Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“What else do couples do?” I ask teasingly.
“They get ready for work so they’re not both late.”
I make a sound like a game show buzzer.
“Boring! What else?”
“They pack their bags because their resort vacation is officially over . . .”
My smile drops. “Say it ain’t so.”
He frowns too. “I got an email this morning that staff housing has been deemed all clear. Power has been restored to the entire resort, and the few employees whose dorms flooded have been relocated. There’s no reason for staff to remain in the hotel.”
“Boo.”
He squeezes my hand to let me know he doesn’t like it either.
“Should we? Y’know . . .” My eyebrows waggle as I indicate the bed.
“I have to be down in the lobby in five minutes.”
“So that leaves us what? Four minutes, thirty seconds?”
We didn’t take things any further last night. After we cleaned up in the bathroom and put on our pajamas, Cole and I lay together in bed in the dark, talking. TALKING. It felt like a throwback to my childhood sleepover days, lying awake with my best friend, rambling. I made Cole walk me through different moments of our relationship from his perspective.
“When did you first think I was hot?”
“When did you first want to kiss me?”
“Why did you let me go after Blaze?!”
His answers?
“Right away.”
“Right away.”
“Because I wasn’t sure where things were going with us. If Blaze was the guy you wanted, I wasn’t going to brute-force him out of your life.”
“Did you know he was involved with someone else?” I asked, studying his face for any tells.
“No, but I was . . . hopeful.”
Now, Cole leans down to kiss me and to shut down my idea of a quickie. “Tonight. You can come over to my place, and I’ll wine and dine you.”
“Ohhh, a coveted dorm invite?! Things are serious.”
He looks at me kind of funny. “I don’t live in a dorm.”
“What?”
He laughs. “I have a two-bedroom villa on property.”
“You’re kidding me.”
I don’t know why this is so shocking to me. Why did I think Cole lived in a dorm like the rest of us poor schmucks? He’s on the executive team. None of them live in the dorms. I guess I just wanted to imagine him that way, stuffed into an eight-by-ten room like the rest of us.
“But you use the cafeteria?” I ask, still trying to piece things together in my head.
“Because I don’t have time to cook most days.”
Oh.
“But you do have a kitchen?” I clarify.
“Yeah, a big one. New appliances and everything. I cook sometimes on the weekends.”
I am flabbergasted. I can’t stop. “How many bathrooms?”
“Two and a half.”
“View?”
“The beach.”
I smack his shoulder playfully. “Cole Clark! Stop it right now!”
He laughs. “You’ll see it tonight. We can cook together if you want.”
“I want!”
Cole helps me pack up my things while I hurry to get ready for work. I don’t have to go downstairs right now. I checked, and I’m not supposed to be at my post for another hour, but I want to have as much time with Cole as possible before we get whisked away to opposite ends of the resort all day. He carries my duffel bag down for me, and we hold hands the entire way to my dorm. I keep expecting people on the path to stop and do a double take when they see us, but it’s a big resort, and my little love story isn’t all that relevant to most people. It’s not like Cole and I were all that obvious with our antics over the last year. Short of Camila and Lara, I doubt anyone else even realizes how much attention we paid each other in the shadows.
Outside my dorm, I take out my keys and unlock my door. Then I fling the door open with a show-stopping “Ta-da! It’s slightly more tidy than the last time you saw it.”
Cole saw my room the night I was drunk, but it doesn’t stop him from doing another curious perusal. I would do the same with him. I will, later.
“What’s your favorite part?” I ask, anxious to pick his brain. I want to know everything there is to know about Cole Clark.
“The shrine of me you have tucked away in your closet.”
I panic for a second, as if I actually do have a shrine in my closet and he’s known about it this whole time!
Then he shakes his head and laughs. “The poster of the glacier,” he says, pointing at the series of framed prints I keep over my bed, right beside my bulletin board.
“That’s actually my mom’s picture! She took it.”
He eyes me skeptically.
I smile gleefully while I nod. “For real. My parents are marine biologists. They travel all over. For a while my mom dabbled in photography as well, just for some extra cash. She doesn’t do it so much anymore, but yeah, that one is hers. She’ll be happy to know you liked it. I’ll tell her.”