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Alex’s words replay in my head. The more they do, the less they make sense. Only my seat was bumped. Why wouldn’t Alex just take a different flight and leave SJ and me on that one?
It’s odd that he suggested he and I fly together on another one, especially considering he was in cahoots with my parents for me to have a bodyguard to begin with.
“I found another flight, but it leaves in two hours. We’ll arrive in Washington before everyone else.”
Pulled from my thoughts, I turn to face SJ. He stands holding his phone to his ear. It takes my brain several seconds to realize he’s waiting for me to give the go ahead to book the flight.
A little embarrassed by my lack of wherewithal, I trip over my words. “Uh, yeah, of course. Sorry. Go ahead and book it.”
“We’ll take it,” SJ tells the airline. His eyes barely meet mine before he turns to walk away, leaving my room once again.
I walk over to the adjoining door and see he has a card in hand to pay for the flights. He notices me standing there but doesn’t pause what he’s doing.
When he finally ends the call, he doesn’t give me a chance to say anything before he grabs his suitcase and quickly starts tossing his items inside.
“We’ll need to hurry to make this flight,” he says as he disappears into the bathroom, coming back out with a small bag.
When I make no effort to hurry, he stops and stares at me.
I don’t know what to say, so I say nothing. Finally, I turn and walk back into my room and finish gathering my things. After last night, I thought things may be different between the two of us, but I was wrong.
SJ and I are at an “agree to disagree” point when it comes to Alex. I have too many things swimming in my mind. So much I can’t try to sort it all out now. Which will have to be okay for now because I have a plane to catch.
As I finish zipping my last bag, SJ walks in, rolling his suitcase. He takes a moment to look around my room and then looks at all my luggage. I may have purchased a few things since being in Chicago—by which I mean I definitely purchased a few things here. I think I see a small smile forming. I’m not known for packing light.
“Okay, let’s see if we can get all of this into the tiny ass rental car,” he says with a chuckle. Hopefully, this means we’re moving past the earlier conversation.
“What? It’s not even that much stuff.” I’m full of shit, but I can’t resist picking.
After some struggles, we wrangle it all onto the elevator and eventually make it to the rental car. When the last bag is crammed into the only empty space left in the car, he slams the trunk. It looks more like we’re moving instead of simply heading to the airport.
He shoots me a look before opening my door for me to climb inside. I try to hide my snicker, but he hears it anyway.
“That was a close one, cupcake.”
His use of my nickname eases some of the earlier tension and warms me from the inside out. I secretly love that he calls me that, but I don’t plan to let him know that.
Once he’s in the driver’s seat, he wastes no time before starting the car. We quickly head to the airport to catch our last-minute flight. So fast, in fact, that I forget to update Alex on the change.
Chapter 16
SJ
Nora seems deep in thought on the way to the airport. I’m sure she’s thinking about my accusation of Alex. I should’ve handled myself better, been more professional. But the fact that she can’t see how alarmingly suspicious that was is concerning.
It looks more and more like I need to dig into the people closest to Nora while also seeking to uncover the stalker. They could end up being one and the same. For her sake, I hope not. It would devastate her to be betrayed like that. I don’t want that for her.
I clear my throat. “I should tell you now, so you aren’t surprised once we get there.”
Her head whips towards me. That got her attention quickly. I chuckle at her quirked eyebrow, ready to take whatever I’m about to say head on.
“With the flight being so last minute, I had to go with a different airline.” I had to go with a cheap airline that’s sort of known for not being great. Not that they’ll crash or anything, but your luggage may not land where you do.
After studying me for a moment, she responds. “SJ…you didn’t book us with…”
“Now, wait a minute… I didn’t have a choice. You need to be in Washington, which means I need to be there, too. There was no time to drive, and there were no other flight options for two passengers.” I shrug.
“If they lose my luggage, I swear!” She nearly shrieks her last word.
