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Blair: I’m so sorry that happened. And I’m sorry I didn’t text earlier. I had some issues with my parents to deal with when I got here.

Jenny: You don’t owe me any explanation.

There was another long pause before the next text came through.

Blair: Please, can we talk in person? I thought we’d made a connection. We talked about seeing each other when we got back, remember?

Jenny: We both knew going in that what happened on the trip was temporary. You have your life and I have mine and we both know that we don’t fit in each other’s worlds. Let’s not torture ourselves by thinking otherwise. Take care.

There weren’t any more texts after that. I told myself it was for the best. I’d let myself get lost in the fantasy of a road trip romance but now I was back in the real world. I wished I had someone to talk to about what happened though. I had friends, but no one I could call at ten o’clock at night and cry to about my broken heart and the girl who got away. With a sigh, I went to bed and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Blair

Two days later…

“I can’t believe this!”

Katy looked up from the kitchen table where she was drinking coffee before we left for the office.

“What?”

“Jenny sent back the money.”

“What money? The trip expenses?”

“No, the bonus.”

“Why would she do that?” Katy asked. “That’s a good amount of money.”

It was twenty thousand dollars, more than enough for her to put a down payment on a house. We’d talked about it on the road, how she wanted to get a place of her own where she could plant a garden and paint the walls any color she wanted.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to resend it.”

Forty-eight hours later I received a notification that my wire transfer was reversed again. This time I received a text to accompany it.

Jenny: Please stop sending me money. We didn’t make it to Fenway, so no bonus is due. You already paid the company for fees and expenses, so we’re good.

Blair: We didn’t make it to Fenway because of my crazy parents, not because of anything you did. You earned that bonus.

Jenny: Because I slept with you?

Blair: …

Jenny: I’ll keep sending it back so please stop. Let it go. Please.

I didn’t often get angry – at least until lately – but now I was good and mad. As soon as I got off work, I headed over to the car service offices, determined to give Jenny a piece of my mind. Unfortunately she wasn’t there.

“Do you know when Jenny will be back in?” the receptionist called to a man passing by.

He looked kind of familiar.

“Who wants to know?” he asked suspiciously.

“I’m Blair Melbourne. You must be Jenny’s father?”

He gave me a calculating look. “You’re the cross-country drive person? The one who got my daughter arrested?”

“In fairness, it was my parents who got her arrested. Katy and I made sure she was released as soon as we could get a lawyer over there.”