“A few years ago I was invited to come be a counselor here. The members must have liked me, because after that first weekend they asked if I wanted to work at Club Onyx too.”
“So you’re not a member?”
“I wasn’t at first. But for two years of loyal service, they rewarded me with membership into the Society. How’d you get in?”
“Ryder invited me after my divorce,” I said. I was so proud of myself for remembering to use Tanner’s Society name.
Cole nodded and took a bite of his burger. “Ah, classic Ryder.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s by far the Society’s most active recruiter. It seems like he has a different girl on his arm every night at Club Onyx.”
“What?” I asked. From the Onyxies I knew that Tanner recruited tons of members. But had he been recruiting members all summer?That little asshole!He was hiding out in the city instead of in jail in…Morocco? Is that what he’d said? I was going to kill him.
“You didn’t know?”
I was going to get so much more information, but then Tanner sat down next to me with a tray of food. “Didn’t know what?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I said. I couldn’t believe that he’d really just disappeared from me this summer so he could go bang a bunch of new members.
“How’s your room?” asked Tanner as if everything was totally normal.
“Amazing. I’m so glad I passed on the couples cabin.” The princess suite really was everything. I couldn’t wait to get back and send Chastity some pictures of it. She was gonna be so jealous.
“She wasn’t happy with the first cabin we had for her,” said Cole. “But I pulled a few strings to get her an upgrade.”
“Thanks for looking out for her,” said Tanner.
Looking out for me?What did Tanner care about someone looking out for me? Didn’t he have some newbie to go bang or something?
“It’s my pleasure. I told her I’d do anything I could to make her weekend as enjoyable as possible.”
Tanner narrowed his eyes at Cole and slid a little closer to me. “It sounds like you’ve already gone above and beyond.”
Cole popped a French fry into his mouth and stared back at Tanner. “Just doing my job. Speaking of which…is everything good with your cabin?”
“It is,” said Tanner.
“You’re on the red team, right?” asked Cole.
Tanner nodded.
“I guess that makes us enemies.”
“Red team? Enemies?” I asked. I was so confused. Both about the teams and about why Tanner was acting all protective. He’d made it abundantly clear he didn’t want to be with me. If the three months of ghosting wasn’t proof enough, him literally telling me he couldn’t date me because of DODO was.
“For the games tomorrow,” said Cole. “Everyone splits into two teams - red and blue - and then we battle it out over 23 events. At the end of the day, we crown a winner.”
“Which team am I on?”
“You’re on red with Ryder. Unfortunately, I’m blue…which means you guys are going to be on the losing team.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked.
“Yup. Not to brag, but my team has won 9 weeks in a row. And there’s no way I’m going to miss out on breaking the record with a 10th.”
Cocky bastard.“Sorry to burst your bubble, but Ryder and I are going to crush you.”
