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 something 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.