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.
