“Yeah.” I nodded. “She got a scholarship offer from the University of Georgia and it was the only school that was willing to give her a full ride…”
“Wow,” he sighed. “I think I would have just flown—if I had stuff I needed to take; I would have paid someone else to transport it for me.”
“Her parents considered it, but she needs a car when she gets there, so they thought it just made more sense to drive.” I shrugged.
“Crazy…” He shook his head back and forth. “At least our trip isn’t that long.”
“You think you would get tired of me before that trip was over?” I looked his way and grinned.
“Not a chance.” He put his hand on mine and met my grin with one of his own.
Everette narrated a few of Amelia’s text message, and then fired off a rather stern warning about texting and driving—she was probably going to think that came out of the left field, but he sent it before I could say anything. Amelia apologized and stopped sending messages after that—but promised she’d get in touch with me when she found a motel for the night. Everette and I stopped for lunch around noon at a small diner right off the interstate. We were really struggling to keep our hands off each other—and every time I felt his touch—it was enough to make me shudder, shake, or feel like I was going to spontaneously combust. I had to actually concentrate on driving instead of looking over at him—and that was difficult because he was certainly easy on the eyes with a presence that just drew me in.
“I need to check in with my parents when we stop again…” I sighed and looked at the clock. “We’re about halfway there.”
“It’s going to be pretty late when you arrive. Are they even going to be able to let you into your dorm?” Everette looked at the clock with concern on his face. “You’re going to lose an hour with the time zone shift.”
“They said someone is there most of the time. They’re expecting this week to be pretty busy.” I leaned forward and blinked a couple of times to force my eyes to adjust. “I’m going to need that next stop sooner rather than later.”
“This looks good.” Everette motioned to an exit up ahead.
We stopped to get some more caffeine, I topped off the gas in my car and made a call to my parents. They were anxious to hear from me, and I let them know that they were no issues at all. Of course, I left out the part about my surprise guest. Every mile that passed made me like Everette even more. He was kind, thoughtful, and seemed to genuinely care about other people. Those were great traits in a doctor, but quite important in a relationship as well. His age and experience made him more mature than I was, and while we didn’t have a lot of shared interests when it came to music or movies, there were a few songs we both liked, and we made a list of movies that we both liked. Everette was so focused on school that he missed out on a lot of them. I got the impression that he didn’t date much—which made the fact he was interested in me a little more special than I originally realized.
“It appears that we are approaching a sea of brake lights…” I sighed and leaned forward as I saw the line forming.
“Nothing on the GPS yet.” Everette pointed at the screen. “Whatever happened must be new…”
Traffic wasn’t just slow-moving; it was at an absolute standstill. It took nearly thirty minutes for the GPS to give us an update and estimate for our delay—two hours. Everette checked the traffic map on his phone and found out there was a jackknifed 18-wheeler ahead of us—and they were hauling some sort of fuel, so they were going to have to bring in a Hazmat team to clear the area. I was pretty sure the two hours my GPS estimated was a best case scenario—and a lot of the other travelers seemed to feel the same way because they started cutting through the grass to turn around go in the opposite direction.
“Another message from Amelia.” Everette motioned to my phone.
“Wow, she left a couple of hours after us, and she just hit the stopped traffic. It looks like she’s just going to call it a day and get a hotel room for the night.” I shook my head and sighed.
“We’re not far from the exit.” Everette looked over his shoulder. “Let’s turn around.”
“And—get a motel room…” My eyes just kind of spaced out for a moment.
“I’ll get a room with two beds—relax.” He narrowed his eyes. “I’m not trying to take advantage of the situation. If you prefer, you can get your own room.”
“No.” I shook my head back and forth. “Two beds should be fine…”
I’d love for it to be one, but I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet…
I was aware that the trip would probably lead to something—possibly even the loss of my virginity before he left—but I thought I’d have more time before it happened. The stopped traffic had created a rather unusual situation. Everette convinced me to go to one of the nicer hotels instead of the discount motel by the interstate exit. He paid for the room, and we made sure my car was locked before we headed inside. Neither one of us were really hungry—it hadn’t been that long since lunch—or maybe that was just nerves. I was definitely feeling something swirling in my stomach, whether it was just anxiety or butterflies.
“I should call my parents…” I immediately pulled out my cell phone once we stepped into the hotel room.
“Yeah, they may see the news story about the wreck and get worried.” Everette walked over and grabbed a beer out of the mini-bar.
“This room is really nice…” I looked around and got distracted for a few minutes instead of calling my parents.
“It’s okay.” Everette chuckled.
We probably had different views on it, but I was still pretty surprised by how awesome it was. There were two beds, just like he promised, but there was a lot of room. The bathroom was spacious and even had a large whirlpool tub. I finally returned to my original task and called my parents. They had seen the news story and hoped I was ahead of the accident, so they were a little surprised when I told them I wasn’t. My father gave me a quick lecture about stopping too much when I needed to stay focused on the trip—I decided not to argue. The phone call was a little frustrating, and when I got done, I tossed my phone on the counter by the door.
“So…” Everette walked up and wrapped his arms around me from behind. “I’ve got you all to myself for the entire night.”
“Yeah…” I leaned against him and smiled. “You do.”