The Retreat at Sharon's Ch. 09
 

"Pull in here," Mikela said. Carla seemed excited. She was out of her seat belt and halfway out the door as Max pulled into a parking spot in front of a thrift store.

"No peeking, now," Carla told Max as she stepped down out of the SUV. Whatever the ladies were planning, Max looked forward to it after all of the activities during the previous day. Max could have used the time to meditate but he decided to bend a few rules and check his phone, since they'd needed a few phones for "emergency situations" while they traveled.

He flipped through several seemingly inane Snaps from his friends out at clubs from the prior nights. Some were partying at a club in Miami. A couple other guys weren't far away, checking out girls on the beach at Panama City Beach. He laughed to himself thinking how they'd react if he told them about what he'd been through in the last week. Facebook and Twitter also seemed foreign all of a sudden. His feed was just full of hundreds of people just distracting themselves from their surroundings or trying to transform themselves into small time celebrities in their social circles.

The women shopped for about half an hour before they re-appeared in the thrift store exit. Max fumbled with his phone and eventually managed to slip it inside the center console as he watched his companions exit the store, shopping bags hanging from their arms. He popped the back hatch and they deposited their treasures before returning to the SUV.

When they returned to the house, it was still and silent. The rest of the group must have retired for some R