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“That tapas place sounds good. Would you wanna go?”

Half an hour later, Charlotte was following the directions in Paola’s text message.

THEY WERE WELL into their second Guava Bloom, a rum and guava drink that was deceptively light and delicious, before Charlotte decided to start steering the conversation toward Alexandra Leon. The crowded restaurant was loud, but they were crammed close enough together at the bar that she hoped Paola would be comfortable spilling.

“How long have you worked at the spa?” Charlotte asked before taking a bite of citrusy ceviche.

“Almost three years. Longer than I expected to be a receptionist, but the pay is just too good.” Paola laughed

before taking a sip of her drink. “I know its tacky to talk about money, but you’ll see it’s a really great place to work.

Lots of benefits.” She wiggled her eyebrows from behind the rim of the martini glass as she took another sip.

“Is Alexandra very involved? Do you see her every day?”

Charlotte pretended to be more interested in flagging down the server for a water refill than the answer to her question.

“She’s pretty hands on. Has her fingers in everything.”

Charlotte resisted the urge to ask whether that was a figure of speech. “What’s she like? I couldn’t really get a read on her, but I only met her during my interview.”

Paola took a moment to ponder the question. “She’s intense, but she can be pretty cool too. She expects people to work as hard as she does. Like, there are clients she attends to personally. When have you ever seen someone like that provide one-on-one service? Never! But she doesn’t act like she’s too good for it.”

Not being able to ask direct questions was almost painful.

Did Paola mean that Alexandra had her own clients? Nothing in her background indicated any training or experience in the healing arts. She had to mean something else.

“I bet her life partner doesn’t like that.” Charlotte left the comment as open to interpretation as she could, hoping it might lead to more specific intel.

Paola’s eyes widened. “Oh no. Don’t get the hots for her.

She doesn’t get involved with her sta .”

“What?” Charlotte’s

body flushed with scorching embarrassment. “No! I just—”

“I’m not judging you,” Paola interrupted. “I think everyone has probably had a crush on her. She’s got this

detached goddess energy that’s very alluring. But don’t get any ideas or you’ll just be setting yourself up for disappointment.”

There were so many more follow up questions she wanted to ask out of sheer curiosity, but she resisted and made a joke instead. “Do you think even the terminator Linda Hamilton has had a crush on her?”

After devolving into laughter, they moved on to other topics. Paola told her all about her boyfriend, who she was sure was going to propose at any minute, and the thirteen-year-old Yorkie they’d rescued.

Charlotte responded in vague platitudes and generalities every time Paola asked her a question and spun it back to her. Paola either didn’t notice or didn’t care, but either way, Charlotte was glad she did most of the talking. It gave her time to think up new questions about the spa.

They were back on the subject of work when the check arrived. Charlotte insisted on paying even though it was more than she’d spent on food in a month. It was an easy way to ingratiate herself to someone she hoped to get more out of later.

“This was fun. We’ll have to do it again soon,” Paola said as she slid o her stool. “If we didn’t have to work tomorrow, I’d have had another one of those guava things.”

“I don’t work Saturdays,” Charlotte explained, adding that she’d be there Monday when the resort was closed to the public but the handful of o ce sta that didn’t work over the weekend still reported.

“Oh, that’s right. Well, you’ll be missing our busiest day.

It’s usually nonstop,” she said as they started for the door.

“Is it a di erent clientele than the weekday crowd? Does Alexandra have a lot of VIPs coming in? Anything o the books?” The moment the last question slipped out of her mouth, she regretted it. She laughed to try and sell it as an accounting joke, but the noise she produced was more heave than anything else.