7. Jamie
seven
Jamie
Come to camp, they said. It’ll be relaxing, they said.
I stretched my fingers along the back of my neck as I paced the adorable cabin that didn’t match my insufferable mood. I wanted a distraction. I wanted my cell phone. But Ren had taken it when he caught me going over emails behind the mess hall after dinner last night.
Was it breaking and entering if I knew the code to his cabin?
“You okay?” Ren caught me outside his door and invited me inside. His cabin resembled mine but had a view of the campfire across the lake.
“Yeah, fine.” I sighed, sounding closer to there’s a thorn piercing my side than the I’m calm, cool, and collected I was going for.
“You look like you’re still shook after, you know.” He made a wild throwing gesture, imitating my first throw.
You’d throw like shit too if you just saw your high school ex, the one you never could forget.
Autumn had stayed away after my ax-in-the-lake incident.
Professional and cool, she’d walked back and forth, offering tips, and we’d continued taking turns throwing at the targets.
It’d seemed like she imagined my head at the center.
I’d kept looking, trying to catch her eye for the rest of the session, but she’d clearly had no intention of continuing our conversation.
“Nah, it’s not that.” I should have known better than to give him anything.
“Is it the ax-wielding Valkyrie then? Don’t worry, she scares me too.” He noticed me tense up and jumped to conclusions like he always did. “Or is it that you have history with said Valkyrie?”
Usually, when he jumped to conclusions, he was right.
I let out a puff of air and decided to get right to the point. “We dated in high school.”
“You and the lumberjack went to school together? In suburban Seattle?”
“The romance capital of the world.”
“What was high school James like? Don’t worry if you were the weird kid who preferred to hang out with the teacher and the quiet kids playing The Oregon Trail game during lunch.
Wait, don’t answer that.” He ran his hand through his auburn hair.
“It doesn’t matter who you were in high school.
Now you’re this super-ambitious lawyer with a huge promotion in the bag.
You’re handsome, objectively speaking. You mostly have a sense of humor. ”
I shoved him good-naturedly and grinned.
“You looked like you still have chemistry.” Ren gave me a knowing grin. “Does that mean James Davis is going to relive his glory days? Maybe hook up?”
I cringed at the thought. We meant more than that. She meant more than that. “No, it’s not like that. You saw how she almost decapitated me at the lake.”
“Ah, I feel that,” he commiserated. Glad he’d understood and asked. It felt good to talk about the tsunami I was in after seeing her all these years later.
Autumn looked amazing . I’d caught a glimpse of her last night, but up close, she was truly beautiful.
I wanted to explore every part of her, from blonde bangs to her sun-kissed skin.
She had these wildflower tattoos I’d never seen before.
They playfully climbed her thigh, leading to…
I didn’t know what, but I wanted to find out.
And those were thoughts I shouldn’t be having. My sex-starved brain went directly to undressing her, and I tried to feel bad about it, but I just didn’t. I wanted to see where else she had tattoos, if maybe she had a sunflower somewhere. I wanted to memorize them, preferably with my tongue.
Not the point.
I had to get my mind off her. Her stunning smile, the sound of her laughter for everyone but me. The haunted look in her eyes when we’d talked, her voice filled with indignation. On the surface, she was a wronged woman, but underneath, there was this added layer: hurt.
I’d hurt her back then. The memory of our phone call was still etched in my mind.
But witnessing it in person was a whole new experience.
Seeing her in her element, the way she carried herself, it was like looking at a different person.
The sight of her stirred up a mix of emotions within me.
Should I act cool? Should I address it? I’d never anticipated seeing her again, especially not here as a camp counselor.
It was all so unexpected, a shock in its own right.
Last night, as I tossed and turned, I’d had the luxury of time to come to terms with our impending reunion.
But she had only found out that I was here an hour ago, leaving her no time to process.
Naturally, her initial reaction was a blend of shock and anger, and I couldn’t blame her for that.
I’d had time to think. She hadn’t. And I deserved her anger.
The image of her last night on the stage in the mess hall and playing two truths and a lie around the campfire, sharing her secret shame, brought a smile to my lips.
The memory of her fear of bunnies was amusing.
Who was afraid of bunnies, anyway? And who would have the courage to admit that in front of a room of strangers?
Here, she seemed so much more liberated than I had ever seen her before.
In high school, she’d been the intense bookworm, the one who only emerged once you pulled her out of her shell, and boy, had that taken time.
She’d always been striving for the highest peak, leaving little room for personal enjoyment, especially before we started dating.
She’d constantly tried to please her Ivy-educated parents, an impossible task.
But now, confidently throwing axes, she was a different person entirely.
She looked carefree and adventurous. It was evident I didn’t know her anymore, and a part of me questioned if I ever truly did.
I pushed those thoughts away, but they kept circling like vultures overhead. For Autumn, for our past, for the chance I never took.
The sun beamed mercilessly, evaporating all moisture from the typically cool morning air.
The sound of laughter and the thud of the volleyball hitting the sand provided a welcome distraction.
I had been carrying so much restlessness and uncertainty since seeing Autumn last night, and I needed physical exertion after facing all those memories.
“Ready to do this?” I looked at Lamar. He wore a fitted long-sleeve top, long brightly flowered board shorts, and a bright smile.
“You two, up here.” Lamar waved Ren and me over to the opposing side.
Emerson was already on Lamar’s side of the court. She wore a bright blue one-piece bathing suit with polka dots and sunglasses that covered half of her face. Her bright purple hair was pinned up in fifties glam, as Emerson as ever.
“Hey, Em, did you bring any of those Gushers?” I asked, spying the floppy beach tote she’d set down by the table.
“Just because we’re in the same pod, doesn’t make us friends right now, James.” Her tone was completely serious, but the gleam in those mischievous eyes told me she didn’t mean it.
“Bonding over Grant’s snack stash does,” I argued, and she cracked, her face lighting up.
“I still don’t get that man,” Ren declared, an almost-smile over his lips.
Ren was still processing his recent decision to divorce, and I had to admit I also wanted to chat up Grant about this whole friends-with-exes thing.
What if Autumn and I could become friends again? What would that even look like?
“Leave Grant’s snacks out of this.” Emerson playfully narrowed her eyes. “This is war.”
Lamar and Emerson began stretching in tandem as if they were preparing for some kind of battle.
This was supposed to be a casual game of volleyball.
Neither the years of sitting in bed poring over legal briefs nor the occasional weekend game of golf with the partners had prepared me for the spectacle they were gearing up for.
I looked over at the woman on our side. She was maybe a few years younger than us, tall, and confident if her deep red lips and power stance had anything to say about it.
She introduced herself. “Hi, I’m Cheryl.”
“Hi, Cheryl. I’m James. This is Ren.” I reached my hand out to shake, and she took it.
“Hey, nice to meet you. So, did you get stuck with this one as your counselor?” Cheryl tilted her head playfully toward Lamar.
“Yup, he’s ours,” Ren said. “Who do you have?”
“I’m in Andromeda—Nat’s pod.”
I’d yet to meet her in person, but from last night’s game, I’d learned that her social media status was celebrity-level intimidating, she’d danced with Dolly Parton, and her favorite movie wasn’t The Goonies , because she’d never seen it thanks to the sad fact that she grew up on the East Coast and it wasn’t a rite of passage like it was for a kid in the Pacific Northwest.
“There she is, goddess of sustenance, and our third, Azalea.” Lamar introduced the gray-eyed chef, spinning her in a hug, both of them laughing before he put her down. Her tightly curled hair whipped around wildly in the lake breeze.
We lavished her with compliments, and she basked in the attention.
The cherubic-faced woman was all of five feet tall and squeezed the ball tight enough that I wondered if it would explode.
It was no wonder that Lamar referred to Azalea as a goddess, considering her amazing food.
I was still infatuated with this morning’s spread.
From bacon-wrapped dates to chicken cordon bleu, everything we’d eaten so far had been nothing short of decadent.
Quickly, I learned my volleyball skills weren’t nearly as impressive as I’d hoped they would be. Emerson, Azalea, and Lamar worked together like a well-oiled machine. Ready for anything. Which, unfortunately, included demolishing us.
Strangely, Lamar suggested conversations between Cheryl and me.
First about school, then about her fur baby, a husky named Poppy.
After the third icebreaker about whether we both liked walks on the beach, I started to get suspicious.
Ren cocked his head at Lamar. Was he some sort of matchmaker or was he trying to distract us?
The scoreboard proved that subterfuge was unnecessary. I wondered what that was all about.
Soon, we accumulated an audience. A woman I recognized as one of the campers in Autumn’s pod introduced herself as Kell-i to Terry, who was cheering on both teams with so much enthusiasm, I wondered if he was a sports coach or maybe even a life coach.
Either way, I felt coached. Ren, Cheryl, and I tried to recover enough to make him proud.
Cheryl blushed when he complimented a particularly graceful return serve.
“Mine,” Azalea called out, and Emerson was there, lined up for the pass with precision under the volleyball Azalea had popped up high.
“Got it.” She set the ball with a flourish, this time to Lamar, who meant to decimate us with another calculated strike. Cohesion like that made it look like the three of them had been working as a team for years.
Diving into the sand for what must have been the fourth time, I laughed as I finally scrambled fast enough to pop the ball up toward anyone on our side. Ren seemed surprised we’d finally made a play on one of their brutal bump, set, spike combos.
“Gloves are off now.” Ren whooped as he chased, desperate to get under the ball. With his back to the net, he let out a loud grunt as he bumped the ball with no finesse.
Luckily, Cheryl was there to give it the redirection we needed, landing a perfect tip over the net and sealing our first and only point of the game. We may have lost nearly every point, but we’d started to return volleyballs with fervor, so I counted it as a win.
Kell-i and Terry stormed the court, clapping us on the backs.
Lamar, Emerson, and Azalea all came to our side to hug and high-five us as well.
Goofy reenactments of Top Gun , complete with frozen high fives, had me laughing harder than I’d had in years.
The next twenty minutes were an ensemble of more dives and taunts stitched together with wild laughter.
We wiped the sweat off our brows and put our hands on our knees to catch our breaths with matching goofy grins.
“You weren’t kidding when you said give it one hundred and ten percent.” I loved teasing Ren about his overuse of workplace mottos.
He shoved me back, laughing. “About time you had a little fun.”
Covered in sand and sweat, we made our way toward the communal showers full of individual locking stalls.
Only one thing could have improved our beautiful cabins—private toilets.
I scrubbed off the sand and felt the heat of my skin under the sun’s attention with a contented sigh.
Ren was singing a surprisingly exceptional rendition of Beyoncé’s “Love on Top” in the stall next to mine, and I found myself singing my friend’s go-to karaoke song because I’d heard it so many times.
That was, until we heard several ladies giggling at us outside of our stalls.
I couldn’t help but laugh along with them.
I was having a great time. Seeing him in this environment was nice, and his unabashed glee today warmed my heart.
Sure, we worked a lot. Some might say too much.
But amidst our busy work lives, we’d remained friends.
Being here on this adventure only reinforced our ability to thrive together in any situation.
“Are we doing Paint and Sip tonight?” I shouted over my stall. I’d looked at my itinerary this morning and found an art class led by Nat. Ren loved painting.
“Painting tonight, yeah. But, uh, you might be a bit more on your own for that,” Ren informed me.
I emerged from the shower, wrapped a towel around myself, made my way toward the spacious dressing room, which was divided into individual sections that were locked, and started getting dressed. “Oh, yeah?”
“Well, Grant is painting tonight too.” A towel-wrapped Ren wiped the condensation from the mirror.
“Ahh, got it.” I smirked. “You and Grant then?”
“What? He’s cute.”
“I can stand by the sidelines while you get your flirt on.” I was genuinely happy for him. Ren had always been open about how he was into blonds, and now that he was single, it didn’t surprise me that Grant had caught his eye.
Autumn’s face briefly flashed through my mind. Would she be there? If so, it would be an opportunity for me to apologize and possibly rekindle our friendship. That was how it had all started… Well, maybe not friends .
We hadn’t started as friends, but maybe, by the end of the week, we could end that way.