. She’s got a lot of energy, like you, so you two should get along fine.”
“Wonderful. Sounds like a total blast.”
Talos wasn’t at all amused by my plummeting mood.
If my hangover on Monday wasn’t my karma for being a total idiot last week, this certainly took the cake. By a large margin.
“When do we set off?” I asked.
If it wasn’t for another hour or two, that still gave me time to pack and leave a note for Blake up in his office. I doubted he wasgoing to head up there at any point today while his youth group was here, but outside of tapping a note to my own door—which I was absolutely going to be doing—there wasn’t much else I could do without being completely obvious.
Asking Talos for directions to Blake’s cabin was definitely going to blow my cover. And if it wasn’t from him, any other guide I asked would be giving me the side-eye. No matter how peaceful and innocent I could make my intentions seem, no one in their right mind was going to give a guest the directions to the Director’s cabin.
That was asking for a lawsuit.
“You’ve got two hours. I suggest you head back to your cabin and pack what was on the list. You’ll need it all.”
“So... about that list.”
He actually rolled his eyes before slipping a piece of paper off of the clipboard and handing it over to me. “Marlow, I’m going to say this once. Please, be on your best behavior.”
Yeah, okay, whatever. Easy to ask that of me when I was internally debating running into the nearest wall to see if I could pop my shoulder out of its socket before we set off for ourthree dayjourney.
“You got it,” I said, throwing him a thumbs up.
His face remained unamused. “I’ll see you in two hours.”
I plastered a grin on my face before turning around and heading off back to my cabin. What a fucking wet blanket thrown onto my good mood. I was really confident nothing was going to ruin it today, and just had to go and tempt fate like that with my overconfidence.
I hoped Blake wasn’t going to be mad. If there was a way I could write him an extensive note apologizing and sticking it to my door without the worry of other people coming around to read it before he got a hold of it, I absolutely would.
All I could do now was pen out a quick note that was vague enough for anyone not to read too much into it if it got into the wrong hands, but had enough small details scattered throughout that Blake would pick up on what the hell I was talking about.
Hopefully, this was a way for me to mitigate whatever fallout was threatening to fall over us again.
The last thing I wanted was to be at odds with him again when I quite literally just got him back.
Rubbing my face, I let out another sigh.
What a damn mess.
“Hey!It’s so nice to meet you!” A woman, tall with a runner’s body, stuck out her hand toward me. “I’m Elaine, by the way.”
She had her long, blonde hair tied back in a ponytail that swayed as she spoke. Her eyes were a bright hazel that lingered on my bare shoulders before quickly popping back up to meet mine again. She had a sliver of metal across the top set of her teeth, prominently on display as she grinned.
I grabbed her hand, giving it a two-shake. “Marlow. Nice to meet you. Hope I can keep up. It’s my first time.”
She waved a hand at me. “Oh, no worries! We can go at any pace. I’m really good with anything. I brought a bunch of trail snacks, too, if you get hungry. Oh, and extra water. Were you able to fill yours up at the mess hall before you left? They have giant canteens they’re handing out to anyone going on the trip today. I can hold your stuff here if you want to go grab one. Or maybe we can ask one of the staff to bring you one? I don’t think they’d mind. I mean, everyone has to stay hydrated, right?”
