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I text Troy as soon as I pull up to his condo complex. It’s only another minute until he comes out, tosses his bag in the back and slides into the passenger seat of Maci’s car. Whether she chooses Dean or Mack, she’s not coming back to California and asked if I could bring her car with me. “Hey, Lex.” He smiles and leans over the center console to kiss me. I can’t help but smile into it. “Are you excited?”
“Are you nervous?” I counter.
He looks at me confused. “About?”
“This is my first real road trip. That’s a lot of pressure on you to make it epic.”
“If you have nothing to compare it to, how will you know if it's not?” He smirks.
I shove on his shoulder playfully. “Hey!”
“Don’t worry. It’ll be epic.” He gives me a knowing look that makes me feel like I’m not in on a secret.
“Okay, so I’m thinking we will drive until we feel like stopping today? Then get a hotel and go the rest of the way tomorrow?” We already discussed this plan, but I confirm anyway.
His mumble of acknowledgement makes me feel like he’s uninterested in the plan. Maybe he’s distracted by the Spotify playlist he’s making.
We make it almost five hours before we have to stop for gas and go to the bathroom, ironically in a town called Los Baños. When we come out of the gas station, Troy stops me in front of the car. “May I drive?”
“Yeah, sure.” I toss him the keys and slide into the passenger seat.
When we get back on the road, my phone, that’s sitting in the mount on the dash, reroutes. “Did you get on the wrong freeway?”
“Depends what you think is right.” The corner of his mouth quirks.
“Where are we going, Troy?” I ask him as we pass by a sign that says we have 120 miles to San Francisco. I didn’t think we would drive through there.
“You’ll see.” He grins.
An hour later, we enter Mountain View, a town I’ve never heard of, and pull into a hotel parking lot. I’m even more confused. “Why are we here? We haven’t driven very far today.”
“I know, but this is where we are staying tonight. We can have a long drive tomorrow.” He takes the keys out of the ignition and gets out, grabbing our bags from the back seat. “Come on, Lex!”
I’m pretty sure he’s not going to tell me what we are actually doing, so I just go with it.
He gets us checked in, and we find our room. As soon as we walk in, he tosses our bags on the king bed with a fluffy white comforter, setting our room key on the dresser. My hands find his hips, sliding under his shirt and around his back so I can pull him to me. He drapes his arms over my shoulders. “Hi.”
“Hi.” He chuckles, pulling his hands to cradle my face as he kisses me. I still feel his kisses all the way to my toes. Every time. I’m getting used to this, to him. As much as it scared me at first, it gets easier every day. It’s almost a familiar feeling now. I break our kiss. The only thing I want more than it is to know what the hell is going on.
“Tell me what we are doing here.”
He looks at his watch. “Soon. Go get ready. I’ll tell you when you’re finished.”
“I’m ready now!” I’m not. If we are going somewhere, I’d rather curl my hair, and put on some makeup. I'm surprised I’ve reached the point where I’m so comfortable around a guy without that. I didn’t even think twice when I got ready this morning. My hair is in a messy bun. I’ve got on jean shorts and my red hoodie.
“You look perfect. You are perfect.” He kisses me again, this time burying his hands in my hair and taking more than a simple kiss. He finally pulls back. “But if you do want to do your girly things, we gotta leave in like 20 minutes so we can get some dinner first.”
“Fiiiiiine.” I grab my bag and pretend stomp to the bathroom. His chuckle echoes through the air behind me.
Fifteen minutes later I exit the bathroom, hair curled and makeup done. “Can I wear this or do I need to change?”
“Okay, don’t be mad, but I went through your closet the other day.”
“Okay…” He pulls his hands from behind his back. “You brought my most worn out t-shirt?” I ask, as he holds out the Good Charlotte concert shirt I found at Goodwill when I was in high school. I take it from him.
“We can get you a new one when we get there.” He smiles and pulls out two tickets, fanning them in front of my face.
“What?” I can’t register what’s happening. “We’re going to see Good Charlotte?” He must be kidding me. “Like… in person?”
