anything. I figured there was a reason why you paid with cash last night.”
He hoisted food out of the bags on either side of his bike. “Observant as always.”
My eyes widened as he pulled out more bags. “How much food did you get?”
He chuckled. “Come on. Grab a bag and let's get inside. Just don’t bend over too far. You might flash everyone in the vicinity.”
“I have panties on, JayJay.”
I watched his jaw flex and it flooded my heart with pride.
“Just come on, would ya?” he asked.
I was in awe of the amount of food and drinks he brought back. There was much more here than what I ordered, and the Dr. Pepper? I filled up our miniature fridge and still had twenty cans sitting all around the television just so I had somewhere to put them. JayJay was always one to go overboard on something. It was his way of apologizing for something he felt he had done wrong. And after scarfing down the luscious food he brought back, my stomach poked out further than I’d ever seen it poke out before.
“Ugh, I could use a walk,” I groaned.
JayJay threw away our trash. “We could walk around the motel complex.”
I thumbed over my shoulder. “If we walk just through those woods, there’s an entire park back there. We could go walk our food down that way.”
“Not through the woods.”
“But I mean if you’re with me?”
He pierced me with a glare. “Not. Through. The woods.”
I held my hands up. “All right, all right. You don’t have to get mean about it.”
He sighed. “We can walk around the motel complex as much as you want. But I want lights and cameras on us at all times. Okay?”
“Okay. I get that. Sounds like a good walk to me, anyway.”
“Just… let me get a shower really quickly? Being on that bike all day requires a shower before I do anything else.”
I grinned. “Gives me enough time to change into something that isn’t your shirt.”
His jaw clenched again. “Yes. Do that.”
I winked at him. “Anything for you, JayJay.”
He turned on his heels and walked into the shower room before closing the door behind him. And after throwing back the last few drops of my Dr. Pepper, I got up and got into my loosest clothes. I pulled on a dress I had underneath my outfit from yesterday and slid into my heels, cursing myself for not bringing any other comfortable footwear. And as I fluffed my hair in the mirror, my phone lit up on my bedside table.
So, I walked over to see who was calling me.
Janie!
I picked up the phone without a second thought. “Girl, I’ve got so much to fill you in on its sick.”
“I was wondering when you’d call me! Last I heard, you were going to meet Justin yesterday and then nothing. I was beginning to think you had forgotten all about little old me.”
I giggled as I slipped outside to take the private call. “I could never forget about my best fucking friend, Janie.”
“Good. Because I want to know all about how approaching Justin went.”
I sighed. “Well, it’s going.”
“Going good? Or… going, bad?”
“Good-ish. For now. I’m kind of on a trip with him.”
She squealed. “A trip! How can a trip be bad!?”
“It’s a working trip for him. But he convinced his boss—I guess—to let me come with him.”
“Oh, that’s good. That means he wants you around, honeybee!”
I snickered. “This isn’t college anymore, though. Men are a lot more complicated out here in the real world. And I haven’t been around Justin for a long time now. What if all he views me as is a little sister and nothing else?”
“Well, have you tried asking him?”
“I can’t just ask the man, Janie. I can’t just blurt it out like that.”
“Sure, you can! At Charter Community, you blurted shit out all the time no matter what. What’s changed?”
Everything. “I don’t know, girl.”
“Listen, if you don’t take a risk, you’re never going to know. The worst he can say is—”
“Ew?”
She clicked her tongue. “You know him better than that. Hell, I know him better than that and I’ve never even met the guy. You know he’s not going to say that to you.”
I shrugged. “People change.”
“Not that much, though. SiSi, if Justin is anything like the person you’ve described to me, the worst he can do is let you down easily.”
“I know, I know.”
“So? Talk to him, honeybee. That’s all you can do. That’s all anyone can do in a situation like