“You know I’m using vacation time to be here?” I say.
“I can pay you for your?—”
“I don’t want your money. For me. I still want what we agreed on earlier, but I don’t want itfor me.”
“What do you want it for?”
“You are not yet inside that circle of trust.”
“How do I get there?”
“You tell me the truth—thewhole, real truth—about what you’re doing on this trip.”
I swear I can hear him grinding his teeth over the violins and cellos and flutes on the radio.
“You can’t let me go because you still don’t trust me to not tell anyone I was with you and what car you’re driving and that there’s clearly something wrong,” I say. “If not wrong, then not normal. We both know it. So if you want me to continue to ride along with you, then you owe me the truth.”
“Says the woman who won’t tell me what she wantssome number under a millionfor.”
“I’ll survive if you bail on our agreement, if only out of spite to prove that I don’t need it. I’ve thrived making a point the past four years. I can keep doing it. But also, I get to keep Angelina Juliana Priestly. No negotiating.”
“You get to keepwho?”
“Angelina Juliana Priestly. The polar bear. Our road trip mascot.”
“You named the statue.”
“I named your car too. We’ve been riding in Mabel. Fits her, don’t you think?”
Oliver of yesterday would’ve snarled something at me.
This Oliver, however, simply sighs softly.
This trip has clearly been good for him.
Even with me along.
I brake as I spot a line of cars stopped ahead of me and realize I’m rubbing at my neck again.
“Why are they stopped?” Oliver asks. “We’ve hardly seen any traffic today.”
“Probably road construction. It’s pretty miraculous that we haven’t hit any yet. Peak road construction season.”
“Can’t you go around them?”
I do my best to not laugh at him.
I really, really do.
But honestly—go around them? Who wouldn’t chuckle a little at that? “Sure, Mr. Big Shot CEO. I’ll let them know you’re important so we can go around everyone else waiting in line.”
There it is.
The deep nasal inhale that says I’ve annoyed him now.
Which is probably better anyway.
There’s this line where I can be friends with Oliver, but I can’t find it.
