“Do you want to do it?” interrupts Grace, who’s now watching me with a pointed, narrow-eyed attention.
I sigh. “Yeah.” We’re shouting now to be heard above the music and talking and yelling and all the other camp sounds. “And no?”
“Oh, do I know that feeling.” Grace is wearing that secret smile. “You can always safe word out.”
“I know. Everyone says that. It just seems kind of, I don’t know, rude or something? Like these people came for a scene and—”
“Happens all the time,” says Max. “It’s literally the point of everything we do here. Choice. Consent. Fantasy coming to life if and how you want. Or not.”
“True.” Grace grins now, full-out. “Remind me to tell you about my first hunt.”
I shiver. “Okay.”
“It was good. Scary as hell, but…” Her inhale is deep and happy. “No regrets.”
“There’ll be security there. Hell, depending on when it is, I might be on.”
Grace watches me. “You turned in a brief, right?” It sounds so official.
“Yeah.” I think of the details I wrote down. Things I’ve only really thought about in the dark safety of my bed are suddenly out there, written black on white. I nod. “Yeah. I want to try it.”
“Yes!” Max raises her hand for a high five.
“Next you’ll be out there doing the hunt with me.”
“Hostage parties!” Max’s voice is low and ominous. “Now that shit is hard core.”
I shiver. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah. Now, I love the Big Hunt. But the hostage thing?” Grace fake shudders. “Not for me. I don’t do well with that many people on me at once.”
Oh my god.
She gives me a wide-eyed look. “I’d hold off on that one.”
“Roger that.”
Rubbing her hands together, Max looks around. “Okay. Now what’s on the menu tonight? Grace?”
“Observer.” She quirks a brow at me. “Chaperone. You?”
“I’m playing with Taylor later.”
“I thought you two were over?” Grace pulls us to a stop again. “You said they’re a shitty communicator.”
“They are.” Max shrugs. “But they’re so good with the rope.”
Grace laughingly shakes her head. “All right, well. You know I’m here if you want to talk. I feel like I’ve barely seen you this season.”
For the first time since we first met, Max looks almost shy. “Sorry.”
“Have you been avoiding me?”
“Not avoiding, but you know. You and Liev are so…together.”
Grace straightens. “I thought you liked us together?”
“I fucking love it, Grace.” Max wraps her arm around her friend and holds her tight for a few seconds. I look away, feeling like a third wheel, and focus on a person laid out on a platform, getting wrapped up in clingfilm by a group of kinksters. They’re all laughing, including the one being mummified in plastic.
