“Washington,” he answered easily.
My stomach did a flip, tugging on the part of my heart tied so reverently to the dreams I’d had all my life. Washington. It was where I wanted to be, where I knew my life would really begin.
Up until that point, he’d only made me uncomfortable — in a curious, fascinating way.
Now, he’d made me jealous.
“Well, that’s a long drive. Better eat up and get some energy.” I forced a smile. “Let me know if you need anything.”
My mind raced as I allowed my body to fall back into the motions, checking on customers and delivering orders, cashing out and calling out greetings and farewells as people came and went. It was the first time in my life that it bothered me — the fact that they were coming and going, and I was staying.
I was always staying.
I didn’t realize I was avoiding his table until I saw he’d placed a twenty-dollar bill near the edge of it, a signal that he was ready to go. Because he would go, he would leave, and I would stay.
Just another normal day.
“I’ll grab your change,” I said, reaching for the twenty.
He shook his head. “Not necessary.”
“Thank you,” I said softly, smiling. “And, hey, have fun in Washington. It’s… that’s where I want to go. I’m saving up now. My dream school is there.” I shrugged, not sure why I was telling him. I was one-hundred percent sure he didn’t care. “Can’t wait for an October where I don’t sweat,” I added with a chuckle.
I lifted my eyes to his, ready to walk back to the bar and leave him be, but he stopped me short.
“Want to come?”
I balked. “Excuse me?”
“To Washington. Do you want to come with me?”
For a moment, I just stared at him, the way I imagined I’d stare at a naked man running down the street or someone asking me to loan them a million dollars.
And then I laughed.
“Are you crazy? I can’t just go with you,” I said, shaking my head at the ridiculousness of it all. “You’re a stranger. I don’t even know your name. You could be a serial killer.”
He watched me, those damn lines forming between his brows, and then he shrugged.
“Okay.”
He wiped his mouth with his napkin before dropping it onto his plate as he stood. My heart was in my throat again, because when he wasn’t sitting in a booth, he towered over me. He was at least six feet of lean muscle and hard edges, and he shoved the sleeves of his sweater up his arms a bit more, eyes catching mine as he stepped into my space.
“You never answered my question.”
I swallowed, body trapped in a strange limbo, torn between leaning into him and running as far as I could in the opposite direction.
“What makes you happy?”
My books, my dog, yoga, the way the sun always manages to come back, no matter how dark the storm.
I opened my mouth, ready to answer this time, since I’d run over the responses a thousand times in my head at this point, but he turned before I could, leaving me standing there with a list of things that made me happy and a heart that whispered with every beat that the list was a lie.
I didn’t move from the booth until the front door closed behind him, the echo of the little bell ringing in my ears as I silently opened the register and deposited his twenty, counting out the change and dropping it in the tip jar Tammy and I would split at the end of our shift.
“What was that about?” Tammy asked, dropping a pile of dirty dishes into the large bucket we took turns carrying into the back. “I saw him standing all close to you and then he walked away and you just stood there like you’d seen a ghost.”
“He asked me to go with him.”
“What?!”
I nodded, arms feeling foreign as I grabbed a wash cloth and wiped down the bar. “He’s going to Washington. I told him that’s where my dream school is. And he asked if I wanted to go with him.”
“Oh, my God!”
“Yeah.”
Tammy stood with her hands hooked on her hips, shaking her head frantically before she threw her arms up. “Well, you have to go! What are you still doing here?!”
I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “Oh, yeah, Tammy. Let me just go jump into a car with a random guy and let him drive me across the country.”
“Um, yes. Do that. Go. Now.” She stole the rag from my hands, shoving me toward the door.
“Tammy!” I wriggled out of her grasp. “That would be insane. And dangerous. He could kill me!”
“Oh, yeah, because he really looks like the murderer type.”
“They don’t exactly have a specific look,” I deadpanned.
She sighed, gripping my arms in her weathered hands. “Listen to me, Cooper. You have been working at this diner since the day you turned sixteen, and saving to move to Washington since that very day, too. Now, here you are, twenty years old, still dying to get out of Mobile and still way too smart to waste your life ‘saving’ and never doing.” Tammy paused, her eyes searching mine. “You’re stuck, baby girl. And that’s okay, we’ve all been stuck a time or two before. But this is it, your chance to pull your feet from the muck of Mobile and that awful place you’ve called home for way too long.”
I frowned, my heart sinking with her words. It was true, I was stuck, but this wasn’t a part of my plan. He wasn’t a part of my plan.
“I… I don’t have enough yet.”
“Yes, you do,” she said, reaching both fists into the tip jar and pulling every single dollar out of it. She wadded it up and shoved it in my front apron pocket. “This should help, and last week’s paycheck hit our accounts this morning. If you run out of cash along the way or need help once you’re in Seattle, just call me. I’m serious.” She shook her head, a crazed smile on her face. “I mean, what do I honestly spend my money on anyway other than scratch-off tickets?”
My hands were clammy, and I wrung them together, still shaking my head. “I don’t even know if I got in.”
“You’ll get in. If not this semester, then next, and you know it.”
“What if he kidnaps me?!” I whisper-yelled.
At that, Tammy paused, like she’d just realized she was stuffing me into a car with a stranger. Her eyes shot up to the door before finding mine again. “Look, I know it’s a little crazy. It’s a little scary. In fact, I think this is why I never had kids because encouraging you to do this isn’t very motherly or whatever. But, Cooper, remember what I said this morning?” Her eyes lit up again. “I could feel it. I knew something big was going to happen, and this is it.”
“Me getting kidnapped by a strange boy was the good feeling you had?”
“You’re not getting kidnapped, you’re getting a free ride to a new life. Give me your phone.”
I couldn’t do anything in that moment but stare at her.
“Phone.” She said with a snap of her fingers. She snatched the device from my hands as soon as I numbly pulled it from my pocket, and then she was tapping around on the screen. “There. I shared your location with both me and Lily. I’ll keep an eye on you the whole time. And you call me every morning and every night to check in, okay?”