Once we've reached them, over my shoulder, he informs them, "We have three cabins and a lodge."
"Okay," Jodie furrows her eyebrows in confusion. "But there's ten of us."
"Six of us are going to have to pair up into twos for the cabins. The lodge is big enough to accommodate four people."
"Okay, so obviously the girls are getting the lodge," Damien says.
"Why are you making that decision for us?" Savannah muses. "What if we want a cabin?"
"Do you want a cabin, Savannah?"
"Fuck no. I'm definitely a lodge kinda girl."
"Yeah, I think us girls should take the lodge," Taylor adds, bobbing her head up and down in agreement. "What do you say, Jodie?"
"As long as I'm paired with Savannah, I'm okay with whatever."
"Uh, Taylor," Edward quickly interjects and the look in his eyes almost has me bursting out in laughter, "I was hoping that maybe you and I could share a cabin."
"No, you can go with Damien," she responds and visibly, he deflates.
Dominic leans over to me and whispers quietly, "Do you want to share a cabin with me?"
For some reason, I don't immediately answer affirmatively to his question. I should say yes, that's what I tell myself but there is a hesitation in my heart that I cannot quite explain. I can't help but think about the implications of sharing a cabin with him.
With how visibly tense it is between us, because of the actions we've both taken without informing the other, do I want to spend these three days constantly around in his space and vice versa? On the other hand, Dominic and I do have a lot to talk about and avoiding him doesn't seem like the most mature way to go about it.
The offer awkwardly hangs in the air between us, laden with unspoken questions and possibilities. Perhaps it's the unknown that gives me pause, the uncertainty of what sharing a cabin could entail.
"Richard and I will take one of those cabins from you," Kai announces to Dominic which breaks the silence between us.
Dominic, after slowly glancing away from me, distractedly nods and then tosses a key over at him which falls on the ground, because Kai is apparently terrible at catching things. After he has handed everyone their respective keys to their cabins and lodges, people slowly start to disperse.
"You didn't answer me," Dominic points out after a few more seconds of stretching silence.
I turn around to face him. "What do you mean?"
"When I asked you if you wanted to share a cabin with me, you didn't answer me."
"Well, obviously I'm going to share a cabin with you. Who else was I going to share with?"
After looking down at his trainers, he softly asks, "Do you want to share a cabin with me?"
"Why does that matter?"
"Just answer the question."
"Sure. It'll give us a chance to take a deep dive into the reason why you decided to invite both your ex and Savannah to this trip."
Frustratedly, he throws his head back and stares up at the heavens. "I didn't invite Savannah."
"But you invited Jodie," I muse rhetorically.
"I did."
"Why?"
"Because I felt like it. Do I need to have a reason for doing it?"
"Okay, then do whatever you want, Dominic like you always do. What do I care? You are the man in charge since you're basically paying for this entire trip, right?" I irritably turn around to fetch my things from the car, but he stops me in my tracks by grabbing a hold of my arm.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing's wrong with me."
"That's not fair. You're angry at me for inviting Jodie to this camping trip and yet you go behind my back to secretly invite some other guy."
"Kai is just a friend," I explain with a small stutter, nervously pinching down on the tip of my ring finger.
"How do you know I was talking about him? What if I was talking about the other one?"
Timidly, I avert my gaze and I just want to curl up and die. "It doesn't matter."
"What doesn't matter?"
"I don't want to argue with you."
"We're not arguing. We're having a casual conversation."
"No, we're clearly arguing. I know the difference between an argument and us having a casual conversation. Look, let me just get my things from the car and we will talk about this later."
"Talk about what later?"
Without answering his question, I turn abruptly on my heels and start to scurry away from him with haste. His voice echoes behind me as he calls out my name, but I don't slow down. I feel an overwhelming sense of discomfort and unease in that moment, and I can't wait to distance myself from him. That experience was unpleasant. I hated every second of it. I wish I could have avoided it altogether.
When I arrive at the random car park that the car was parked in, I find Kai there. He is standing behind his car with his hand on the boot's handle and when I see the other person with him, I stumble over my own feet.
Savannah is with him and they are speaking to each other. My brows furrow in confusion as I wonder when they became acquainted with each other. When she laughs at something he says to her, a frown pulls my lips down. An image of them being together brews in my mind, swirling with both curiosity and intriguingly disappointment.
I quickly walk over there and cutting in their conversation, I exclaim loudly, "Hi."
His gaze wavers over to me and a grin breaks out over his face. "Oh, Seong Jin. Hey."
Savannah stares down at me and I don't miss the way her nose wrinkles in disgust at the sight of me. Then she pastes a plastic smile on her face before glancing back at him. "I'll see you later."
"Yeah, sure."
Then she saunters away, hips swaying and all.
"You here for your suitcase?"
With a stiff smile, I bob my head up and down and he proceeds to pull it out of the boot with the same strained groan as before.
"Oh, by the way, how much am I supposed to cough up?" He must see my look of confusion at his question, so he clarifies, "To repay Dominic for the cabin he paid for."
"Oh, I don't know. He said that because his parents are rich and famous, he has the whole thing covered so—"
"Rich and famous?" he muses, reaching up to shut his boot and leisurely he leans into the car, crossing his arms over his chest. "What do you mean rich and famous?"
"His mum is a business tycoon, and his dad is a famous actor."
"No way, his dad is an actor? Like an actual famous person?" he muses with a look of excitement glimmering in his beautiful eyes. "What's his name?"
"Ronan Lachowski."
"Really?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Well, I mean, still. It doesn't seem fair to make him pay for our cabins. I'll talk to him after we've all settled in so I can wire the amount to him."
Hopefully, he has much better luck convincing him.
Once I have arrived at my cabin, I stand outside at the bottom of the steps, dreading the conversation I will have to have with Dominic.
He may try and accuse me of something, but the truth is I haven't done anything wrong and even if I did do something with someone else, it would not matter because Dominic and I are not in a relationship.
With a sigh expelling from my body, I reluctantly take a few steps up and eventually make it up to the door with my suitcase in tow. I reach over to the door handle to open it, but the door pulls inward before I can and I jump in surprise when on the other end stands a half-naked Dominic, only in his swimming trunks.
"We're going canoeing," he explains without me having to ask. "Get changed while I go inform the others."
With that being said, he walks past me and quickly jogs down the steps. While staring at his retreating form, I can't help scowling irritably. It doesn't take a genius to tell that he's angry at me.
I walk into the cabin, tugging my heavy suitcase along with me. After closing the door, my eyes do a quick sweep of the interior. It feels cosy while looking well-equipped. There's even a kitchen in here. I was not expecting that. I thought we would have to hunt for a deer in the wild, carve out its skin and then cook it above a bonfire of some sort, but I can see why they wouldn't let us do that. It feels like that might be breaking a few ethics and some laws.
When I head into the twin bedroom to unpack my clothes and toiletries, I'm surprised to find Dominic's stuff already in the wardrobe. Why wouldn't he take the master bedroom? It has an en suite toilet and everything.
I mean, I'm not complaining.
Shaking my head, I leave his bedroom and head over to the master bedroom. With my clothes in the wardrobe and my toiletries in the bathroom, I change into my swimming trunks, smear two lines of sunscreen underneath my eyes and then head out. The sounds of birds chirping somewhere up above in the trees, causes my head to tip back to look at the different coloured birds, claws around twigs and tweeting about.
What are they talking about, I wonder.
Maybe the next location to migrate to when winter returns.