Page 92 of Is This for Real?
“You’ll sleep even better in the cold air,” I say.
Rory gives me his skeptical look, and I feel a slight flutter in my stomach.
“Should we go to lunch? You can leave your coat and backpack here,” he says.
Lunch is uneventful. And my disaster-prone fairy godmother doesn’t strike on the hike, so I make it back in one piece. She must think her work is done. We meet the other couples banished to the cottage, and they’re a fun bunch. As we all head off to the cottage after the hike, Rory and the three other business-important partners look jealous.
I’m about to head up to my room to make some mini flowers for a bit when I hear Tom give a shout of glee.
“They’ve got board games,” Tom says.
“What’s up with the lack of heat here? Is she trying to freeze us to death?” Nia asks. Nia and I search for the thermostat. Finding it, we adjust it five degrees higher.
We chat for a bit, then separate to get some work done and dress for dinner.
Dinner has a theme—the roaring twenties—so my hat makes another appearance. I could really get to like Myrtle.
After dinner, Bernie suggests that he, Rory, and Rory’s boss continue their discussion about the next campaign with tea and coffee in the living room. The rest of us are excused.
I kiss Rory on the check. “See you in the morning. Sleep well.”
Rory grumbles. “I sleep better with you next to me.”
I wave goodbye and walk with the others to the cottage. We raid the supplies. We’ve been left tea, coffee, whole milk, and sugar. Breakfast is at the big house in the morning. Nia brings out two bottles of red wine, Tom produces several more, and I contribute a bag of peanut M&Ms and chocolate chip cookies, which I’m sorry to confess I brought as crafting fuel.
We play several games of Clue and one game of Scrabble, drinking the wine, and then Dan says, “We need to rescue Rory.”
“No, I’m sure he’s fine. Career goals and all that,” I say.
“We just have to interrupt it, and then he can excuse himself to go to bed,” Dan says. “But instead, sneak out over here.”
“I can ask for an extra blanket,” Nia says wryly. “Or I can ask for Tylenol.”
“Or an ice pack after the hike,” I say.
“I’ll ask for an ice pack,” Tom says.
“But won’t that be bad for your career?” I ask.
“We’re on a rescue mission,” Jack says. “And anyway, Bernie is a good sort overall. Just once he’s into an idea, he doesn’t want to stop talking about it. And now he’s got Rory off the clock so he’s taking advantage of it. Sometimes, you have to remind him that we have lives. Not that Rory can do that when Bernie is the client.”
“Okay, what props do we need?” Aaron asks. “You should bring the hat. We need to use that somehow.”
I text Rory that we’re coming to rescue him, but I don’t get a response. He probably left his phone in his room.
We sneak up to the house.
“Shh,” Aaron says as our shoes scrunch on the leaves and sticks. “We must be one with the trees and the air and the leaves.”
The living room takes up one corner of the boxlike house. It has floor-to-ceiling windows, which gives you a feeling of being right there in nature. We can’t hide there, so we slink around to the smaller windows on the other side.Crunch, crunch.The seven of us are all bent down below the two windows.
Tom peers into the living room first.
“Looks serious. We’ve got a tea platter out. Rory is in the middle of the couch between his boss and Myrtle. Bernie and Bob are on the other side.”
Myrtle is next to Rory, serving tea. I probably should have stayed close to Rory, but he said I should go back. And she can’t do anything in front of her husband and his business associates. And she seems to accept that we’re in a relationship.
“Going in,” Tom says. He disappears around to the front of the house. The rest of us remain crouched down by the two windows, our eyes just at windowsill level as we spy into the room.
