The Girl Who Wrote The Dating Manual

chapter seventeen

“You know,” I said, in an effort to comfort him and take his mind off of the matter at hand. “I get seasick. Anyway, one day my family decided as a way for my mom and dad to reconcile their differences we could go on a cruise to the Bahamas and Fiji and spend some quality family time. Of course, it was the first time I’d been on a boat. It took me approximately five minutes before I realized I was seasick, and the doctor was too bust administering shots to other seasick travelers that it took fourteen hours of suffering before I finally got the needle. I spent the first fourteen hours of my cruise bent over a toilet seat. I missed Hawaii, I missed some snorkeling in the reef, and I missed the dolphin watching. So it’s okay to get sick in the air.”

“Is that story really true?” Chance asked, turning to look at me with raised eyebrows.

I nodded. “Uh-huh.”

He frowned. “I guess I never thought of you as someone who ever got sick or hurt.”

I laughed and curled up into his shoulder. “I know I must seem extraordinarily perfect,” I joked. “But what can I say? Everyone has their flaws.”

He smiled, as if the story had made him feel slightly better, and put his arm around my shoulders. I curled into his shirt and shut my eyes, spending the rest of the flight curled up in his arms, sleeping and chatting with him as the plane crested the sky and we were brought further from Oakbridge and closer to Hamilton, my real home.

When we finally made it, Chance had calmed down somewhat, and we made our way through the airport and baggage claim with no worries.

“So,” Chance asked after we’d received our luggage and started towards the airport. “Did you have a good weekend?”

“Surprisingly, yes,” I responded. “But I have you to thank for that.”

“Me?” he asked, perplexed. “Why me?”

I shrugged. “It’s just… thank you for being there for me. It can’t have been easy having to meet my parents and get used to my mom and dad. So thank you for coming.”

We stepped out into the cold air, and Chance shrugged into his jacket and grabbed my hand as we made our way into the parking lot and towards Chance’s car.

“I’m just glad we can do things like this now,” Chance said. “I’m glad that you and I can do this together.”

I smiled. “Me, too.”

We entered his car, and he quickly turned on the heat and shoved our stuff into the car, before I took my rightful place as shotgun in his car, which smelled of leather and French fries and the pine scent he had hanging from his rearview mirror.

Chance turned on the car and peeled out of the parking space, before grabbing my hand and holding it over the car console. I smiled and wrapped my fingers through his.

We drove in silence for a few minutes, before finally Chance broke the companionable quiet. “Hey, Candice?”