I was dizzy and sweating, and when I glimpsed myself in the mirror back at Reese’s cabin, I wasn’t surprised. I looked like a ghost, but I didn’t have time to stop and take shelter while this storm passed. I had to get out. Too much of life had taken a shit on me.

The amazing sex… I couldn’t stay just for that. My pride was shredded. I just wanted to grab my stuff, get to my car, and leave. I’d send my goodbyes later.

I was running. I was doing it all over again, but my God, I had just been booted from my old place of employment—after being told I’d worked there three days for free. Keith was a dick, but he’d never made me feel unwelcome here. It took good ol’ Coach Winston to do that.

I bit back tears as I filled my bag. Then I wavered. I did still have things in the fishing cabin, but I couldn’t bring myself to go in there to pack it all up.

I was telling myself that as I walked the north path that wound around the lodge, bypassed all the buildings, and came out just beyond the parking lot. I told myself I didn’t have the energy to explain to Owen and Hadley what had happened. They’d be angry. They’d rally around me, but for what?

I’d been dismissed because I was a liability to someone more powerful than all of us.

It felt like the world had stomped on me once again, but this time was different. I wasn’t shattered by trying to hold Reese up. It wasn’t that situation at all.

Unlocking my car, I tossed my bags in the back and got behind the wheel.

I had to reassess the situation.

I was exaggerating, reacting because of how final it all felt. That was it. That was all. This was not the end of the world.

I’d been fired. So what? I’d come here for the specific purpose of having a place to run away from my current life. Which I did. That’d been successful.

I’d wanted to reconnect with some of my old friends. Mission accomplished. I wouldn’t text or email. I would call Owen and Hadley to say my goodbyes. I would call Grant—oh shit. Grant. I’d forgotten. And Trent! Trent was coming tonight. He was expecting to have dinner.

Then there was Reese.

I couldn’t tell any of them why I was let go. It was because of Reese, and if I told them, they’d just have to look at me to know things had gone past friendship.

They would know.

They couldn’t know.

I sat in my car, and I had no idea what to say to my friends.