Chapter 19 #2
He’s already unpacking when I walk in. I look at the large king bed in the center of the room. I didn’t even think about the
fact that we’d be sharing a bed all weekend.
“Listen, I have to go to the resort tonight for business. Don’t wait up for me,” he says. “In fact, wait in Wesley’s room.”
I scoff as I drag my suitcase over to the other closet. The bedroom is huge and luxurious with stone floors and a fireplace in the corner. “What’s at the resort? And why do you need to go over there so late?” I haven’t checked the time but it has to be at least midnight.
“Just some things I want to check up on,” he says, throwing on a jacket. “Get some sleep. Or don’t.” He winks before closing
the door behind him. What does he expect me to do? Go into Wesley’s room, strip down, and see what happens?
I start to unpack and put my clothes in the armoire. I think about leaving the room to hang out with Dani and Annica, but
then they’ll ask where Asher is, and wouldn’t it seem weird if he left at midnight for the resort, and left his girlfriend
here? Unsurprisingly the bathroom has a Jacuzzi tub and a rain shower, so I decide to take a warm bath before getting into
bed, thinking about what Asher could possibly be there checking on. Maybe he wants to get a head start on the resort operations.
Maybe he wants to prove to Wesley’s dad that he wants it more.
When the clock hits 2 a.m. Asher is still not back. I debate texting him, but he said not to wait up. I close my eyes and
go through my nightly routine: Jonah, Ryan, Marco, Bryce. Jonah, Ryan, Marco, Bryce. I count them like sheep.
I stir slightly when I feel Asher getting into bed. I glance at the alarm clock next to the bed and it reads 5 a.m. I close
my eyes again to continue sleeping, thinking that he likely wasn’t doing resort business at all.
At seven, Wes is waking everyone up. “Time to hit the slopes!” he yells down the hall, knocking on all the doors.
Asher gets up to shower and I take out my clothes for the day. I bought an all-black ski outfit from some trendy website, and though it does look good on me, it’s so tight I can barely move.
“I approve,” Asher says, checking me out when he comes back from the bathroom. “Don’t forget to layer up on socks.”
I ignore his comment and go right into what’s bothering me the most this morning. “How was the resort last night?”
He clears his throat. “It was fine.”
“Great,” I say, leaving the room and heading downstairs to where the group has started to congregate in the kitchen. Wesley’s
mom made a breakfast spread for all of us and the boys are already digging in.
The driver takes us over to the resort, which looks like a log cabin on steroids. Three large buildings surround an ice rink
in the center. Behind it, towering over everything, are tall snowy hills. I can see little figures race down them from here.
The moment we hit the lobby, Jake beelines for the large mahogany bar in the center of the room.
“Let’s have a drink before we do this,” he suggests.
“Need some liquid courage?” Wes teases.
“To keep up with you and Asher on the black diamonds, yes,” Sam agrees.
I assume that’s a type of hill, but I ask anyway, “What’s a black diamond?”
“The most dangerous hill,” Annica says. “Probably not something five drunk idiot boys should be going down, but hey, why not.” She crosses her arms in her white puffy snowsuit with fur trim.
Dani has on a colorful one, something that somehow looks modern but retro at the same time.
Jake orders a shot ski to start for the five of them and they line up to take it.
The bartender is a girl that looks to be in her mid-twenties.
She’s got beautiful golden skin with ice-blue eyes and long dark hair.
She brings the shot ski and winks at Asher.
“Did she just wink at your boyfriend?” Annica scoffs.
From behind the guys, I can’t see what he may or may not have done back.
“Long night?” she says to him with a smirk. “You look tired.” And then it dawns on me that she was the resort business.
“I think she might be flirting with him too,” Dani whispers.
“Aren’t you going to say something?” Annica asks me. “Do you want me to?”
The boys do their shot and all order a beer. Wes turns around to ask what we want. It’s on the house, he says. I walk up beside
Asher where he stands talking to the bartender away from the prying eyes and ears.
“Hi, I’m Sloane,” I say to her. “I’m Asher’s girlfriend.”
Her smile disappears as her eyes go back to Asher.
Asher laughs uncomfortably. “It’s an open relationship,” he says to her with a shrug.
I glare up at him.
“I’m Brandy,” the bartender says, still with a wary look in her eyes.
“Hi, Brandy, nice to meet you. Can I get a vodka soda and make it a double.”
“Double vodka?” Asher asks, eyebrows raised. “And so early in the morning?”
Brandy turns to fetch the drinks, probably happy to be away from this conversation.
“Being a total dick?” I say back to him. “And so early in the morning?”
He looks down at me quizzically, then says with a laugh, “Are you jealous of Brandy?”
“Of course not,” I spit back. “I just can’t have you telling everyone we’re in an open relationship. I mean, what if one of
them heard you?”
“Then you could pretend to be upset about it and Wes would swoop in to save you. Maybe I should’ve said it a little louder.”
He looks over, considering. Brandy comes back with the drinks and I pick mine up, chug it, and set it right back down, holding
back the gag at how much liquor was in it. “You good?” Asher asks, watching my face. “You happy with that decision you just
made?”
“Ecstatic.”
We head outside so Dani, Annica, and I can rent our skis. Also on the house. The boys get snowboards, Wes and Asher each having
special ones that they keep here. I have never skied, but neither has Danielle, so we have lessons this morning on the bunny
hill while the rest of them hit the adult side of the resort.
“Annica says it’s pretty easy, so we’ll be pros in no time,” Dani says as we make our way to the small slopes, full of children.
I watch them all flawlessly navigate the hill, and I think she must be right: If kids can do it, why can’t we?
We eat our words, and the snow, as we fall over and over again. Jacques, our French instructor, grows more and more irritated
with us by the hour and my body starts to ache from the effort.
“Maybe we should hit up the bar?” I suggest, since my double vodka soda has long since worn off.
“Yeah, fuck this.” We hang out at the outside bar with other people our age. A DJ plays house music over the crowd and we settle in by one of the heat lamps.
“So what did you say to that bartender?” she asks.
“Oh, Brandy,” I say. “I introduced myself as Asher’s girlfriend and she scurried away.” That’s not exactly how it went down, but Dani
would be shocked to know that apparently Asher and I are in an open relationship.
“Annica told me last night that she doesn’t really think you guys are together. I don’t know why she cares so much but it
seems to really bother her for some reason.”
I roll my eyes. “I wish she would just relax about the whole ‘relationship in the friend group’ thing. She doesn’t even like
Asher. If the two of us broke up it would not affect this group at all.”
“I don’t think it’s that; it sounds like it’s just about Asher in particular. She doesn’t trust him.”
“Do you?” I ask her.
She looks at me. “Do you?”
No. “Yeah, of course.”
The house music grows louder around us until the DJ gets on the mic. “This next one goes out to Sloane, from her secret admirer,”
the DJ says, before playing a remix of “Murder on the Dancefloor.”
My mouth hangs open as every worry I’ve decided to put to the side for this trip comes crashing into me.
“Secret admirer?” Dani says. “Is that Asher trying to be funny? Do you even like this song?”
I stand up, suddenly feeling dizzy, looking all around the outdoor bar and dance floor for Miles. Could he have followed me here this weekend? He did threaten to show up at school, so who’s to say he isn’t here?
When Annica and the boys come back from the more intense version of skiing/snowboarding, I grab Asher and pull him aside.
“I think Miles is here,” I say in a panic.
He crosses his arms, his hunter-green jacket crinkling beneath them. His face is flushed from being outside for hours and
indents from his goggles mark his face. “What did we just talk about in the airport yesterday?”
“The DJ got a request to play a song about murder, and said it was for me from my secret admirer. Who else would it be?”
“How do you know it wasn’t for a different Sloane?”
“Oh, do you think there’s more than one of us being set up?” He doesn’t say anything. “That’s why!”
He puts his hands on my shoulders. “Okay,” he says. “Just—”
“Do not even tell me to relax or calm down,” I say.
“It could’ve been one of the guys who requested that as a joke. Honestly, I bet it was Jake,” Asher says. I mean . . . I guess
that’s possible, but my gut is telling me danger is lurking somewhere in these mountains. Asher can tell I’m still not convinced.
“Okay, say Miles is here. Graham is in Boston right now, your guy Tristan is in Europe, and Wes is here with us at a resort
with top-notch security. Same with my grandpa’s house. I’m telling you, you don’t have to worry.”
“She doesn’t have to worry about what?” Annica interrupts, looping her arm around mine, and Asher lets out a long sigh. She
turns us away from Asher. “What’s going on? Is it about the bartender? Because I’ll throw a drink at her if you want me to.”
I can’t hide the twitch of my lips at the thought of Annica throwing a drink at Brandy, and for what? Technically she has
done nothing to me. “No, no, it’s fine. We worked it out.”
“Are you sure? I’d really do it, you know. No one flirts with my best friend’s . . . whatever Asher is to you, and gets away
with it,” she teases as we make our way toward the resort’s steakhouse restaurant.
“I’m sure.” I huff a laugh, wishing I could tell her that Brandy isn’t the real threat here. Not by a long shot.
“Everything okay?” Wes asks when we sit down at the table with the rest of them.
“Yeah, she’s fine,” Asher answers for me. “Sloane just hit her head one too many times on the bunny hill.”
I glare at him.
“We did fall down a lot,” Dani says.
“You’re feeling better now, though, aren’t you?” Asher pointedly says to me with a hand on my knee.
“Yes,” I lie.