“Aren’t you going to say something?” Annica asks me. “Do you want me to?”
The boys do their shot and all order a beer. Wes turns around to ask what we want. It’s on the house, he says. I walk up beside Asher where he stands talking to the bartender away from the prying eyes and ears.
“Hi, I’m Sloane,” I say to her. “I’m Asher’s girlfriend.”
Her smile disappears as her eyes go back to Asher.
Asher laughs uncomfortably. “It’s an open relationship,” he says to her with a shrug.
I glare up at him.
“I’m Brandy,” the bartender says, still with a wary look in her eyes.
“Hi, Brandy, nice to meet you. Can I get a vodka soda and make it a double.”
“Double vodka?” Asher asks, eyebrows raised. “And so early in the morning?”
Brandy turns to fetch the drinks, probably happy to be away from this conversation.
“Being a total dick?” I say back to him. “And so early in the morning?”
He looks down at me quizzically, then says with a laugh, “Are you jealous of Brandy?”
“Of course not,” I spit back. “I just can’t have you telling everyone we’re in an open relationship. I mean, what if one of them heard you?”
“Then you could pretend to be upset about it and Wes would swoop in to save you. Maybe I should’ve said it a little louder.” He looks over, considering. Brandy comes back with the drinks and I pick mine up, chug it, and set it right back down, holding back the gag at how much liquor was in it. “You good?” Asher asks, watching my face. “You happy with that decision you just made?”
“Ecstatic.”
We head outside so Dani, Annica, and I can rent our skis. Also on the house. The boys get snowboards, Wes and Asher each having special ones that they keep here. I have never skied, but neither has Danielle, so we have lessons this morning on the bunny hill while the rest of them hit the adult side of the resort.
“Annica says it’s pretty easy, so we’ll be pros in no time,” Dani says as we make our way to the small slopes, full of children. I watch them all flawlessly navigate the hill, and I think she must be right: If kids can do it, why can’t we?
We eat our words, and the snow, as we fall over and over again. Jacques, our French instructor, grows more and more irritated with us by the hour and my body starts to ache from the effort.
“Maybe we should hit up the bar?” I suggest, since my double vodka soda has long since worn off.
“Yeah, fuck this.” We hang out at the outside bar with other people our age. A DJ plays house music over the crowd and we settle in by one of the heat lamps.
“So what did you say to that bartender?” she asks.
“Oh,Brandy,” I say. “I introduced myself as Asher’s girlfriend and she scurried away.” That’s not exactly how it went down, but Dani would be shocked to know that apparently Asher and I are in an open relationship.
“Annica told me last night that she doesn’t really think you guys are together. I don’t know why she cares so much but it seems to really bother her for some reason.”
I roll my eyes. “I wish she would just relax about the whole ‘relationship in the friend group’ thing. She doesn’t even like Asher. If the two of us broke up it would not affect this group at all.”
“I don’t think it’s that; it sounds like it’s just about Asher in particular. She doesn’t trust him.”
“Do you?” I ask her.
She looks at me. “Do you?”
No. “Yeah, of course.”
The house music grows louder around us until the DJ gets on the mic. “This next one goes out to Sloane, from her secret admirer,” the DJ says, before playing a remix of “Murder on the Dancefloor.”
My mouth hangs open as every worry I’ve decided to put to the side for this trip comes crashing into me.
