2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

T hat smug RK just smirked and looked out the window. “We should probably go find our ride before she changes her mind and takes off without us.”

“I just have to use the ATM first.” Cleo tiptoed outside and stuck her card into the machine the employee had shown her. Checking the balance, she knew she’d been right not to splurge on a bigger car. She’d barely make this money stretch as it was. This card was an emergency debit card her father hadn’t known about, with a different name attached to it and everything that she'd opened when she was eighteen. It once had thousands of dollars on it, an accumulation of several years of small deposits pilfered from her allowance. She’d used it too many times since then for non -emergencies that now that she was really having an emergency, it was going to be tight.

Withdrawing several twenties, Cleo stuffed them into her bra, the only pocket she currently had. Then she and RK found Miss Southern Belle doing the most thorough inspection of a red sedan that she had ever seen. RK’s sardonic gaze likely matched her own.

When she was finally satisfied, the woman turned to Cleo. “I cain’t drive tired, so you’re up first. I’m taking a nap. Where’s my money?” Cleo turned her back to the pair and fished the wad of cash out of her bra, then counted out the agreed on amount. RK was handing the lady some bills when she turned back around and paid her portion. Then Madame Memphis piled her things in the trunk and climbed into the back seat, where she stretched out, covered herself with her coat, and closed her eyes.

RK shrugged and opened the door for Cleo. Climbing in, she adjusted the seat and mirror and familiarized herself with the controls. The key was already in the ignition.

When RK climbed into the passenger seat, Cleo told him, “You’re going to have to be my navigator. I don’t have my phone, and there’s no GPS system in here.”

She navigated toward the exit as he pulled up the maps app on his phone and told her the first turn to make, sighing as she made it. “You turned east and I told you to turn west.”

Frazzled, Cleo ground out, “What do I look like, a freaking compass? I don’t know which way is west! Just say left or right like a normal person.”

“Fine. Turn left here.”

“Here? Or at the light?”

RK pinched the bridge of his nose. “I said here. I assumed you understood that word at least.”

“But it was a tiny little street I could barely see. I thought we’d turn at a light!”

“We can turn at the light as well.” Cleo drove through the light.

“Well, now we can’t, because I missed the light while you were judging me. Will you just tell me where to turn?”

“Take any of the lefts! I don’t care! We just need to go back that way.”

Cleo resisted the urge to growl or snap at him again while she made two left turns to point the car in the opposite direction. It wasn’t his fault she was wound tighter than a coiled spring. She just needed to get out of the city and she’d be able to stop panicking.

As they drove into the sunset on the New Jersey Turnpike, and for the first time that day, Cleo let her shoulders drop and relax for a moment. They were on their way out of New York City, and nobody had caught up with her yet.

Keeping her left hand on the wheel, she tried to set her right elbow on the console separating her seat from RK’s but found it was already covered. She gawked. “You can’t have that armrest; that’s my armrest.”

Glancing down at his left arm and then back at her, RK pointed to the one built into the door. “You have that armrest.” If you could even call that little ledge an armrest.

“Yes, but I have two arms. This one goes here, and this one goes here.” She tried to push his arm off with hers, but he held firm.

“I also have two arms, LP, and I claimed this first.” He pushed back on her arm until it slipped off the console.

“But I’m the driver, so I should get both armrests.”

His forehead acquired four horizontal lines. “As the driver you should have both hands on the wheel, so really you shouldn’t have any armrests. Ten and two, remember?”

“The only people who hold the wheel at ten and two are fifteen and their voices haven’t changed yet. I need to be able to rest my arms periodically on the rests, so I need access to both of them. And right now this arm needs to rest.”

RK growled and then nudged the arm closest to him. “Drive with that one and rest the other one for now. My body is too broad to fit in this seat without using both rests.”

“Oh yeah, RK, draw attention to your extreme manliness–”

“I drew attention to my size to explain why I needed this rest–”

“–where I’m just this tiny little thing who shouldn’t get any favors for driving you all–”

“Oh, shut up, both of you!” the woman in the backseat shouted, silencing them. “You’ve been bickerin’ since you got in this car, and I cain’t sleep!”

Chagrined, Cleo shut her mouth and peeked in the mirror where the woman’s glare bounced between them. After a solid minute of this, she finally lay back down. Cleo noticed RK had moved his arm so he took up half of the armrest. She gingerly rested hers on the edge of the other half and drove in silence.

“Why do you keep calling me RK?” the man whispered so as not to wake the beast again.

Cleo smiled. “It stands for Roy Kent, but I’d be willing to address you differently if you told me your real name.” She added, “And am I to assume LP stands for Little Princess?”

Now he grinned. “Sure does. Unless you’d like to substitute it for your real name.”

“I asked you before.”

“Yes, but ladies first.”

“Oh, now you want to treat me as a lady?”

“What do you mean, now ? I paid for your taxi earlier, didn’t I? I thought I was inordinately chivalrous, especially after you put me out.”

“Yes, which gesture impressed me at the time, but is super suspicious now that you’ve followed me into my car.”

The man looked affronted. “Your car? This is your car?”

“Of course not; I only mean that you followed me to that car rental.”

“And what about her?” He pointed a thumb to the back seat. “Did she also follow you?”

“No, but I didn’t meet her earlier today, did I? Only you.”

“And I couldn’t possibly have been headed to Texas by car before you met me?”

“You weren’t even headed to the airport before I got in your cab!”

“So you can get in my cab but I can’t get in your car?”

“Aha! So you admit you got in my car.”

“It’s not your car!”

“Then why did you just call it that?”

He pinched the skin between his eyes again. “I was merely stating that sometimes coincidences happen. Sometimes random women end up hijacking your cab, and then you end up in the same woman’s car.”

Cleo gripped the steering wheel and huffed, despite the thrill that had raced up her spine at this argument. Her eyes narrowed. “What is your name?”

“Clark.”

“Clark?”

Clark nodded.

“Alright, Clarky. You’re going to tell me right now what is going on.”

“Not until you tell me your name.”

“It’s Cleo.”

“Hi, Chloe, it’s nice to meet you.” He stuck out his hand to shake, but Cleo ignored it.

“It’s Cleo, not Chloe, and you’d better explain yourself.”

Clark sighed. “Alright Cleo-not-Chloe.” He faced her and crossed his arms. “I was headed to a drugstore when you jumped in my taxi, because I had a headache and needed some aspirin before what would undoubtedly be a long and taxing drive. The cabbie didn’t know we’d be headed to the airport after that because I hadn’t told him yet. I had to forgo my trip for medicine when you got in. But I was happy to do it so you could get to where you needed to be since it seemed urgent. You’re welcome.”

That was the grumpiest “you’re welcome” Cleo had ever received. “Why are you driving to Texas?”

“I’m going to visit my dear grandmama.”

“Yes, but why a car, not a plane? It’s like ten times as long.”

“I’m terrified of flying.”

Cleo rolled her eyes to the window. Were people actually still afraid of flying these days? Didn’t everyone know it was safer to fly than to drive?

Clark asked, “Why are you going to Texas?”

Cleo continued staring out the window for several moments. Prevaricating, she finally answered, “I’m going to meet an old friend.”

“An old friend who takes in runaway brides?”

Drawing the long gauzy veil across her lap, Cleo wasn’t sure if it was more blanket or shield, but she’d take either. “Yes,” she answered simply. Clark hadn’t earned a full explanation.

“And why were you running from your own wedding?”

“That is none of your business.”

“I think you made it my business when you got in my cab.”

“Why are you suddenly so interested in this? You didn’t give me the time of day when we were riding together earlier today. Why do you want to know now?”

“Because now we’re stuck in a small car together for a couple of days at least, and I’m inordinately fond of stories. Especially love stories.”

Cleo’s brow furrowed. “What makes you think this is a love story? I didn’t stay to say ‘I do,’ if you’ll remember.”

“But you’re likely in the third act part of your story where you break up for a reason that could have easily been resolved, had you just communicated with each other like adults. You’ll have your ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ somewhere in Tennessee, and then all will be forgiven. Your Knight in Shining Armor will fly out and whisk you back to the church, where you will finally be united in holy matrimony to your soulmate. Isn’t that how it goes in rom coms?”

Cleo rolled her eyes. “This is hardly a romantic comedy. I haven’t laughed once today. And how do you know so much about romcoms, anyway?”

“I have sisters,” Clark replied ominously.

They had been chasing the sun; now it kissed the horizon. Crimson and burnt orange streaks lit up the sky, limning the clouds with gold.

After several quiet minutes, Cleo muttered, “He wasn’t my soulmate.”

Clark adjusted his seat. “Hm? What was that?”

“I said he wasn’t my soulmate. And he sure won’t be my knight in shining armor.”

“Why were you marrying him if he’s not your soulmate?”

“First off, I don’t believe in soulmates.”

“Neither do I.”

“Then why did you say that?”

“Because that’s what most romcoms seem to imply, isn’t it? Or have I been interpreting them all wrong?”

“People in romantic comedies make choices just like the rest of us. They weren’t necessarily destined to be together, they just chose to be.”

“What about Return to Me ? That seems to be a favorite of my sisters.”

“That’s a great movie, but they didn’t fall in love because some force out of their control made them be together.”

“But his wife’s heart made it back to him. Are you telling me that was pure coincidence?”

“Of course not. But it isn’t the reason they found each other. He came into her restaurant and thought she was beautiful, funny, and nice. He asked her out just because he was attracted to her. If anything, the fact that she had his dead wife’s heart was the thing that almost kept them apart. They chose to stay together despite the awkwardness of the situation.”

Clark’s caramel eyes flashed. Eyes on the road, C . She didn’t need to wreck the rental over a pair of stunning baby browns.

“Okay, then what about Ever After , another of my sisters’ favorites? The prince should’ve married someone of higher class, but he chose Cinderella, his soulmate.”

“Again, you’re proving my point for me. If he’d had a soulmate, wouldn’t it have been someone his mother pushed him toward, not the girl his parents had to come around to? He made a choice to be with her, and she with him. They fought hard to be together.” A bug splattered on the window, making Cleo wince. “I didn’t get that same courtesy.”

“What, the Little Princess was forced into marriage? How very 18th century of your family.”

“I wasn’t exactly forced, per se, but it wasn’t my choice, either.” Cleo reached for her engagement ring–fiddling with it had become a habit–only to remember that it was no longer there. “It’s complicated.”

“And have you just made it more complicated, or less?”

Cleo shrugged. “Both, I guess.”