The girl who arrived in town in a wedding dress. I’m never going to escape that particular label. Part of me wonders whether I should move on. I didn’t arrive in town expecting Star Falls to be my new home. I just wanted a bed for the night, but the fact that I’ve been able to get a job and a place to live is more than I have back in Oregon. It doesn’t make much sense to leave right now.

“I’ll be moving up the mountain next week,” I say.

“Oh, you got a job in the Colorado Club?”

“Yeah, I’m a waitress there. Or I’m going to be. I’m still training.”

“I hear the training is brutal. There are tests and everything, right?”

“They’re very thorough. They want you to be able to deal with any request from a member. You have to know the Club inside out.”

“It’s beautiful up there, huh? I know it’s not finished, but like, it’s super nice.”

Super nice is the most lukewarm description of all time. The Club is more like a palace in the mountains. “I haven’t seen any of the cabins or chalets yet, but the communal areas are… amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. Carpets so deep you could twist your ankle in them, light fixtures twice my height. Fresh flowers on every surface. It’s beautiful.”

Donna searches my face like she’s willing me to say more. She lowers her voice to a whisper, even though there’s no one in the waiting room. “Every time I have a bad day here, I think about applying. I hear there are a lot of people from out of town there, though. I don’t know how I’d feel surrounded by people I don’t know.”

“I guess you’d get to know them.”

“You’re right,” she says enthusiastically. She switches on the contraption she has in her hand, just as Athena decides to exit her carrier.

Donna has the feline touch, because Athena sidles up to her like she’s catnip. Donna strokes and fusses over the cat while she runs the tracker over her body several times. “You’re so beautiful,” she says. “But no one’s looking for you. I think you found yourself a new momma.” She smiles at me. “I can put her details down on our register so if someone does come looking, we can call you. It could be that her owners have gone off on a vacation and she’s feeling a bit lonely. It’s just odd, because I don’t recognize her.”

“I can’t keep her,” I say. “I’m moving into staff housing at the Club next week. They don’t allow pets.”