Page 47 of The No Touch Roommate Rule
“Why not get the fuck out of town for a while? I mean, I have ten days off before summer conditioning starts, and I won’t be able to do much except physical therapy anyway. And I can do my exercises on the road. Blue’s going to Nepal. We’re practically obligated to go somewhere half as cool.”
Her smile is weak and a little embarrassed. “Except that I don’t have any money, Parker.”
“Fuck it, I’ll cover it. It’s no problem.”
“It’s a problem for me,” she says. “You’re already letting me stay with you for free and bought me a ridiculous number of clothes. Not to mention food and?—”
“Shut up,” I cut in, softening the words by leaning forward to wrap my hand around her bare ankle. “Seriously, just stop. I’m letting you stay with me because it’s the decent thing to do, and because I enjoy your company. And aren’t you the woman who tried to drop two hundred dollars on food and toys for a family you’d never met last night?”
“Butyouinsisted on paying the bill,” she says, still looking uncomfortable. “And that was before I knew I was super poor, not ordinary poor.”
“Well, I’m not poor. And that’s not because I’ve worked harder than other people or am morally superior or some shit. It’s because I got lucky.”
“You worked hard,” she insists. “Really hard.”
“Okay, fine, but luck was also involved. From good genes to my parents having the cash for me to play an expensive sport to the fact that pro hockey players get paid a stupid amount of money.” I give her ankle another squeeze. “So, let me spend some of that stupid money on a trip for us, huh? It would be good for me to get out of town for a while, too.”
“If I’m no longer a business owner, I should probably start looking for a job,” she says. But she’s weakening, I can tell.“You know, pounding the pavement. Getting resumes in front of eyeballs. All that jazz.”
“Half the pavement is still covered in mud from the flood, the eyeballs are tired, and the jazz will still be here when we get back. And maybe by then, you’ll have heard back on your appeal to Gerald’s boss, and you’ll be able to reopen, after all. Then, we’ll swing by the Pelican State Insurance office, tell Gerald to eat a bag of dicks, and celebrate with gumbo at Betty’s Diner on the way out of town.”
She grins. “I prefer the shrimp and grits at Betty’s, but the first part of that sounds pretty good. I’d really like to tell Gerald to eat a bag of dicks.”
“We could go right now,” I say, nodding over my shoulder. “It’s never too early to tell someone to eat a bag of dicks, and the office is on the way back to the truck.”
She shakes her head with a laugh. “Nah. That would require more feelings. Anger is a feeling, and I told you. No more feelings today.” She casts a sideways glance my way, silently asking if I’m picking up what she’s putting down.
“Got it. We’re not going to talk about what happened last night,” I say, sparing her further pussyfooting around. “Coming in loud and clear. And honestly, I’m glad,” I lie. “I’d much rather spend that energy booking flights to Aruba. And a fancy hotel on the beach with a waterslide. I’m going to need a waterslide, Makena. Call me a child, if you must, but I can’t just lie by a pool. I have to frolic. Frolicking is mandatory.”
She stands, her lips quirking into a crooked smile as she reaches down to help me up. “Me, too, but I’m not letting you fly me to Aruba, psycho. That’s too much.”
I take her hand, thankfully not needing it nearly as much as I would have even a couple of days ago. Still, I take advantage of the chance to hold onto her fingers as I whisper, “It’s not toomuch. It’s just enough. Please, I need a beach that doesn’t smell like rotten eggs and alligator farts.”
She laughs. “Agreed, but we can find a beach like that without hopping on a plane. And what’s more exciting than the open road, tons of snacks, and a bus station in every major city in case you get sick of me and need to send me home on the next Greyhound?”
Curling my hand tighter around hers, fighting the urge to tell her that I’m not her dad or any of the other losers she’s dated.
I’m not going to ask her to be someone else. I see who she is, and I like what I see. The only thing Idon’tlike is how often I see the back of her head hightailing it away from me.
But she said “no feelings,” and I’m trying to respect that, so I just roll my eyes before moving on to more pressing issues. “Okay, road trip it is. But not to the West Coast. I made that drive with some of the guys on the team last year, and it was fucking miserable. Twenty-six hours doesn’t sound that bad, in theory. But by the time we hit hour three of Nix blasting divorced dad rock, I was ready to jump out a window. I flew back from San Diego after.”
Makena hums beneath her breath as we start back to the parking lot downtown. “Yeah, that’s way too far. We can find fun things closer to home. I have a few ideas already. Let me marinate on it. I’ll work out an itinerary this afternoon, and we can hash it out over dinner tonight. Fair warning, though, it will be at least partly food-motivated. I hope that’s okay.”
“Very okay,” I agree. “You know me, I like to eat.”
“Me, too, and June is a great time of the year for food festivals.” A bounce comes back into her step as she adds, “Oh, and seafood festivals! I think there’s one in Mobile where the crabs just hurl themselves on shore, right into your pot.”
I shoot her a dubious look. “No way. That’s not a real thing.”
“No, it is,” she maintains before scrunching her nose. “But it might not be a festival. I think it’s more of a spontaneous thing that happens when shellfish get deprived of oxygen. And you have to actually put them in the pot after they yeet themselves onto the beach, but still! Interesting! I would totally drive a day to watch a bunch of suicidal crabs.”
“Sounds like a good time,” I agree. “And we could get matching ‘I Got Crabs in Mobile’ t-shirts.”
She snorts. “YouwishI’d give you crabs in Mobile.”
“I do,” I agree. “I really do.”
She rolls her eyes with a sigh. “I wouldn’t give you crabs, weirdo. I haven’t been with anyone since Chuck and all my tests came back clear, so…”
