Five of Us Went to the Theme Park, They Only… novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Declined

She freezes the card the four are dining on, takes their names off her rooms, and a quiet man carries her bag; then the four walk into the lobby.

I stood on the exit bridge with the steakhouse alert still lit on my screen.

Three thousand eight hundred dollars, for a dinner I was not invited to.

I opened my banking app with my thumb shaking.

Evan's name was on the list of cards under mine.

I pressed freeze and watched the little lock close.

Then I deleted him from the list, and Daphne's name, which I had added for emergencies.

It took less than a minute.

Three years of carrying them, and the last step took less than a minute.

My phone rang before I reached the end of the bridge.

It was Evan.

"Wendy, what did you do?" he hissed.

Behind him I could hear plates and low music.

"The card got declined. In front of the whole restaurant. The waiter just stood there."

"I know," I said. "I froze it."

"Unfreeze it right now."

"No."

"Wendy." His voice went soft and warm, the voice he used when he wanted something. "Babe, you're tired. You've been on your feet all day. Just fix it and we'll talk at the table."

"I stood on my feet all day because you left me outside."

"That was one ride!"

"It was eleven hours, Evan."

He breathed out, long and annoyed.

"You are making a scene over nothing."

I hung up.

A second later he called again, and then Colin texted: "What is wrong with you? Pay the bill."

Then Daphne texted: "Wendy please, I'm crying in the bathroom, this is so embarrassing."

Rohan's message came last. "Wen, please. Don't do this to Evan."

None of them wrote: where are you.

None of them wrote: are you okay.

I turned my phone face down against my leg and kept walking.

The resort lobby was all marble and white orchids at ten at night.

I went straight to the front desk with my bag dragging at my shoulder.

"Hi. All five rooms on this reservation are under my name, Wendy Carrow."

The clerk checked her screen.

"Yes, ma'am. Three suites and two standard rooms, paid in full."

"I want four of them taken off my booking, starting tonight."

She looked up at me.

"The ones with your party's names on them?"

"Yes."

"They'll lose their key cards."

"I know."

I wasn't shaking anymore.

I was surprised how quiet it was inside me.

The clerk typed for a moment, then picked up the desk phone and murmured into it.

An older man in a gray suit came out of the back office almost at once.

He had the careful look of a night manager who had been told something.

"Ms. Carrow," he said. "I'm so sorry about your evening. Mr. MacGovern asked that your party be looked after, so please tell us anything you need."

"Who is Mr. MacGovern?"

"The owner of the hotel group, ma'am. He's on the property this week."

I didn't know why he had asked for us.

I was too tired to ask him.

"I only need the four extra rooms off my card," I said. "And my own bag taken up."

"Of course. That's easy."

A deep voice spoke behind me.

"I'll take the bag."

I turned around.

A tall man stood a few steps away in a plain dark jacket with no name tag.

He had dark hair and gray eyes, and a pale scar ran across the knuckles of his left hand.

He looked thirty-five, maybe.

He watched before he spoke.

"I can carry it myself," I said.

"I know you can," he said. "You've carried everyone's all day."

My face went hot.

"You saw that?"

"I was in the terrace bar above the east gate," he said. "I watched you stand at that railing for most of the afternoon."

He held out his hand for the strap, palm up, and waited.

I should have said no.

But my shoulder ached from the sunscreen and the water bottle and the charger.

I let the bag slide off my arm into his hand.

He took it in one hand and didn't say anything else.

He didn't pity me or ask what had happened, and I was grateful for both.

"Thank you," I said. "I'm Wendy."

"Adam."

That was all he said.

A bell chimed at the entrance.

The glass doors slid open, and four people walked into the lobby in a line.

Evan came first, with his jaw set and his phone in his fist.

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