“Did you ask him?” Jenna asks no one in particular as she walks up to our table.
“Oh God, ask me what?” I groan.
“What type of cake you want for your birthday?” Jenna says.
“I don’t need a cake. I’m not really into birthdays, so please don’t feel the need to do anything.”
Jenna takes the seat beside Aurora and steals a piece of toast from her plate. Aurora is too busy glaring at me to notice. She takes a bite and turns her attention back to me. “Aw, don’t be like that when it’s your twenty-first.”
“Your twenty-first?” Aurora squeaks. “And you want to spend it here with no birthday cake and no party? I love this place but that sucks, Russ.”
Jenna scowls at her. “Uh, family legacy? Rude.”
“You’re the farmer equivalent of a nepo baby, calm down,” Aurora grumbles. “Can we all have time off to go to Vegas?”
“You’re not even old enough to enjoy Las Vegas,” Emilia tells Aurora, only to be met with an unimpressed glare.
“I don’t want to go to Vegas,” I add, even though I don’t think anybody in this conversation cares about what I want.
Aurora looks appalled. “Why not? We can take our camp counselor riches and put it all on red.”
I’m back to studying my eggs, wondering how I can say I don’t gamble without it creating more questions I’d rather not answer. Thankfully, Jenna saves me. “Can someone tell me what cake I’m buying? Ideally the birthday boy himself.”
Xander is the first to reply. “Chocolate.”
Followed by Emilia. “Lemon.”
And finally Aurora. “Ice cream.”
They’re all looking at me again. “No cake.”
“Y’all are impossible,” Jenna moans as she stands from our table. “I’ll be at the cabin in twenty minutes to do the inspection. Who’s not working today?”
“Me and Russ,” Aurora says casually.
“I’m so glad I work so hard on all your programs for you to all switch it around whenever you feel like it,” Jenna drawls, rolling her eyes. Jenna has been nice about us switching, even though it ruins her spreadsheet and she has to reprint it. Aurora told her we’re the only ones who like hiking and that’s why we’re spending so much time together. “I’m just going to put you two on the same day off from now on. I’m wasting so much paper.”
I don’t know how people sneaking around at other camps do it considering so many of them offer hardly any time off. Aurora and I struggle for privacy, but we’re lucky Emilia and Xander are flexible and like each other enough to swap with us so we can be alone.
I feel like I’m sweating beneath the pressure of being around Jenna, but Aurora looks perfectly cool as she changes the topic. “Do you want anything from the ice cream shop in Meadow Springs?”
“I thought you were hiking?” Jenna says and I’m definitely sweating.
“Jen, how do you feel about having a huge food fight tonight instead of a pajama party?”
Xander says, quickly changing the topic.
“I do not feel good about it,” she says, instantly turning her attention to my roommate.
I take the attention being elsewhere as an opportunity to inhale the rest of my breakfast, while Aurora has already made a quick exit saying she needed to do something.
“I’m mad at you,” she says as we approach my truck.
“I know, sweetheart.”
I open the passenger door for her, holding her hand to help her climb in. The summer dress she’s wearing rises, the lace of her underwear just visible as she bends over to climb in and when she looks back at me, I realize this is supposed to be a punishment. “Really mad at you.”
“I accept and encourage you to continue reminding me how mad you are,” I say, closing the door.
Meadow Springs is a tiny little town not far from Honey Acres that’s popular with the staff.
I’ve been saying I’m going to visit since I got here, but there’s only so many hours in the day and I prefer spending it wandering around after Aurora.
Many of the other counselors like its one bar and come here for drinks when they’re not working, but bar hopping—would it be a bar hop since there’s only one place to drink?—is not on our agenda.
Despite her repeated declaration that she’s mad at me about my birthday, the second I open the truck door to help Aurora down she wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me. The amount of self-control and concentration I have to exercise on a daily basis to not touch her in front of other people is ridiculous. She sinks into me, her body smooth and soft and warm.