Chapter Two
Chloe
This is the worst fucking day Chloe can imagine.
Danielle has dragged her on this stupid vacation.
Promising Chloe it would be just the relaxing time she needed.
But no, her luggage had been lost by the airline, and when she slipped and fell in a puddle of water, her skirt ripped.
She didn’t have many clothes that weren’t for work.
She had skirts with suit jackets and heels, her go-to uniform.
Pants seemed to hug her thighs and ass in an unappealing way, so she preferred skirts that made her figure look smoother and leaner.
Not that the skirt was helping her out much right now.
Danielle could have told her where they were going on this vacation.
Hawaii, Bermuda, someplace warm where she could sip cocktails on the beach.
She had even brought a bathing suit for goodness' sake.
A one-piece that covered as much of her body as she could find.
But still, sunshine, water, attractive shirtless men to ogle.
But no, she had been flown to Montana of all places, and now they were taking a bus to bumfuck nowhere for some lodge.
“This isn’t what I signed up for,” Chloe grumbles under her breath.
“You signed up to come with your best friend on a vacation to celebrate her divorce.” Danielle pats her arm as the smelly bus goes over another bump.
“Sure, but Montana? I mean, come on. Why aren’t we somewhere nicer?
I wanted the beach, Danielle, sunshine. Not grey skies and muddy puddles.
” She swipes at her side, where it is still soaked from falling in the puddle.
She’s glad she hadn’t hurt herself when she fell, that would have been the icing on the cake in this shitty vacation.
Danielle turns to her and narrows her eyes. “This vacation is for me to forget about that horrible piece of crap I was married to, and for you to take a break from work. Silver Lake Lodge is the perfect place for that.”
“And why’s that?”
“Fresh air, mountains, hot mountain men.”
Chloe rolls her eyes. It’s always about the men with Danielle.
Since her divorce two months ago, she has been on a war path of self-exploration, and that includes dragging Chloe out on the weekends to bars and clubs that they are way too old for.
Danielle got laid, though. She’s beautiful, tall, and thin with thick, long blonde hair and doesn’t look a day over twenty-five, even though she’s thirty-two.
Chloe, however, hasn’t been with a man in over two years.
Before then, it was a quick fling with another associate at her accounting firm before he left the company. She has work to focus on.
It isn’t like Chloe doesn’t know how to have fun.
She can be just as fun as the next person.
But more often than not, she is tired from working twelve-hour days, and by the time she gets home, she just wants to sleep.
Even doing laundry grates on her nerves lately, so she opts to have most everything dry cleaned.
But she can dance, she can get drunk, and let herself go. It just isn’t that often anymore.
She tries to be enthusiastic when Danielle drags her out.
Tries to play wing-woman for Danielle, but Danielle never really needs any help.
She can entertain three men at a time, and all of them will be enamored with her.
And she works long days too, but they never seem to take the same toll as they do on Chloe.
Chloe is a mess. In truth, she probably needs this vacation more than Danielle does.
She hasn’t taken off a day in three years, and the last day she did take off was when she had food poisoning and literally couldn’t leave the bathroom.
Danielle had married a hedge fund manager who worked too much, and they fought like crazy.
It was the least happy Chloe had ever seen Danielle in all the years she knew her.
So when Danielle’s husband had her served at work with divorce papers, Danielle took it in stride.
She’d hired the best divorce attorney in the city and took Harold for over half his earnings.
Danielle herself makes a significant income, and with the divorce, she was able to buy herself an apartment overlooking Central Park, every New York girl's dream. Or so the stories tell you.
But Chloe is satisfied with her small brownstone.
She rents, not owns, from an elderly lady who is now in a nursing home.
She doesn't know how much longer she’ll be able to live there before the lady passes on and her grubby son gets his hands on the property and kicks Chloe to the curb so he can sell it for millions of dollars.
But she likes it. It’s quiet, has a large bookcase that’s overflowing with her favorite books, and smells faintly of tobacco from all the years the owner smoked inside.
It’s nice of Danielle to bring her along.
To pay for the entirety of her trip. Chloe makes good money as an accountant in a New York City firm.
Chloe had gone to NYU for her bachelor's and master's and came out with good grades and a great job offer. But she should have made partner by now at the accounting firm. She has worked there for ten years. Put in countless hours, always with good reviews and feedback, yet not a partner. She can leave, she knows she can. But it would be like failing for her, like giving up and having to start all over at another firm. Just to what, work another ten years and not get partner there too? It’s a lot.
But the board had a meeting last week about bringing on another partner.
She has worked there the longest out of all the other associates.
And between her and another associate, Martha, Chloe thinks she has it in the bag.
It will be like winning, finally. She may not have a man in her life, but she can finally become partner, and it will be the icing on the fucking cake. It will be her dream come true.
The realization that her biggest dream is a job is a little disheartening, but worse than that, she thinks of what it will be like if she doesn’t get partner.
If they make someone else a partner instead.
Then what will she do? Put in five, ten, or fifteen more years before the opportunity comes up again.
No, she will get partner at the accounting firm.
She’s earned it. Her first vacation in ten years since starting at the company.
Her twelve-hour days, her perfect track record. They will pick her, definitely.