Page 45 of The Other Side of Apart

She relaxes into me, her shoulders dropping, her hand clutching the front of my shirt, pulling me to her.

I cradle her head to my chest, and her fingers slide into the belt loops on the back of my jeans. “I’ve missed you,” she whispers, her voice swollen with all the words she’s stored since Vegas.

“You mean that douche you’ve been sitting next to for twenty-four hours didn’t do it for you?” I smile and rest my chin on top of her head, closing my eyes when her lips go to my neck.

She whispers, “I love you,” and I take her chin between my fingers and lean down until my lips are telling hers how much I love her, too. She winds her arms around my neck and stands on her tiptoes, molding her body to mine.

My hips pin her to the brick wall and my body responds to her closeness. “I want you so bad right now.”

“That’s perfect because I’ve always …” she breathes, “wanted to be …ravishedat a rest stop.”

“You’re about to get your wish,” I rasp, one of my hands roaming beneath her shirt, and she’s so into it, and my hands are taking the next steps when air brakes hiss as they’re released and the clatter of a bus accelerating has me dashing around the corner in time to watch it pull out of the parking lot and away from the rest stop. Headed toward the interstate onramp. Where Mei and I should be right now.

“Oh, no way,” I say to myself, then yell it as panic settles in. “No way, no way, no, no, no!” My hands are on my head. “Are you?—?”

I whirl around and almost knock Mei down where she stands behind me, hand to her mouth. “Please tell me that’s not our bus leaving.”

I yell a string of curse words to the sky as the bus trundles out of view toward Indiana without us.

Squatting, I hang my head, raking my hands through my hair.

“How did we not hear the announcement to board the bus?” Mei asks desperately. “I didn’t even hear?—”

I throw a sharp laugh at the sidewalk and smack the cement with my palm. “Because all you could hear was me getting all hot!” I curse at the sky again. “I can’t believe this.” I swear at the asphalt again, close my eyes, then huff my way into a laugh that could easily turn into a sob.

“Is everything okay?”

My head snaps up to see an old lady looking at me from where she stands, dropping garbage into a trash can.

“It was getting to ‘okay’ before we missed our bus.” How are we gonna get out of here without resorting to hitchhiking? Withour luck, the first car to stop would be a freaking black Mercedes driven by Nick.

“Oh no!” The woman motions to her husband, who’s near their open car door, doing a few rusty toe touches. She brushes off her hands and comes toward us. “Where are you two headed?”

“Wewereheaded to Evansville, Indiana, but at this point … we’re headed right here, to this bench within walking distance of these fine facilities.” I huff and rub my forehead.

The woman tilts her head in sympathy and grabs her husband’s arm when he shuffles next to her. “Gerald, their bus just left them.” She pats his arm and waits for his response. He looks from me to Mei to the bags near the corner of the building.

“Ah. Believe it or not, the same thing happened to me back in the day. Made a cross-country trek to meet some buddies of mine and…well…spent a long night on a bench somewhere in Arkansas.” He sucks his teeth and chuckles. “Didn’t have a lady to worry about, though, so I don’t believe I’ll make the two of you have that experience.” He throws a thumb over his shoulder. “Lucky for you, we have an empty backseat, and we’re headed to Kentucky. We can drop you off in Evansville as we pass through. I normally wouldn’t do this, but you seem like decent kids. Where you two from?”

“San Francisco,” I offer, wondering if I should’ve said that much.

“Hmm. What takes you to Indiana?”

“Seems like a nice place to settle down,” I say, smiling and scratching my head.

“Doesn’t seem either of you are old enough to do any settling!” the woman laughs, adjusting her purse on her forearm.

“We actually got married a couple months ago,” Mei says, shrugging.

“Married? Never would have guessed you’re a day over sixteen, but I guess as I get older, everyone looks younger!”

The man laughs and nudges the woman. “Thought we were the only two crazy enough to get married as teenagers.” He waves us toward the car. “Well, congratulations to both of you. If you’ll accept the ride, we need to get on the road so we can make it to our grandson’s tournament. We’ve got a bit of a ride left, so there’s plenty of time for us to give you all our best marital advice.”

CHAPTER 24

One Month Later

Isit on the steps outside our apartment building, my eyes wandering from my book to the sidewalk as I wait for Marcus to come home from work. Home. Yes. Definitely. It feels like it more than any other place we’ve been so far. Especially now that we have an apartment in a quiet neighborhood instead of a sleazy motel, jobs that pay enough (even if barely), and a routine that gives us time together. It took us a week to find this place. We checked apartment listings and went to a few until we both agreed on this one. It was perfect: great location, friendly people, didn’t require background checks, and it wasn’t Las Vegas. My mind has quieted since we moved in, even though occasionally, guilt drags it into a downward spiral, reminding me that while this is starting to feel like home, Marcus’s heart never quite made it here from the Stanford soccer field.

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