Chapter 15
Amelia
Ithought it was strange how quickly Oliver went from being in the middle of a conversation to practically running from the room, but then a moment later, I heard him getting sick, so I thought that maybe the fried chicken was too harsh on his stomach since he was still technically recovering from food poisoning.
I felt bad for him, and I hated that he was sick.
I knew that if I had gotten food poisoning, there’s no way I would’ve been able to do all the walking that we’d done.
I wouldn’t have been able to sleep on a hay bale either.
I hoped that he’d just be able to get cleaned up and rest so he could start feeling better.
As I finished with my lunch, I thought about our morning and how good it felt to have him on top of me. Neither of us had mentioned what was going on between us, and I was beginning to think it was because neither of us really knew how to deal with it.
I had just left a shitty relationship, and looking for love was the last thing on my mind.
I didn’t know much about him, but he didn’t seem like the relationship type of guy.
Maybe I was judging based on stereotypes, but he was so good-looking that he would’ve been the player in any romantic comedy.
I thought that maybe the draw we had to one another wasn’t really about love at all.
Maybe it was just because we were the only two people on the planet who knew the challenges we were up against. We could relate to one another in a way no one else could.
That, and well… he was obviously attracted to me and I to him.
I’d always heard that a guy and a girl couldn’t be just friends, and I thought that was a bunch of crap because I’d had many guy friends over the years.
But then I realized that a guy and a girl who were attracted to one another couldn’t be just friends.
That attraction always becomes too strong to resist. All it took was a longing look, a soft brush of his lips against mine, and I was a goner.
I finished my lunch and cleaned up our mess, taking everything outside so he wouldn’t smell it and get sick again. When he left the bathroom, he said he was going to catch a quick nap, then lay down and fell asleep before I could even reply.
He left his dirty clothes lying on the bathroom floor, so I emptied his pockets and gathered them up.
I figured I’d let him get some sleep while I took both of our clothes to the laundry mat.
I was only gone about an hour, and when I returned, he was still out cold.
I put our clothes away and left again, heading back to that Walmart to restock my bag with bottled water, protein bars, and nuts, just in case we found ourselves lost in the middle of nowhere again.
I even grabbed a sleeping bag that I could carry on my back and some hand warmers.
My foot was still aching, but I think it was bruised and not broken, thankfully.
I grabbed some Chinese takeout before heading back to the motel room. When I entered, he lifted his head, and his eyes found me. He frowned in confusion as he looked at the window, seeing how dark it had become.
“How long have I been out?” he asked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
“Most of the day,” I said, putting everything down on the table.
“I figured you needed the sleep, so I went ahead and washed our clothes. I stocked my bag with a couple more bottles of water and some extra snacks, just in case we find ourselves in a situation like last night. And I picked up some dinner. Hungry?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep it down.”
“Why don’t you just try eating the rice. It’s pretty bland.” I put the container of white rice on the table, where he’d be sitting.
He stood and stretched, causing his shirt to ride up, showing a sliver of toned muscles. I jerked my eyes away just in time. He moved over to the table and sat down.
“Thanks for this,” he said, ripping the plastic covering off the plastic fork.
“You seemed like you needed the rest.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
I grabbed one of the Walmart bags. “I bought a new phone charger. I think the one at the last motel was crap, and maybe that’s why your phone wouldn’t power up.
It would be nice if we could get it to come on, just so we’d have a map the next time we end up in the middle of nowhere. ” I dropped the charger onto the table.
He nodded and dug into his rice.
When he didn’t reply, I started eating. He was being weirdly quiet. I figured that maybe he just wasn’t back to himself after being sick, but it almost felt like he was refusing to look at me, and I couldn’t figure out why.
“How are you really feeling?”
“Fine,” he said, not looking up from his rice.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better. One more night of rest and you should be able to put this whole food poisoning thing behind you.”
No reply. No glance my way.
I tried to think of something else to say. “I tried to look for a car while I was out, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking for.”
“I can go out tonight and look around. If we take off tonight, that’ll give us several hours before the owner even realizes that it’s missing.”
“Good idea.” I smiled, but he didn’t see it.
I couldn’t take this anymore.
I dropped my fork. “Alright, what’s going on with you?”
“Nothing, why?” he asked, sitting back and picking up the box of rice to take another bite.
“Things are weird between us now.”
“You’re imagining it.”
“Bullshit. I’m not stupid, Ollie.”
He didn’t even flinch.
“You won’t even look at me.”
He sighed and made it a point to look at me. He held strong for several long seconds, but then his hard exterior cracked, and I saw nothing but pain and regret in his eyes. He quickly pulled them away and went back to eating.
I shook my head in annoyance. It was pointless to argue with him.
I didn’t know what his deal was, but it wasn’t like I could force him to tell me.
One way or another, it would come out. The truth always did.
And I planned on helping it along. I was going to follow his every step.
He’d either get over whatever his problem was, or he’d be forced to tell me out of sheer annoyance.
If he didn’t want to kiss me and kept warring with himself over it, he needed to stop. He needed to be honest with me about it. It made my stomach twist to think he regretted it.
That’s what this had to be. He’d had time to let it sink in.
Humiliation rolled through me, and my stomach twisted. I tried to push the feelings away as we ate, but they just kept coming back.
We were quiet as we finished up dinner. He ate the whole box of rice and kept it down. I started cleaning up, and he went about putting on his shoes.
“I’m going out. See if I can find us a car.”
“I’m going with you.”
He looked up at me, already annoyed. “There’s no point in two of us going.”
“I’ll be the lookout if we happen to find something.”
“I can do it by myself. I always have.”
“Yeah, but we’re in this together. Unless there’s a reason you suddenly don’t want me around?” I put my hand on my hip as I glared at him.
He took a deep breath and shook his head. “Of course there isn’t.”
“Good. Let’s go.” I pulled on my jacket, and the two of us left the motel together.
The temperature had fallen with the sun, and it was back to the typical spring weather.
All day, I’d heard about how the heat of the day was an all-time high for the area for that time of year, and people were enjoying the summer-like day while complaining about the cold front moving through.
All I knew was that I wanted to go south, where it was almost always warm, where I wouldn’t have to deal with the cold or the back and forth.
Oliver and I walked through town. It was one of the bigger towns we’d found ourselves in.
There were plenty of businesses and homes, all brimming with vehicles to choose from.
I didn’t talk to him unless he talked to me, but he didn’t talk to me unless it had something to do with the kind of car he was looking for.
Something was for sure off. He was more withdrawn, as if being near me made him sick.
We eventually found a car, and he was quick to get it running.
We swung by the motel where we picked up our belongings, and then we hit the highway, gaining as many miles as we could.
He drove through the night while I slept.
We ditched the car and found another; this time, I drove while he slept.
Time didn’t seem real. The hours passed faster than I thought they could.
It had been a full twenty-four hours since things got weird.
He refused to tell me why, and I still couldn’t figure it out.
The easy conversation between us was gone, and silence was louder than it should’ve been.
It was getting late. He was asleep, and I was driving, completely lost in thought. That’s when the car started to sputter. It jerked, and the engine died, leaving me to coast to the side of the road.
“What happened?” Oliver asked, waking up.
“I don’t know. It just died,” I said, looking at the dashboard.
He leaned over. “Did you not notice we needed gas?”
My eyes found the gas gauge. My mouth fell open when I saw that the gauge was past E. “I-I didn’t even notice.”
“I can’t fucking believe this. And of course it has to be fucking raining. God, I hate this part of the country!” He punched the dash, making me jump.
“It’s fine. We can just wait out the rain in the car.”
He looked at me like I was stupid. “You want to just sit on the side of the road in the car we stole, waiting for the police? No thanks.” He opened the door and climbed out.
I took a deep breath to cool my anger. I didn’t want to walk in the cold rain, but he was right. If nothing else, someone would stop to help, and it would only be a matter of time before someone realized the car was stolen.
I looked at him through the rain-speckled windshield, and I wondered if he was going to leave me behind.
About that time, he stopped walking and turned toward me.
I could see the annoyance on his face, but I exhaled in relief because he wasn’t going to leave me.
Whatever was going on with us was only surface deep.
It wasn’t enough to make him walk away from me for good.
I grabbed my bags and climbed out of the car. I jogged to his side in the light rain, and he started walking again. It was a cool night, and the rain only made it seem that much colder.
Luckily, we both had jackets with hoods, but they were entirely made of cotton, and it didn’t take long before we were both completely soaked.
My teeth were chattering, and my body was shivering.
We were walking as fast as we could, and the shivering only made my muscles ache more.
After a twenty-minute walk, we stumbled upon a hotel.
It was much nicer than the crappy motels we’d been staying in.
Hotels were more expensive, but neither of us could afford anything cheaper.
We got a room for the night, and we practically raced to our room on the third floor.
“I’m getting a shower to warm up,” I said as I shivered on the elevator.
He grunted. “Yeah, after I do.”
“What? Ladies first,” I argued.
“You’re the reason we’re in this mess in the first place.”
“Why? Because I ran you off the road?”
“Because you let the car run out of gas, but yeah, that too! For all the trouble you brought to my life, for all this shit I have to deal with, I get the first shower this time.”
The elevator doors opened, and before he could step out, I darted out, running toward our room. He wasn’t going to let me get by with that, though. He came running up behind me. He had longer legs and could take bigger steps. It was only a second before he passed me up.
He stopped at our door and tried to be quick with the key, but it gave me time to catch up.
Just as the door unlocked, I pushed through it, running past him.
He grabbed me around the waist, picked me up, and twisted, hurling me behind him.
He rushed forward into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.
A second later, I heard the shower turn on.
I was shivering, and my body was aching.
I was dripping wet and frozen to the bone.
I was tired and annoyed. I don’t even remember deciding what I was going to do.
All I knew was that one second I was standing there, shaking like a chihuahua, and the next, I was stripping.
I tugged at the zipper on my jacket and ripped my arms free. I unlaced my boots and kicked them off before peeling off my socks. I yanked my shirt over my head and opened the bathroom door.
Oliver was standing there, wearing nothing but his jeans. “What the fuck?” His green eyes widened as he took me in.
“I told you that I was getting a shower first.” I unfastened my jeans and started working them down my hips.
“And I told you that I’m going first this time.” He followed suit, pushing his jeans over his hips.
It was a race to see who could get into the shower first. I still had my bra and underwear on, and he still had his boxers on, but neither of us cared as we pushed, shoved, and wrestled our way to the shower.
I entered first, but he followed behind me. We both hovered around the hot flow of water raining down from the shower head. That’s when the fighting stopped. We both groaned as we absorbed the heat.
I wasn’t sure how long we stood there, facing one another as the water rained down on us, but eventually, we both warmed. I looked up at him, and he looked down at me. My heart skipped.
It felt like we’d been fighting for days, but in that moment, it all fell away. I watched as his hooded eyes raked over my body. My stomach tightened, and my heart leaped up to my throat. It was like we both had the same thought at the same time, and we leaped toward one another.