Page 88 of Tasty Cherry

“With you? Absolutely.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” His grin is infectious, and we stand there a moment just smiling at each other.

I point at the blue door. “Are we headed to the Cinderella suite?”

“Better. Come on. You can never breathe a word of this to anyone.”

I lift the hand not holding our sandwiches. “Scout’s honor.”

He presses a quick kiss to my mouth, and that’s how I know there’s no camera here. “You were never a Scout.”

I laugh. “Were you?”

“Troop 69, Greater Boulder.” He clicks his heels.

“You were not 69.”

“Oh, yes, we were. Google it. It was a great joke, even though half of us had no idea exactly what it meant.”

I’m twenty-two, and I have only a vague idea of how it works, two people locked together in opposite directions.

I bet Sebastian knows everything.

He presses his key card to the janitor’s closet lock.

The first lock engages, then there’s a slow turning of another one. Finally, the door pops free.

“Fancy,” I say.

“Oh yes,” he says. “We upgraded and slightly rerouted this path last year when someone leaked photos.”

Ohhhh. “Is this the secret suite?”

He holds a finger to his lips. “Come on.”

When we enter, there’s a set of shelves filled with cleaning supplies. But something’s wrong. They aren’t labeled correctly. I try to pick one up, but it’s glued to the shelf.

“False front,” Sebastian says. He reaches down to pull on a yellow bucket.

Something clicks.

The entire shelf swings away from us, revealing a narrow set of stairs that definitely aren’t the usual ones with the windows overlooking the front of the property. They only go down, even though there is a floor above us.

“This is positively banger,” I say.

“Banger. I guess that means cool?” He’s grinning, like I’m talking “young people” slang. As if thirty-two is old.

Although Camille thinks so.

“Totes,” I say, even though that’s not a thing we’ve said since high school.

He laughs again.

Lights pop on as we descend the skinny stairs. The walls are painted in a pastel rainbow, and each wall sconce is a metal cloud.

We arrive at the bottom to another door requiring a card. Sebastian uses his.

“Who all can come here?”