Waters of Oblivion

Chapter 14.1: The Storm

After speaking with Noor, Reine no longer agreed with Max's conclusion that Jameela Singh was messing with her just to get to him. The Order of Westminster had put too much energy into their efforts to spy on her when it would have been just as easy for them to target Max directly. There must have been another reason to involve her.

Although the threat remained a real possibility, Reine temporarily pushed the issue out of her mind. She was sure Max would do everything in his power to keep her safe - even from afar. He had failed to protect her earlier; he would never let that happen again. Her relationship with Gabe was also finally on-track, and she didn't want to do anything further to compromise it.

Going away for the weekend together for the first time was a defining moment for a couple. The way things unfolded could either lead them to become irreversibly closer or realize they were better apart. Reine was determined to have it be the former, but she was extremely nervous. She hadn't been intimate with a guy for almost three months, and she wasn't proud of that drunken fling on New Year's.

Gabe made her feel like a new person, and she gladly accepted his impromptu invitation. After Noor's betrayal, she not only welcomed the distraction, but also the companionship. In spite of their shaky beginnings, he was the first person in a very long time she could possibly commit to.

The drive down to Williamsburg started off as rather uneventful. She insisted on driving her own car, making an argument based on it getting better gas mileage than Gabe's SUV. Plus, she seemed to have less control in other areas of her life nowadays, and this was something she could still manage by herself.

She took advantage of having his captive attention in order to fill him in on everything she recently learned.

"That's messed up," he commented after she finished relaying what she knew about Sylvana, Noor, and Jameela Singh. "What now?"

"Well, everything leads back to Max, doesn't it? Maybe now that he's out of my life, things will now go back to normal," she vocalized her wish.

Having cleared the air, by seven they were already past Richmond on the highway leading straight to Virginia Beach. The monotony of the drive, though, was starting to get to her.

The manual transmission was just as boring as an automatic once it was in top gear cruising down the highway at seventy miles per hour. Although they still chatted occasionally, they spent most of the trip in silence or just listening to the radio. Sometimes she wished she knew what Gabe was thinking and whether he felt the same way as she did about their possible future together.

After stopping for dinner, Reine had an impulsive thought. On the way to the parking lot, she jiggled the car keys in front of Gabe. "Wanna to drive?"

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Of course. You looked bored out of your mind getting this far so you might as well enjoy the rest of the ride," she said

"I wasn't bored. I was thinking. Okay, I was a little bored. Give me those keys." He laughed, playfully grabbing them out of her hand.

Minutes later, she was already comfortably buckled in the passenger seat while he was still fiddling with the controls to adjust the seat to his considerably taller frame.

She wrinkled her nose. "Go ahead and say what you're thinking."

"How can you drive sitting this close to the steering wheel, you freakishly short woman?" he asked before they both laughed. After adjusting everything, Gabe started the ignition.

"I have to admit that I've been itching to drive this thing since it's been tuned." He turned on the headlights and put the car it into reverse.

Her eyes widened. "So that's how it is. You're not even interested in me. All you want is my car."