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“I’m guessing this is different than your usual place?” I asked drily.
“We only very rarely eat out,” she said. “When we do, we go to the country club, or the private supper club Father belongs to. When I’m at work, I usually bring the lunch our cook prepares for me or go with my friends to the restaurant in the lobby of our building.”
How was it possible that this woman was so sheltered? If she hadn’t told me about her parents’ paranoia I would have assumed she was raised in a cult or something.
We chatted about nothing until our food came, and I was surprised how easy it was to talk to Blair. I didn’t expect us to have anything in common to talk about. Connie brought our food and was asking us if we wanted anything else when Blair spotted something of interest on another server’s tray.
“What comes in those metal cups?” she asked.
“Milkshakes,” Connie said, her voice clearly conveying that she thought Blair must be an idiot.
My companion gasped as if that was the best news she’d heard all day. “Are they made with real ice cream or soft serve?”
“Real ice cream. You want one? We have chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.”
“Chocolate please.”
I almost reminded her that she’d already had that giant chocolate coffee earlier, but then I stopped myself. Women got shamed about food and body image all the time. No way was I going to contribute to that by shaming her for eating what she wanted on her first solo vacation.
When the shake arrived she took a huge sip, her eyes closing in pleasure. I found myself staring at the look of bliss on her face, wondering if that was the face she made when she came.
Blair opened her eyes, seeing me staring, and became momentarily self-conscious.
“I know it’s a lot of calories…,” she started.
“Road trips are for junk food,” I said. “No judgment here. Enjoy your shake.”
As we ate I pulled up the map app on my phone.
“We’re about four hours from Butte, Montana,” I said. “How about if we aim to stop for the night there?”
“Is there anything fun to do in Butte?” she asked.
“I doubt it, but we can look for signs along the way and ask at the hotel. But given our timeline, it might be good to save time for the things you want to see in South Dakota and Chicago.”
“All right.”
I glanced up to see that Blair had a chocolate mustache from slurping her shake. I pointed at my mouth.
“You have a… your shake…”
She picked up her napkin, wiping all around her mouth and somehow missing a glob of chocolate at the corner. I grabbed my own napkin and reached across the table, wiping it off. Our eyes met and I froze there, draped over the table with my hand on her face. Someone laughed in the background, breaking the weird little moment we shared, and I lowered my hand.
This woman wasn’t what I expected. When I’d learned who she was, I’d figured she’d be a spoiled little princess, but Blair was surprisingly down to Earth. Growing up the way I did, I’d been taught that rich people were evil and looked down on blue collar folk like us, but that didn’t seem to be the case with Blair.
We were mostly quiet as we finished our meal. I used the company card Pops had given me to pay for lunch, explaining to Blair that we would bill it all back at the end of the trip.
“Besides, you can’t use your credit or debit cards,” I reminded her.
“We can use my credit card, I have my own accounts,” she protested, flashing a gold card.
“Yeah, but how confident are you that your parents can’t guess your password or ask your security people to do a little hacking and trace your cards?”
She blew out a breath. “Damn it, that’s totally something they would do. And they’re close friends with the president of the bank we all have our accounts with.”
“We’ll put everything on this card, then you can pay for it all at once when we get back. Now let’s fill up the car and get some snacks so we don’t have to make a lot of stops between here and Butte.”
Going to the gas station with Blair was an experience. She told me that she’d never pumped gas before. She insisted that I teach her how to do it herself, which was a surprise. I figured a rich girl like her wouldn’t be interested in helping.
