“What?” he asked calmly, staring at me as if I was the one losing my mind when he was the one who’d decided to play with fire.
“After what happened, you think I wouldn’t notice the questions you were asking?” I scoffed. “I’m not an idiot, Rowan.”
“I never said you were, and if I inferred it at some point, then I apologize because I’ve never thought it.”
That slightly mollified me as I snorted. “Then what was that about?”
He looked around. “How many of the rooms in this resort have recording active?”
“Pretty much any of the rooms that don’t involve being naked, or personal rooms,” I said, frowning. “The recording in here is routinely turned off during group sessions. We have until Dr. Ramirez gets back to his office and punches in that the session is over before the recording comes back on.”
“And how long will that take?”
“He makes his rounds to check up with anyone he thinks might need one-on-one attention and always stops by the cafeteria to grab a coffee; he’s addicted to the blend they use. So anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour.”
“More than enough time,” he said, taking Dr. Ramirez’s chair so he was sitting across from me. His knees gently knocked mine, but apparently, jerking off on me was enough not to pay much attention to physical contact between us. “For the record, that conversation with the therapist was the most normal you’ve acted since we...interacted.”
“Interacted. If we’re not being recorded or seen, we might as well call it what it was, fucking around.”
“See? You’ve been avoiding any mention of it for over two days, and now you’re willing to be blunt; that’s an improvement.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about you pointing out my improvements. Feels like the roles are being changed on me.”
“Did you not hear him? You’re not some therapist, social worker, or even a life coach. You’re meant to help me, using your own life experience and what you were trained in, but you aren’t held to some lofty standard. If I have gathered anything, it’s that they have an extensive selection process.”
I raised a brow. “You’ve been doubtful about the effectiveness of the program from the start, but all of a sudden you’re sure their selection process is...extensive?”
“There have clearly been successes, unless everyone is reading from the same script. Now, I have seen that sort of thing before, but there are always cracks in a collective lie. There is always someone who says one small thing differently than someone else. There are always clues, and so far all I have seen is genuine praise and belief in the program.”
“You’ve seen this sort of thing before?” I asked.
“I audit businesses and companies,” he said. While it was more than he had given me before, I sensed there was more to the story, “to make sure they’re compliant with not only federal regulations, but also meet the standards of the parent companyor CEOs. I’m strictly a third party, or at least that’s what we tell people.”
“We?”
“We.”
“I’m not going to get more than that, huh?”
“My family, as well as anyone we have close ties to, personal or professional.”
“Ah, so you’re a third-party auditor, but really, you’re making sure the bottom line is safe for your buddies and your family.”
“They are my most common clients,” he said stiffly. “But I despise the idea that I would show favoritism simply because I am in good standing with someone or a company that I’m auditing.”
I watched him for a moment and then snorted. “Alright, yeah. You’re too much of a tight ass to do something like give in to a bribe.”
“A compliment at its core, wrapped tightly in a caustic critique,” he said with a smirk. “You would be an excellent Human Resources manager.”
“Now that’s gotta be the rudest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
He laughed, and I felt my shoulders ease. “Listen, I have full confidence in my abilities and experience to believe this place has been effective for many people in the past. And that the people who have been here the longest genuinely believe in it. Given that they’re extremely liberal in their policies and how they treat people, their selection process for those employed here must be thorough. They cannot allow employees as much latitude as you’ve been given without having a good idea that they will perform the job, without constant oversight.”
“Or they trust people.”
“Those who give that much trust so freely are asking to be taken advantage of or disappointed at best,” he said with a shrug. “I hope those who are exposed to people who are mentallyand emotionally in need of help and guidance would not simply be ‘trusted’. They would be evaluated and tested repeatedly. And I would bet good money that from the moment you started interacting with this resort, they’ve been evaluating you, even when you didn’t think you were being watched. And your past would have been gone over with a fine-tooth comb.”
That was an unnerving thought, not because there was anything awful in my past, but the idea that my life could be that easily read like an afternoon novel was just...weird.
