“Mmm,” she says, going in for seconds.
“Good?”
“It’s better than your drinks.” There’s snark to her tone, but I’ll take it if it means she’s speaking to me again.
“You love my drinks.”
“Lilah remade every one.”
I study her face, unsure if she’s just trying to get a rise out of me, but then she continues. “But hey, that’s why you have your day job to fall back on, right?”
The hint of disdain in her voice is unmistakable.
“I should have told you about Elite,” I say, hating that I held back so much of myself from her. “But I try not to tell people about my dad right away.”
“Apparently you keep a lot of secrets,” she retorts, the energy shifting around us.
“I know, I fucked up. I should have been honest with you about so many things, but I promise, I’ll tell you everything if you let me.”
Even after three years with Katherine there were parts of myself I kept hidden, knowing she wouldn’t accept them, but with Mira I want to open myself up to her, let her flip through my pages, to learn all the best and worst parts of me.
She runs her teeth over her bottom lip in contemplation, and I’m certain she’s about to give in, to nod her head and allow me to unburden myself, but her decision is stifled by the sound of a bullhorn blasting through the air.
“Bears! We have bears!” Bo shouts, pointing towards the valley in the distance. And I spot two burly black bears wobbling back and forth, their heads up in the air. They are a reasonable distance away, another hundred yards or so, but I’m well aware that they could catch up to us with the right motivation, and by the way their noses sniff up in the air, I think they found it.
“Grab your life jackets and calmly retreat to the boat,” Tonya orders, ushering guests down the riverbank.
Being trained for these situations, I know that my first priority should be helping Bo extinguish the fire and locate any guests who may have wandered off, but I bypass my responsibilities and focus on Mira.
“We have to go,” I say, as she slips her feet back into her boots.
I know that I should let her finish tying her shoes, that proper boot safety is as important as wearing a life jacket, but as I watch the bears get closer all I care about is getting her on the boat and down the river to safety.
“This is all your fault,” she spits, hobbling behind me. “You just had to show off your gourmet cooking skills.”
“Gourmet? I put unseasoned trout on a grill.”
“The bears wouldn’t have cared about those burgers. No one wanted them. But the second you start grilling their favorite meal, they appear,” she argues, walking ahead of me.
The embankment to reach the boat is steep, built by soft dirt and rocks, with an incline perfect for spraining ankles. With Mira’s untied shoe, I want to keep a steady hand out for her, but she keeps her distance, refusing it.
“At least let me take your bag,” I offer, watching her unbalanced steps carefully.
“Shouldn’t you be helping your girlfriend?” she snaps back.
“Goddammit, Mira, she’s not my—” I shout as Bo lets off another round of the bullhorn, and it all happens so fast. One second Mira’s beside me, and the next, the loose dirt slips underneath her feet, the riverbank sliding away like an avalanche. And the last thing I see is the look of shock on her face as she careens straight into the river.
15 Mira
I hold it together until we make it back to the lodge before I promptly vomit in the first bush I see. Between my anxiety, the embarrassment, and the stench of the river, my stomach is wrecked.
In a feat of what I can only call heroic stupidity, Hudson decided to jump into the river after me, throwing a life preserver over my head, a completely unnecessary act considering I was still wearing one. Although the flotation device might have saved me, it did nothing to protect my camera bag.
On the ride home I assessed the damage to my equipment: my cameras, my batteries, and my flashes, all waterlogged. Fifteen thousand dollars’ worth of gear ruined in a single moment. But the worst part isn’t the insurance claim, or the fact that I let Hudson make an ass of me yet again, it’s that I’m going to have to tell Meredith that I won’t be able to shoot her wedding after all.
Discarding my camera bag in the trash barrel outside the Activity Center, I can’t help but wonder if this is all Phoebe’s doing. If ruining my business wasn’t enough for her and she hired Hudson to ruin my life.
I’m still dripping when I make it back to the Big Barn. My boots are covered in mud and I’m pretty sure there’s an allogenous plant congealed in my curls. I must look like the Creature fromthe Black Lagoon as I stomp around to our patio to discard my soiled shoes.
