Nikki walked up the hillside to the cabin.

It was so late that she was sure the others would be asleep.

The whole resort was silent. Only the hoot of the night owls and the lush scent of wild jasmine kept her company on her walk.

She couldn’t understand why Indiana hadn’t called her to tell her what happened. Maybe he was still at the Crow’s Nest, though that seemed unlikely.

As she came up the path, she was surprised to see the glow of warm light through the trees. Someone must still be up.

She opened the screen door and stepped inside.

Both Honey and Addy were sitting on the sectional sofa.

Kitt and Remington were nowhere to be seen.

“Hey guys,” she said. “You’re up late.”

Addy shook her head, a disgusted look on her face.

“We trusted you,” Honey said, sounding heartbroken.

Oh, god.

“What are you talking about?” Nikki asked, hating herself for using the insincere question as a way to buy some time.

She had known this conversation was going to happen eventually.

But she had convinced herself it could be on her terms, a voluntary admission- maybe one with the hope of reconciliation. Nikki thought of these women as her friends now.

“Don’t bother,” Addy said. “She’s a liar. She’s not our friend, she never has been. She was only here to get a story.”

“That’s not true,” Nikki said, though most of it was true, or at least it had been true. “I mean… I was here to get a story, at first, but… I care about you. I care about you now.”

“I can’t believe you could do such a thing,” Honey said, her voice cracking a little at the end.

Funny, Nikki was thinking the same about Indiana.

How could he blow her cover like this, knowing that it would hurt her, and her friends too? What did he possibly have to gain? He had been helping her.

“Where are—” she began.

“They went back to their own cabin,” Addy said briskly.

“Oh,” Nikki said.

“Honey and I are going to be moving back down to the women’s staff cabin with everyone else,” Addy said.

Oh god, they didn’t even want to live with her anymore.

“No,” Nikki said immediately. “I’ll go. You guys earned this place.”

Addy didn’t argue.

Nikki scrambled to her room and began shoving stuff in her bag, willing herself not to cry.

You can cry when you get to your new place.

At last her clothing and sundries were all in her big duffel. She went back out to the living room.

Honey studied her with mournful eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Nikki whispered.

Addy pointed to the door.

Nikki put her chin down and left.

The call of the owls sounded mournful on her way down the hillside.

She snuck in the back door of the women’s staff cabin, hoping there would be a free bed in plain sight. It would be awful to have someone wake up and have them ask her what was going on.

Moonlight filtered in through the screened windows, caressing the faces of the sleeping staff.

There was a free bed all the way in the back corner.

Nikki went to it gratefully, put her stuff at the foot of it, and climbed in.

She expected to dissolve instantly into tears, but for a long time she only lay on her back looking at the shadow of the trees blowing on the ceiling.

She was beyond sadness. She was alone - as alone as she had ever been. More so now, because she had known what it was like to have friends, to have a man she loved.

It was only when she allowed herself to picture the happy future she wouldn’t be part of, the jokes she would miss, the sparkle of the sunset over the water from up on the hillside, that the tears finally came.