a snippet from the sour apple universe.
"The Ramada." The road studs look like yellow stars on the dimly lit road.
He whistles once. "Fancy."
"It's what they gave us." You shrug. He knows that you hate hotel rooms and how they feel. It's a minute before you talk again, before you feel like the silence is more jarring than the situation you're in. "I'm sorry about your dad."
He looks over like he didn't quite expect this turn of a conversation. It takes him a moment to smooth out his face. "Thanks. I got the flowers."
You both know that the gesture was as flat as his tone. You should've been there. Maybe. Maybe you should've stayed far away so as not to add to his grief.
"I heard about your mom," he says after a beat. He glances at you, eyebrows raised. "How's she doing?"
Well, scores settled then. Wow, you were perfect for both loving and leaving each other.
"Good. Physio's a bitch, but she's working through it." You sweep a stray strand behind your ear, thinking about how you'd need to call her. It was seven, though; she might be in the middle of dinner.
Somewhere along the road, you realize that it's definitely not five minutes to the hotel. Jake breathes a bit harder before he talks. "Why didn't you tell me?"
You crack your knuckles. Of course. Of course he'd take the opportunity to ask that. It's the question that had been looming around all this time. The one you thought you had already answered. "I told you, I'm still gonna go back."
"Bullshit, Rudy." His voice is harder, even harsher than he expected from the look in his eyes. But you knew that this was coming. You just wanted him to force the rest of the words out. "If you wanted to go back, you wouldn't have taken it."
"Yeah, well, I'm not staying."
He takes his eyes off the road to take a long look at you. Then he turns back, chuckling dryly. "This is about us, isn't it? This is about you thinking that I won."
"I told you." You wring your wrist, looking straight ahead. You can see the gate of the hotel. "You didn't."
"Trust me." He grips his hands at ten and two on the wheel. "I would've lost you either way that night."