Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
GRACE
Parked in the cell phone lot of Miami International Airport, Grace gripped her steering wheel like she was flying down the Autobahn. Staring at a NO UNATTENDED CARS sign like it might sprout lips and tell her to calm the hell down, she took a deep breath.
She checked the status of Alix’s flight for the millionth time. After an hour of waiting, her plane’s status finally updated. Grace’s phone dinged seconds later.
Alix
Landed!
Heart hammering, Grace pulled out of her spot to start the journey into the hellscape that was MIA’s arrivals.
Your body doesn’t know the difference between anticipation and being chased by Jack the Ripper.
It wasn’t quite how her former therapist had explained her brain’s inability to distinguish between anxiety and excitement, but it helped Grace sort herself out.
Her shaking hands and pounding pulse and twisting guts were totally normal.
She was just excited to meet a new friend in person.
Totally fine. No big deal.
When she merged with a legion of other cars, most of which took the lines marking lanes of travel as suggestions rather than rules, she stretched her neck. She and Alix had been talking every day, several times a day, for weeks. It wouldn’t be weird in person.
Would it be weird in person? No. If nothing else, Alix would be too tired for things to be weird. After a transcontinental flight, Alix was going to be desperate to get to her hotel.
Grace checked the time. It was almost two. Alix would probably be able to check in. To take a shower, get some rest, and emotionally prepare to be assaulted by her loud-ass family tomorrow.
God, her family. Despite telling her mother repeatedly that Alix was just a friend, she hadn’t stopped giving her cheeky little grins. Even over the phone, she could hear her mother’s unspoken “if you say so.”
And then there was the whole vegan thing. Despite multiple explanations, she wasn’t sure her mother grasped Alix’s dietary restrictions. That pork was not “practically tofu.” That it was still meat even if it wasn’t red.
Sandwiched between an airport shuttle and a Maserati, Grace was giving herself a pep talk when she saw her. In loose jeans, a faded black T-shirt, and combat boots, Alix was scanning the sea of honking cars. When she spotted Grace, her smile sprang to life.
Fighting for a place to pull over and pick Alix up, Grace gripped the steering wheel with clammy hands and bullied her way into a spot. She focused on the series of tasks she had to perform: Put the car in park. Open the trunk. Stop trembling.
“Hey!” Alix’s voice sounded different without an electronic filter, but Grace didn’t let herself linger on the way it soothed her nerves.
“Hi!” Grace hurried around to the back of the car where Alix was slinging her stuffed backpack and duffel into the trunk.
“Are you a hugger?” Alix’s tattooed arms were already open as she asked. Even if Grace wasn’t, she wouldn’t have been able to stop herself from lunging forward.
“You kidding?” She stepped in, the aroma of car exhaust a lovely complement to the deafening honking that echoed in the covered space. “Wait ’till you meet my family. They practically French-kiss strangers.”
She would’ve regretted the incredibly awkward response to a perfectly normal question, but she was too busy stepping on Alix when she went in for the hug too fast.
“Shit, sorry.”
Alix grinned, unfazed by Grace’s sudden inability to act like a regular human, and wrapped her arms around her.
Thanks to Alix’s three-inch height advantage, Grace landed unexpectedly at the crook of her neck.
She was returning the tight embrace when she accidentally took a greedy inhale of Alix’s scent, basking in the warmth of sandalwood and jasmine.
“Hi,” Alix repeated, voice gentle where it landed against the shell of Grace’s ear and inexplicably drowned out the noise. “Thanks for picking me up.”
Grace let go a moment after Alix did. “Yeah, of course. You know the surge pricing is ridiculous during the holidays.” She clamped her jaw shut before she could say anything else.
“What are the odds you have some snacks stashed somewhere in your sweet ride?” Alix said when she slid into the passenger seat and closed the door.
“I thought you grabbed a sandwich before you boarded.” Grateful that she had the job of driving to focus on, Grace looked dead ahead.
“I did,” Alix replied with a chuckle. “Too bad the lettuce was slimy.”
“Slimy?” Grace spared her a glance after getting into the lane that would lead them east toward Alix’s artsy Wynwood hotel. “Hello, listeria.”
“Right? No thanks.” She crossed her leg, and all Grace could see in her peripheral was the bottom of her boot and a tattooed forearm when she rested her hand on her leg.
“And the smoothie place wasn’t open, but it’s fine.
Whatever.” Alix waved away her complaints.
“You got any trail mix in that bag?” She pointed at Grace’s purse in the back seat.
“Unfortunately not.” Grace regretted not having considered that Alix hadn’t eaten since she left her house. Not having planned for it.
“No worries,” Alix replied as if worry wasn’t hardwired into Grace’s nervous system. “Is there like a Taco Bell or—”
Grace snapped her head to the side. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence.”
Alix’s dark brown eyes were luminous even in the hazy afternoon. The corner of her mouth twitched before she bit her bottom lip, and Grace had to force her attention back to the road before she drove them off it.
“Are you fucking with me?”
“Only a little.” Alix chuckled. “I mean, technically no, because I love Taco Bell, but I am hungry enough to eat literally anything right now.”
The mention of fast food reminded Grace of a place she hadn’t been to since she was a kid, but it was out of their way. “Do you want to see whether you can check in early?”
“Are you going to make me scrounge for leftover continental breakfast?” Alix shifted to pull her phone out of her back pocket.
“I’m sure you don’t want to spend hours bouncing around Miami traffic after you’ve been traveling since last night.
” She slowed when the car in front of her hit its brakes.
“Where I take you for lunch depends on whether we’ve got four hours to kill or not.
” Eyes on her rearview, she stopped and was grateful when the driver behind her was paying attention rather than slamming into her.
A fender-bender was not on the itinerary.
Looking at Alix was a mistake. Her eyes were absolutely mesmerizing in person.
The same roasted chestnut as her cool, textured hair, Alix’s eyes were deep set and inescapable.
Every feature on her face seemed to have been designed in service of those eyes.
High cheekbones and thick brows only made her eyes more enthralling. And those dimples. Jesus.
Alix gave her a lopsided grin. “What?”
Caught, Grace tried not to jump. She furrowed her brow and pretended she hadn’t been staring. “Is that…” She leaned closer. “Glitter?”
“What?” Alix pulled down the visor to check her reflection. She checked her face and her strong jaw and long, elegant neck.
Grace laughed before whipping into the neighboring lane when she saw an opening.
“Now are you fucking with me?” Alix flipped up the visor.
“Only a little,” she teased.
While they crawled, Alix called her hotel. “Check-in is at four? That’s so late. And no early check-in at all? I can take a—”
The person on the other line was loud enough for Grace to hear in the quiet car. “Listen, you’re lucky you even have a room,” the lady said. “A problem at the port stranded three thousand cruise ship passengers on Thanksgiving weekend and they’re desperate for any accommodations.”
“Damn, that’s awful. I’m sorry.” Alix’s tone was so earnest. “You must have quite the job finding them somewhere to stay.”
The pause on the other end was noticeable. “It is… Thank you.”
The smallest gesture of empathy and kindness shouldn’t have been so surprising, but Grace looked at Alix with the same amazement as the hotel clerk had expressed. Who the heck stops to think about the plight of a customer service rep after being denied something?
“Welp, a few hours to kill it is,” Alix said when she hung up.
Grace nodded. “Then I’ve got just the place.”
They compared notes on LA versus Miami traffic, and Grace couldn’t believe anywhere sounded worse than Miami. Although, LA didn’t also have Mad Max-level aggression.
When Grace pulled up to a KFC in a neighborhood that was all 1980s strip malls and squat, ugly little buildings, Alix stared at her. “I know I said I’d eat anything, but I’m pretty sure not even the water is vegan in there.”
Grace laughed while waiting for a landscaping truck to pull out of a space. “Do you trust me?”
Alix gave her another lopsided smile. “Duh.”
Hopeful that the place was still as she remembered, though wishing she’d called ahead, Grace backed into the spot.
“Don’t tell me you’re one of those, Gator!” Alix put her hand over her modest chest after removing her seat belt.
“One of what?” She reached for her bag in the back.
“A backwards parker!”
“Oh, I’m sorry I don’t want to waste time pulling out blindly in case of an emergency.” She locked the car before they started for the building that hadn’t changed in thirty years. A good sign.
Alix was in the middle of making her case for why reverse parking was irrational, when they stepped inside and were greeted by a blast of classic salsa music.
“Well, this is unexpected,” Alix said, cutting herself off.
The hard wooden booths were chipped and the red vinyl chairs peeling, but it was the fried chicken on everyone’s plates that made Grace nervous. When she made it to the front of the long line, she took her chances.