Billionaire Happy After

Choked out

There was a rumbled sputtering and the RV inched forward, then stopped.

I turned to stare at Christian.

He glanced at me, but didn't say anything and turned the key again. But after a sad little stutter, our vehicle settled back into silence.

"What's wrong with it?" I asked.

"No idea," he moved his seat back and pulled out a small spray bottle and rag from the compartment under his seat. "It's raining though, so it's probably just the distributor cap. Shouldn't be hard to fix."

"It's raining really hard-" I started, but he just ignored me, getting out of the car before I could finish. "Okay, fine, get cold and wet see if I care," I muttered.

I watched him open the hood of the RV and bend over, disappearing behind it. As I waited, I opened the iPhone box Jacen gave me. There was a brand new iPhone, the latest version that had come out, so big my hand could barely grasp it. I turned it on, watching the Apple logo blaze to life then dim.

It opened to the generic floral background I had switched to a couple months ago. My old background had been a picture of me and Lucas but I had wanted to change it for obvious reasons. I hadn't had any picture with friends that I could change it to so I had gone looking for a random wallpaper off Google.

It was quarter past six. We had stopped for lunch before exiting New York and that had been about noon. If we were an hour past the Massachusetts border then Christian had been driving for around four hours and the missing two hours or so would've been stops he made. One of them getting me a new phone and loading all the information from my old one onto it.

I swiped right and entered my pass code, surprised when the phone actually unlocked. Everything was the same as my phone. Before I got too involved in exploring, I glanced up to check on Jacen.

I was by no means a mechanic, but Lucas had worked in an Auto Repairs shop, so I had the vague knowledge that anything that could be fixed with a spray bottle and a rag wouldn't take that long.

I tucked my new phone in my pocket and pulled my hood up, then climbed out of the RV. In addition to being heavy, the rain was also freezing cold.

Why, why, why, why, I changed in my head as I walked around the front to find Christian . He was still bent over the hood but the spray bottle was on the ground beside him now, instead of in his hand.

"Everything okay?" I asked.

I saw his head move back and forth. "Call someone!" He yelled.

I walked back around and climbed in the back, shivering as I puller off my soaked sweater. I did a quick location finder to figure out where we were and a Google search for a nearby mechanics.

The first place I tried was closed and I was just dialing the second when Jacen opened the door. "What's wrong with it?" I asked, covering part of my phone in case someone picked up.

"Something with the carburetor, I think," he replied as he shucked off his wet T-shirt. "Not something I can fix."

A pre-recorded answering message came on, announcing it was past their hours.

"No one's open now," I said, trying not to look at him as he pulled out a new shirt from his bag and put it on.

"Keep trying. I'll find the number for AAA," he told me, pulling out his phone.

The next place I tried told me I had to bring the car to them for a fix and that they weren't a tow service. I glanced over at Christian to see if he was having any luck.

"We'll pay extra," he was saying.

He paused to listen for a moment. "We just passed... Cornish, I think."

He listened for a long moment. "Alright, thank you," he recited our license plate before hanging up.

"Are they coming?" I asked.

"In the morning. Said the storm's too bad now," he replied. I glanced out the front. It was pretty much thunderstorming, raining hard enough that it was hard to see the road ahead of us, but it couldn't be that bad, right?

"You might want to change into some dry clothes or take a shower if there's still hot water," Jacen added as he settled down on his bed. I had taken off my sweater, but my jeans and tank top were still a little wet, same with my hair. I stared at him for a moment, surprised that he had noticed and cared enough to mention it, then shook my head and ducked into the bathroom to take a shower.

Any more time around him and I might get convinced that Christian Harvey actually liked me.

It's so f*****g cold.

I clutched the blanket tighter around me, shivering. I'd put on all the layers I could dig out of my bag but every part of me still felt chilled to the bone. Christian had tried putting on the furnace and the heat pump but they had given out after the first hour, burning through all the propane. The RV had stayed toasty warm for another thirty minutes before dropping to arctic temperatures.

"H-how are you not-t freez-zing?" I demanded. Christian seemed fine. Okay, he had put on a sweater and gone under the covers on his bed, but he was just scrolling through his phone. He didn't seem concerned about getting frostbite all over his body.

He glanced up at me. "We go skiing in Whistler sometimes. It's colder there."

How is that even possible? Okay, maybe it was because I used to Californian weather. We'd taken vacations a couple times before, but we'd never left the state. "I've never been so cold in my life."

Christian stared at me.

"W-what-t? We don't-t all t-take vacat-tions to ski resort-ts," I stuttered, hating that the shivers wracking up my spine made my teeth chatter and cut into my speech.

He sighed. "Come here."

"I don't want to move," I complained, burying deeper into my blanket cocoon.

"Body heat," he said. "I'm probably the hottest thing in this RV right now."

I probably would've made some kind of snarky comeback to his words if my brain hadn't been too cold to function. I wasn't sure I really wanted to cozy up to Christian Harvey but the thought of warming up even by a single degree was too tempting. I rolled off the bed then shuffled over to him.

He snickered at my movements, then lifted his covers to let me in.

I hesitated for a moment but the promise of warmth was too much to resist, so I crawled in beside him. "How is this so warm?" Compared to how cold it had been, this felt like a toaster.

He shrugged. "I think the mattress or cover or something is heat reflecting."

So that was his secret.

"And I guess I'm just naturally hot," he added.

I managed to choke out a laugh. "Right," I muttered. "That must be it."

He scooted around and tugged at the cover, then grumbled, "Your burrito blanket's taking up the entire bed."

"Sorry." I rolled around to face him, and pushed the sheets I had wrapped around myself back. "Uh, thanks for letting me share your bed."

"Not nearly the asshole you think I am, remember?" he said with a sardonic smile.

"Wait, what are you doing?" I asked when he reached behind him and switched off the light, plunging us into darkness.

"Going to bed," he replied.

"But..." I'm in bed with you.

"The car guy isn't gonna be here for another couple of hours," he interrupted. "Just go to sleep."

I squeezed my eyes shut and shifted onto my back, trying to will myself to fall asleep next to Christian Harvey . I listened to his breaths grow steady and even tried counting them to tire myself, but for some reason my brain wouldn't shut off.