Page 20 of Dating the Boss
I chose the route and placed my phone on the stand between us so he could see the screen. It took about an hour for us to even leave that area, then another two before we reached Ivory Falls because traffic was bumper-to-bumper, which made one mile feel like thirty.
“Oh god,” I said, checking out the town as we drove down the street. “This reminds me of a Hallmark movie. Small town in the middle of nowhere with a cute little Main Street area and Christmas decorations everywhere. I don’t think they got the memo that Christmas is over.”
“Some people don’t take down their decorations until mid-January.”
“Well, that’s dumb.”
“So you’re a nerd who also watches Hallmark movies?” he asked.
I peered over at him. His eyes were on the road, though the corner of his mouth was hitched upward.
“I read sappy gay romance novels too,” I said. “Might as well get it all out in the open.”
“I didn’t know you were gay. Not until that night,” he said, frowning. Then his face smoothed, and he returned to his too-serious self. “But we shouldn’t be discussing such personal matters. I apologize.”
However, I wasn’t letting it go that easy.
“I once wore a leather choker to work on accident because I was hungover and forgot to take it off. I still had glitter in my hair too. And I told you I was spending New Year's Eve at Allie’s, which is a gay bar. You’re telling me you never even suspected that I might be gay?”
“I don’t stereotype,” he responded, cool as ever. “Straight men can like leather and glitter too.”
“Do you?”
Blue eyes flashed to me before flickering back to the road. “Find a hotel. I’m ready to get out of this car.”
Sighing, I snatched my phone from the stand and scrolled through the nearby hotels. “There’s a Holiday Inn two blocks away.” I gave him the directions before bringing my legs up into the seat and looking out the window.
We had been in the car together for almost nine hours total, four to Greenville, then the rest on the drive back and getting caught up in traffic and craziness from the storm. In that time, Daniel had seemed interested in getting to know me, but then he had backtracked and changed the subject.
“This doesn’t bode well,” he muttered once arriving at the hotel. The entire parking lot was crammed with cars.
“It really doesn’t,” I said. “This was the only hotel I saw.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“Nope.” I pressed my lips together. “Unless you want to try a motel. There were two at the edge of town.”
“We might have to if this doesn’t work. I’m going to see if they have a room.” He stopped in a non-parking spot and left the car running as he opened the door.
I one hundred percent didnotcheck out his ass as he walked toward the entrance and went through the automatic sliding doors. A huge line of people stood in front of him, and then he disappeared in the crowd. Five minutes later, he walked out of the building with a grim expression. His tie swooshed with the wind as he opened the door and slid back inside the warm car.
“No vacancy. It seems everyone else from the traffic jam had the same idea we did.”
“I’ll call the motels to see if they have any rooms,” I said before looking up the number to the first one and calling.
“Sorry,” the girl said, sounding frazzled. “We’re completely full.”
“Try the other,” Daniel said, pinching the bridge of his nose as he squeezed his eyes shut. He didn’t seem confident, though. Neither did I.
“Sorry, man,” the guy said after I asked for their availability. “Our last room was just booked like three minutes ago.”
“Do you know of anywhere else we could go?” I asked, keeping my tone steady despite the knotting in my gut. Freezing to death in my car because of a stupid blizzard wasn’t the way I wanted to be taken out.
“Wish I could help ya, man, but I can’t. With the only way out of the area blocked, everyone’s comin’ here.”
“Thanks anyway.” I disconnected the call and dropped my phone into my lap. “No luck.” Speaking of luck, ours was pretty shitty. Anything that could’ve gone wrong did. When the car started moving, I turned to him. “Where are you going?”
“We can’t stay in this parking lot all night,” he said. “Let’s get something to eat while we figure out our next move.”
