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The room was quiet, but the television set was still flickering, as she lifted her head and checked the clock on the nightstand.

  Everything was still, peaceful and warm. She was tired, but her adrenaline was flowing from being so close to Elijah.

  She looked at his face, the skin smooth and completely unblemished. He looked like someone had painted him.

  Suddenly, his eyelids snapped open and his big brown eyes were looking back at her. “Hey,” he said, his voice froggy.

  “Oh, hey,” she said, jumping out of bed like she’d been given a high-voltage shock.

  “You’re up early,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “We don’t need to leave for like half an hour yet.”

  “Well, I’m just awake—ready to hit the road I guess,” she laughed nervously. Then she went into the bathroom. Her heart was beating rapidly and she felt totally humiliated, having been caught staring at him like that.

  He must think I’m a total freak.

  Caelyn washed her face, brushed her teeth and then came out of the bathroom.

  When she opened the door, she was greeted by the sight of Elijah, stripped to the waist, as he bent over his bag and searched for a new shirt. Finally, he stood up, holding the new t-shirt in his hands. He smiled at her, but all she could see was his incredible body.

  He was like a fitness model. He could have been on one of those infomercials, showing how to use some ridiculous machine that would give you ripped abs for five payments of $19.99.

  She averted her gaze, pretending to look out the window. “It’s still dark,” she said, by way of conversation.

  He was taking an awfully long time to put his shirt back on. “Yeah, I like driving early in the morning like this. You grab a coffee, put on the radio, there’s hardly any traffic and you just go. It’s kind of beautiful in a way.”

  She made eye contact with him and they both smiled.

  “That’s poetic,” she said.

  He shook his head. “I must be tired still, talking that shit.” He pulled his shirt on.

  She almost wished he hadn’t.

  A few minutes later, they were back in the SUV and on the road again, having gassed up once more and gotten fresh coffee for the drive.

  It was much as Elijah had said. There were still very few cars on the highway, and the sky was just starting to turn purple and pink, and lighten a bit above the trees on the horizon.

  He turned the radio on low, and there was just the soothing sounds of voices talking about safe subjects, and the taste of coffee and the presence of Elijah beside her, driving, and occasionally looking over and giving her a cute little smile.

  They didn’t talk much for the next few hours, it was enough to drive and look forward to Florida—where they would arrive that evening.

  The peacefulness wasn’t disturbed again until the text came in.

  She looked at her phone, hoping it was anyone but him, anyone at all.

  When she looked, though, his name was staring at her in stark black and white.

  JAYSON.

  And then his texts, one after the other: Hey, haven’t heard from u lately. U around tonite? Hit me back.

  She turned her phone off and threw it in her purse. She thought briefly of tossing the phone out the window, but ultimately decided not to. He wasn’t going to control her actions from a distance. She wouldn’t destroy something of value just because he was using it to contact her.

  Once again, Caelyn could barely breathe. Elijah glanced at her. “Who was that?”

  he asked, suspicious.

  “No one,” she lied.

  “Seemed like someone, based on the way you threw your phone and the look on your face.”

  “It’s nothing.” For some reason, she didn’t want to tell him. Part of her was afraid he would try to reply or respond to Jayson in some way.

  Another part of her simply didn’t want to deal with it at all, wanted to pretend that everything would be automatically fine once they reached Florida.

  But she was starting to suspect that reality was more complicated than that.

  Jayson texted her again and again that day.

  She knew because she checked her phone once more when she was in the bathroom at a rest stop some time later, when they’d crossed into South Carolina and were bearing down on Georgia.

  There were three more texts, sent about an hour apart from each other.

  Are u ignoring me?

  We should talk.

  Call me ASAP. I want to see u again.

  Caelyn promptly turned her phone off again. She felt almost faint, her stomach lurching as she went outside and saw Elijah topping off the gas tank at the nearby gas pumps.

  He knew something was wrong. She could tell by the way he watched her, as though he was waiting for her to break down and tell him the truth.

  And she wanted to tell him. Hell, she was starting to think that maybe having Elijah send a couple of “friends” around to tell Jayson to stop contacting her might not be such a bad thing after all.

  But then she brushed it off once more. Jayson would get the hint eventually.

  She just needed to keep ignoring him.

  ***

  It all started to feel real sometime outside of Savannah, Georgia.

  That was when she first saw the palm trees.

  “Oh my God,” she practically yelled.

  “What? What is it?” Elijah asked, looking around, as if expecting to see a rattlesnake in the car.

  She pointed out the window. “Palm trees. Look!”

  He shook his head. “You really are nuts, Caelyn. I thought we were about to be attacked by terrorists or something.”

  “I didn’t realize we’d be seeing them so soon,” she marveled. They swayed gently in the breeze as they passed them, and she rolled down her window and sniffed the air. It smelled like summer and freedom. She yelled out the window. “Florida!” she said, laughing. “We’re coming!”

  Elijah glanced at her again. “Are you losing it or what?”

  “We’ve been in this car for forever. I think I’m allowed to have a moment.”

  “Let me know when it’s my turn.”

  “Go on, have a moment,” she told him.

  “Fine.” He rolled down the window and stuck his head out. “Woo-hoo! Florida!”

  The car swerved and he abruptly straightened, blinking as he got control of the wheel.

  “Oops.”

  Caelyn was giggling. And then she started laughing hysterically. Something about the look on his face as he’d lost control of the car for that one instant was just too much to take.

  Maybe it was that she’d never seen Elijah look out of control before.

  She kind of liked it.

  They crossed over into Florida late that afternoon.

  When she’d seen the sign that said Welcome To Florida, The Sunshine State, she’d whooped and hollered and exchanged high fives with Elijah.

  But the celebrations had been short-lived. Firstly, because they still had hours left to drive. It was a long way from the border of the state down to Sarasota and Siesta Key.

  She was getting tired, and so was Elijah.

  Worse yet, she was compulsively checking her cell phone. The texts from Jayson had stopped for the time being, but then she’d received some from her roommates.

  Now, she was getting worried, because the texts had changed from hey, what’s going on? To WHERE R U GIRL????

  It was only a matter of time before someone called the police, or the school, or her parents were notified. She needed to do some damage control.

  Finally, she opted to call Alicia rather than wait for the inevitable freak out from friends and family when they discovered she was gone.

  Alicia answered on the first ring, as if she’d been waiting by her phone. “Caelyn, are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said.

  Elijah looked at her, curious. She hadn’t told him she was going to call anyone back home.

  “We thought you’d d
ecided to stay at Jayson’s, but then Nellie said she saw Jayson at the union and he hadn’t seen you since the other night. I was starting to freak out.”

  “I’m fine,” Caelyn told her again.

  “Oh. Where are you?”

  There was a long pause as Caelyn debated how to answer that question. Finally, she opted for the truth. “I’m in Florida,” she said.

  “Wait—what? I didn’t hear you. I thought for a second you said Florida.”

  “I did say Florida.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  Caelyn sighed. “I left. I’m not coming back to school, Alicia.”

  “But that doesn’t make any sense. The semester’s not even over. If you just take off, you’re going to flunk everything.”

  “I know it doesn’t make any sense, but it’s what I had to do.”

  “Why?”

  “I can’t…I don’t want to talk about it. I just needed to leave.”

  “Come on, Caelyn. This is totally crazy. You can’t just leave and go to Florida.

  What are you going to do there?”

  “I don’t know,” Caelyn said. “I’m hoping to get a job waitressing.”

  “Why Florida?” Alicia said. And then she moaned. “Oh my God, is this because of that stupid postcard my mom sent? You’ve been obsessed with Siesta Key ever since. I should never have let you keep that thing. It’s cursed. That’s why I threw it out.”

  “It’s not cursed,” Caelyn said, almost laughing.

  “Everything my mother touches is cursed.”

  “Listen, I’m fine. I’ll talk more about it in a few days.”

  “You need to seriously think about what you’re doing. You could screw up your whole life, doing this. Are you alone?”

  Caelyn looked over at Elijah and smiled. “Not exactly…but look, Alicia. I called because I didn’t want you to worry.”

  “Well mission not accomplished. I’m more worried than ever.”

  “I have to go. I’m sorry. I’ll call you tomorrow or the day after.”

  “Caelyn, seriously. Don’t do this!”

  “I’ll call you later,” she repeated. And then she hung up.

  ***

  By the time they reached Sarasota, neither of them were quite as jubilant as they’d been previously. The weather was almost stiflingly hot, and they’d also passed through a couple of brief torrential showers that hadn’t lasted long, but had made it difficult for Elijah to drive.

  Florida was beautiful, and Caelyn was excited that they’d finally arrived safe and sound. At the same time, there were a few big question marks floating around, now that they were getting close to their destination.

  Elijah had asked Caelyn to call around to the various hotels and motels in the area and try to book something cheap. “For both of us?” she’d said.

  He’d just looked at her. “You tell me.”

  She’d shrugged in return. “I…I guess. I’m not sure what’s going on.”

  She’d hoped that perhaps he would tell her what he wanted to do. After all, they’d only just met and it hardly made sense for them to try and live together out in Florida.

  “Are you going to be working out here?” she’d asked him.

  “I’ll figure something out.”

  And that had been that.

  After calling a dozen places and starting to lose hope, she’d finally found them a relatively cheap room at a place called The Seaside Motel, which apparently was close to the main drag on Siesta Key. The cost was just over one hundred dollars a night, which Elijah had said was acceptable—and besides, there weren’t many other places available in the area.

  Caelyn’s spirits momentarily lifted as they crossed the bridge taking them over to Siesta Key. There was beautiful blue water on either side of the bridge, and palm trees, and boats in the distance. There were brightly colored houses and buildings, and for a second, she really thought they’d found paradise.

  “Just like the postcard,” Elijah had mused.

  “It is, isn’t it? Maybe even better than the postcard,” she’d smiled.

  “We’ll need to check out that beach before long.”

  They pulled into The Seaside Motel as the sun was starting to dip in the sky. The motel looked like something out of the nineteen seventies. Everything was wooden, and old, and the paint on the signage looked as though it had needed repainting…probably for the last decade or so.

  Neither of them really cared at this point. They both just wanted out of the car, and maybe to have a place to dump their bags and stretch their legs.

  Elijah checked in and then they climbed some rickety steps to the second floor of the motel. Their feet slapped and echoed on the catwalk as they made their way to the room.

  Inside, it smelled vaguely musty, but Elijah forced a window open and some nice, breezy ocean air helped to clean out the room.

  It was small, with only one bed, a tiny TV, ancient wallpaper and even more ancient, stained carpeting. The bathroom had painful florescent lighting that turned Caelyn’s skin green when she looked in the mirror.

  “Home sweet home,” she said to Elijah, as she came out.

  He was sitting on the bed, looking glum.

  “Everything okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah.” But he looked not okay. He glanced around the room. “Maybe we should get out of here, check out the beach. Want to?”

  “Sure, why not?” she said. In actuality, she wanted a shower and a nap, but Caelyn could tell that Elijah needed to get out and move, and she didn’t want to say no to his idea.

  They left the room and walked out of the parking lot, onto the main road. “I think the beach is only a half mile down,” Elijah said, pointing.

  There were other people on the road, some walking, others with their dogs, or riding bicycles. “Everyone looks happy here,” Caelyn said, “don’t you think?”

  “More so than Boston,” he agreed. “But other than New York, I don’t think any place on earth has moodier, crankier people.”

  She laughed. “True. Everyone I see around here is smiling.” Then she looked at Elijah. He wasn’t smiling at all.

  The two of them fell silent and walked for a while more. Soon, they reached the beach parking lot. It was less than half full. “It’s getting dark,” Elijah said, “so most people probably took off already. We’ll get the place to ourselves, right?”

  They crossed the street and then found the pathway down to the beach. She could hear the ocean as they walked, and then she could see it—a powdered sugar beach with palm trees waving, and blue water crashing against the sand.

  It took her breath away. The sun was setting over the water, casting brilliant flashes of color across the sky.

  “It’s amazing,” she said, coming to a stop at the very edge of the beach.

  Elijah stood with her and took in the scene. “Yeah, it really is. Makes the drive worth it.”

  She took off her shoes and let the sand squelch in between her toes. “Oh, wow, this sand feels amazing. It’s soft and cool, like a velvet glove.”

  “You sound poetic,” he said, throwing back her earlier remark to him. Then he took his shoes off, too.

  They started walking towards the water.

  There were other couples walking down by the water, Caelyn noticed. And then she checked herself. Other couples, Caelyn? You and Elijah are not a couple. You’ve never even kissed. Sure, he’s totally gorgeous, and he’s been sweet and caring, but he hasn’t shown an ounce of interest in taking this beyond a friendship.

  Her thoughts were spinning as they walked together by the water. It was magical, romantic—it was everything she could have asked for.

  But part of her couldn’t totally enjoy it. She kept glancing at Elijah and wondering what he was thinking. He seemed pensive and quiet, not as happy as she’d expected him to be.

  Maybe it was because he understood that something had to change now that they’d finally arrived in Siesta Key, or maybe it was because he also felt some
thing for her.

  She almost made a joke about holding hands, since almost everyone else was doing it—but the moment passed. She lost her nerve.

  After they’d walked for a long stretch, Elijah declared himself hungry. “Want to grab some food? I think there’s a bunch of places on the main drag,” he said.

  “Sure.” And truth be told, she also wanted to check out the bars and restaurants because she was hoping to scrounge up some work. She needed to make money fast or she would be out of options.

  They found the strip easily enough. It was just down the road from the beach, not even a mile from where their hotel was located. It was getting busy now that they were hitting dinnertime.

  There were fewer restaurants and bars than she’d imagined, just a handful really. It made her wonder if finding work out here would be as easy as she’d assumed.

  And it wasn’t as if she had an incredible resume, either, just a couple years of waiting tables at Friendly’s in high school.

  They walked past an ice cream shop with a line out the door, and a cute little breakfast place with a broken egg on the sign—an oyster bar, another bar with live music floating into the street.

  “How about this place?” Elijah asked.

  It was called Mean Margaritas, and it was big, with a lot of outdoor seating. Plenty of people were eating and drinking, but there seemed to be room for more.

  “Sounds good,” she said. “Let’s eat.”

  They went inside and a girl who looked no older then eighteen sat them at a small table looking out onto the strip. A moment later, their waitress stopped by and asked if they wanted drinks.

  Elijah ordered a Coke and she ordered a diet Coke. The waitress left, and then they were quiet again. Elijah was looking out on the street. Tourists strolled past—some with children in tow, others in rowdy groups, looking for action.

  “So, what’s your plan now?” she said, finally. “I mean, you must have had a reason to come to Florida, right?”

  Elijah nodded, but didn’t meet her gaze. “Of course.”

  She wanted to ask him what exactly that reason was. After all, he knew a lot more about her than she knew about him at this point.

  But he seemed to be putting a wall up—she sensed that he didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t want to talk about anything, apparently.