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 notfriends.
We hadn’t started as friends, but maybe, by the end of the week, we could end that way.
