Distance

In a way, it was a good thing that Robert had gone back to London. When our communication was cut back to a few texts during the day and a phone call at night, I had more time to focus on my homework. I’d been slacking a lot lately, and now I had to buckle down and finish off a paper that I’d completely forgotten about. I mentally cursed myself for falling behind. I was a senior; I couldn’t afford to do that anymore.

After I handed in my paper in my Friday class, I went back home to take a power nap. I’d had to pull an all-nighter the previous night to get it finished. It felt like I had just closed my eyes when my phone rattled against my nightstand and woke me up. When I looked at the time, however, I found that I had been asleep for nearly three hours.

My phone display told me that I’d missed several text messages; Robbie had probably grown impatient and called me to ensure that I would actually respond for once. I hit the answer button and pressed the phone to my ear.

“Hey,” I greeted him, hoping that my voice didn’t sound too thick and give away the fact that I’d been sleeping.

“Come downstairs. I assume you’ve got my texts?”

I cleared my throat awkwardly, sitting up in bed. “Of course I have.”

He chuckled lightly. “Don’t lie, Maggie. Read the messages, follow my instructions, and then come downstairs.”

I disconnected the call, my brow furrowing in confusion. He was in the city again? I hadn’t expected him to get time off to come and see me for several weeks. I read the texts, which directed me to pack a bag to keep me going until Sunday. I leapt into action, sprinting around my bedroom and tossing anything that I thought I might need into a duffel bag. My mind was reeling; where were we going that I couldn’t come home and get whatever I needed? I couldn’t imagine him bringing me to London again, since he’d just left it. And the idea of packing up for the entire weekend just to go to his apartment here in Dublin seemed ludicrous.

I didn’t even stop to say goodbye to my roommates. I could always text them later. I just didn’t want to keep Robert waiting for too long. When I reached the lobby, I was out of breath. My excitement skyrocketed when I looked out the front doors and saw the familiar black car waiting.

“How was your nap?” Robert asked as I slid into the passenger seat.

I plastered an innocent look on my face. “I wasn’t sleeping.”

He pulled into the street. “Oh really? Maggie, you usually text me back right away, or at the very least within the hour. Today, you not only didn’t do that, but I had time to fly here and get my car before finally calling you to get a response. You were sleeping, admit it.”

“Alright, fine. I was up all night finishing a paper, and I needed a rest.”

A shadow of concern crossed Robert’s features as he glanced over at me for a second. “Do you have a paper to write this weekend?”

“Nope. I’m totally free. Next week I start midterms, but I’m really good at cramming. I’m all yours,” I smiled. I was half-expecting him to scold me for not being more adequately prepared for my midterms, but he didn’t. He didn’t really say much of anything, actually. When he left the bright lights of Dublin behind, I remembered that I had no idea where we were going. I had never been anywhere in Ireland outside of the city thus far, and my curiosity was getting the better of me. It was too dark to see any real landmarks, so I focused on the patch of road in front of us that was illuminated in the headlights. “Where are we?” I asked finally, wishing that I could get a better look at the infamous beauty of the countryside.

“Well, tonight we’re going to have to get a room, but I have a surprise for you in the morning. Just relax; it’s a bit of a drive.”

I frowned at his secrecy. I couldn’t stand being the only one left out on anything. I could feel the pout forming on my lips, and I slumped down in the seat. I really hated myself when I got like this, but I blamed this particular instance on the fact that I still hadn’t totally caught up on my sleep.

Robert’s left hand wandered from the gear shift and settled onto my knee. He gave it a comforting squeeze. “You’ll like it, I promise. I hope I got everything right.”

“If you’re springing something on me, I would just like you to know that I’m not afraid to punch you in the teeth. I grew up in Canada and I’ve been in a few hockey fights in my day. Don’t cross me.”

In the dark, his over-the-top fearful expression could almost have been mistaken for something genuine. Until, that is, he removed his hand from my leg and pretended to nervously bite down on his fingernails. “I’m ever so frightened!” he squealed girlishly.

I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, if you’re going to bring me home to your parents or something, you can just forget it right now. It is way too soon for that kind of nonsense.”

“You can stop worrying, it’s nothing like that.”

I took a moment to really look at him then. In the blue glow of the dashboard lights, I could see that there was something different about him. How had I not noticed immediately that he’d shaved off his facial hair? He looked so much younger, so much more innocent. I found myself smiling.

“I like the new look,” I told him. “You look like you’re sixteen. It’s cute.”

“Would you really date a sixteen-year-old?” There was a note of utter disbelief in his tone. I laughed.

“No, I most definitely wouldn’t. I don’t want people to think that I’m a cougar.”

“I had to shave for work,” he explained, sounding almost apologetic. “At least they leave my hair alone. Do you have any idea how much time and effort has to be put in when I need to have straight hair?”

I pointed up at my own head. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that I have a faint idea. Except my hair is much longer than yours. So you’re probably getting off easy, all things considered.”

“Yes, but girls are supposed to do that kind of thing,” he argued.

“So are actors,” I shot back.

“That’s debatable.”

“It’s your own fault for choosing this profession. You have no one to blame but yourself. Admit it: you love the attention you get because of it. That’s why you asked me out, isn’t it? You found a girl who had no idea who you were, and you decided to remedy the situation,” I teased.

“How would I have even known that you didn’t know who I was? I was probably concussed from getting hit by that door, and then I had a lapse in judgement because my brain wasn’t functioning properly. That’s why I asked you out, I’m almost certain of it.”

I hit him lightly. “Then explain why you came back to Ireland for me this weekend. That doesn’t sound like someone with brain damage, that sounds like someone who’s got it bad for a cute little Canuck.”

He appeared to be holding back a laugh. “What the fuck is a Canuck?”

“It’s a Canadian. It’s also Vancouver’s hockey team, but that wasn’t what I meant here.”

We continued to bicker playfully for the duration of the drive. Robert pulled the car off of the main road when we reached a small town, and he parked in a motel parking lot. The lot was nearly empty, and the neon sign towering over the roadside blinked that there was vacancy. I got out of the car, pausing to grab my bag from the backseat. The place looked like a bit of a dive, which I was sure was a change for Robert. I could only imagine that normally he was put up in five-star hotels with complementary breakfasts and mints on the pillows. For me, however, this gave me a bit of normalcy. And that was something that I felt I desperately needed.

“I can’t believe you just drove for three hours without giving me any hint as to where we were going or what we were going to do. I’m kind of impressed with how well you hold your tongue.”

He wiggled his thick eyebrows at me. “We both know that I always impress you.”

“Oh ha ha,” I said dryly. “I wasn’t that sheltered in Canada, you know. Don’t act like I’m all swept off my feet because I’m star struck or something. I’d still like you just as much if you did something else for a living.”

He grabbed his bag from the trunk of the car and slung it across his shoulder. “I didn’t mean that I impress you because I’m an actor. I meant that I impress you because I’m an absolute delight and an overall treasure to have around.”

“You’ve got me there, I suppose,” I agreed with a shrug as we headed into the nearby office of the motel. A bell jingled cheerfully to life above our heads as the door opened. The room was deserted. A large wooden desk spanned most of the far wall, and though the finish was peeling pitifully now, it must have been a work of beauty when it was originally brought into this place. Robert immediately strode across the room and leaned up against it, ringing a tiny bronze bell placed atop it. As if the bell that rang upon our entrance wasn’t enough. To my surprise, his attempt did warrant someone’s attention.

A thin, haggard looking woman in her fifties entered the room from a door behind the desk. She hardly spared a glance in our direction as she gathered up her ledger and flipped it open.

“One bed or two?” she asked dully, plucking a pen our from where it had been tucked behind her ear. I somehow got the impression that we’d interrupted her nightly crossword puzzle or something of the like.

“One,” Robert responded promptly.

“That’s rather presumptuous, isn’t it?” I murmured, though I was clearly joking.

Robert gave me a mild shove as he dug his wallet from his jeans and prepared to pay for our undoubtedly shitty room. I waited patiently, feeling that if he’d had to make some stupidly grand gesture, at least he was cutting a few corners with the cost. It made me feel significantly less guilty about accepting it when he did these things.

We entered the room a few minutes later, and I was pleased to find that it looked clean. I dropped my bag on the floor and immediately set to work peeling the royal blue comforter off of the mattress. Robert raised his eyebrows in a silent question.

“They wash the sheets, but they don’t wash the blanket. Is this really not common knowledge to you?”

The confused expression didn’t leave his face. “How often were you in places like this? Did that really become something that you had to worry about?”

“I played sports,” I replied. “We had to go on long road trips and stay the night sometimes. Trust me when I say that I’ve seen much worse places than this one.”

Robert flipped through the select stations that we got on the television while I changed into sweat pants and a tank top. It wasn’t exactly an attractive ensemble, but it was the most comfortable thing I owned. I slid into bed next to Robert, and he glanced down at my oversized bottoms.

“Normal people don’t buy clothes when their proper sizes aren’t in stock,” he teased, addressing my rolled-up waistband.

“I didn’t buy them,” I said. I immediately regretted opening my mouth. I knew that it was going to result in more questions.

“Who did? I sincerely doubt that your mother would buy you something that far off from your actual size.”

I felt incredibly small as I forced myself to admit the truth. “They were someone else’s. Remember how I said that my best friend moved to Australia? They were his.”

Robbie’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh yeah? Did you two date or something?”

“No,” the reply came out far too quickly and harshly to sound honest. “He used to get drunk and crash at my apartment. Once he left these, and they were comfy so I never gave them back. We never dated. Or slept together,” I added as a precaution. “I mean, we talked about dating, but then he left so it didn’t happen. No harm, no foul.”

There was a heavy silence for a long moment. I could tell that Robert was trying to sort through what I’d said in order to determine if I was lying. After a few tense beats, he seemed to come to the conclusion that I was being truthful. “Maybe I should give you some pants,” he mused airily. “I mean, if you have to wear something that doesn’t even fit, wouldn’t it make sense for it to be from your actual boyfriend, and not just a boy who is a friend?”

I stared at him, well aware of the fact that my eyes were bulging in shock. “Boyfriend?” I asked weakly, though I was certain that I’d heard correctly.

His lips turned up in a smile. “Well, yeah, you didn’t think that all of this was just so I could be your friend with benefits, did you?”

I pondered his question for a moment, really wondering if that was what I had thought. I definitely hadn’t expected him to be tossing around the word boyfriend. At least, not yet. I honestly assumed that we would avoid labels completely when we knew that I had to leave eventually.

I leaned over and kissed him, hoping that it would suffice instead of finding the right words for a verbal response. It seemed to satiate him, and his arms surrounded me and pulled me close. His hair was still short, but it was long enough that I could manage to get my fingers tangled in it.

The rest of the world seemed to melt away, and I found that I genuinely didn’t care about anything that was happening outside of that room. What my family was doing back home wasn’t important, and what Kellan was doing in Australia really didn’t matter. The only thing that I could focus on was Robert, and how incredible he made me feel right then.

The next morning dawned exceptionally bright. I marvelled for a moment at the way that the weather was reflecting my mood. I rolled onto my side to find Robert still sleeping soundly beside me. If I had thought that he looked young the night before, it was nothing compared to how he looked now. His long lashes rested against the top of his cheeks, hiding the dark circles that usually resided there. I leaned over and pressed my lips gently to his cheek. His eyelids fluttered open, and he smiled as he stretched his arms out over his head, colliding awkwardly with the wooden headboard.

“Morning,” he greeted me.

“Good morning,” I chirped. I was normally not a morning person at all, but how could I be anything but chipper today? “Where are we going?”

“You don’t waste any time at all, do you?”

I shook my head, still smiling. “Nope.”

He chuckled lightly, sitting up in bed. “Well, get your stuff together, then. I feel like I won’t get any peace at all until we get there.”

“You got that right,” I said, springing up from the mattress and throwing on some clothes. I had my bag packed and zipped securely before Robert had even worked up the motivation to get out of bed. “You still look tired,” I observed sympathetically.

“I am. Maybe you should drive today.”

“That would be a lot easier to accomplish if I knew where I was going.”

“Don’t worry,” he flashed me a sly grin. “I’ll tell you which turns to make.”

After checking out of the motel and returning the room keys, I jumped excitedly into the driver’s seat. I hadn’t driven since I’d arrived in Ireland, and I had to admit that I missed it. Suddenly, however, I was gripped with a sudden panic. I stared down at the gear shift dismally.

“Don’t tell me that you’ve never driven a standard before,” Robert sighed, looking disappointed in me.

“That’s not it at all,” I argued. “I’ve just never driven one where I had to shift with my left hand. Plus, I’ve never driven on the left side of the road. Are you sure that this is such a good idea? I might kill us both.”

“Relax, it’s not that difficult. We’re mostly going down country roads anyways. You probably won’t have to deal with much traffic. Come on, you need to learn this sometime.”

I was about to argue and state that I was perfectly capable of getting around solely depending on public transportation, but I knew that if I didn’t learn now, I never would. I got so involved in our lesson that I completely forgot that we had a destination. It was far too easy to just lose myself in a moment when I was with Robert.

“Turn right here,” he directed me, bringing me back to the real task at hand. He had the directions scribbled out on a piece of paper, though he had no actual map. I had my suspicions that he had planned it that way so that I could never guess just where we would end up if I’d stolen that paper from him.

When I slowed the car to a stop, I found that I was rendered speechless. Numbly, I managed to find the door handle and free myself from the interior of the car. I stood on shaky legs, feeling awe-struck tears sting behind my eyelids.

“Oh, Robert,” I breathed. “You found it.”