Page 25 of No Such Thing as Serendipity
“Are you taking me into the wilderness?” I asked. “Wait. We don’t have to stay in tents, do we?” I tried to keep the disgust out of my voice.
Emma chuckled. “You’re safe. No tents. We’re staying in one of the villas, but they have cabins, too.”
“What’s the difference?”
“The villas house twelve people.”
“All right! Now you’re talking. Room for us to spread out.”
“Um, no. Didn’t you hear me? It houses twelve.”
Realization dawned. “You mean we’re sharing with other people—strangers?” I turned up my nose when I said strangers.
“Strangers are just friends you haven’t met yet.” Emma’s voice dripped in syrup.
“Ugh, you did not just say that.”
She bit her lip before she burst out laughing. “Okay. That was even too cheesy for me. But yes, we have villa mates. And—”
“I’ll pay to have them moved to their own cabins, or I’ll rent us a cabin.”
“No, you won’t.” Emma smiled. “Remember, the choices are mine.”
“Why do we have to stay with a bunch of...strangers...who are friends we haven’t met?”
“It’s part of the program.”
“Program?”
“Yeah, it’s a retreat.”
“Then why the hell didn’t they call it Blissful Breeze Retreat?”
“They didn’t have a clever marketer, remember?”
I sneered at her. “So we aren’t going to just lie around the pool drinking margaritas?”
“I don’t think they even have a pool.”
“You know what I mean.” I shot her a side eye. “What are we going to be doing?”
“Uh, they’ll give us the agenda when we get there.”
I took my eye off the road so I could glare at her. “You’ve seen it, haven’t you?”
“Um, maybe.”
“And I’m going to hate it, aren’t I?”
“Not all of it.”
“And which parts won’t I hate?”
“I don’t know.” Emma sighed. “I really don’t. We used to have fun. We were always laughing about the stupidest things, but we don’t seem to do that much anymore.”
My shoulders slumped. She was right. Life had gotten in the way. I’d promised Emma and myself that I’d give this a chance, and already I was making things unpleasant.
“Hey,” I said.
