Whirlwind

(40) california dreaming

JASPER

***

I got over my bug. In fact the next day I had my spirit back in me, and I woke up at eight feeling absolutely starving. Being starving is a good sign of a person on the mend.

Libby was still out cold, still wearing her ridiculous LSU shit, but it gave me a plan to surprise her. I didn't want to wake her, so I decided I'd get up and get breakfast, along with some fresh coffee for us.

I shuffle out of the bed and slide on my shorts and a t-shirt, and after leaving a note next to her on the bed, along with a rose from the trellis outside, I kiss her gently and leave to go in search of breakfast.

I find a coffee shop on the corner that's selling fresh coffee and pastries. The guy behind the counter is friendly as I ask for six different pastries, now that my appetite is back, along with a massive coffee for me and a tea for Libby. When he hands me the bag, I'm in such a good mood that I hand him a twenty and tell him to keep the change.

When I get back upstairs, Libby's awake, smelling the rose I had left by the bed and reading my scrawled note.

"Hey, you're up!" she says, smiling. She gets up out of bed and puts her arms around my neck. I duck down and tuck my face into the crook of her neck as I put the arm that isn't holding the hot drinks around her.

"And feeling much better. Thank fuck." She giggles as she pulls away from me, kissing me quickly before looking down at what I have in my hands.

"Ah! And he's brings breakfast! Thank god, I am starving!" She takes the bag of pastries from me and bounces over to the table near the window. We'd left it open yesterday and the room was now cooler than the mid-afternoon sun yesterday.

I'm fucking glad this stupid stomach bug has fixed itself sooner rather than later. I mean I still don't feel one hundred percent back to normal, but I'm well enough to have a new plan for our travels. I didn't want to stay here, and I could see in Libby that she wants to move on too. So I've hatched an impromptu plan, saying to myself if she wants to stick to our original plan, then that's fine. But if she wants to change, then we'll change it.

"So I have an idea."

She looks up mid-bite, croissant flakes all over her chin and lap. "Oh yeah?"

I nod, taking a bite of a chocolate filled pastry myself. "Yeah. I... well I thought maybe we'd fly to California rather than driving?"

She finishes her bite, thinking about her answer. She shrugs and furrows her brow. "I thought the whole point was a road trip?" She asks.

I shrug. "It can be. If you want it to be. But I know you want to do Cali more than anything. So I was thinking... I could ring my parents to come and pick up my truck, then we can fly from here to San Diego and start our California trip early, have an extra week or so." I take another bite of my pastry. "We can rent a car when we get there."

She smiles and her eyes brighten but then they fall again. "But the Airbnb in Malibu isn't booked until Thursday. We'd need to find somewhere else to stay?"

"Not necessarily. We can have a check, but we can always stay somewhere else and then move onward. Lib, I just want to make sure you make the most of this trip. And California is massive. Doing it in four days is fucking impossible."

Our plan had been to drive back to North Carolina from California via the Mid West, Kansas and Nashville, but I know the main focus for her was California. She wants to go to LA, do the celebrity house tour, the walk of fame, Malibu beach, surfing... she doesn't want to be stuck in a car for days on end just talking to me. As much as I'd love that, she wants to explore, and I want to do that for her.