Hazel smiles. “We refer to people staying here as members. Or members and their guests. So if you’re staying in the resort, you’re either a member or the guest of a member. We want people to feel they belong here. This is their home away from home. Indeed, some of the members will own lodges here.”

We must look a little shell-shocked, because Hazel smiles. Again. Maybe a little too wide this time. “It will take some getting used to, but we recruited you because we know you’re capable of providing the level of service we aim to provide.”

“It’s a lot,” Eden says. “But no pain, no gain. We’ll probably need to know about the owner of the place too, won’t we?”

“We’re not going to overload you on your first day. Today we’ll be focusing on the tour so you can understand the layout of the resort.”

“Sounds good,” I say, before Eden can reveal her real motivation for taking this job.

“First on our tour are our four main restaurants. You’ll get a sense of the difference in vibe. All three of you will be working primarily in Autumn, but it’s important you know all the restaurants so you can advise our members accordingly. You’ll be required to cover in other restaurants from time to time, depending on bookings and staffing levels.”

We follow Hazel along the corridor, down some steps into the first restaurant of our trip—Blossom. Its booths are pink velvet and the color scheme somehow contrasts beautifully with the gray blue of the sky beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. As we walk through the restaurant, I notice how the staff are dressed exactly like us. I guess we’ll all fade into the background when the members are here.

It feels like a very different world to one I’ve ever visited before. If I’d married Frank, I wouldn’t know places like the Colorado Club existed. I wouldn’t understand that waiters and waitresses for the seriously wealthy don’t dress the same as normal waitstaff. It feels like I’ve woken up on a different planet. It’s certainly a world away from Oregon. I’m surrounded by people I’ve known for less than an hour, in a town I’ve been in just over two days. All I can think is how I was about to get married and cement my future when I knew so little of the world.

Eden’s looking around, probably trying to spot the wealthy, gay owner of the Colorado Club.

“Here we are at Blossom. It’s our fine-dining restaurant. Some members will want to eat here all the time, but we think most will come here once or twice a week.”