Five
“You know, you should go for it,” Todd told her. They were trudging back up to the mansion/resort/hellhole, rain beating down on them like a live, malevolent thing. Todd and Caro were trailing behind the group. Jana and Lynn hovered so close to Turner, they were practically holding his hands. “I saw the way you looked at his butt.”
“I was not,” she said, jerking her gaze higher. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh, come on. You like him, I can tell.”
“Todd,” she said patiently, “I don’t know him. Or you. Can we stay focused, please? Heck, a few minutes ago I thought he was a dead body.”
“The only impediment to your budding romance, I might add. Make a pass. He’ll be receptive, I bet. A little va-va-voom on your vacation, do you good.”
“Todd! We’re sort of in the middle of something, here. There’s a time and a place, and this ain’t it.”
“Details,” Todd grumbled.
“Why don’t you make a pass, you think it’s such a great idea?”
“Oh, believe me, I did. Right after breakfast. Hello, you see his pecs? Oofta. Alas, he politely turned me down.” Todd sighed, then brightened. “But I bet he wouldn’t turn you down.” He squinted at her in the rain. “I bet your hair is past your waist when you get it out of that tacky braid. And it’s probably not usually muddy and brownish.”
“It’s blond,” she said, stung.
“Well, drowned rat is not a good look for you, darling. And you’re almost as tall as he is. Actually ...”
“That’s enough.”
“... you’ve got sort of the forties starlet thing going, with your teeny waist and big boobs.”
“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” she said sarcastically. “Now shut your face.”
“Except for the glasses,” he added heartlessly. “Big purple frames? In this decade? You should lose them and try contacts.”
“I hate contacts. They itch my eyeballs. Can we please stop this?”
“But it’s why you came here. It’s why we all came here.”
“That’s not true!” she cried.
“Oh, sure it is,” Todd went on cheerfully. “Not necessarily to hook up—like an island Love Boat, how lame would that be? And who does that make me? Doc? Gopher? But to be with people.”
“I’m here only because my friend was too busy to go and she gave me her tickets.”
“Okay,” he said. “But why did you come?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she snapped.
“I’m just saying.” Todd looked at the fresh cigarette and tucked it away without bothering to try to light it in the downpour. “You should ask him out. I bet he’s into you. God knows he wasn’t into me.”
“And who could resist you?”
“Exactly.”
Caro grinned in spite of herself. “You’re an asshole, Todd.”
“Exactly.”