Regardless oftheir constant reassurances to the contrary, they would eventuallymove on. He had no interest in being the fifth wheel. Besides, hesimply needed to step away for a while. Even if just to prove tohimself that he could be alone and survive it. Yet no matter howmuch he tried to explain it to Becky, she couldn’t accept hisviewpoint. She could not understand that sometimes, one must leaveto find oneself.
Grasping ontothe steering wheel, he focused his attention on the road. It wasstill rather dark, only five in the morning and it was rainingheavily. At least, it wasn’t snowing. That would make thethree-hour drive to the airport even worse.
As he drove hethought back to the day at the café with Gwen. He was glad to havecome across her itinerary. What a godsend, that was. Before meetingup with her, he’d had no idea where to go. England. What a splendididea. Especially for a Goth like him. Why hadn’t he thought ofthat?
He had eventaken Gwen’s advice and had her friend, Stacy the travel agent,book it all up for him. The only thing he had to worry about wasgetting to the airport on time and catching the early morning planeto Heathrow. He hadn’t even bothered to study the details of thetrip. He was sure he would figure it all out as he went. Besides,he had an eight-hour flight to read over the specifics of Gwen’swell-laid plans. If he found anything that didn’t interest him, hewould simply skip it and spend the afternoon in a pub somewherewallowing in self-pity.
He shook hishead at the idea of Gwen going with him. What had she beenthinking? They knew nothing of each other yet she had seemed soeager to come along. What an odd girl. On the one hand, she cameacross as nervous and tightly wound. On the other, she was ready tothrow caution to the wind to go on a trip with a total stranger.She didn’t trust herself enough to go alone, yet she trusted him tobe her travel buddy? It didn’t make any sense.
As cute as shewas, her company at this moment was the last thing he needed. Thewhole point of this trip was to get away by himself, not playescort to a little mundane woman, as sexy as she was in herturtleneck sweater. Crispin gave his head a quick shake. He must belosing it for sure. Another reason to get out of town as quickly aspossible. As it was, he had fought the urge to stop in and see herat the shop countless times this past week.
Of course, hewould be lying if he said he hadn’t found her proposal flattering.Most people steered clear of him, especially those who didn’t knowhim. Given his apparent Gothness, most people tended to avoid himlike the plague. As physically attractive as he was, he alsorealized his challenging personality often put off those who mightventure close enough to realize he wasn’t the nicest guy in theworld. That was just fine as far as he was concerned. He wasn’tlooking to make friends.
Now, if it wasa quick fuck she was after, he might have made an exception. Plentyof thrill seeking mundanes had come around and he had been all tooaccommodating in the past. But he could tell Gwen wasn’t that type,as much as he wanted her to be. In fact, he would love nothing morethan a shot at her. Poor girl wouldn’t know what hit her. Sheobviously didn’t know who she was dealing with. With that lustythought in his brain, Crispin turned up the radio and stepped onthe gas. The sooner he left town, the better.
***
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather come with me and the girls toCuba?” Stacy teased, already knowing the answer.
“Are you kidding me? After all this planning?” Gwen asked,looking up from her purse. She had just re-checked her planetickets for the hundredth time. “Terminal One, please.”
“Yeah, I know. You forget that I’m the travel agent who bookedyour trip.” Stacy laughed as she approached thedrop-off.
“Thank you so much for doing this,” Gwen said with a nervoussigh.
“It’s no big deal. Good thing our flights coincided. After Idrop you off here, I go directly to Terminal Three for mine. Areyou sure you don’t want to trade your tickets in for Cuba? Just saythe word, I’ll make it happen.”
“Stacy, you know how long I’ve been wanting to go to England.This may be my only chance.” Working across the street from Stacy’stravel agency, was actually why they had met. Many times duringbreaks, Gwen had spent planning this very trip with her. Stacy wasin her early thirties and had been a travel agent for quite sometime. Plus, she knew all about her anxiety issues and understoodwhy it had taken her so long to actually book the trip. Gwen wouldbe eternally grateful to her friend for not teasing her too muchabout the reason behind her sudden courage.
“Just pulling your leg. But I must say, I’m quite impressedwith your sudden spunk. Go figure, all you needed was a littleincentive in the form a hot guy to get you off your butt. Mind you,he is gorgeous. Not my type at all, but I can see why you’re allworked up. He’s got that whole old world charm going on that youlove so much. An old soul, I suppose would be the best way todescribe him.”
“I know, right? He’s perfect…” Gwen sighed.
“Perfect? Well, now let’s not get carried away. But I can seewhy you would think so. And what better way to find out than totravel together? The only thing that worries me is, well, he wasquite adamant about going alone. I mean, how much do you know aboutthis guy? What if he reacts badly?”
“I don’t know anything at all about him actually, but this is achance I’m willing to take,” Gwen said, suddenly not so sure ofherself. She toyed with the little bracelet still on her wrist fromwhen he’d first placed it there. She hadn’t yet taken it off. He’dsaid it belonged with her. Little did he realize that much like thebracelet,
