He really didn’t want to have a discussion about his personal life, especially not after that phone call. “No,” he answered softly.
Her disappointment was apparent, but she didn’t probe any further. He took it as a sign that she was starting to respect his boundaries.
The room was becoming unbearably hot and he was starting to feel a little sticky. “Why is it so hot here?”
“I turned the heat up. I’m a brown person, Kevin. Brown people can’t handle the cold.”
“I know for a fact that’s not true. And you’re overreacting. It’s not even cold today. Can we turn it off, please? I’m cooking inside.”
“Kevin, my body is not acclimatized to this weather. I was checking this website and the average temperature for June in Montana and South Africa is almost the same. Now in case you didn’t know, June is our winter and your summer. I saw that on rare occasions Montana getssnowin thesummer. So this might be fine for you, but it’sfreezingfor me. Let me just enjoy this for a few more minutes. I’ll turn it off just now.”
He was beginning to grow irritable. “I know this shouldn’t be an issue because we’re both speaking English, but I don’t understand half the things you say. You call a traffic light a robot, you call sneakers takkies—”
“You say crik instead of creek,” she cut in.
“That’s just a pronunciation issue. It’s not an entirely different word.”
“You say jockey box instead of cubby hole.”
“We agreed that there was no right answer for that one and compromised on glove compartment. Besides, the point is that most of the time I don’t understand you, so please, take a second and explain to me what exactlyjust nowmeans, because South Africans clearly don’t use it in the same context as the rest of the world.”
Confusion wrinkled her face as she tried to find the words to explain it. “There’s no…definitive time for just now. It like…it’s like just now, like it could be five minutes or five hours. Just now can be at any time…just…not…now.”
It was like a hundred degrees in there and he was sweating under his T-shirt. He didn’t know how she could even breathe in this heat. “So what you’re saying is that you’re probably never gonna turn it off?”
“I will turn it off…just now.”
“You’re driving me crazy, Jasmin! Can we not get throughoneday without arguing? We can’t even agree on simple things.”
“That’s because you become aggressive over simple things. It’s your triple S acting up again. It’s not your fault. I forgive you.”
“Fuck!” If he wasn’t so annoyed, he would’ve laughed. “I hate you. It’s been brewing for a couple days but it became officialtoday.”
“It’s a milestone.” Her smile told him she didn’t take him seriously and he hadn’t expected her to. “I’m glad I was here to witness it.”
His phone rang again and he was grateful to see it was his brother—his other brother—because he didn’t want to talk to her anymore. “Hey, Max.”
“Hey, Kev. Happy birthday.”
“Thanks.”
“Mom says you’re not at home.”
He looked over at Jasmin before he answered, making it as cryptic as possible so she wouldn’t know what he was talking about. “Yeah…I…uh…there’s something I need to do…for Perry.”
“So where are you?”
“I’m…hang on…” It was time to take the conversation outside. He was boiling and he didn’t want her eavesdropping on his conversation again. He walked out of the motel room. It was dark already and the air was cool and refreshing. Closing the door behind him, he lifted the phone to his ear again. “I just had to get out of there. It’s the only way I can get some privacy.”
“Where are you?” Max asked again.
“In the middle of nowhere,” he shouted, “stuck on this road trip with a girl who is literally fucking bat-shit crazy!”
“You have a low tolerance for people. I’m sure she’s not that bad.”
“Psycho is definitely bad. She’s like Shane. She doesn’t stop talking. Fucking Virgos!”
He heard Max laugh on the other end and decided to vent to his older brother. Even though he’d chosen not to take the bus, she still found a way to make him question his decisionallthe time.
