Page 162 of Revv

By the time I come back out showered, dressed and significantly more prepared to deal with life, Revel is awake and sitting on the edge of the bed in black shorts, checking something on his phone.

“I need coffee,” I announce.

“Well shit, good morning to you too, Mama.”

“I said what I said.”

He stands, grabs his shirt and pulls it over his head and his phone buzzes again.

Revel looks down at the screen, and I stop halfway through putting in my hoop.

“What?”

“It’s the shop.”

That gets my attention.

He opens the message.

“The part came in this morning. They’ve got your car up now and they’re starting the install.”

“Oh, thank fuck.”

“They said they’ll update me once everything’s in and they’ve tested it.”

The relief is immediate.

I love Miami, but I would also like to stop living out of a suitcase and wondering whether my Honda is going to financially ruin me.

He holds both hands up. “Didn’t say, but I doubt it. It’s not an easy install, Mama.”

I sigh and drag a hand down my face. “Fine. One more day. But if that car finds one more reason to keep me here, I’m setting it on fire myself.”

His mouth twitches.

I grab my purse before he can encourage me.

“Now, we get coffee.”

The heat hits the second we step outside.

Miami is already fully awake. Cars crawl through the intersection beneath tall palms, music spills out of an open storefront across the street, and the sky is painfully blue above rows of white buildings.

The ocean isn’t visible from here, but I can smell it beneath the exhaust and somebody’s breakfast cooking nearby.

We find a café a few blocks away with little tables beneath striped umbrellas and fans turning overhead.

Revel gets our drinks while I claim a table in the shade.

When he comes back, he sets mine in front of me and presses a kiss to the top of my head before sitting down across from me.

I take a sip and pull apart a piece of toast while the city moves around us, watching Revel across the table. He’s relaxed, sunglasses pushed up on his head, eating like there’s nothing complicated about any of this.

Meanwhile, I’m noticing things I really don’t need to be noticing. Like how my coffee showed up exactly how I like it without him asking, again. How easy sitting across from him has started to feel.

How somewhere along the way, spending every day together stopped feeling like being stranded and started feeling suspiciously normal.

I take another sip and glance at him over the rim.