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Ethan laughs as he gets in the left lane to pass a crawling Cadillac. “You think she’s worth all this?”
“Ye—no. I don’t know,” I say too quickly. I’m agitated, and I hate that I don’t know if this is a huge waste of time. Things would have been so much easier if she had just stayed at her Airbnb until checkout. She said she’s not a morning person.
Unless she couldn’t sleep because of the shit I said to her.
I picture Claire tossing and turning all night alone until she gives up on sleep entirely, and it makes my stomach heavy even though I haven’t eaten anything today. I’m an idiot for thinking she’d still be there. Morning person or not, if there’s one thing I know about Claire, it’s that she’s a flight risk.
He nods, taking in my answer. “For the record, I thought she was pretty cool, and Em likes her a lot. So does Chad.”
I scoff. “Yeah, that much is obvious.”
“Oh, come on.” He rolls his eyes. “Chad’s like that with everyone at first. I’m pretty sure he tried getting with Em before I started dating her. He’s a good guy, though, and he’s rooting for you.”
This gets a laugh out of me. “Yeah, Chad told me he hit on Em, and she shot him down. Said she doesn’t date white guys.”
Ethan grins. “That sounds about right.”
We finally turn into the parking lot of the train station. There’s no train. The empty platform sends a jolt of hope into my throat. Turning to Ethan, I say, “Thanks,” and I hope he knows how much I mean it.
“Go,” he says. “I’ll be here if you need me.”
I know he means if I need a ride back to his place because she’s already gone. Giving him a nod, I step out of the car and don’t waste time.
When I get to the platform stairs, I take them two at a time. There aren’t many people around, so it’s easy to scan for her once I reach the top.
My eyes scan the area, and then I look again.
And again.
I keep checking, hoping I overlooked something.
But she’s not fucking here.
Walking up to the ticket booth, I ask the question I already know the answer to. “Was there a train to New York this morning?”
“Let me check,” the middle-aged woman says as she glances at her computer. “There certainly was. Looks like you’ve just missed it, honey. Left about five minutes ago.”
Five minutes.
I missed her by five minutes.
“We do run that line tomorrow, too. Do you want to purchase a ticket?”
“Yeah,” I mutter. “What time?”
She glances at the screen again. “Tomorrow’s train will be here at the same time, 10:20.”
She hands me the ticket, and I mutter, “Thanks.”
My walk is a lot slower as I go down the platform stairs and back to Ethan’s car which still sits in the parking lot. He knows how things went as soon as he sees me, so he doesn’t bother asking stupid questions—another reason I like him.
Instead, he asks, “What time do you need to be here tomorrow?”
Staring out the window, I say, “Five minutes earlier than we got here today.”
74
Claire
