Chapter 25
MIKE
I drove her to the airport. There was no way I was going to let her drive herself. I took her silly rental car, and Dad followed me in his truck so he could drive me back. Lyssa barely noticed that my dad was following us. She sat silently, staring out the window.
I kept my hands to myself on the drive.
“Do you want to stop at a dairy and get some snacks for the flight?” I asked. I was trying to prolong things, trying to make her talk.
She shook her head.
After a few kilometers, she started fixing her makeup in my rearview mirror and setting up her phone on my dash. I couldn’t follow what she was doing—I was serious about watching the road; the last thing I wanted to do was wrap us around a tree. Or get pulled over by Keri again.
Then she started recording.
“Hi, everyone, welcome back to my channel! This is my last video from Aotearoa New Zealand. I’ve had such an amazing time: the food, the friendly Kiwi people, the landscape—oh my god, the landscape!
This truly is the most beautiful place on Earth.
I hope you enjoyed this Kiwi adventure. I’m so sad to leave!
But all good things come to an end. I still don’t know where I’ll go on my next vacation.
Drop your suggestions in the comments, and we can plan my outfits together! ”
She filmed the same speech twice more, until she had a take she liked, and then she put away her phone, still without saying a word to me.
It hurt.
Yeah, this was difficult, and maybe I should have been more understanding, but come on. She should have been asking me when I would visit or thanking me for dicking her down so good or for being such a handsome chauffeur.
“Oi, Lyssa? Anything to say?”
She eyed me, eyed the angry set of my mouth and my tight grip on the wheel.
It didn’t matter if she was provoking me like this in a misguided attempt to make this easier for her, for me, or for both of us. It was a bullshit move, and I deserved better.
In an uncharacteristically soft voice she said, “I think we’ve said it all.”
“Right. I’ll just go fuck myself then.”
She winced, but I didn’t take it back. I wanted to shout, I wanted to speed and drive like a fucking man possessed—but I couldn’t, and more than that, I wouldn’t.
There was only one last thing to say, and we said it after she hugged my dad and after I took her carry-on off my shoulder and passed it to her.
“Goodbye, Mike.”
“See ya, mate.”