Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (6 page)

A minute later, she
was standing across from the teller at the window, and sliding her ticket under
the plexi-glass partition.
 

“I need a refund,”
she said.

Elijah was standing
just behind her, doing something on his phone.
 
Maybe texting.

The teller looked at
the ticket doubtfully, then looked up at her.
 
“Refund?”

“Yeah.
 
I just bought this ticket like five
minutes ago, but I ended up not taking the trip.
 
So, can I get a refund please?”

The teller shook his
head.
 
“Oh, no.
 
Read the fine print.
 
We don’t do refunds.”

“But it was only just
a minute ago…”

The teller shook his
head back and forth more furiously.
 
“I don’t care if it was ten seconds ago or ten days ago—NO
REFUNDS.
 
Can you read?
 
Read that ticket if you don’t believe
me.”
 
He slid the ticket back
towards Caelyn.

Suddenly, Elijah was
pressing against her, his face close the glass.
 
“Do you just enjoy being rude to
people?” he said, his voice raising.
 
“Huh?”

“Elijah,” Caelyn
said, taken aback by his anger.
 
“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not okay.
 
They’re taking advantage of you.”

“It’s the rules.”

“The rules are
bullshit.”
 
He pointed at the
teller.
 
“Where’s your manager,
huh?
 
I want to speak to someone
with a brain in their damn head.”

“Elijah.”
 
She touched his arm and he flinched
away.
 

“Fuck it,” he said,
slapping at a bunch of pamphlets on the countertop nearby.
 
They fanned out crazily and some of them
fell on the floor.
 

Elijah walked out,
not looking back.

Caelyn grabbed her
bag and followed him as quickly as she could.

***

Needless to say,
Elijah hadn’t seemed much in the mood to talk for a few minutes after that.

His eyes had remained
glued to the road, intensely focused as they drove out of New York and onto the
Jersey Turnpike.
 

She’d offered to pay
the toll that came up, but Elijah had declined and paid himself.

Caelyn knew better
than to say anything.
 
He was
clearly upset, perhaps because he felt he’d been responsible for her losing so
much money.
 

But she wasn’t upset
with him about it—she didn’t blame him.
 
She didn’t even blame the bus line or
the cranky teller.
 
It was just
life.
 
There were worse things that
could happen than losing a hundred bucks.

After they stopped
for gas off the turnpike and Elijah paid again, she had to say something.

As he pulled the SUV
onto the highway, she cleared her throat.
 
“Look, you can’t just pay for everything the whole trip,” she told him.

He shrugged.
 
“It’s fine.
 
I have the money.”

“But I can’t let you
do that.”

“Why not?” he said.

“Because, it’s not
fair.”

“You getting stiffed
for that stupid bus ticket wasn’t fair either.”

“It’s not the same
and you know it.”

He glanced at
her.
 
“Whatever, Caelyn.
 
Pay for gas next time if you really want
to.”

“It’s not just about
gas,” she said, still looking at him, trying to read his expression.

“What is it then?”

“Well…” she sighed,
and then asked the question she’d been wondering ever since he’d stepped on the
bus.
 
“Are you only going to Florida
because of me?”

The question hung in
the air and she immediately regretted asking it that way.
 
The truth was, she had almost hoped that
he was only going to Florida because of her.
 
Even though it would have been beyond
strange, she wanted to believe that Elijah might feel some of what she was
starting to feel for him.

Maybe he just wanted
more time together.
 
She held her
breath.

But he shook his head
firmly.
 
“I’m not going to Florida
because of you, Caelyn.
 
I was
always going to Florida.”

“Oh.”
 
She tried to ignore the disappointment
that moved through her belly.
 
“Then
why didn’t you say so?”

He shrugged, his dark
eyes never leaving the road.
 
“Because I didn’t know a thing about you.
 
For all I know, you were some crazy
chick—I didn’t think I needed to tell you my whole travel itinerary.”

“Okay,” she
said.
 
She was starting to feel hurt
and a little angry.
 
He was acting
as though he didn’t just board the bus in Chinatown and practically beg her to
come with him.
 
“So then what
changed your mind?

“I don’t know.”
 
He shrugged again.
 
“You seem cool.
 
We had a few laughs.
 
I figured it was silly to make you pay
all that money to travel on some stuffy, cramped bus all the way to Florida
when I was going there anyhow.”

“Oh,” she said,
softly.

“If I’d known they
were going to charge you anyway—” He stopped himself.

“What?” she
said.
 
“Would you not have invited
me?”

He didn’t say
anything for a moment.
 
“Look, it’s
been a long drive so far,” he told her, not looking away from the road.
 
“Let’s just chill with the Q&A for a
few minutes, okay?”

“Sure,” she
said.
 
“Whatever you say.”

After that, Elijah
turned the satellite radio on again and resumed listening to his Geek and Gear
podcasts.

Caelyn settled back
in her seat and stared out at the passing scenery, wondering if she’d made a
mistake getting off the bus and into his car to go all the way to Florida.
 
If this was the kind of atmosphere that
was going to exist the entire drive, then she definitely would regret her
decision.

It was when they
passed into Maryland that Caelyn’s phone rang for the first time.
 
She looked at her caller ID.

MOM.

A thrill of anxiety
raced through Caelyn’s body when she saw that her mother was calling.
 
She rejected the call, forcing it to
voicemail.
 

Elijah glanced over
at her.
 
“You all right?”

“Yes,” she said.
 
Since when do you care? She wanted to
reply, but that was a little too childish, even for the mood she was in right
now.

A moment later, her
cell was ringing again, and once again, it was her mother’s number.
 
Maybe that meant it was an
emergency.
 
Caelyn tried to think if
someone would have already known she’d taken off, and contacted the school, the
police, her parents.

She didn’t think
so.
 
The only people who could
possibly have noticed she was gone by now would have been one of her
roommates.
 
But Alicia had been
staying over Ben’s last night and Nellie would probably assume that Caelyn had
stayed over Jayson’s apartment.

Her phone was still
ringing.
 
She really didn’t want to
answer, but another part of her thought it was useless to just ignore her
mother’s call.
 
She would just keep
calling and calling.

Sighing, Caelyn
answered.
 
“Hi, Mom.”
 
She forced her voice to sound cheerful.

“I thought you might
be sleeping in,” her mother said, in a tone of voice that indicated she didn’t
really approve of the reasons that might cause Caelyn to sleep in, but she
understood it was part of college life to stay up late partying.

“Oh, no, I’m awake,”
Caelyn told her.
 
“I’ve been awake
for awhile.”
 
That was an
understatement.

Elijah smirked.

Caelyn looked away
from him, out the passenger window.

“Well, whatever,” her
mother said, like Caelyn’s sleeping habits weren’t any of her business.
 
“The reason I’m calling is because I’ve
got a work conference next week in Boston.”

Caelyn’s stomach
dropped faster than an elevator with the cables cut.
 
“Oh,” was all she could manage.

“That wasn’t exactly
the reaction I was hoping for, Caelyn Mary.”

“Sorry, Mom, I’m
just—I’ve got a lot of work to do.
 
Classes are harder than I expected and it’s overwhelming.”

“I’m sure you’re
going to do just fine, Caelyn.
 
You
always worry about grades and you always do wonderfully.”

“Yeah, well, this is
different, Mom.
 
Cambridge
University is a lot harder than high school.”

“I’m sure it is,” her
mother said, sounding relatively unconvinced.
 
“But I still think you can find time to
see your mother for dinner one night!”

Caelyn didn’t
respond.
 
She couldn’t allow her
mother to expect that they would see one another next week.
 
Caelyn wasn’t even going to be in
Massachusetts.
 

Maybe now was the
time to just get it out—tell her mother the truth.
 
Admit that she was leaving school for
the semester, dropping out and running to Florida.
 
What could her mom really do?
 
Caelyn was eighteen, an adult, and
perfectly capable of making her own decisions.

But the mere thought
of saying those words struck terror into Caelyn’s very soul.
 
Her mother would be crushed,
devastated.
 
Caelyn was the first
person in her family to attend an Ivy League college and her parents were totally
proud of her for getting into Cambridge on a full scholarship.

To throw that all away
would be madness.

And Caelyn could
never tell her mother why she was running away, either.

There was a long
silence on the phone as Caelyn’s mind spun through the myriad possibilities,
the ramifications of her actions finally starting to hit home.
 

“Are you still
there?” her mother demanded.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“What’s wrong?
 
You sound… different.”

“I told you, I’m just
really overwhelmed with school work right now.”

Her mother
sighed.
 
“Okay, I see.
 
Maybe I should try you another
time—or better yet, you try me back when you feel more like talking.”

“Okay, I’ll do that,”
she said softly.

“I’m still planning
on seeing you when I come in for my conference.
 
Plan for either Thursday or Friday
night—dinner.
 
On me.
 
Okay?”

Now it was Caelyn’s
turn to sigh into the phone.
 
“I’ll
call you later,” was all she said.

“Okay.
 
Love you,” her mother replied.

And then the line
went dead.
 
Caelyn put her cell
phone back in her purse.
 
When she
looked over at Elijah again, he was still smirking.

“What?” she asked,
glaring at him.
 
“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.”

“You’ve got a smug
look on your face.”

“Me?” he asked,
feigning innocence.

“Yes, you.”

“I just couldn’t help
but notice that little miss perfect was lying to her mommy.”

“I’m not little miss
perfect.”

He snorted. “Come
on.
 
You go to Cambridge?
 
That means you’re one of those rich kids
with perfect grades.
 
Probably lived
in Newton or Weston or one of those snobby towns.
 
I know girls like you.”

“What’s that supposed
to mean?
 
Girls like me?”

“I thought maybe you
were running away from something serious,” he told her.
 
“I thought maybe you were like me…” his
voice trailed off but he didn’t finish.