Brynn smiled, but with it she forced herself to swallow the lump rising in her throat. What if they wouldn’t be okayer when they reached L.A.? What if last week was just the first in the start of a series of irreparable rifts? What if she and Jamie were reaching their limit—the limit of how far a friendship could bend before it finally broke? She couldn’t take losing him again.
Glass half full. She listened to Holly’s advice. Brynn would see the good in everything about this trip, including what it would do for her and Jamie. A week on the road together? They’d have to be closer after that.
“Okay, then,” she said. “Let’s go.”
…
Jamie sat in the driver’s seat of his pickup truck, waiting for Brynn to make one last bathroom trip.
“I don’t want to be the one who slows us down because we have to stop at every gas station.”
He had tried to explain to her that they had plenty of time. He’d mapped out the trip, planned it just right. It was only twenty-nine hours from Chicago to L.A. Even if they made a couple extra stops, they’d still make it in less than a week, have the weekend in L.A., and then a leisurely drive back. As long as he was there by Friday, he was golden. Still, she ran back up to her apartment to take care of business.
His phone buzzed with a text.
Annie: You still an idiot?
He laughed and responded. Yep…who’s into self-inflicted torture.
Annie: Tell her, James.
Jamie: I will when she makes her choice. If it’s me, that is.
Annie: And tell her what you’re really doing at your festival this weekend.
Shit. Jeremy. Not like he’d forgotten he was meeting Jeremy in L.A., but he had overlooked the fact that he was Annie’s brother and that Annie was suddenly his relationship therapist. Of course Jeremy told her everything about his last-minute plans to launch his new brew with taste-testers in L.A. God, he wanted to tell Brynn, but that would only take away her free will, letting her know the trip was always for her, whether she came or not.
Jamie: She’s getting in the truck. Good-bye, Annie.
Jamie closed out of his texting app just as Brynn plopped down in the seat next to him.
“Who was that?” she asked, her voice nothing more than curious. He opened his mouth to answer, but she never gave him a chance. “One last good-bye to Liz?”
Right. Liz. He kind of maybe hadn’t told her about the breakup. Because fucking up Brynn’s reunion plans fucked up his own, and by now, after a week of keeping their distance between brunch and the trip, of Jamie realizing how much he needed to preserve their friendship and Brynn’s freedom to choose, it seemed safer to let her think he was still with his girlfriend for now.
“Yep,” he said, knowing he was a dick for perpetuating the lie. “One more good-bye. She’s got a busy week.”
Brynn clicked her seat belt in place and bounced in her seat. Jamie tried to ignore how much he liked the sight of her soft, dark curls against the cream sweater or how the deep red scarf brought out the pink in her cheeks. When he found himself staring, he cleared his throat and turned to face the road.
“Excited?” he asked, looking at her through his peripheral vision.
She caught herself before she bounced again, smiled, and nodded.
“Starbucks drive-thru?” she asked, and he let out a breath, his shoulders relaxing as he did. That’s exactly what he needed, something normal and routine, like a cup of coffee. That would get rid of the unease.
“Hell yes,” he said, turning the key in the ignition and shifting the truck into drive.
They made it just in front of the Starbucks down the road when they heard a pop followed by an immediate change in height of Brynn’s side of the car.
She yelped, and Jamie swore.
“You’ve got to fucking be kidding me,” he said, and he maneuvered the vehicle into a loading zone outside the coffee shop.
“What?” Brynn asked. “What was that? What happened?”
Jamie threw his head back against his headrest. If his initial unease weren’t enough, this had to be some sort of sign, right? Not that he believed in signs.
“Flat tire,” he said. Then he took off his baseball cap, raking his hand through his hair before putting it back on again.
That’s when Brynn lost it. That was his only explanation for her sudden hysterical laughter. She’d cracked under the pressure, gone insane, and Jamie had literally driven her to the brink.
Still laughing, his now crazy friend undid her seat belt and turned to face him. She placed her hands on Jamie’s cheeks, forcing him to look at her.
“Glass half full!” she cried, and Jamie wondered who he should call first, the closest tire shop or some sort of doctor for Brynn.
“Are you…okay?” he asked, and she nodded, her laughter subsiding.