“Because of their peaks?” I wondered in confusion.
He glared at me. “What?Do you know what an arete is?”
“Not...in the way you seem to,” I answered honestly, curious about where this was going.
“It’s,” he began, waving vaguely toward the mountains, “a ridge of rock.”
“Oh.”
“You didn’t know that?”
“I...not that one.”
“There is another definition?”
“Yeah, I looked it up when I was given the job offer. I guess I missed that, uh...definition.”
His brow furrowed further. “And what definition were you given?”
It sounded like he was doubting my ability, and I wondered if I was dealing with some trust-fund kid. I shoved the idea aside and shrugged. “Potential.”
He scowled. “What?”
“A person’s ultimate potential,” I amended. “Greek, I think. A philosophical concept of one’s ultimate potential. The best you can be. Or you know, be all you can be.”
“Navy?”
“Marines, I think.”
“They follow a Greek philosophical concept?”
“No,” I said, unable to help my laugh at the confusion. “Be all you can be is the Marine phrase, I think. But it’s still a good summary of the concept of Arete. The entire point of this place, especially the Recovery Program, is to be the best version of you that you can be, to realize your potential.”
“And you’ll tell me what that potential is?” he asked wryly. “Once I’ve done enough clean living, rituals disguised as meetings, affirmations, and stripped away all that makes me what I am?”
I stared at him. “Holy shit, you...um, this isn’t a cult.”
“I think cults say the same thing,” he said with a wry cock of his brow.
“Are you kidding me? When I first learned about the resort and especially when they sent me an offer for an interview, the first thing I did was look into them to make sure they weren’t a cult,” I said with a snort. “And if we are, we’re a really sneaky one because I don’t see any signs yet.”
“Yet.”
“Mhmm.”
“I see optimism is rampant around here.”
“You make it sound like a disease,” I said with a laugh, glancing over my shoulder as I spotted a couple of people coming into the room.
“It can be,” he said with a frown.
“Look, we can continue to discuss this if you want,” I said with a shrug. “But this is the Thought Room. Not the debating room.”
“You...have one of those?”
“No, but there are areas where you’re allowed to be a bit more vigorous and aggressive.”
“Such as?”
