Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 22759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 114(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 114(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
“This reminds me of my prom night,” I say. “My date’s father had to come get us after my car broke down.”
“Did that ruin the mood of you getting laid later?”
“No, I’d already ruined the night by talking to her about another girl.” I shrug. “She couldn’t wait to get the hell away from me.”
“I wish I could remember fun stuff like that,” she says. The only guy who asked me out to prom was Cameron.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Georgia doesn’t either.” She laughs. “She claims other guys got creative and asked in all types of ways but…” She stops talking and tilts her head to the side.
“What high school did you go to?”
“Cedar Falls.”
“I knew that.” She shakes her head. “It’s crazy how we hardly crossed paths in high school but ended up working at the same company years later right?”
You have no idea. “Yeah…”
“Are you ever going to tell me about your long-distance girlfriend?” she asks.
“We’re off the record now?”
“For the rest of this trip, yes.”
“I don’t have a girlfriend, Taryn. Surely you would’ve noticed that by now.”
“You could’ve been sending her roses every week or going out to see her on weekends without me knowing.”
“I still spend most of my time with you, regardless of last year's change,” I say. “I doubt a girlfriend—let alone a serious one, would ever go for that.”
“Maybe…”
“Does Cameron know how much time we spend together?”
“I don’t really talk to him about you.”
‘’Ashamed of me?”
“No, we just tend to spend more time talking about him and his plans. The last time we talked about you was months ago.”
“Was it positive?”
“Hell no.”
I laugh, and she pulls out her phone.
“Let me see something since you claim we talk too much for you to date other people.”
“We do, Taryn.”
She taps on her contact usage and clicks on Cameron’s name.
Total phone time this year: 40 hours total.
Then she scrolls down to my name.
Total phone time this year: 40 hours per week.
THIRTEEN
JAMES
Traveling on I-80 East
There’s nothing but blistering white ahead, and my windshield wipers are squealing under the weight of all the falling snow.
The worst of the storm is expected to bear down in a matter of hours.
“Warning: Limited emergency services!” “Shelter in place!” “Winter storm alert!”
The dashboard’s weather app serves me a fresh round of warnings.
Shit…
“I have a confession to make.” Taryn suddenly sits up on the backseat.
Why did I let her sit back there again?
“I’m listening.” My eyes meet hers in the rear-view mirror.
“It's a very honest confession.”
“You don't need to announce that you're attracted to me, Taryn,” I say. “I’m well aware.”
“That's not what I was going to say.”
“Can you finally admit that it’s true?”
“No.” She continues to live in denial. "I'm way too tired to drive the next stretch. We'll need to pull over so I can take a nap."
“In that case, we should get a hotel.”
“For a few hours?”
“No.” I look at my screen again. “We might as well stay put for the night and power through tomorrow. It’ll cost time, but we’re going to lose it anyway with this weather.”
“I’m fine with that as long as we get separate suites.”
“With the storm this close, we can’t afford to be picky.”
“I just want to make it clear that I’m not sharing a bed with you.” She’s doubling down on her insanity. “Ever.”
“Scared you might never want to share one with anyone else?”
“No, I…” She blushes, failing to come up with something else sarcastic.
“There are five exits and a truck stop ahead,” I say. “Start looking up the closest hotels.”
Half an hour passes without Taryn uttering a word, and we’re down to two exits.
“Any luck on finding a hotel?” I ask.
“Just motels and very questionable Airbnbs.”
“Define questionable.”
“Well, one house is offering the use of a room with two beds, but we’d have to share a floor with four other people, and everyone has to walk through our room to use the bathroom.”
I shake my head, doubting that she’ll find something much better soon.
“We’ll park and wait out the night then.”
“You mean, we have to sleep in the car?”
“You can do that if you’d like. I plan on sleeping outside.”
“What?” The look on her face is priceless. “Are you serious?”
“Extremely.” I pull onto a side road and park in an open field that’s far from trees.
Popping the trunk, I pull out all my emergency camping gear.
Taryn watches with wide eyes as I set up small heaters and prepare a small emergency flame. After I spread out the tent over the ground, she rolls down the window.
“Do you keep camping gear in all your cars?”
“Yeah.” I nod. “My brother and I used to camp with our dad every Christmas. It’s a bit of a habit to stay prepared.”
"So, you'll sleep in that tent, and I'll sleep in the car?"
“If that's what you want.” I hook a tube to the tent and turn on the air pump.