Page 32 of Things We Tell Ourselves

“Your kitchen,” Camille echos.

“Yup. It’s where I keep all the groceries for meals. I cook and meal prep in here too when there’s visitors. If you can’t find me,” she nods inside of the mini kitchen, “you know where to find me.

“Okay,” she mumbles, finding the whole idea of an extra kitchen just for a chef to cook privately baffling. Camille continues on her way past the kitchen, feeling overwhelmed.

“I’m going up to my room,” she mumbles lightly as she passes the couch.

“See you later,” Wade says.

Camille walks out to the back patio. There are too many people and too much going on for her to stick around. She was feeling enough like an outsider before Easton and Sadie showed up. Now it’s going to be like she’s intruding on a family vacation with the richest, prettiest family she’s ever met. It’s too much to think about. She needs a nap if she’s going to be at this evening’s meeting alone.

Ten

A loud knock on the door causes Camille to jump awake.

“It’s me,” Delilah calls.

Camille groggily makes her way to the door. She thought that she would simply rest her eyes. The morning’s activities followed by Evelyn’s news wiped her out. An hour and a half later, she was only waking up from the loud knocking. For a minute, she wasn’t sure where she was. She opens the door to Delilah, clutching a crumpled slip of paper and her cellphone. Three oversized shopping bags are sitting at her feet.

“These are for you,” Delilah says, grabbing the handles of two of the bags to walk inside. “Hope I didn’t disturb you,” she says, looking Camille over. She sets the bags on the ground.

Camille grabs the third bag and shuts the door. “You didn’t. I was just waking up from a nap.”

“Naps,” Delilah sighs dreamily, “I remember those.” She hands Camille the slip of paper. “I checked the bags. Everything you ordered is in there, and the pool is ready for you.”

Camille reaches for the paper and stops. “Ready for me?”

“Yes. Sadie told us that you and she wanted to spend some time by the pool.”

“I don’t remember mentioning that,” she shrugs.

“Either way,” Delilah continues, thrusting the paper at Camille, “it’s ready to swim. Any issues with the fit,” she nods toward the boutique bags, “you let me know.”

Camille takes the slip of paper. It’s a list of the items she ordered from the boutique. “Sure thing.”

“And Ms. Bloom set up a seven o’clock meeting in the conference room with dinner to follow. Will Miss Sykes be attending via Zoom?”

“I’ll have to see if she can,” Camille says, scanning the list of clothing items. No prices are listed anywhere on it.

“Let me know by a quarter till so I can have the computer ready.”

“Okay…” she looks up from the paper, “where’s the conference room?”

“Second floor, down the hall from the terrace where you ate breakfast this morning. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to get there a little early. Marcy will be waiting on all of you to serve dinner. ”

“Thanks.” She’s about to grab the bags and take them to the bedroom, but then she hesitates, looking back at Delilah. “Who’s ‘all of you’?”

Delilah looks back. “Excuse me?”

“You said, ‘all of you.’ Who’s going to be at the meeting?”

“Ms. Bloom will have her attorneys on the conference call, and with Wade here, I assume he’ll take part.”

Camille grins, looking forward to having him in the room. “Sounds good.”

Once Delilah leaves, Camille retrieves her phone, walking over to the windows as she dials Evelyn’s cell. The towels are out, one for each of the eight pool chairs, four on each side. Each towel is rolled up tight, sitting on the foot of each chair. Wade’s standing out on the back patio, facing the pool and talking on his cellphone. He tosses his head back, letting out a laugh. Camille smiles. His easy laughter makes her wish she were the one on the phone with him.

Evelyn’s phone goes to voicemail. Camille hangs up. As he gazes out at the water, he catches sight of Delilah marching across the lawn toward the back patio. He ducks his head, stepping over to the edge of the patio, facing the view of the city.

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