I don’t look at him, but I can feel him staring at me.
Because it was stupid of me to explain map apps to him?
After our experience at that first gas station, it’s a legitimate thing to wonder.
Somehow, he’s far more competent and in charge than he was while he was dating and engaged to Margot, but also a hot mess in several parts of his life.
Emphasis onmess.
Clearly.
Because I’m ignoring all of the hot parts except the part that goes inhot mess.
“I know how map apps work,” he mutters.
I pull my phone out of my bra, flip it open, and touch my favorite map app, then hand it to him. “Here. Put the address in here.”
He does it from memory.
From memory.
He’s clearly put a lot of time into thinking about this trip.
But some of the little details in his preparation are lacking, and that has me wondering how much is because of the ways his family might have sheltered him, or how much stress he was under at work that his brain couldn’t reach all the way to filling in some of the blanks on how road trips work.
Or if any of it has to do with that accident that had him not driving himself, even on the weekend or at vacation houses, basically for his entire adult existence.
The mechanical Australian dude’s voice that I set as my default for my map app announces that we’ll be in traffic for the next fifty minutes.
“Did he sayfifty? Five zero? Or fifteen?” Oliver says.
“Five zero,” I confirm.
We inch along a little more, then stop.
I make thehand it overgesture, and he gives me back my phone. Three taps later, I’m wincing. “We can detour, but the detour road isn’t for another fifteen minutes, and it adds an hour to the trip.”
“How the fuck is that even possible?”
I don’t think he’s expecting an answer, but I give him one anyway. “Rural areas, my dude. There are fewer roads.”
He stares at me.
Then at my phone.
And then Oliver Cumberland, the man I would’ve called the most buttoned-up man on the entire planet, huffs, slides his shoes off, and reaches into the back seat for the last bag of Flaming Finger Lickies.
17
IF IT’S ALWAYS WRONG, MAYBE IT’S ACTUALLY RIGHT
Oliver
I thoughtI’d wanted to crawl out of my skin about a dozen different times every week since I was thrust into the role of Miles2Go’s CEO, but that’s nothing compared to how today is going.
It started fine.
Good, even.
