Chapter 23

**Esmeralda's POV**

"Then I'm sure she wouldn't want you to blame yourself for whatever happened. She would want you to be happy" I say even though I feel like I have a brick placed on my heart.

Will anyone ever love me like that?

"Thank you" Hunter says and i'm about to open my mouth to respond when he adds.

"We should probably get back to the tent"

He stands and stretches forth his hand to help me get up and I grab it.

However, instead of releasing my hand after helping me up, he holds onto it and pulls me along as we walk back to the tent. My heart beats wildly in my chest all the way

On our way back, we branch at a little eatery-like space and order some food.

After we make it back to the tent he lets go of my hand to walk to his side. Soon we are both settled in our beds and I reach for the lamp.

"Do you want it on or off sir?" I ask praying he'd say 'on'.

"Leave it on" he says and I breathe a sigh of relief. I hate darkness.

"Good night Hunter" I say turning to face away from him.

"Goodnight Esmeralda. For what it's worth, if truly you had a special someone before you lost your memories, I doubt he would have forgotten about you. You're not exactly easy to overlook" He says and a stupid smile makes it's way to my face.

I don't reply and I'm unaware of when I finally fall asleep.

************************

When I first open my eyes, I'm confused as to where I am but after a few seconds, the fog in my brain clears.

I look over to Hunter's bed and notice him still sleeping. Since I don't know where the restroom is, I move to his side of his bed to wake him up.

I pause however when I see his handsome face. I'm tempted to run my fingers along the gruff shadowing his jaw.

"Told you you wouldn't be able to resist me" He says his eyes flying open as the corner of his mouth moves up in a smirk.

"I was just looking for the restroom" I respond trying to compose myself and masking it with a glare aimed at him.

"And for some reason or the other, you thought it would be on my face?" He retorts and I huff childishly before turning to walk towards the tent entrance.

'I'll find it myself" I say zipping the door open.

I hear some ruffling and feel him come up in front of me.

"Good morning to you too" he says pushing a strand of my hair behind my ear and walking out.

"Follow me" he says and leads me to a purple trailer before turning around to walk back. There are several trailers around so I assume this is our own restroom and walk inside.

I'm not wrong and in a few minutes, i'm done brushing and showering. I use the towels there to dry my body and then put my old clothes back on before packing up my toiletries.

Walking back into the tent, I notice that Hunter isn't inside and I hurriedly change into new clothes. I was already dreading asking him to exit the tent so I could change.

I wonder if Mr. Zhao is here already.

When I step out of the tent, I jump up a few feet in the air when I see the people standing in front of it.

"Surprise!" Bloom, Chloe, Lily, Tyler, Kyle, Dean, Blake, Daniel and Mark exclaim. I also notice a guy with a rainbow Mohawk standing off to the side.

"What are you all doing here?" I ask placing my hand on my chest to calm my fast heartbeat.

"Well, Mr. Zhao called yesterday night after you fell asleep to say he isn't going to be make it anymore and since they were all close by, we all decided to have a few days of fun before going back" Hunter explains and I hold back from pointing out all the loopholes in that story.

How could they have possibly just suddenly found free time to come over overnight?

"I'm glad to see you guys again" I say and I mean it. They're all so fun to be around.

"Who's that?" I ask pointing to the guy with the rainbow Mohawk.

"Oh, Esmeralda meet Shane otherwise called F-red or Fury; his stage names and he's my boyfriend. Fury, meet Esmeralda" Bloom introduces and the guy steps forward with a warm smile to shake my hand.

"It's nice to meet you Esmeralda" He says and I respond "likewise"  as I take his hand.

A sudden silence descends on the group and my eyes turn to Blake who looks furious.

I don't know what happened between Bloom and Blake but I do know it must not have ended well.

"Wow. This place hasn't changed at all. So what are we doing today?" Tyler says cheerily to break the awkward silence.

"Well, we could take part in the camp games. I saw a flyer about it on a tree earlier" Lily suggests.

"That sounds great, let's go eat and then register for some of the games" Chloe says dragging Bloom and I away. Everyone follows except Hunter who says he has to take a shower and that he'll meet us there.

Hunter had still not showed up by the time we finish eating so I order some take-away food for him..

Because I'm his assistant and his handling his well being is part of my job.

He soon shows up after we register for the treasure hunt. There are about seven other campers including an older couple there so we are asked to pair up.

"I pick Esmeralda" - Hunter.

"I choose Tyler" - Chloe.

"I pick Fu..." Bloom starts to say but is cut off.

"I pick  Bloom" - Blake.

Everyone looks around awkwardly for a while expecting Bloom to protest but when she doesn't, everyone starts choosing partners again.

Lily gets partnered with Fury, and all the others with strangers.

In the end, we have nine groups and the rules of the game is explained to us. Not that we don't know them already.

The group that finds the most treasure wins.

I grab Hunter's hand in excitement and rush into the woods once we were asked to go.

"Have you ever played this game before?" He asks chuckling once we're out of everyone's sight.

"No but I want to win" I reply dropping his hand to start searching, we're supposed to find painted plastic eggs.

He starts eating as we walk and I offer him the bottled water in the paper bag to wash it down.

After thirty minutes, my excitement start to dwindle.

"Where on earth did they hide these things?" I exclaim frustrated.

"And you! Are you even trying to find the damn eggs?" I glare at Hunter making a grin break out on his face.

"What's so funny? We're loosing!" I ask glaring harder.

I start to back away when he moves towards me.

"I don't think I can ever get tired of watching you" he says caging me against a tree.

Something suddenly catches his eyes from afar and a frown takes over his handsome face.

Curious, I turn my head to see what it is and...

Shit!