Page 35 of Honey Undone
“Are you scared, Jensen?” I asked him.
“No, but we’re going to have to stop for snacks and gas,” he mused without skipping a beat and stepped back to let me out of my apartment. “Ready?”
I eyed him for a second, drinking in the boyish grin on his face as he extended one arm down the hall, the impatience vibrating from him in waves. I couldn’t tell if he was nervous like me, or excited but either way it was bringing a soft pink color to his cheeks as he wet his bottom lip, his mouth no doubt going dry as I stepped forward. I locked the door quickly behind me and turned back to him.
“Why do we need snacks for tattoos?” I asked him.
“Those are for the road trip, if you want tattoos, fine,” he agreed with a small laugh, “but we’re going to my guy and he’s two hours west of here.”
Snacks and gas.
I should have been infuriated that he wasn’t even remotely upset by the spontaneous want to do something insane for our first date. Kaia had told me to keep it simple, dinner at the Hollow, or at home. Rhea and Cosy, voted for a movie and a make out, where Sunday said I should let him pay to take me to the Zoo. Nothing screamed at me though until I saw Jensen, standing there in front of me ready for anything I threw at him.
I didn’t even have a single tattoo on my body and compared to his ink saturated skin I could have seen him questioning the idea. Instead he came up with a plan to make it happen, on the spot and without a single complaint.
“What exactly did Kaia say to you?” I asked him as we took the stairs to the bottom floor, he held open the front door for me and a laugh rolled from him. “She gave you the ‘you’ll have to re-learn how to walk’speech, didn’t she?” I stared at him as we wandered across the parking lot to his car.
“I got the‘you’ll have to re-learn how to get hard’speech. Which is horrifying because I didn’t even know you could break your penis until Rhea showed me the google results,” he said with his brows furrowed tightly and his hand on the handle of the passenger side door.
Mental note to kill her later.“Well, don’t screw up,” I warned quietly as I stepped up to the open door separating us. He didn’t say anything but the smile on his face and the gesture of him tapping two fingers to his chest seemed to quell the nerves that bubbled up inside. I had zero idea what it meant but I trusted it as I slipped into the seat.
He pulled from the parking lot and it dawned on me that he was driving an old man's car… “Is this your dads?” I asked him, laughing at the clean car smell. It barely looked used and it definitely didn’t scream college kid.
“It’s mine,” he said, turning onto the road out of town, “Why?” he looked over at me confused.
“It’s just…” I ran my hand over the dashboard and laughed. “Boring?”
“Practical…” Jensen scoffed, “good on gas, low maintenance and easy to clean.”
“Are you sure it’s not your dads?” I teased him and he just shook his head.
“Not every guy drives fast cars Adeline, this isn’t a movie…” he joked.
“But we agree it would be hotter if they did?” I laughed and he echoed the sound. When we reached the edge of town he pulled into the gas station and filled the car. My phone buzzed and I pulled it out to a text from Kaia.
Kaia:
Why are you stopped, are you already naked?
I cursed myself for not turning off my location before I left the house, I should have known that the first thing she’d do was check it.
He’s getting gas.
As in— you're pumping his gas?
I shoved my phone away as he got back into the car and handed me two bags of cola bottles and a bottle of water. I looked down at them and then back upat him, a chocolate bar hanging out of his teeth as he did up his belt with one hand.
“Who’s the snitch?” I asked, holding up the bags.
“You eat two bags a game, three if you're nervous,” he said, dropping the chocolate bar into the cup holder. I looked down at the bag, hiding the flicker of appreciation that crossed my face at the thought that he had justnoticed.
“I don’t get nervous at your games,” I scoffed, at least I didn’t think I did but when I thought more on it, stress eating cola bottles was a subconscious trait that most of the time I didn't even realize I was doing until the bag was gone.
“Figured you’d need one for the drive, one for the tattoo,” he brushed me off, ignoring the denial.
“I’m not nervous to get a tattoo,” I argued, letting the bags rest between my legs on the seat.
“Do you have any others?” He asked, pulling onto the highway finally. I shook my head no. “Not even ones I haven’t found yet?” His smile twisted and I felt the heat rise on the back of my neck.
