“A trip?” Dean scoffs. Despite his foul mood, he manages to start up the engine and get me on my way, backing out onto the street and heading southbound. “You’re leaving for six weeks. You come home for a month and then you move to Chicago. All I’m getting is five weeks with you. It’s not enough.”
“Yeah, but we’ll make the best of those five weeks.” I know that anything I say won’t help the situation in the slightest, because this moment has been building up for several months now, and finally Dean is putting everything out in the open. I’ve been waiting for this to happen for a while now.
“That’s not the point, Eden,” he snaps, and it momentarily silences me. Although I was expecting this, it’s still odd seeing Dean aggravated. We rarely argue, because we’ve never disagreed on anything until now.
“Then what is?”
“The fact that you chose to spend six weeks over there instead of being with me,” he says, but his voice has suddenly grown a lot quieter. “Is New York really that great? Who the hell needs six weeks in New York? Why not just one?”
“Because he invited me out for six,” I admit. Maybe six weeks is a long time, but back when I agreed to it, it seemed like the best idea in the world.
“Why couldn’t you compromise?” He’s getting more riled up each second and he moves his hands in sync with his words, which results in some rough steering. “Why couldn’t you just say, ‘Hey, sure, I’ll come, but only for two weeks,’ huh?”
I fold my arms across my chest and turn away from him, glaring out the window. “Okay, chill out. Rachael hasn’t complained once about me leaving. Why can’t you be the same?”
“Okay, Rachael’s your best friend, but I’m your boyfriend. And maybe also because she gets to meet up with you while you’re there,” he fires back, which, admittedly, is true. Rachael and our friend Meghan, who I’ve barely seen since she left for Utah State University, have had a trip to New York planned for months now. I’d have been invited along too, but Tyler beat them to it. Either way, I would have inevitably ended up in the city this summer, but I guess I can’t blame Dean for feeling left out while me, Rachael, Meghan, and Tyler—nearly our whole group of friends—have a reunion in New York without him.
Dean sighs and remains quiet for a minute, neither of us saying anything until we come to a stop sign. “You’re making me start this whole long-distance-relationship thing early,” he says. “It sucks.”
“Fine, turn the car around,” I snap. I spin back around to look at him, throwing my hands up. “I won’t go. Will that make you happy?”
“No,” he says. “I’m taking you to the airport.”
Silence ensues for the next half-hour. There’s just nothing more to talk about. Dean is pissed off and I’m not sure what I can say to cheer him up, so we end up stuck in this strained quietness all the way to Terminal 7.
Dean cuts the engine the second he pulls up against the curb by the entrance to the departures level, and then he turns to look at me intensely. It’s almost 7AM by now. “Can you at least call me, like, all the time?”
“Dean, you know I will.” I let out a breath and give a small smile, hoping that he’ll succumb to my widening eyes. “Just try not to think about me too much.”
“You say that like it’s easy,” he says. Another sigh. But when he glances back at me, I think he might be lightening up. “Come here.”
He reaches over to cup my face in his hands, gently drawing me over the center console until his lips find mine, and soon it’s as though our argument didn’t even happen. He kisses me slowly until eventually I have to pull away.
“Are you trying to make me miss my flight?” I arch an eyebrow at him as I push open the car door, swinging my legs out.
Dean smirks. “Maybe.”
I roll my eyes and step out, throwing my backpack over one shoulder and gently shutting the door behind me. I grab my suitcase from the trunk before heading around to his window, which he rolls down for me the second I near him.
“Yes, New York City gal?”
I reach into my pocket and pull out our five-dollar bill, the exact same one we’ve been tossing back and forth to each other ever since we met whenever we get a chance, like whenever we do each other a favor. But the bill is now unbelievably torn and tattered, and I’m surprised it hasn’t disintegrated yet. “Five bucks for the ride.”
Dean presses his lips together as he takes the bill from me, but it does little to hide the fact that he’s smiling. “You owe me a lot more than five bucks for this.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” Leaning down through his window, I plant a sharp kiss on the corner of his lips and then finally turn to make my way inside the terminal. Behind me, I hear the sound of his engine starting up once more.