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She laughed, finally looking up at him.
“I got my boot-razor. I’m good,” she assured him. He smiled down at her.
“Do you have a phone? I wanna give you my number. That way I don’t have to ask for yours and sound like a creeper. Plus, if you get into trouble down the road here, you can call me,” he offered, holding out his hand. She swung her backpack around and dug out the beat up cell phone she kept buried at the bottom.
“I can count on one hand how many times I’ve used this phone, I probably won’t call you,” she warned him. He let out a laugh when she handed it over.
“How old is this thing!? I didn’t even know these still worked! Aren’t they on analog? Do you have to be standing on a mountain to catch a signal? Pray to a certain god? Do a special dance?” he joked, trying to navigate the ancient phone. She glared at him.
“It works when I need it to work, that’s all that matters. I won’t even be using it to callyou,so it’s not like it matters to you.”
Parker just chuckled and typed in his phone number, saving it under his name. He finally handed it back over and Paige shoved it back into her pack. They stood quietly for a second, staring at each other. Finally, he cleared his throat.
“Well, this is fucking awkward. I wanna ask you to keep cruising with me, but I know you’ll say no, and I hate rejection. So, I’m just gonna say good night, go have a cigarette, and find a motel. Be safe out there, Paige,” he said abruptly, before shocking her a little – he smoked!? – and then shocking her a lot by kissing her on the cheek.
“Bye, Parker,” she finally said after him, but he was already walking away, lighting the cigarette he had mentioned.
Paige felt weird about the situation, like maybe she should’ve said something else, or maybe she should’ve taken up his offer to keep traveling together. But the words never came. She just watched him disappear into the shadows at the edge of the parking lot.
*
SHE FOUND A CHEAP MOTELa couple blocks over. She didn’t have her own bathroom and she was pretty positive a prostitute was making regular use of the room next door, but there was a bed and a bolt lock on the door, so Paige took it. Foregoing a shower, she shoved the dresser in front of the door (added security) and stripped down to her underwear before laying on top of the pilly comforter. Lafayette’s Motor Inn and Motel may have offered five different adult channels, but air conditioning was simply asking for too much.
Staring at the ceiling fan, Paige let her mind drift. It had been a long time since she'd spent so much time in one person’s company. Not that she didn’t ever enjoy being around people – last month she had driven for three days with the same group. Four twenty-something girls, pretending to be hippies, were driving from Virginia Beach to Tallahassee when they picked Paige up at Virginia's southern border. The girls had been sweet and energetic and she liked being around that energy, so she'd stuck with them all the way to Tallahassee.
Parker had been the same. His energy. He made her feel like it was okay to be easy, like it was okay to just relax and let someone take over. For a brief moment, the tension had gone out of her shoulders. She sometimes felt like she was carrying a weight around on her back, she was so tense and guarded. But with someone else behind the wheel, it always eased her tension, and someone she could actually talk to? Like she was dropping all the weight.
Of course, it also hadn’t hurt that he’d been good looking. Okay, that was underplaying it. He wasgorgeous. She was a tall woman, so being around a guy who basically dwarfed her made her feel all melty inside – he was easily six-foot-three, if not taller. He had broad shoulders and a muscle-heavy build, that of someone who used weights a lot, or worked a labor heavy job, like construction or something. Paired with long legs and long arms, once she'd stopped being pissy at him, it had been hard not to drool. And those eyes? Forget about it. That's probably why he hadn't looked twice at her; he was so good looking, he must have had someone back home waiting for him, or at least a bevy of women falling at his feet. Lord knew Paige had almost taken a tumble.
Curling onto her side, she smiled to herself and closed her eyes. She fell asleep thinking about Parker, and when she dreamed, it was of being in an old car, her leg hanging out the window while the sun set.
*
PAIGE’S NEWFOUND ENERGYfrom the night before was completely gone by the next morning. She walked down a street, holding a map out in front of her. She didn’t care how much of a tourist she looked like – the mood she was in, she almost hoped someone would attempt to mug her. She couldn’t figure out where anything was! New Orleans was supposed to be a huge tourist destination, so she'd assumed the major spots would be easy to find, but Bourbon Street was proving difficult to spot. She'd gotten turned around somewhere and now she was stomping around in the sweltering heat and blistering sun, barreling through other tourists who seemed happy with wherever it was they happened to be – she just couldn’t figure out exactly where that was at the moment.
“Seriously!?” she grumbled out loud through gritted teeth, glancing around as she came to a stop at an intersection.
Fuck this map.
She crumpled it up and swung her backpack around to the front, shoving the ball of paper inside it – she would find her own way around New Orleans. She righted her bag, blowing a strand of hair out of her face and putting her sunglasses back on. She wouldn’t let this town get the better of her.
Though it didn’t help that she'd decided to wear her black leggings that morning. She had three “bottoms” in her backpack: her cut off shorts, a tiny black skirt, and her black leggings. The “classy” motel she'd stayed in hadn’t exactly offered a laundering service, so until she found a laundromat, the black leggings won. Paired with a black fitted tee and her black shoes, she felt like death. Literallyandfiguratively. She yanked her hair up into a ponytail and surged across the crosswalk.
A horn blasted at her and a car skidded to a stop mere inches from her legs. Paige jumped back a little before slamming both hands on the hood, yanking her head up to glare at the idiot who'd almost run her over. Didn’t matter that she'd crossed without looking.
“HEY!I’m walking here! One more eye and you’d be a cyclops, asshole!” she shouted. Laughter floated out from the driver's side window.
“Such beautiful language, music to my ears.”
Paige blinked rapidly, standing upright and shielding her eyes with her hand. She couldn’t believe it – what were the chances? But there in the shimmering heat waves stood the crappiest Cutlass she had ever seen. Parker leaned out the window.
“What the hell do you think you're doing?” blurted out of her mouth. He just laughed some more, his sunglasses hiding his eyes.
“There’s that mouth I've been missing. Get in the vehicle, you nut bar,” he ordered. Without thinking, she complied and hurried around the car, climbing into the passenger seat. He gunned the engine and barreled down the street.
“Were you following me?” she demanded. Parker laughed.
“Don’t flatter yourself, sweetheart. I was minding my own business when I looked over and saw you yelling at what looked like a map. Honestly, I figured you were already on the interstate, making your way to Texas or Missouri or wherever.”
