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Chapter 3
Waking up the next morning was disorienting. I looked at my phone and it was much earlier than I’d anticipated, but I’d gone to sleep so early, and had been dead to the world.
I glanced over at the other bed and Natalie was still asleep, curled in the fetal position. She’d always slept like that. It didn’t look comfortable at all. I tended to spread out and flail in my sleep.
I got up and tiptoed to the bathroom. I thought about trying to go back to sleep, but I was completely awake and ready to go. Waking Natalie seemed rude, so I just lay in bed on my phone, waiting for her.
After an hour, I was restless, so I got up and got dressed. Since I was going to be driving so much, I figured I should get as much walking in as possible before having to sit in the truck for hours. I left Natalie a note on my bed that I was going to explore the hotel and made sure I had my keycard before I closed the door.
It was so early that breakfast wasn’t even ready yet, but the little coffee shop attached to the hotel had started brewing, so I ordered myself a latte and walked around the lobby. There was a little garden area outside, so I went for a short walk. It was already hot. How did people live like this?
I went back into the air conditioning with relief and wandered around some more, checking out the signs for the two conferences. One appeared to be for accountants, and the other appeared to be one of those scammy companies that Paige’s mom had joined and then abandoned. I sent her a picture of the sign and she sent back an eye-rolling emoji.
Figuring enough time had passed, I went back up to the room. Natalie was in bed with puffy eyes, scrolling through her phone.
“Hey,” I said. “You’re awake.”
“Yeah,” she said, her voice rough. “I’m not too happy about it.”
Natalie had never been a morning person in all the years I had known her. When we’d played together as kids, I was the one who passed out on my mat for nap time, and she was the one who had refused to sleep.
“Are you ready for breakfast, or do you need some more time?” I asked.
“Can we order breakfast to the room?” she asked in a soft voice.
“Absolutely.” I wrote my order on the notepad and she looked through the menu.
“Should I get sausage or bacon?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said.
She wrote both down.
The silence wasn’t as uncomfortable this morning. I could tell Natalie was still waking up, but I was ready to go. I finished my breakfast quickly, and then made sure everything was back in my suitcase.
“Sorry I’m being slow,” she said, finishing up her blueberry pancakes.
“No, it’s fine. I’m in no hurry to drive for hours straight,” I said.
“Speaking of that, I figured out where we can stop, so I’ll let you know when we can take breaks.” That sounded like a good plan. Natalie could be my navigator. Even though we had GPS, someone needed to figure out where the next rest stop was so we could have an emergency pee break.
“We’ve got enough gas to go for a while, but I have a feeling we’re going to need to fill it up a lot,” I said. That wasn’t going to be cheap, but at least I was going to get reimbursed by Wyatt.
I still hadn’t heard from him.
I sent him another message before we left the hotel to get in the truck.
You fucking owe me.
* * *
“Okay, so I definitely need to pee,” I said, two hours later. “Can you find the closest place?” Natalie had been pretty quiet this first leg of the trip.
“Yeah, no problem.”
She looked on her phone and then up at the road.
“Okay, take the next exit.” She turned on the GPS so I could hear where to go.
