The Seat They Never Saved and the Offer I Finally Took novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: One Room Left

One room and one bed in Nebraska; Lena kisses Tobias, then Lacey's post cuts her out of the photo.

The room had one bed, one lamp, one chair with a broken arm and a painting of a duck.

The clerk had slid the key across the counter without looking up.

"Checkout's eleven. Nobody's checking out," she'd said. "Roads are closed till tomorrow at least."

I stood in the doorway holding my bag and staring at the bed.

It was a queen.

Tobias set his duffel on the chair and the chair groaned.

"I'll take the floor," he said.

"The floor is the color of old oatmeal."

"I've slept on worse."

"You're six foot three, Tobias. You'll wake up shaped like a comma."

He looked at the carpet, then at me, and his jaw moved.

"Lena. You left your boyfriend nine hours ago."

"I know when I left my boyfriend."

"I won't be the guy who takes advantage of the worst day of your life."

"Then take the floor," I said. "I'm taking a shower."

The water ran hot and brown for the first minute.

I stood under it with my forehead on the tile and let myself shake.

Three years.

I tried to find the day Connor had stopped looking at me.

The harder I tried, the more I found that he never really had.

He'd looked at the version of me that said it's fine.

When I came out with a towel on my head, Tobias had made a nest on the floor out of the moose blanket and his coat.

He was reading the motel's fire exit map.

"You are not sleeping on the floor," I said.

"I'm all right."

"I'm not asking." I pulled back the comforter on the far side. "Get in the bed. I'm too tired to be polite."

He didn't move.

"Okay," he said at last, very low. "But I'm staying on top of the covers."

"You're ridiculous."

"I'm cautious."

We slept eight hours.

When I woke up, the window was dark and the wind was throwing ice against the glass.

Tobias sat against the headboard on top of the comforter, fully dressed.

He was holding a paper menu from the diner next door.

"There's a patty melt with your name on it," he said. "I called. They'll bring it over."

"They deliver?"

"The waitress owes me one. I shoveled her walk."

"You shoveled a stranger's walk in a blizzard?"

"She's seventy and she was doing it in slippers."

I started laughing and couldn't stop, a cracked, ugly, grateful laugh that turned into something else halfway through.

I put the heels of my hands against my eyes.

"Hey," he said.

"I'm fine."

"You don't have to be."

That was the thing.

I'd said I'm fine so many times that I'd forgotten there was another answer.

He didn't touch me.

He just stayed there, a warm shape on the other side of the bed, and waited.

When the food came, we ate it cross-legged on the comforter.

"I gave him my grandmother's ring," I said, out of nowhere, around a bite of fries.

Tobias put down his fork.

"What?"

"In June. It's thin gold with a tiny green stone, and it was Gran's."

I wiped my fingers.

"Connor said he wanted it resized, for later. I thought later meant a proposal."

His face went very still.

"Did he ever give it back?"

"He said the jeweler was backed up."

"For five months."

"I know how it sounds."

"I didn't say a word."

"You said it with your whole face."

He looked at his hands.

"I'm going to try something," he said. "I'm going to say nothing, so you can say it yourself."

I looked at the bare ring finger on my left hand, and the whole sentence landed in my chest.

"I think it's gone," I said.

"I think you're right."

The wind rattled the window.

I put my plate on the nightstand.

I turned to face him, my face still raw from crying, and I looked at his mouth.

He saw me do it.

His breath changed.

"Lena," he said, and it came out rough.

"I'm not asking you to be good," I said. "I've had three years of good."

I took his collar in my fist and kissed him.

For one second he held absolutely still.

Then his hand slid into my wet hair, slow and sure.

He kissed me back like he'd been holding it in for a very long time.

It was warm and unhurried, and it went on until my fingers were wound into his flannel and my knees had gone to water.

He pulled back first, breathing hard, forehead against mine.

"I'm right here," he said. "Whatever you need."

"Don't stop," I said.

I kissed him again.

Somewhere in the middle of it the whole day caught up with me, and I began to cry.

He held me.

He said nothing, just held me until my breath evened out.

I fell asleep with my cheek on his chest.

At three in the morning, my phone lit up on the nightstand.

Lacey had posted a photo.

It showed her and Connor under one gray blanket at Gate B31.

Her head was on his shoulder, his arm was around her, and they were both smiling.

The caption said: Night of chaos with my person. Never leaving his side.

Connor had liked it before I'd even finished reading.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend