by J L Raven
Tiffany glanced back and forth between them, seeming uncertain whether she should intervene. “We should go back to the lodge a bit, unwind, and have lunch.”
While the rest of us gathered up our gear, Yasmine approached Adam. “I-I’m sorry.”
Adam turned away from her and aimed a vicious kick at the tree. Yasmine flinched, put her head down, and hurried back up the trail toward the lodge.
With Tiffany’s help, I cleaned the scrape on my wrist and wrapped it. It stung, and the area immediately around it had gone swollen and red. “You really banged it,” she said, mouth twisting.
I shrugged. “All in a day’s work.”
When we returned to the main room of the lodge, it was to find Adam and Melissa serving themselves drinks from behind the bar. Rick stared blindly out the glass wall, holding a coffee I suspected was spiked with something stronger. Yasmine was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Yasmine?” Tiffany asked.
Adam took a generous swallow of his drink. “Sulking.”
“She went to her cabin.” Melissa glanced at me. “Fix you anything?”
Why not? Everyone else was indulging. “Red wine, please.” Once I had my drink, I drifted over to the fireplace, glad for the extra warmth. Unless Yasmine was a better fire-keeper than me, she’d be freezing in her cabin. Still, she’d probably die of hypothermia before she let any of us see her cry again, and none of her so-called friends seemed interested in checking on her.
Lunch consisted of giant trays of spaghetti, meatballs on the side, rolls, and salad. Melissa and Adam had another round of drinks with it, though I passed in favor of coffee. I had the feeling we weren’t done with the great outdoors yet, and wanted to get as much warmth in me as possible before freezing my ass off again.
Yasmine came back just as we were finishing lunch. She’d redone her makeup and her hair, and had an icy expression fixed to her face that warned us not to approach. Adam didn’t so much as glance in her direction.
“We’re going to do something a bit different this afternoon,” Tiffany announced. She held three laminated sheets in her hand, each a different color: blue, gold, and red. “Most of the time this weekend we’ll be working together, but this afternoon I think it might be best if we split up.” She glanced at Adam and Yasmine. “So you know what that means—scavenger hunt!”
She announced it as though she’d just given us a treat. I gripped my coffee tightly, wondering if the lodge had to-go cups.
“Once again, we’ll be splitting into smaller teams,” she said. “Yasmine, why don’t you and Melissa work together?”
Yasmine shrugged. “Sure,” Melissa said, trying to inject some enthusiasm into her voice and failing.
Tiffany valiantly ignored their apathy. “Terrific. You’ll be blue team.” She handed the laminated sheet to Melissa. “Rick and Lauren, you’re red team.”
“Which leaves me to be gold team,” Adam said. “Perfect.”
Tiffany handed us the laminated red sheet. It turned out to be a list, printed in bold comic sans and decorated with clip art leaves and flowers.
Pinecone
3 different types tree bark
Fungus (lichen or mushroom)
A “Y” shaped stick
A flat rock
“I can be on gold team—” Tiffany started.
Adam cut her off. “I work better alone.” He shot Yasmine a glare as he spoke, but she bent over Melissa’s and her list, her back to him.
Rick and I exchanged a look. “Go team,” he murmured.
Seven
Tiffany made sure to send each team off in a separate direction. Soon, Rick and I tramped through the woods side-by-side. The trees closed around us almost immediately, and when I checked back over my shoulder, I was surprised to see the lodge barely visible through the branches.
Rick held the list up. “Bark. Shouldn’t be too hard to find that.”
I stopped at the nearest tree and tugged on the bark. It didn’t want to come off.
“I don’t suppose you have a knife?”
“Just call me Ranger Ricardo.” He unzipped a few of the pockets on his vest, until coming up with a tiny pocket knife.
“No thanks, I’ll leave that nickname for your boyfriends.”
“Kinky.” He pried some of the bark off and dropped it into the Agonarch-branded tote bag we’d been issued. “One down, three to go.”
“Assuming we can tell the difference between one piece of bark and the next.”
He shrugged. “Tiffany probably can’t, either. And if she can…I’m not sure I want to win again.”
“Because of Adam?” It wasn’t much of a guess.
“Yeah.” Rick took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. “I’d really hoped this weekend would be a chance to relax. Unwind.”
We trudged off, moving deeper into the woods. Or as deep as we could easily get, given how rugged the terrain was. Rocks burst through the thin skin of topsoil, creating either blockades or unexpected drop offs. Fallen trees forced us to duck underneath or climb over. The thick layer of leaves carpeting the ground swallowed all sound, and slipped out from under our boots on inclines.
We came across a small stream and stopped to look for a flat rock. I took off my gloves to pluck one from the stream bed. The water was so cold it burned, and I grimaced as I forced the rock free, my fingers going numb. It popped loose—and turned out to only be flat on one side. “Fuck,” I muttered, tossing it away and tucking my fingers under my armpits.
Rick started to scout the banks. “You don’t mind, do you?” he asked after a minute. “Losing, I mean.”
“No.” Some feeling began to come back into my fingertips, so I risked prying another stone out of the damp mud beside the water. Another dud. “Not after the way Adam treated Yasmine when they lost.”
“Seriously,” Rick agreed. “It’s just a contest, not the Super Bowl. We’re supposed to be supporting each other.”
“I get the feeling there’s more to it.” I lowered my voice, even though no one else was in sight. “I talked to Yasmine before breakfast, and she seemed really put out with Adam. I don’t think this trip is what she was expecting.”
“I imagine it isn’t.” Rick hesitated, but apparently couldn’t resist sharing gossip. “Listen, do not breathe a word of this to anyone else, but she and Adam had an affair.”
“No.” My eyes widened.
“It’s true. Started back in college, even though they were both supposed to be dating other people.” Rick rolled his eyes. “My god, the drama. They were constantly breaking up and getting back together. The ridiculous part is they thought they were keeping it a secret. But you can’t work with someone day and night and not figure out they’re sleeping together.”
So Melissa likely knew as well. “But Adam’s engaged now.”
“And if I know Adam—and I do—he wouldn’t normally let that stop him.” Rick picked up another rock, then tossed it away in disgust. “He’ll probably be back to his old tricks soon enough. But right now, he doesn’t want to risk his fiancée calling off the wedding. His family is loaded, but hers has real political clout.”
“So he doesn’t love her?”
“Adam doesn’t really love anyone but himself.” Rick instantly looked guilty. “Fuck, forget I said that. Adam’s a great guy, he really is. The point is, he’s broken things off with Yasmine, probably for good.”
“And she thought he meant to use this weekend to get back together,” I guessed. I’d feel sorry for her, except if she had intended to get together with Adam, it would have been behind his fiancée's back. Maybe she didn’t care who she screwed over, so long as she was screwing Adam.
“Ooh, I hadn’t thought of that.” Rick let out a low whistle. “No wonder she’s been so touchy.” He picked up yet another rock. “This is sort of flat on both sides.”
“Good enough,” I said. “Let’s find a Y-shaped stick and some more bark.”
Mist settled over the endless fores
t, coating everything in a thin layer of damp. If the temperature had been just a little lower, it would have turned into freezing fog. As it was, our hair, exposed skin, and the outer layers of our clothing grew steadily more waterlogged. Rick’s ears went red from the cold, and his nose started to drip. Eventually, we had only “fungus” and “pinecone” left on the list.
“Let’s find one or the other and go back to the lodge,” Rick suggested.
I wanted a hot coffee so bad I could almost smell it percolating. “God, yes. My prize is going to be sitting as close to the fire as possible without actually being in the flames.”
Fifteen minutes later, we were still trudging through the woods. “How hard can it be to find a pinecone in the middle of the forest?” Rick kicked at the soggy leaves carpeting the ground.
“That’s our problem,” I said, indicating the leaves. “Pines are evergreens, and these obviously aren’t.”
“Oh yeah.” He hunched his shoulders. “Any ideas, or do we just call it quits?”
I paused and scanned the forest around us. We’d gone in a zig-zag pattern, neither of us willing to get too far away from the lodge. “There—see that rise? I see some pines on top. Or maybe they’re cedars. They have leaves, anyway, so they’re evergreens of some kind. If we can’t find a pinecone there, we give up and go back.”
We hiked up the hill, which turned out to be a lot steeper than it had looked at first. This was rough country, the sort of place that would have been seen only by rangers and backcountry hikers if not for the inholding. By the time we reached the stand of trees, both of us were gasping for breath. The icy air burned my throat, and my legs, already aching from this morning’s exercise, felt like they might just fall off.
“What’s that?” Rick pointed to a spot just beneath the outermost evergreens.
In the shadow of the trees, with only dim sunlight penetrating the clouds above, it took me a minute to spot the tent’s shape. The fabric sides were a dull brown that faded into the trees, and someone had heaped twigs and leaves on it to make it blend into the landscape even more.
“I think it’s a blind,” I said. “One of my friends in high school used to hunt, and he had something like this set up on his property.”
Rick frowned. “Then what’s it doing here?”
I shook my head, uncertain. We approached cautiously, but the door flap had been left unzipped, and it didn’t look like anyone was inside. When we reached it, Rick pulled the flap all the way back.
The blind was empty except for a protein bar wrapper and three empty beer cans. “Someone sat here and drank, and…waited to shoot a deer?” he asked.
I looked out, away from the blind, and let out a hiss. “Rick.”
“What?”
I extended a shaking hand to point. “The blind…if this was someone hunting deer, it would overlook a stream, or somewhere deer are likely to congregate. But it doesn’t. The best view is of the lodge. Specifically, the wall that’s mostly glass.”
Rick’s eyes widened as my words sank in. “You mean…?”
“Someone’s been watching us.” I swallowed hard. “We’re not alone out here.”
“I told you I saw someone on the side of the road when we were coming in.” I sat in front of the fire in the lodge, gripping a mug of coffee spiked with whiskey. “You didn’t believe me, but I told you.”
Tiffany held up her hands. “I remember. But there’s no reason to panic.”
Melissa rose to her feet. She and Yasmine had made it back to the lodge first—scavenger hunt successfully completed. They’d been sitting in front of the fire, feet up and toasting each other, when Rick and I burst inside. Adam sat sullenly at the bar, gin and tonic in hand.
“You saw something last night, remember?” Melissa said to Tiffany.
Yasmine stiffened. “What?”
“It was probably just a deer moving in the woods.” Tiffany folded her arms over her chest. “And the deer are probably why someone was here. Yes, we’re in the middle of a park, and yes, we have no trespassing signs up. But illegal poaching does happen.”
“You think it’s just some hunter?” Adam asked.
“Of course.” Tiffany offered us all a reassuring smile. “He was probably hoping to wait us out up in his blind. When it became clear we were going to be here for a few days, he moved on to a different location. We’ll report the blind to the rangers when we go back on Monday.”
I glanced at Rick. “It’s creepy. The guy was sitting up there, drinking beer and watching us, and we didn’t even know he was there.”
Rick seemed to have calmed. “I’m sure Tiffany’s right. Poaching is a crime, right? He wouldn’t risk us catching him. He’s pulled up stake and left by now.”
“You can’t know that,” Yasmine argued.
Adam rose to his feet. “We aren’t leaving.”
She blinked at him. “I didn’t say—”
“You’re looking for an excuse to chicken out on the rest of the retreat.” Adam tossed down the rest of his drink. I wondered how many he’d had before we came back. “It isn’t going to work. I’m not going to let you ruin this for me.”
The corners of Yasmine’s mouth went white with fury.
“Don’t worry ladies, we men will protect you,” Rick said in an attempt to lighten the mood. It only earned him a glare from Yasmine.
“Seriously, there’s nothing to worry about.” Tiffany looked around the room, from one of us to the next. “But if you’d feel better, I can use the satellite phone to put in a call to the ranger station and ask them to send someone around tomorrow.”
Melissa nodded. I bit my lip. “All right.”
“Good.” Tiffany smiled. “How about a round of drinks and some dinner to relax?”
Everyone else crowded around the bar. I went to the glass wall and looked out. Daylight didn’t last long at this time of year, and night had almost fallen in the short time since we’d returned to the lodge. The clouds still blocked out the moon and stars, leaving us with only unrelieved blackness to look out on.
Melissa’s face reflected in the glass as she came up behind me. “I thought this was beautiful last night, but it feels creepy now.” She shivered.
I nodded. “We’re lit up in here. If anyone is out there, we can’t see them.”
“Exactly,” Melissa said. “But they can see us.”
Eight
“All right, we have one last activity tonight before we turn in,” Tiffany said. She stood in front of the fireplace, backlit by the flames, her cheerful smile in place. The rest of us sat in a loose circle of chairs in front of her. We’d finished off dinner, and everyone had a fresh drink in hand. “The name of the game is Total Honesty.”
“Did you forget a lawyer is present?” Rick asked with a chuckle. Melissa and Adam laughed too, but Yasmine remained impassive.
Tiffany clasped her hands in front of her. “Now, this activity isn’t as fun as some of the others. But it is very, very important. In order to function as a team, you have to trust each other to be honest. To tell the truth, even when that truth hurts.”
All signs of amusement vanished instantly. I shifted my weight, suddenly tense. “What do you mean?”
“We’re going to offer each other constructive criticism. I’ll be moderating.” Tiffany’s gaze ran over each of us in turn. “Some ground rules: only make ‘I’ statements. ‘I think’ or ‘I feel.’ That sort of thing. Because criticism is hard to hear, I want you all to take time to reflect on the feedback you get, rather than respond to it. All right?”
No one looked remotely thrilled by the prospect, but we all nodded reluctantly.
“Who wants to go first?” No one volunteered. Tiffany shrugged and said, “What about you, Rick? What criticism would you like to offer your co-workers to help them improve?”
Rick’s eyes went deer-in-the-headlights wide. “Um. Well. I sometimes feel like upper management—”
Tiffany cleared her throat. “Names, Rick, and restrict
your comments to people here.”
“Oh. Okay.” He swallowed. “Adam, I sometimes feel as though you don’t acknowledge how hard other people work.”
Adam’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “What the fuck do you think this weekend is?”
“No responses,” Tiffany said quickly. “Just think about what Rick has to say, Adam, and why he might feel this way. Who’s next?”
Melissa held up her hand. “Rick, I don’t think that’s fair. You act like you’re the only one putting in long hours, but we all know the reason Chad left you had to do more with the intern you were…mentoring…than the office work.”
I sat forward despite myself. This was new.
Rick let out a furious gasp. “Really, Melissa? You—”
“‘I’ statements, please,” Tiffany interjected.
“—I feel that you act as if butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth.” Rick’s lips twisted into a sneer. “Going on about volunteering at church, and being an organ donor, like the drunk driving never happened.”
Melissa physically recoiled, as if he’d struck her. Her mouth worked, but she didn’t seem to know what to say.
Adam glared at Rick. “Rick, I feel you don’t realize just how lucky you are to still be employed.”
“What is it to you?” Yasmine sat forward, gaze fixed on Adam. The reflection of the fire danced in her dark eyes. “I’m the one who cleans up everyone’s messes, while you golf and ski and jet off to Aruba.”
“And you’re a psycho,” Adam spat back.
This had gone off the rails even faster than I’d expected. “Maybe we should just all calm down, take a few breaths.”
“What about you, Lauren?” Yasmine’s stare pinned me against my chair. “You couldn’t wait to come on this trip, could you? You don’t think you really belong here with us, do you?”
