Page 41 of Crashing into Love

“No, don’t,” Drew replied. “I wouldn’t mind eating with her one last time.”

Selma bit her bottom lip.

“Or not,” Drew added.

“No, it’s fine.”

“Can you take a break and eat with us?”

“Break? I just got here,” Selma said with a little smile.

“You could still sit and have coffee, right?”

“Not really. I’m covering the desk right now. Olivia is on her way, but her car wouldn’t start, so she’s running late, and we’re about to have a rush at check out.”

“Right,” Drew said, knowing that, this time, she was the one who sounded disappointed.

“Still want to have breakfast with her?” Selma asked. “You can say no, Drew.”

“No, I do. If it’s okay with you.”

“It’s okay. Just be aware that she gets attached pretty easily. And you’re, like, her new hero, so it’s going to be hard on her when you go. Maybe say goodbye at breakfast, and I’ll take her upstairs when you check out.”

“Whatever you think is best,” Drew agreed. “Hey, Selma?”

“Yeah?”

“If you say no, it’s no, but maybe I could call her or talk to her sometime about snowboarding? Like a video chat or something, if she’d be interested. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll leave, and she’ll forget all about me.” Drew laughed nervously. “But if you’d be okay with that, I’d like to talk to her sometime. Only when you say that it’s okay, of course. I probably won’t have time to come back here for a while, but I like her. So, it’s not just her who’s going to miss me, you know?”

Selma seemed to soften and said, “We can figure something out.”

“Yeah?” Drew asked with a smile.

“Sure. She doesn’t exactly have a phone, though, so you’d have to call me. She has her own computer, but that’s for school and video chatting with her grandma. We can see about adding you to that list. For now, let’s maybe keep it at phone calls.”

“Whatever you say.”

“I’ll give you my number, okay?” Selma said before turning to go to the front desk.

“Okay,” she replied.

A few minutes later, Drew sat down with Gia, who already had her plate, and watched the little girl devour her breakfast until her own oatmeal and coffee showed up. Selma did come by, likely to check on them, and stood behind Gia, staring at Drew a bit. Drew didn’t know what that was about.

With breakfast done, she said goodbye to Gia but told her that she’d call her mom and they could see when they could talk about her snowboarding. That seemed to cheer the kid up, but Drew herself went upstairs to her room feeling sad, and only part of that was because she was leaving a vacation.

After she finished packing and checking her room one last time to make sure she didn’t leave anything behind, she headed downstairs to check out, finding both Selma and Olivia at the counter now. Selma told Olivia that she’d handle it, though, which made Drew smile softly.

“So? Your number?” Drew asked and set her own phone on the counter. “It’s unlocked. You can just add it, and I’ll text you mine right back.”

“Okay,” Selma said and put her phone number into Drew’s phone.

When she handed it back, Drew sent her a text so that Selma could put her into her phone as well, which Selma didn’t have on her at the moment.

“Will you do something for me?” Selma asked.

“Sure.”

“Can you maybe text me or something when you get in so I know you’re okay? I know it’s weird, but–”

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