Page 60 of Homesick

Before I can ask my next question, he answers it for me.

“We can get two rooms,” Blake mumbles and begins walking toward the ancient motel sign up ahead. I hurry on after him.

When we approach the rusty, teal-colored building, I quicken my pace to get closer to Blake. The smell of cigarettes and regret makes me turn my nose up at the old establishment. We have something similar in Honey Grove, but at least I know the names of every person who works there.

The first thing I notice when we walk into the small lobby is the ugly floral wallpaper plastered on all four walls. I can only imagine what the rooms look like.

My gaze falls on the cute old lady standing behind the counter smiling brightly at us. She almost looks like she’s been waiting for us all day.

Blake tells me he’s going to go get us checked in, so I scope the place for a vending machine. After realizing the closest thing to food in this entire place is an old gumball machine that looks very out of place, I sigh and set my sights back on Blake at the counter.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he shouts at the poor old lady.

I walk over to the front and based on context clues, I smartly say, “let me guess. Only one room?”

She looks up at me and l can tell Blake has upset her. “Y-yes. I’m so sorry, dear. There’s a Big Foot convention in town this weekend and we’re all booked up.”

A Big Foot convention? Where the hell were we?

“That’s fine! We’ll take it,” I reply, trying to stop her old hands from shaking. “I’m sorry about him. He gets a little irritable when he’s hungry.”

My quip at Blake seems to lighten her mood and color begins to swirl in her cheeks again.

“I know all about that. My husband is an absolute terror before he’s had his bacon and eggs. I’ve been married for sixty years, and it never gets any better, hun,” she says with a smile before typing away on her computer.

“Oh. We’re not married, we’re just—” before I can continue, she cuts me off.

“Here you are. Room 201. You two have a good night and let me know if there’s anything I can get you,” she says with a wink.

“I do not get irritable when I’m hungry,” Blake mumbles under his breath before stalking out of the lobby. “I wouldn’t object to getting a bite at that diner across the road though.”

I turn my head and sure enough there’s a vintage-looking diner across the street. I swear I can hear my stomach growl the closer we get to the shiny red doors.

Once we get corralled into a booth by an overeager server, we both focus on our menus and continue to ignore each other. I want to rip the Band-Aid off and continue our conversation from earlier, but I want him to initiate it.

I figure if everything goes to shit and we further damage our relationship, I can just sleep on the way home tomorrow. Or pretend to sleep. All I know is we need to talk about it. There’s no more ignoring how hurt I still feel after all these years.

I peek over my comically large menu and see Blake leaning over his menu as well. After a while, the waitress comes over to take our orders and steals the booklets back. Now we have nothing left to hide behind.

“So, weird day. Huh?”

“Went exactly how I thought it would,” I stammer before taking a sip of my water.

Blake uncomfortably shifts in his chair. I can see the gears grinding away in his head, trying to figure out what to say next. Soon enough, he breaks the silence between us.

“Now that I understand why you acted the way you did last week, I owe you an explanation. But first,” Blake says before waving the waitress over and ordering a beer and a cocktail for me. “We’re going to need it.”

“I know you don’t like beer,” he says when the waitress sets my drink down in front of me.

The foggy glass looks questionable, but I take a drink anyway. As soon as the well vodka hits my throat, my face scrunches up in disgust. I look at Blake before he can conceal the smile on his face.

“There’s some things you need to know about what happened between us six years ago,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Blake, when you didn’t get into the same school as me, I was devastated. I always pictured us leaving this town together and when that didn’t happen, I had to find ways to be happy outside of us. It was a hard decision, but if I had to do it over again, I would.”

Blake shifts nervously in the booth across from me. His body language is restrained, like he’s on the edge of saying something big.

“Wren, I actually did get into that school.”

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