“No clue.” She lifts the glass to her lips without looking my direction.
“That was pretty wild, huh?” I pull out my chair to sit next to her. She picks at a thread in the tablecloth to avoid meeting my gaze. “I’m sorry for leaving you. I am the one who has the citrus allergy; I just lied earlier when Ollie asked, so that I could still drink the lemonade with you. I had to run to the bathroom to wash my mouth out.”
She turns to look at me, and her eyes are as wide as saucers as they search mine, then flicker down to survey the front of my soaked dress. “Drew, why would you do that?”
I take the cloth napkin from her outstretched hand to try in futility to dry off the wet fabric that clings to my neck and chest. “I promised you that I would cover for you, and I didn’t want to break my promise.”
She shakes her head incredulously and pulls me in for a one-armed hug. “Well, now I feel terrible for being mad that you ditched me. If I had known—”
“It’s fine,” I say. “The good news is, I doubt that anyone will remember what you did or didn’t drink when they think back to the wine tasting.”
“You’re probably right about that,” she says. “This retreat kind of sucks so far.”
My initial reaction is to say that it’s a lot better than I expected, but then I realize that all the good times I’ve had so far have been with Cameron, and not with the women, so I just nod in agreement. “Val and I were thinking about hiding in the movie theater for a little bit. Do you want to come?”
“That sounds great,” she says. “Hopefully, it’s soundproof so we can have some peace and quiet for a bit.”
We walk together out of the dining room, down the hall, and past Cameron’s office to the door just past it, following Val’s instructions. Sure enough, behind the heavy door is a spacious home movie theater with three large steps down that create a stadium-seating effect. Val waves to us from the oversized modular sofa closest to the screen, and we head down to join her. I take the spot in the middle, and Leah plops down on the other end. The room is dimly lit, with classic burgundy-curtained walls and all black furniture.
I reach for the remote. “What should we watch?”
“Something relaxing,” Leah suggests.
“So, no true crime, then?” I tease as I test a few buttons and get the screen to whir to life.
“Absolutely not. Can you believe that there are some people out there who fall asleep watching murder documentaries?” she asks, wide-eyed.
“That’s literally my boss, Monika,” I say, and use the remote to open the Disney+ app. “If she didn’t own the bookstore we work at, she would totally be a detective. She’s completely fearless.”
“True crime doesn’t scare me, either, because I could easily defend myself against any threat, and my house is full of sharp objects,” Val adds, and we both turn to look at her with surprise. “From my cosplays.”
“You mean like knives? Or swords?” I ask.
“Both, and more,” Val says with a proud smile. “I always carry something on me too. For protection.”
I look to Leah to gauge her reaction, but she is busy scanning Val’s fitted outfit from head to toe. “Are you carrying something right now?”
Val opens her mouth to answer just as the door to the theater swings open behind us. The three of us turn to look in unison and are all relieved when Ollie walks in, instead of one of the people we are trying to avoid.
“There you guys are,” he says, with a broad smile as if the entire night hasn’t gone completely off the rails. “Come on back so we can finish the tasting.”
Chapter twenty-three
I TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY
Thethreeofusexchange a look that Leah communicates on our behalf. “I think we’re fine here. Thank you, though.”
Ollie’s long legs make the steps between levels look like they are normal-sized ones, as he comes down to stand next to where we lie on the couch. “Cam is moving Judith over to the guest house on the back of the property, and Delaney said she is going to her room for the rest of the night, so it would just be the four of us.”
Both Val and Leah consider his updated offer, but I keep my eyes down on my lap. I plan to second whatever Leah chooses, since I can’t cover for her and her pregnancy anymore by avoiding the wine, but I selfishly hope that she chooses an option that at least involves food.
Ollie reads our hesitation and tries a different approach. “We can continue where we left off or do the rest of the tasting informally. Whatever you guys decide, I am happy to accommodate.”
“I like the informal idea,” Leah says to Val and me. “My social battery is getting pretty low after everything that’s happened today, so I don’t think I have it in me to sit through a full tasting.”
“Same here,” Val agrees.
With Judith gone, I see no downside to this plan. Val and Ollie are both easygoing, so I doubt they would care, or even notice, what Leah was drinking or not drinking. Even if they did notice something, they wouldn’t be so rude as to call her out on it. Besides, Leah is the one who proposed continuing informally, so there is no reason for me to worry about covering for her more than she is worried about it herself. “I am pretty hungry,” I admit, when they turn to me for my response.
