She wanted to think about Florida and be happy. Freedom was just a hop, skip and a jump away now. One very long car ride away, was the place that she’d been dreaming of—somewhere where she could start over. There would be sun and beaches, and new starts.
But right at that very second, it felt like an empty promise.
She was thinking only of Elijah—his dark eyes, his wicked smile, the feel of his hand covering her hand, the way he’d called her babe in that sarcastic manner when she’d given him a hard time about carrying so much cash with him.
She hadn’t wanted Elijah to go like that—she hadn’t wanted him to leave without so much as a phone number, an address. She’d felt like they’d somehow formed a connection in a very short time, and now that connection could never become what it was meant to be.
And what was it meant to be, Caelyn? She asked herself. Do you really think that a guy who uses a fake name with the police, carries hundreds and hundreds of dollars in cash around in his back pocket, and admits to running away from something bad—do you really think there’s a future with a person like that?
But despite all of her logic, she felt the loss of him acutely and painfully.
In some ways, losing him so soon was worse than what had happened to her last night.
Now that’s just stupid, she told herself.
Maybe it was. But it was how she felt.
A few minutes later, the driver got on board and sat down, starting the engine.
She heard the hydraulics hiss and the engine roared dully as they got ready to move.
At the last moment, the driver stopped. He opened the doors to the bus and yelled out at someone. “Yeah, what is it? You got a ticket?”
There was the sound of footsteps and then Elijah climbed aboard the bus, looking around for something—someone. His gaze landed on her.
“Caelyn,” he said loudly, without a hint of embarrassment.
She swallowed. Her whole body was warm, and strangely tingly. Maybe she was dreaming. Maybe she was going to pass out. “Elijah, what are you doing?”
He beckoned to her, waving her towards him. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I can’t, I’m going to Florida—remember?”
“Let me take you,” he said.
She felt like she’d been blasted by a hurricane. The force of what he was saying nearly turned her legs to jelly. Florida with Elijah?
Her mind was racing.
The driver turned towards her. “Excuse me, lady. We need to go, I have a schedule to keep.”
“I know, I’m just— ” she stumbled over her words. “I’m just—”
“If a man who looked like that asked me to go to Florida with him, I wouldn’t waste a damn second,” an older black woman said from across the aisle.
Caelyn grinned. “Screw it,” she said. She grabbed her travel bag, shouldered her purse and got up.
Elijah was laughing now and so was she.
“I guess I’m as crazy as you,” she told him, as they left the bus together.
“That’s why we need to make this trip together,” he said. “Now let’s go get you a refund on that ticket.”
Caelyn followed Elijah off the bus and towards the station. The bus promptly pulled away, and when she looked at the windows, she noticed that all of the people seemed to be staring at her as they left.
Well, she thought, who could really blame them after that scene?
As embarrassing as it was, she was feeling happy. She was relieved that Elijah had come back for her. That meant he had felt it too—the connection between them. It meant something to him as well.
A minute later, she was standing across from the teller at the window, and sliding her ticket under the plexi-glass partition.
“I need a refund,” she said.
Elijah was standing just behind her, doing something on his phone. Maybe texting.
The teller looked at the ticket doubtfully, then looked up at her. “Refund?”
“Yeah. I just bought this ticket like five minutes ago, but I ended up not taking the trip. So, can I get a refund please?”
The teller shook his head. “Oh, no. Read the fine print. We don’t do refunds.”
“But it was only just a minute ago…”
The teller shook his head back and forth more furiously. “I don’t care if it was ten seconds ago or ten days ago—NO REFUNDS. Can you read? Read that ticket if you don’t believe me.” He slid the ticket back towards Caelyn.
Suddenly, Elijah was pressing against her, his face close the glass. “Do you just enjoy being rude to people?” he said, his voice raising. “Huh?”
“Elijah,” Caelyn said, taken aback by his anger. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not okay. They’re taking advantage of you.”
“It’s the rules.”
“The rules are bullshit.” He pointed at the teller. “Where’s your manager, huh? I want to speak to someone with a brain in their damn head.”
“Elijah.” She touched his arm and he flinched away.
“Fuck it,” he said, slapping at a bunch of pamphlets on the countertop nearby.
They fanned out crazily and some of them fell on the floor.
Elijah walked out, not looking back.
Caelyn grabbed her bag and followed him as quickly as she could.
***
Needless to say, Elijah hadn’t seemed much in the mood to talk for a few minutes after that.