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But it just might be a problem.
I do actually have my own room. One that already has my stuff in it. Am I going to need to share that with a few other ladies? Will Ben want me to move into his room? What will I tell everyone? What will I tell him?
Besides Sally, I’m not close to anyone who works at the resort. The only people I interact with are a handful of other fitness instructors. Luckily, those weren’t the people partying with Ainsley and I in the weeks before my job started. Before he bailed.
But Paul was one of those people, and the people he works with were too. How many of them are going to be on Merit with us?
“Are you freaking out right now?” Sally whispers beside me as we bump down the muddy road. “I can practically feel the nerves radiating off of you.”
“Yeah,” I say simply, in no mood to get into this in the back of the golf cart.
“It’s going to be fine,” she says dismissively, offering a side hug.
I stiffen in her grasp, suddenly angry at her flippant remark. “What makes you think that?”
She backs away, clearly surprised by my hiss of a comment. “I don’t know. Things usually are?”
I roll my eyes and flop back in my seat. I’m stressed about this situation, upset about my house, and completely at the mercy of fate and the whims of other people. It’s not a great feeling, but it’s also not a good time to be alienating my only ally.
“I’m sorry. I’m just…this has been a lot. It still is. I need some kind of plan.”
Sally nuzzles back into me, clearly not at all put off by my mood. “We’ll think of something. Let’s talk more on the boat.”
The scene at the dock makes me forget some of my worries. It’s a straight up refugee site, complete with haggard, dirty people sitting in groups on and around piles of their wet, filthy belongings.
Unlike a real refugee site, however, most of the people are in pretty high spirits. The mood is almost festive as people clamber onto the two small snorkel boats that showed up for the job. These are people who know they’re going to be taken care of. People who, even though they lost some things, know those things can be replaced.
I help some women from the cafe load their bags and then Sally and I load ours. I lose sight of Ben as we’re corralled into seats on one of the boats.
When we get to Merit, he’s already on shore, directing people to wait in groups to be taken by golf cart to the house. When he spots me, he waves.
“Victoria, you still good to drive?”
I nod and head over to him.
“It’s going to be slow going, as people have a lot of stuff, so we won’t be able to take as many people at a time as usual. There’s shade down here, though, and Max already brought down a cooler of drinks, so everyone should be fine.”
“Some people look less fine than others. Let’s get them loaded up first.”
Ben follows my gaze around the crowd. It’s easy to spot them—the ones wandering forlornly with all their belongings in their arms, not mingling with any of the groups. He nods.
“Great. Here’s the key to the green cart. Get as many as you can on each trip. Max’s wife Petunia is waiting at the house to greet people and get them settled in the main room. When everyone’s there we can start putting people in rooms.”
“Okay,” I reply simply, not giving into the burning desire to step close enough for him to pull me to his body.
Instead, I turn and head in the direction of the lime green and black golf cart that Ben usually drives to and from the house. It’ll be my first time driving this cart, but not my first time driving one at all.
As I’m loading my bags into the trunk and preparing to round up a few passengers, Paul comes over.
“Ooh, you got the keys, huh?”
I try not to let my sigh explode out of me. I guess I’ve been waiting for this exact interaction for hours now. “Yup. I know the way.”
“Do you now?” he asks, just as curious as I would be in his position.
“Yup,” I say, allowing too much of my annoyance out with the word. I should be diffusing the situation, but I haven't had enough time to figure out how. Sally and I were not able to formulate the perfect plan on the packed, bumpy boat ride over. “I’m taking the most haggard-looking people first and that’s not you, but if you want to help load, that would be great.”
He keeps me pinned there under narrowed eyes for a long moment before softening. “Yeah, okay.” He tosses a look over his shoulder at two older women huddled together next to a palm tree. “I think Britt and Susan from housekeeping could probably go first.”
