“Serious like a Manolo Blahnik sale.”
“Wow. We’re almost the last team still sitting in the parking lot and all you can think about is getting your nail fixed. You remember we’re in a competition right?”
Zoe rolled her eyes. “Of course I remember. But I also remembered that we’re being followed by cameras.” She turned in her seat to face Evan who’d climbed into the SUV and filmed from the front passenger seat. “Long time no see, Evan. Good thing you got that girl of yours knocked up. Now she won’t be around and we can really have some fun at base camp each night.”
“Zoe! Cassidy is going to see that on TV, you know.”
Zoe smiled. “Good. She needs a reminder of the temptations facing her man everyday while she’s at home eating ice cream and getting fat.”
“Oh my God. Stop talking.” Paige couldn’t have felt more uncomfortable in front of the camera at that moment even if she’d been buck-naked. Well, maybe that wasn’t totally true. Naked in front of the national viewing audience would definitely be worse. But she wasn’t crazy about Zoe’s behavior. Especially not at Cassidy’s expense.
Evan caught her eye from behind the camera and shrugged. If he was unconcerned about Zoe, then there was no reason for Paige to waste any more time worrying about her either. Nope. She had bigger worries right now, like how to catch up in a race they were already way behind on.
“Can we focus on the competition we’re supposed to actually be competing in and you can worry about getting your precious nail fixed later? Like maybe after we check in at base camp for the night.” Paige glanced out the window as Team Everest pulled out of the parking lot. It seemed strange that they hadn’t been faster getting to their vehicle since they both looked so fit. Maybe they were just muscled without actually being athletic. “Great, now we really are the last team to leave.”
Zoe glanced up from the packet of information and watched as the team drove off. If Paige wasn’t mistaken, she could have sworn Zoe stiffened at the sight of the other team, her back straightening and her eyes narrowing a little. Weird. It was way too early to have enemies here. Unless you had a history with someone like Paige had with Zoe. Then it made perfect sense to be enemies already. Too bad she had to now be partners with hers.
Zoe handed over the GPS unit, which Paige then tried unsuccessfully to turn on. Damn it. Why did everything have to turn to shit today? Seriously, today was supposed to be the start of a fun adventure with her best friend. She and Cassidy should be zipping along the highway on the way to their first cache now, laughing and joking around. Getting caught up on all the things that had happened in their lives since agreeing to do another reality show for Chip.
Instead she was stuck in a car with bitchy Zoe in an empty parking lot without a sniff of an idea what to do first. Already at the back of the pack and it was only day one of twenty-eight.
If there was a hell, this was the front gate.
And Zoe was the hostess with the mostest.
Suddenly, being sent home before the show had even started didn’t sound like such a bad idea. Too bad they’d dragged Zoe out of whatever rich man’s bed she’d been in so she could come and harass Paige.
Zoe took the GPS unit back and expertly switched it on. “They just had to stick me with the girl who can’t even work a simple piece of technology. Switch with me. I don’t have time to teach you how to use this thing right now.”
Paige ignored Zoe’s rude comment and climbed into the driver’s seat while Zoe settled herself in the back. She wasn’t a great driver either, but as long as they stayed on the highway, out in the country, she should be fine. “What cache should we look for first? Maybe start at number one and work our way through them?”
“Sure, if we want to be following half the other teams around. And the other half is probably split between starting in the exact middle and starting at the end. No, we need to pick a random spot and hope for the best.”
Good thinking.
Maybe Zoe was smarter than she looked.
Paige flipped through a few pages but it did little good. All the coordinates blurred together with no possible way to discern what might be the best one to start with. “How about number 303? Random enough for you?”
“Perfect. I’ll punch in the coordinates while you start driving. Looks like there’s really only one way out of here right now and it will take us to a major interstate. By then I should have this up and running and I’ll tell you were to go.”
Why can’t I be the one to tell her where to go? I have so many creative ideas.
Zoe leaned back in the seat and put her feet up on the middle console between the driver and passenger’s seats. Paige couldn’t help but notice the bright red sole beneath the sparkling heel.
“Nice shoes,” Paige teased as she pulled out of the parking lot. “Let’s hope the first cache isn’t anywhere without a sidewalk.”
“Christian Louboutins are perfect for any occasion.”
“Even hiking?”
“You’d be amazed at what I can do in these shoes.” The tone of Zoe’s voice turned flirtatious as she peered into Evan’s camera.
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t imply something I’d really rather not think about you doing.”
“I’m sorry, prude. Are your panties in a twist all of a sudden? I’ve heard that’s painful but I wouldn’t know since I don’t wear any.”
“TMI, Zoe. Seriously. I may be your partner in this competition but I really don’t need to know your panty preferences.”
“Just because you’re comfortable in combat boots and a turtleneck — ”
“Hiking boots and a yoga top,” Paige interrupted.
“Whatever.” Zoe waived her hand at her dismissively. “Make a left onto the interstate. Looks like we’re headed into New York City.”
Paige panicked at the thought of having to drive into a city with millions of other people on the road. It wasn’t bad enough that she was stuck with Zoe. Now she also had to drive, which she didn’t really care for unless the road was straight and empty. Nope. Now she was headed into one of the busiest cities in the world being navigated by the biggest bitch in the world.
Maybe if she pretended she wasn’t nervous, she wouldn’t be. Or maybe she’d still get them killed in a multi-car pile up on the Henry Hudson.
“Now which way?” Paige asked, gripping the steering wheel.
“Straight. I’ll tell you when we have to take an exit.”
“Oh, okay,” she mumbled. She didn’t like this at all. Cars surrounded her on every side. Zoe muttered from the backseat repeatedly about how she needed to drive faster. Easy for her to say when she wasn’t the one who had to avoid hitting obstacles moving seventy miles an hour.
“You are competent enough to drive a vehicle, right? You do have a license?”
Paige rolled her eyes then quickly focused back on the highway again, swallowing hard. Note to self: No eye rolling while driving.
“Of course I have a license.”
“Then why do I get the overwhelming feeling that I’m at driving school again and you’re one panic attack away from getting us all killed?”
“I just, um, don’t like driving in so much traffic. That’s all.”
Paige heard Zoe whispering to herself but couldn’t make out what she said. Did she really want to know? Probably not. And yet she felt compelled to ask. They were teammates after all. “Everything okay back there?”
“Great.” Zoe’s voice deadpan and very much reflective of Paige’s mood.
Don’t ask. Just move on.
She sighed. If they were going to be together for weeks and work as a team, they needed to be able to talk about everything. Even if she didn’t really want to, she needed to be nice to Zoe. Maybe if she treated her with respect, Zoe would do the same.
“If we’re going to work together, we should talk about things that are bothering us. It’s not going to help to keep everything bottled up inside.”
“Well, therapist Paige. I was thinking to myself that when we check in at base camp, I’m going to find Chip and rip him a new one for pairing me with a girl who’s not only technology impaired, but also can’t drive. What else are you lacking that I should be aware of? Because maybe I should know that now. I may as well be running this race alone for all the help you’ve provided so far.”
So much for nice and respectful.
“When you’re done with Chip, send him my way so I can thank him for partnering me with Cruella de Vil. Do you kill puppies in your spare time? Because I think you’ve got the right personality for that line of work.”
“We need to take that exit up ahead.”
Paige felt her head spin for a second. “What?” She shoulder-checked quickly before gunning it and swerving into the right lane, narrowly pulling ahead of a minivan. “I told you I needed notice for exits.”
“That was notice. The GPS only gives me so much advance warning.”
Paige took the exit too fast. She pressed hard on the brake to slow the SUV down quickly before they flipped going around the tight corner. The car behind her honked. But they could honk all they wanted. If they had Zoe in the backseat, they’d be frazzled behind the wheel too.
“Ouch,” Zoe called from the back where she’d banged her shoulder into the door as they’d come out of the sharp corner.
If only Zoe’s door had flung open at the time. Then Paige would have one less headache.
“You have no one to blame for your injury but yourself. Maybe next time you’ll give me more warning if you want me to drive.”
“Maybe there won’t be a next time with the way you drive.”
A yellow cab came out of nowhere, laid on the horn, and flipped Paige the finger as she hit the brake so hard the tires squealed. Zoe shrieked in the back as she slammed face first into the back of Paige’s seat.
With her knuckles white on the steering wheel, Paige took a couple of deep breaths and tried to stop her sudden urge to throw up. From beside her, Evan chuckled as he pointed his camera toward Zoe.
“I blame you for all of this,” Paige said, narrowing her eyes at Evan. “You just had to go and get Cassidy all knocked up so she couldn’t be my partner. You better name that baby after me if it’s a girl.”
He shrugged and smiled in response.
Refocusing, she asked, “Where to now, Zoe?”
For the next few minutes — that felt more like eternity — they made their way through the busy city streets with Zoe telling her where to turn. Paige did her best not to get them into any more close calls with taxis.
“It’s somewhere in there,” Zoe said as they pulled alongside Central Park.
“Okay, where can I turn in?”
“I don’t know. It says we’re pretty close. I think we’re going to have to park and do the rest on foot.”
“Park where?”
Zoe leaned in between the two front seats and pointed a little way down the street. “There. That big P is a parking garage. We can drop the car off then double back into the park.”
“Did they give us any money in the information packet?”
Zoe opened it and pulled out a handful of bills. “Looks like more than enough for parking.”
“But what if we need it for other things?” Paige asked. They should be careful with their money since no one had told them yet if they were going to get any more along the way. What if this was the only money they got and then didn’t have enough for another one of the caches later on?
“Unless you want to drive around for an hour looking for street parking and wasting even more time, then I suggest we pull into the garage and tell them to keep it somewhere close since we’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Paige didn’t answer. There was no point. Zoe was right and arguing with her or strategizing other options was only going to waste precious time. They’d already lost enough of that at the beginning of the race.
After dropping off the SUV, they crossed into the park at the light then sprinted in the direction the arrow pointed. Now that they were close, only a quarter of a mile away according to the GPS, Paige felt her pulse quicken. And it wasn’t just because of the jogging. The thought that they were going to find their first cache was so exciting.
What if there was a prize inside? What if they had to do something crazy to get the cache once they found it?
That made her feel marginally sick so she forced it out of her mind and instead focused on running without falling. They wove through a pathway that was as close to following the arrow as they could. It was either that or run through trees, which didn’t sound like any fun. Countless confused looking dog-walkers later, the path opened up, leading directly to a castle.
A castle in Central Park.
“That has to be where it’s hidden,” Zoe said, sprinting in her heels.
Paige raced behind her, barely managing to keep up. Zoe wasn’t kidding when she said she could do anything in those heels. As was proven again when she bolted up the stone staircase taking two stairs at a time. They looked along the stone wall and balcony for any kind of spot where a cache could be hidden. Too bad Paige hadn’t a sniff of an idea about what a cache actually looked like.
Paige glanced down to the GPS unit in Zoe’s hand. “It must be up here somewhere. We’re really close.”
They followed the arrow, watching as the distance on the screen shrank. As they came to the far edge of the outdoor balcony, they glanced around, finding only a covered area left to check. Finally after a few minutes searching, they found a small container, no bigger that a pill bottle with the show’s purple TT logo stuck to the lid, tucked up into a nook in the decorative facade.
Paige held her breath as she dumped out the contents into her hand. A small laminated note tumbled out, followed by … nothing. Paige sighed. Oh well. Not every cache would have an extra prize inside. At least they’d found one and now she knew they could do it.
She unfolded the note. A large 303 was written inside.
“What are we supposed to do now? How do they know we’ve been here and found this one?”
“We take a picture with it on the GPS and it will upload to their main tracking server.”
“How do you know that?”
“I read the information packet while you tried to kill us on the road. I had to do something to distract myself from the crazy woman behind the wheel holding my life in her hands.”