Page 24 of The Wrong Drive

“What genre do you like?” Emersyn looks up over the top of the computer. “My guess is you’re not in the holiday mood?”

“Uh… I don’t know.” I can’t eventhinkof anything. “Why don’t you just play meyourfavorite song?”

“Hmm.” She rolls her lips and nods, her attention falling back to the computer. I watch her as she scrolls, and I start to admire the little things—the way her hair is tucked behind her right ear, the way her lips are pursed as she focuses, and the way she lights up when she finally finds something. It’s…cute.

The sound of a piano fills my ears, and I tense as the tune carries, picking up with a deep male voice. It’s not nearly as miserable as I figured it’d be, and my breaths slow as it fills the cabin.

“Do you like it?” she asks me, her brows raising with an innocent eagerness.

I nod. “Yeah, it’s not bad.”

“I bet you listen to rap or something,” Em tips her head back and laughs. It’s surreal having her in my kitchen, tapping her purple sock to the beat of the music. She’s so fucking oblivious to the danger she’s in, and maybe I can pretend like I am, too—just enough to enjoy life for an evening. “So is it rap?”

“Not really. I liked metal, but I haven’t…”Damnit, she’s going to think I’m fucking nuts.“I haven’t heard anything in years.”

She pauses. “You mean, you haven’t listened to music inyears?Or just metal?”

“Music,” I answer her, my voice barely audible over the hum of some guy singing about how shitty humankind is.

“How many years?”

I swallow my pride, forcing the honesty. “A decade probably.” I don’t like to miss my old self too much.

She gapes. “Wow. Is that how long you’ve been here?”

“Pretty much.”

“How old are you?” She blurts it out, and I try not to close off. She’s not likely to make it out of here, so who cares if she knows the truth?

“I turn forty-one in January.”

The music fades to silence as she speaks. “So, you’ve been here since you were thirty-one?”

“Yeah, thirty-one or thirty-two, I think,” I say, unable to clarify the timeline in my own head. “Something like that. I don’t keep up with the details.”

Her face twists, morphing into a painful sympathy. “Wow, so you… You’ve been disconnected for that long?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t say I’m stuck in 2013,” I try to laugh at my dishonorable discharge date, but honestly, it fucking hurts to think about the way I used to think I was normal back then.

“I was in college,” she says the words painfully soft.

“Yeah?” I shift to my heels, desperate to change the subject. “What’d you study?”

“I switched my major so many times, I couldn’t tell you. I dropped out when I got a decent job. I was too busy chasing a social life.”

I chuckle, trying to relax. “Like men, you mean?”

“Kind of, I guess. I got married super young, then divorced. All that happened during that time. I was a handful, immature, I think.” Emersyn frowns, and then shakes her head. “I was the toxic one, that’s for sure. I was working through my own insecurities back then. I had horrible taste, and I was too clingy.”

“I was toxic at that age, too,” I admit. “I didn’t slow down until I was in my mid-twenties, but then I started having to do other things to, um…”

“Cope?”

My throat tightens. “Yeah, I guess.” I prepare for more questions—ones that I’m not sure I can answer. However, shedoesn’t press. Instead, Emersyn double clicks and starts a new song. I don’t recognize it.

She looks up at me, something in her eyes as she speaks carefully. “Did you ever dance?”

“Uh…” I feel frozen, my heart picking up at the thought of being close to her. Normally, I wouldnevereven consider it, but she’s… She’sgettingto me, and Ilikethe way I feel right now. Again, maybe I could just let myself enjoy tonight. “Do youwantto dance or something?” I feel like a middle schooler.

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