Chapter 2
895 Words
2
Stephanie pulled her hand away and nearly tripped as she went over to join Chuck at the front desk. He was staring straight head, but she knew he’d seen everything. There was just no way he wouldn’t have been watching them.
They turned in their key cards and moved outside to wait for their ride among the thronging crowds coming and going. It was still a few minutes until their taxi was supposed to arrive, and Stephanie was glad for a break. She wasn’t glad for the silence between them, though. She was a little uneasy when Chuck didn’t say anything to her about the sudden show of infatuation by Gregory.
“So, um, you drive first or me?” she asked to break the ice.
“I was thinking about driving all the way,” he gruffly informed her.
“You don’t have to do that,” she argued. She actually wanted him to do it, but probably not for the reason she suspected he had for doing all the driving. “I’m feeling just fine.”
“If you’re feeling fine, then what was all that rush this morning?” Chuck pointed out. “I was up before you, Boss.”
“It was a rough night,” she defended herself. She shrugged and sighed. “Maybe I just needed a lot of sleep.”
Chuck looked at her for a moment and his mouth straightened into a firm, unconvinced line. He shook his head and looked off down the street.
“Looks like our rides here,” he commented.
He was right. Their taxi stopped in front of them and they piled their luggage and themselves inside. Then they were on their way to the car rental place, and again there was that unnerving quiet between them. Stephanie sighed. In this situation she needed to be the adult for once.
“What’s wrong?” she finally asked her partner. He raised an eyebrow as he turned to her with a questioning glance. “Don’t give me that Spock look,” she scolded. “You’re mad at me about something.”
“It’s not really you,” he grudgingly admitted.
“Then it’s Gregory?” she guessed, and he flinched. She’d hit it on the nail. “He’s just another client, right?”
“You really think so?” Chuck wondered. He gave her a pointed, if disbelieving, stare. “He didn’t seem to think so.”
“He was just…just trying to be friendly,” Stephanie excused the behavior. She squirmed beneath his gaze. “I’m sure you’ve gotten that a lot from the women clients,” she countered. A slow, mischievous grin slid across her lips. “You’d be a pretty nice catch for any lady.”
“You think so?” he surprisingly wondered.
“Of course,” she frowned. She couldn’t believe he was this insecure with how he looked. He’d never shown any signs of that before. “You just need to get off those nerdy glasses and maybe do your hair up so it looks a little wilder or something.” He didn’t seem to take her suggestions seriously, though, and she leaned back in the seat in a huff. “Fine, don’t listen to me.”
“There, that’s what I was going for,” he suddenly commented.
“Wait, what?” Stephanie asked. His statement had completely derailed her from the conversation.
“Your attitude,” Chuck pointed out. “That’s what was bothering me. You weren’t acting like yourself. I figured if I prodded you long enough you’d start acting like yourself again.”
“You mean you tricked me into believing you were jealous of Gregory?” Stephanie dryly commented. She didn’t believe him for one second. He wasn’t that good of an actor.
“Yep,” he proudly boasted. He had a big, stupid grin on his face. “I always wanted to know how you saw the world.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t have acted that way if you had acted more like yourself,” she angrily countered. She folded her arms across her chest. “Here I was trying to be the adult between us and you sitting there acting like a moody kid, and the only thing you can say is gotcha?”
“Well, it got you out of your drowsiness, didn’t it?” he pointed out.
She glared at him and would have given him more talking to about the trap he’d laid for her when the taxi driver coughed.
“We’re almost there, folks,” the driver interrupted. “You want me to wait while you see if your car’s ready?”
“No, I called earlier and they said the vehicle was waiting for us,” Chuck reassured him.
Sure enough they got to the car rental business and their small, four-door vehicle was waiting for them outside. They picked up the keys at the desk with instructions to have the car returned within twenty-four hours at any of the company’s locations. Fortunately for those two, one was in their hometown. Unfortunately, that was an ten-hour drive.
“Tell me again why we can’t just take a plane?” Stephanie asked as she shoved her luggage into the trunk.
“It’s more expensive, especially since we’d have to land at the Newcastle Airport,” Chuck explained. Newcastle was the largest city near their own town, Newport. “Then we’d have to make that hour drive back home, so we’d be driving, anyways.”
“Well, let me get my part over with,” she huffed. She snatched the keys from his hand before he could argue.
“I still don’t think that’s a good idea,” he argued anyway.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” she countered.
“Well, you could fall asleep at the wheel,” Chuck pointed out. “Or have some sort of attack or something.”
“Just get in the car,” Stephanie ordered.
She rolled her eyes at his suggestions as she slid into the driver’s seat. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her.
- Writer
