“You are so…. ugh!”
“Frustrating? Annoying? Unfairly charming?”
“Yes,” I grunted, and then I realized the last thing he said. “No!”
Emery laughed. “Just get it all out, Little Penny. You’ve been stewing for eight hours now, that pot has got to be ready to blow.”
Huffing, I turned in my seat, tucking my prosthetic leg up under my other knee so I could face him more. “Fine. You want to know what I’ve been thinking?”
He nodded.
“I’ve been thinking about how stupid I am. Not just for jumping in a car with a guy I don’t know and leaving literally everything behind other than my yoga mat and a few changes of clothes, but for doing so without making any kind of plan at all. I don’t have anywhere to stay in Washington, no job, no idea if I’ll even get into my dream school that I based this whole…” I paused, hands flitting around my face. “Hair-brained plan around. And, quite frankly, you make me feel stupid, too.”
His brows pulled inward at that.
“Because for some unknown reason, I like you, and I want to know more about you, but yesterday you made me feel more like a nuisance than anything else. Not only did you not talk to me all day, but when you finally did, you put me down for wanting to find love in my life, like it was a naive fantasy for little girls. Then you left with Emily,” I added, throwing my hands up to stop him from saying anything when he opened his mouth to interrupt me. “And that’s fine, because you don’t owe me anything, and she was gorgeous and sweet and fun and I get it. You’re a guy, you… wanted to have a fun night. Fine. But I’m not like you, okay? I’ve never done this before.”
He watched me have a mental breakdown in his car, and I swear it was like he was seeing me for the first time.
“I’m not accustomed to sleeping in a room with the opposite sex, or driving across the country without a plan, or sharing this much space with someone whom I can’t tell if I annoy or intrigue. And it may sound stupid to you but I was worried last night. I didn’t know where you were, or if you were coming back to the room, or if I would have to somehow try to hunt down your body and find your phone and call your mom to tell her you were dead.”
My heart slipped into my stomach at that admission, because I knew it stemmed from reading his journal, from prying into his private life that he hadn’t invited me into.
I sighed. “And I don’t know, I just… I just feel stupid. I feel like a stupid little girl with stupid little dreams and a stupid little belief that life will turn out to be everything I’ve ever wanted it to be, because it sure as hell hasn’t been even anything remotely close up until this point.”
My chest deflated along with the hope I’d held onto for so long, and I sank into the seat, staring through the front windshield at the cars ahead of us.
Emery was still looking at me, his attention bouncing from the road to me and back again. He was quiet for a moment, then he cleared his throat, shifting in his seat.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “You’re not stupid. Sometimes I have bad days, and yesterday was one of them.” He swallowed, and my throat was tight again, his handwriting still fresh in my mind. “I can’t promise it won’t happen again, but I just want you to know it had nothing to do with you. You don’t annoy me.” He made sure to look at me again when he said that part. “And I’m an open book. So, what do you want to know? Ask me anything.”
“An open book,” I challenged, face flat. “Like the kind from Harry Potter with the teeth the size of my head inside?”
He laughed, the sound warming me from the inside out. “Careful, your nerd is showing.”
“I like my nerd.”
“So do I,” he answered quickly, and a blush creeped its way up my neck when he pushed his sunglasses up, his eyes connecting with mine.
I didn’t mind when he looked into my eyes. I didn’t mind it at all.
“Well, first thing’s first, what’s your phone number?”
Emery chuckled, listing it off as I typed it into my phone.
“When’s your birthday?”
“Hey, it’s my turn. Don’t be greedy.”
I threw my hands up in mock surrender.
“You keep talking about your dream school,” he said as we pulled back into the passing lane. “Which school?”
Kalo popped up from her seat in the back, excited we were talking again. She licked his ear and we both laughed as she climbed into the front seat and onto my lap.
“Bastyr,” I answered, rubbing behind Kalo’s ears. “I want to go into Naturopathic Medicine.”
“I don’t even know what that is.”
“Voodoo,” I joked. “Basically medicine without stuffing people full of pills. Trying to use what the earth gives us naturally to live a long and healthy life.”
“This from the girl who devoured an entire bag of beef jerky in front of me yesterday.”
I sighed. “Yeah, well, I’m sure my diet will change once I’m there. In my defense, it’s kind of hard to eat anything even remotely healthy in Alabama.”
“Fair,” he said with a smile. “So, you want to help people. I’m shocked. Never would have guessed.”
I swatted at his arm. “Funny. When’s your birthday?”
“June first.”
I squinted one eye, thinking through the calendar as Kalo hopped out of my lap again and into the back. She propped herself between our seats, her tongue blowing in the wind.
“Gemini,” I finally said, and it all clicked together. “Oh, yeah, I can totally see that.”
“See what?”
“It just tells me a lot about who you are,” I explained. “The need for adventure, the charming personality, the habit to go from light and fun to pensive and deep in a split second.”
Emery threw his head back in a laugh. “Oh God, please tell me you don’t actually believe that my sign tells you who I am? Let me guess, you’re an Aquarius and have it tattooed on your foot.”
My mouth popped open and I sat up straighter. “I am an Aquarius, actually.”
“Of course, you are,” he laughed the words. “I promise you, there’s nothing my sign can tell you about me, nothing that’s actually substantial, anyway. Horoscopes and all that? It’s bullshit. Say something vague enough and you can apply it to anyone’s life.”
“That’s not true!” I argued. “I am a textbook Aquarius. Like, it’s scary how much my sign is accurate for who I am.”
“That so?” he asked, and he pulled his phone from his pocket.
“Don’t text and drive.”
He frowned. “I’ve got it, Mom. Okay,” he said, eyes on the road again, but they kept flicking down to his phone. “So, you’d say you’re loyal and kind, and hardworking, but that your weakness is that you tend to worry and you’re overcritical of yourself? And you’d also say that you love books and nature, but you dislike being the center of attention.”
I nodded. “Yep, that’s me to a T.”
“Congratulations. You’re a Virgo.”
He tossed his phone to me as I scoffed, rolling my eyes. But when I looked down at the screen, it was the same astrology site I referenced all the time, and the traits he’d been reading were for a Virgo, not an Aquarius.