“Will you be okay getting back to your room?” Misty asked as we snapped the lids back onto the glitter containers and tiptoed toward the door.
“Uh-huh,” I whispered. “It’s quiet. I didn’t see anyone coming here, so there shouldn’t be any trouble.”
“Okay, good.” She leaned forward and gave me a quick hug, light and warm and unexpected. “See you tomorrow.”
Tomorrow.
I smiled at my new… friend as she slipped into the hallway. “Night,” I called softly after her.
She turned, walking backward for three steps so she could wave dramatically before disappearing around the corner.
The grin stayed on my face the entire walk back.
Going back to my room was exactly as uneventful as the trip there had been.
All in all?
Raging success.
And honestly… it was more fun than anything I’d done in a long time.
The kind of fun that made my chest feel loose and light.
Inside my room, I shut the door gently and immediately made a beeline for the sink. Glitter clung to my fingers like it had been stuck by superglue. I scrubbed. And scrubbed. And scrubbed.
It barely made a dent.
“Traitor,” I muttered to the gold shimmer embedded in my cuticles.
My shoes were worse.
After trying—and trying—and trying for far longer than was reasonable, I finally gave up and shoved them into the bottom of my suitcase, burying them under a sweater.
Just in case.
Then I changed into my jammies, grabbed my new bear, and climbed into bed, still buzzing faintly from adrenaline and fairy dust. I couldn’t wait to text Perry and tell him how it had gone.
I unlocked my phone, smile still firmly in place. And then it vanished.
I had two notifications. The expected one from Perry.
The other— from Troy.
I hadn’t thought about him once since I mentioned him—and Archie—to Tyrell and Lee.
Not once.
Not while laughing at dinner or while plotting glitter chaos. He didn’t pop up while Lee, Tyrell, and Perry had walked me to my room and kissed me silly at my door. Not even while sneaking through dim hallways or glitter-bombing the playroom. A playroom reserved for a workshopIhad been excited to attend... but also Troy. He’d told me how much he loved tying up his submissives and watching them squirm.
Seeing his name now was like someone had reached into my chest and flipped a switch.
The lightness drained out of me so fast it made my head spin.
I stared at the notification without opening it.
My thumb hovered.
Because whatever that message said…
