And I no longer had it in me to say no.
“We’ll have internet connection,”he promised. “And the roads are smooth.”
My hand pressed into his chest. “Wait, what am I agreeing to here?”
“We’re going on holiday,” he said. “Our two-day trip is long overdue. I can try and squeeze it all into one day.”
“Zolt,” I went to argue, voice soft.
“Fia,”he said. “Please don’t turn me down. This is the public date you wanted, but I promise you no one will know who we are.”
Where on earth were we going?
“Pack. It’s a long drive. Grab the sweets I left you so we can have a nibble on the way.”
16
Chapter 16
Zoltán
Fia worked on her laptop for the first three hours of our drive, hounding me with questions before shoving on her headphones and typing ferociously fast.
I sighed in wonder, like a lovesick fool.
She was brilliant. Fierce. Damningly beautiful.
I knew it was wrong to want her—knew it somewhere deep down, in a place I didn’t dwell for long.
But it was her fault, really.How the hell was I supposed to resist her?
When she fell asleep for the last couple of hours of the drive, I kept stealing glances at her. Mouth open, travel cushion pressed against the window, a slight snore. I turned the music off to listen to her breathing. The soft rhythm was so soothing, I nearly forgot where I was going.
I hadn’t returned since my grandfather died. Not since before the crash.
And I couldn’t imagine going without Fia. She would be thebest person to ground me in the moment and stop my mind from spiralling.
When we pulled up, she woke, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the dark parking lot. She sat upright and shoved her head out the window she opened, staring up at the motel sign. Only one letter continued to breathe light into the night.
There were cracks in the walls of the quiet motel. Plants that used to bloom across the walls were crisp, curling, and dead. The paint had flaked off on each of the doors, and the numbers were hanging by a single nail.
The manager here was my late dad’s best friend. They’d grown up here together. This was where they would holiday. My granddad had employed him after my dad died, but without his guidance as the owner, this place was a shell of what it had been.
I’d let this happen.
The building looked creepier when I cut the engine, and the car lights turned off. Fia’s window immediately came up, and she looked from left to right as I walked around the front of the car, opening her passenger door.
She looked up with suspicion. “You’ve brought me here to murder me, haven’t you?”
I laughed, taking her rucksack from her and throwing a strap over my shoulder.“Not tonight. I’m too tired.”
She snorted and took my hand to stand. Her eyes roved around the quiet motel, and when a rat darted into the car park, her nose wrinkled.
“Hey, at least we get the pick of the rooms.”
“What a perk,” she said, but her voice stayed dry.
I laughed, my body hyperaware of how she hadn’t removed her hand from mine. Maybe it was fear that kept herholding me.
