“I have two roommates,” Regan said. “So they’re taking care of him. But I think the same thing you do: What if he thinks I’m never coming back? That I’ve left him for good? Eight weeks is a long time.”
“It really is.” Ava sighed. “What’s yours named?”
“King Arthur.” Regan shot her a look.
“For the flour?” Ava asked with a grin.
“I found him behind the bakery, near the dumpster with his head in an empty bag of flour, so it seemed perfect. I call him Artie.” Regan’s entire face lit up when she talked about her cat. Her blue eyes got brighter, and her smile grew wider.
“Okay, that’s officially adorable.”
“And yours?”
“Jiminy Cricket.”
Regan laughed. “Oh my God, that’s so freaking cute. Why?”
“Because when I got him as a kitten, he used to jump around and he’d sort of…pop straight into the air like a cricket.” She mimickedthe action with her hand, curving it and then popping it straight up, the way he used to. “He doesn’t do it anymore because I’m sure he was just trying to figure out his body and how to move it, but it was stupidly cute.”
“Jiminy. I love it.”
Silence fell again for several moments before Ava ventured to ask a question she’d been thinking about for a while. “So…what do you think of Liza?”
Regan glanced at her quickly, then looked down at her feet, then gazed out over the pond.
Ava released a small chuckle. “I get it.”
“I mean, I’m enjoying learning from her.”
“Same.”
“This place is amazing.” Regan swooped her arm out to encompass the pond, grounds, and mansion.
“Agreed.”
“She kind of…” Regan seemed to struggle with finding the right words, but Ava waited her out until she finally said, “She kinda seems to enjoy when one of us fucks up.”
“Thank you.” Ava’s relief was palpable. “I was worried I was the only one who saw that.”
“You’re not. I think she’s determined to get Paige to throw up at some point during this retreat.”
Ava snort-laughed, but caught herself. “I shouldn’t laugh. Paige is a sweetheart. So is Vienna, and Liza seems extra rough on her.”
“She does, right? I actually like everybody here. All the attendees.” Regan started to say more but seemed to think better of it.
“What?”
Regan shook her head. “Nothing.”
Ava avoided rolling her eyes in annoyance. Regan clearly had something to say, but she wasn’t about to pry it out of her.
They kept walking.
* * *
Apparently, the walk hadn’t been enough because Ava decided to go hit Liza’s little gym and “get in a workout,” as she’d put it.
Now Regan was alone in their room, and she was kind of happyabout that. She knew she’d ticked Ava off by not sharing something she’d thought better about sharing, but so the fuck what? She didn’t owe her anything, right? Plus, what she’d been about to say was that she almost wished Liza hadn’t put the money into play. Regan wasn’t there to compete, but thinking about that money and what she could do with it, how she could use it to give Billy a fair offer for Sweet Temptations and what that would do to her life, had changed the way she thought about the others. People who had started off as potential friends were now competition to be eliminated. Or at least defeated. The change was unnerving, kind of sad, and she didn’t want Ava to know she felt that way about it. She wasn’t cutthroat and she didn’t like that she now felt forced to be exactly that.
