“Hey, do you want to do something crazy?” I asked.
She glanced at me, eyebrows arched, but the other look had disappeared.
“Sure,” she said.
I opened my mouth, but didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, “Wow, I didn’t think you’d agree that quickly.”
She shrugged. “I have nothing better to do, and if you’d like to entertain me, I won't complain. What was it you wanted to do?”
“Let’s go see the Grand Canyon,” I suggested.
She looked like she was going to agree when she paused and pursed her lips. The excitement I didn’t even realize was starting to grow in my chest disappeared. I knew it. There was no way she’d go off with some strange guy. Sane people didn’t do that in the world we currently lived in.
“I would love to,” she said, surprising me yet again. “But I need to go soon. I’ve got no money, I’ll need to see if I can get something from my bank account, and I need to be out of my suite in…” she hesitated, then pulled out her phone to check the time. “In the next couple hours, though probably sooner than that…”
Then, she went on eating, like she saw nothing strange about the situation at all.
I watched her for a while, having forgotten to eat myself, but she was finishing up on her honeyed toast. She brushed off the crumbs onto the plate, then poured herself some water.
“So,” I started slowly, once she was finished. “If I took care of your room issue, you could stay longer?”
She frowned. “Why would you do that?”
“Let’s say I want to see the Grand Canyon. What room?”
She was still frowning, but she gave me her room number. Again, I had to sigh at this girl. Naïve, too innocent, or just too trusting? I had no idea which she was, but I didn’t find her calculating, either.
I set my plate on the table then got up. The hotel phone was on the desk a couple of feet away, and I made the call to reception. It was easy enough to extend her stay for a few days and have the tab charged to my room. The hotel was discreet, so I wasn’t asked any unnecessary questions. In less than five minutes, I turned back to Klara.
“It’s done,” I said with a grin. “You’ve got no excuse now, right?”
She stared at me for a moment, then huffed a laugh.
“Yeah. No excuses. But can I at least go to my room to get changed, first?”
Chapter Five
Klara
He let me go change, but he made me wait for him to finish his breakfast, then as I dumped the plates outside the room for room service, then he followed me back to my room. It was a smaller suite, but it at least had two rooms and a bathroom, and I had him wait in the front room as I changed.
I didn’t have time to wash my underwear, so I just folded it and put it far away in my suitcase. I’d have to remember it later.
Then, we headed out.
“How are we getting there?” I asked. “Do you have a car?”
I’d wasted money to get a flight, thinking I’d have to make my way back by bus, since I didn’t think the cash I had would be enough for much, and in the end didn’t last nearly as long as I’d hoped, anyway. It was just about everything I’d been saving up since I got my first job when I was sixteen, but until I finished high school, I used up more than I saved, so while it wasn’t little, it wasn’t a lot, either.
When I realized there was not much point in continuing to save it, since I had insurance for everything else, I used it up. Well, not all of it. There were still the funds in my savings account, which was half of the total, but they weren’t as easy to get my hands on. If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have bothered with it.
“I don’t have a car,” Jake said.
I whirled around to him, back to the present, my regrets pushed to the back of my mind for the time being.
Once I’m back home, I’ll worry about all of it, I told myself.
“If you don’t have a car, then how are we getting there?”