Page 16 of Tempting Sebastian

“Um…” Sebastian just stood there. “I… how…” He didn’t finish though. I think he was surprised that I knew something about cars.

I stepped in front of him and closed the hood. Wanting to get us a ride as quickly as possible, I pulled out my phone and ordered us a taxi. The wind was blowing so there was a chilly bite in the air. “The taxi will be here in five minutes. Let’s get our stuff out of the car and lock it up. I wouldn’t leave anything in here that you don’t want stolen. You know, just in case.” I shrugged at him. Sometimes I was good in a crisis. Sometimes.

He dropped his arms and turned to walk toward the driver’s side of the car. I couldn’t believe he had nothing to say but my guess was that he was still in shock. I assumed he wasn’t used to things going wrong for him. He kept it together most of the time, but not that time.

As the taxi driver pulled up, we gathered what we had, and loaded our things into the taxi one at a time. The whole situation made me think we needed to start packing spare clothes for those trips since clearly, you never know what can happen.

When we got in, I asked the driver to take us back to the nearest hotel. It wasn’t anything super fancy, but it would do. I told him, “Hi, there was a hotel a ways back. Can you take us there?”

The driver nodded and I sat back. Looking over at Sebastian, he was staring at me but quiet. I said, “I’m sure the hotel will have a couple of rooms. It’ll be fine.”

Sebastian nodded, rubbing his beard and turned to look out the window. It was a quick ride to the hotel. When we got to the front desk, I rang the bell. A woman came out, “Hi, welcome to the Star Inn. Do you have a reservation?”

I waited a few seconds to see if Sebastian would lead, but he didn’t, so I continued. “We actually don’t. Our car broke down and this was the nearest hotel. We just need two rooms.”

She grimaced while typing into her computer and said, “Uh, I’m sorry about your car. We actually have a conference in town this week, so the hotel is booked almost full. We have one single Queen room available.”

One single Queen room meant we would have to share a room and a bed. There was no way.

“We’ll take it.” My head turned to Sebastian who answered up and slid his credit card across the counter.

“Sounds great. There will be a hundred dollar hold for incidentals, but it’ll be released once you check out and everything looks good with the room. We have an on-site laundry facility and workout room. You’re welcome to use them both. There’s also a swimming pool with a hot tub available. That closes at ten p.m.”

“Thank you. That’ll be fine.” Sebastian said.

She continued, “Here are two room keys. Checkout time is eleven a.m., and breakfast is available from six a.m. to nine am. You’re in room three zero nine. The elevators are down the hall and to the left and each floor has two ice machines.”

Sebastian grabbed the keys and handed me one. Nodding at the lady, he said, “Thank you. Have a good night.”

I followed Sebastian as he walked toward the elevators. The tension was high. When we got on the elevator and the doors shut, I stepped forward and hit the number three to take us to the third floor. Sebastian seemed like he was in a trance as he fidgeted with his wallet. “Um, sorry. Thanks,” he said.

“Yeah sure. Thanks for paying for the room.” I sort of smiled, but it felt weird. He was acting fucking weird. I wished he would say something to me. He’d been quiet ever since I told him what the car smoke might mean.

Sebastian unlocked the hotel room, and we went inside. It was nice. Small. Bathroom, desk, desk chair, one fucking bed, and a lounge chair. It was clean though. I was frustrated and annoyed and wanted him to speak. “Can we talk? Say anything? Canyoutalk? You’ve barely said two words to me since the car broke down. Before that it was even less.”

I watched Sebastian set the train down on the desk and then the rest of the things in the desk chair but still, he said nothing. I put my stuff down in the big chair next to the bed. Rolling my eyes and huffing out a breath, I went to the bathroom.

After I washed my face and took a deep breath, I went back out. Sebastian was sitting on the bed. “How did you know what might be wrong with the car?”

“What?” The annoyance in my voice was more pronounced than I had meant for it to be.

He stared at me and said, “All the stuff you rattled off. How’d you know?”

Finally, he was saying something. “I…growing up, I just learned a lot here and there from the different places I stayed. Sometimes I was the only boy in the house so when there was a problem with the car, my foster parents always asked me to help. I’d hand tools or fetch things, but I always paid attention. After a while, I started to really enjoy working on cars so I just did a bunch of reading about them and if an opportunity ever came open where someone needed help, I always volunteered just so I could learn a bit more.”

He nodded while I picked up my phone. “I’m going to call the tow service place and see what time they’re available tomorrow.”

Walking out to the hallway allowed me to do some pacing while I talked. When I came back in, Sebastian was staring at me, still sitting on the bed. I said, “They can be to the car by ten-thirty tomorrow morning. It works perfect since check out is eleven. Maybe we can eat breakfast in the morning before we go.”

“Yeah, absolutely. Listen, I’m sorry this all happened. Thanks for…I don’t know. Thanks for all you do. Thanks for setting up that pick. It was really nice to talk to the old man and learn about him and his wife. I was reminded of why I started this business in the first place.”

Holy fuck, he was talking. I didn’t want him to stop. “Why’s that?”

He smiled. Sebastian actually smiled again. “The history. To hear people’s stories. To hear how they collected everything they had. To hear Mr. Talbot tell us about waiting for Alina to come home in a snowstorm and how he ran out to open her door. To see the care that he’s taken over the years with everything in his barn. I love this job. It’s easy for me to get caught up in the administrative side of it all, but listening to Mr. Talbot really put life and how we live it into perspective. Thank you for setting it up, Jackson. I’m glad I was able to come with you.”

Wow. Honest to God, it was the most he’s spoken to me since the night in the kitchen when he was upset about learning of my sleeping arrangements. So that was conversational Sebastian. I liked it. His voice was deep and mesmerizing. I could listen to him recite his grocery list over and over again.

He asked, “Are you hungry?”

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