‘Good night,’ Noah said, pulling his knees up to his chest.
‘Good night.’
Alice crept in a few minutes later, flicking the overhead light off. The bed shifted as Alice got comfortable, the warmth from her body seeping into Briar bones as she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 18
Alice
Alice woke up in a tangle of limbs. It took her a full minute to figure out where she was and who she was curled around. She was used to waking up in the same bed, in the same flat, alone. Since Tess, she hadn’t slept in the same bed as another person.
Then everything came back to her, and heat crept up her neck as she suddenly felt every place where Briar’s body was touching hers. She turned her head, keeping her body as still as she could, to look at Briar’s face.
Her lips were slightly parted, her bangs messy and her legs curled up to her chest in the same way that they always were.
The idea that her brain had stored all of this useless information was either alarming or impressive – she wasn’t sure which. She didn’t remember anything from her senior year biology project, but she remembered the exact rhythm and cadence of breathing that marked her sleeping in the same bed as Briar. The worst part was that it didn’t feel strange at all. It felt comforting, like no time had passed at all. It felt, in a way, like she was home.
She shook the feeling off, gently removing Briar’s arm from around her. This wasn’t meant to be that kind of sleepover, just one borne of necessity when Noah had showed up. Briar had made it clear after the last night they’d spent together how much she’d regretted it, and Alice couldn’t blame her.
She had known as soon as she’d seen Briar afraid to come back to bed that sleeping together had been a mistake. Like always, Alice had only been thinking of herself, what she wanted, and had ignored that Briar was in a vulnerable state. So, she’d done what she’d failed to do when they were eighteen: she’d owned up to her mistake and apologized. It had seemed to result in a positive turn in their relationship. They had easily slipped into something resembling friendship – not what they’d had before, but definitely progress. Alice’s tested hypothesis had yielded promising results. If only she didn’t want to throw away the whole experiment to be able to touch Briar, really touch her, again.
Briar stirred beside her, slowly opening her eyes. ‘Hi,’ she croaked.
‘Hi,’ Alice said, smiling despite herself. It should have been awkward, after everything, but instead it felt normal, like they’d done this hundreds of times before – because they had. Then Noah let out a loud snore from the other bed and Alice tensed. ‘Breakfast?’ she whispered.
Briar nodded eagerly.
‘Hey,’ Freddie greeted them before they had made it past the flagpole. ‘We have a situation.’
Immediately, Alice’s stomach dropped. ‘Is it Robin?’
‘No, Cook’s sick.’
‘Cook doesn’t get sick,’ Briar said, echoing Alice’s thoughts. She had always assumed that Cook had some sort of deal with the devil that granted him constant good health. She’d never so much as heard him sneeze before.
‘Which is why it’s a situation,’ Freddie said grimly. ‘He won’t let me touch him, threatened to cut off my fingers if I tried, but he definitely has a fever. Still, he’s insisting no one else can make a passable meal for the campers arriving today.’
Alice and Briar exchanged a worried look. This situation might require an actual medical professional, showing the gaps in their staffing situation once again.
‘What’s up?’ Noah’s voice came from the director’s cabin, and Alice turned to see him on the porch.
‘Cook’s sick,’ Briar said, and it hurt Alice to hear her sound so deflated after things had seemed to be improving.
She couldn’t believe she’d been optimistic about the session up until this moment, that she’d thought her tentative friendship with Briar could fix the problems from the first session.
‘Give me a sec,’ Noah said, going back inside.
‘I’ll deal with corralling Cook back into his room,’ Alice said. ‘Unless you think we should bring him to urgent care?’
‘Couldn’t get a good enough look at him to say,’ Freddie said.
‘Damn,’ Briar said. ‘Usually he’d have sous chefs, but I couldn’t find anyone to replace them. He swore he’d be fine on his own.’
‘It’s not your fault,’ Alice said. ‘And I’m sure he’ll be fine, he just needs some time to rest.’
The lines in Briar’s forehead eased slightly. ‘And I can cook dinner tonight.’
‘Wecan cook,’ Alice corrected her. ‘We know Cook’s system, where he hides everything.’
