10 – Almost
It was late by the time they returned to the motel. Whether or not he'd been teasing at the time, Ben was right when he said they weren't going to notice the décor of the room. Both of them were bone-tired. "Thanks for what you did with my wallet," she said as he closed the door.
"Yeah. Next time, maybe we'll avoid the block parties," he smiled back.
Felicity stifled a yawn. "I could sleep for a week."
Ben moved toward the bed. "Yeah, me too." He pulled back the covers.
In the next instant, he swore and jumped a good six feet back from the bed.
Felicity paled. "What? What is it?"
"That's the biggest freaking spider I've ever seen!"
She'd never heard Ben flip out like that. Felicity crept toward the bed. Sure enough, a hairy black spider with a three-inch leg span sat in the middle of the bed as if daring them to get in. Felicity's eyes shot wide open. It began to crawl toward the bunched sheets with a leisurely sort of audacity. Ben grabbed a copy of People off the nightstand and raised it to strike. She scowled. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to squash it."
"Don't squash it!"
"Why not? You want it to stay there?"
Felicity looked horrified. "Well…You'll get spider guts all over the bed! Besides…it's mean."
Ben huffed in exasperation, but the spider began crawling faster.
"Quick, get a cup or something!" she shouted.
He ran to the bathroom and came back with a cup, which he clapped over the top of the spider before it could get away. He thrust the magazine underneath the cup with a grimace of distaste and Felicity hurried to open the motel room door.
He was almost out the door with the whole works when the magazine slipped and the spider got loose, crawling swiftly up Ben's arm. He gave the most alarming shriek she'd ever heard and leaped into the air, slapping frantically at his arm. The cup and the magazine went flying onto the floor. "Where is it? Get it off! Where'd it go?" Ben shouted, spinning in a circle and looking for the escapee.
"Wait! Wait! I got it! It's on your neck, hold still!"
"WELL, GET IT OFF ME!"
Felicity burst into fits of giggling. Scooping the magazine up from the floor, she swiped at Ben's neck. The spider landed on the carpet, skittering back into the room. Yelping in between giggles, Felicity swept the spider out the door.
Ben was red to his ears. He grabbed the door and was about to slam it shut when the motel manager flew in, puffing and out of breath with his bathrobe and slippers on. "What's the matter? Is someone hurt? What?"
Felicity made a valiant effort to stifle her laughter. "We're fine. There was a spider. I'm sorry. We sort of freaked out about it." More giggles escaped, and Ben glared at her.
The manager looked doubtful. "Everyone is okay?"
Ben crossed his arms. "That was a huge spider. How do we know it wasn't poisonous? I don't know if I want to stay here."
Felicity managed to paste a grave expression on her face, which seemed only to make Ben glare harder at her.
"I'll give you the room for free," the manager sputtered. "I'm sorry. I'm very sorry about this." He gave Ben a scrutinizing look. "Are you sure you're all right, sir?"
Ben did look a little green. Felicity bit the inside of her cheek.
"I'm fine. Free is fine, too. We'll pick up our money in the morning," Ben grumbled. The manager backed out of the room with more apologies, which Ben accepted with surprising dignity before shutting the door. He turned around and gave Felicity yet another fuming look. "It was a huge spider."
Felicity lost all pretense of composure and collapsed onto the bed, laughing until tears rolled down her face.
"I'm glad you think this is funny," he snarled. "You could be sitting in that bed with a bunch of his creepy-crawly friends right now."
Felicity yelped again and shot to her feet, tumbling into Ben.
He finally cracked a smile. "See? I'm not the only one who's freaked out."
They stared at each other until their eyes watered and burst into laughter again.
- - - - -
Sometime during the night, Felicity woke to an empty bed. "Ben?"
There was no answer. The clock on the nightstand read 2:23 A.M. A look toward the bathroom confirmed that there was no light on; Ben wasn't in there, either. Felicity got up and looked out the window into the parking lot.
The car was gone, too. I wonder where he went. She shrugged and decided that since she was up, she might as well take a shower. She gathered her things and went into the bathroom.
Her head was still sore where she'd struck it on the sidewalk earlier that evening. The cool water felt soothing on her scalp. We could have really gotten hurt today. I can't believe he ran after those guys. What if something had happened to him? She shivered under the shower spray.
When she finished her shower, she wrapped a towel around herself and went back out into the bedroom to get a clean T-shirt and shorts. While she pawed through her suitcase, she heard the key turning in the door lock. She grabbed a fistful of clothes and rushed toward the bathroom again.
The door swung open. Ben froze in the doorway as he caught sight of her wearing only the towel. "Whoa! Sorry."
Felicity's feet rooted to the spot where she stood not three feet from him, and she clutched her towel and the bundle of clothes tighter. "Shut the door!"
Ben spun around and shoved the door shut as though he'd been zapped with a cattle prod. "I'm sorry. Do you want me to go back outside? I'll go back outside." He started to open the door again.
"Don't be ridiculous," stammered Felicity. "Just…stay there until I get into the bathroom." She edged around the bed with her heart thundering.
As she passed behind him, Ben turned around and fixed her with a smoldering look that raised the hairs on the back of her neck. She halted and opened her mouth to say something and didn't. A trickle of water from her wet hair dripped onto her shoulder. She saw the pulse speeding in the hollow of his throat. Is he going to…? Are we…?
His gaze flickered from her mouth to her eyes and back again. Felicity didn't dare breathe. He took a step forward.
She heard the door click open. "I'll be outside," Ben murmured. He backed quickly out of the room and shut the door again.
Her breath whooshed out of her and she deflated. Half of her was convinced she should open the door and ask him to come back into the room. The other half was just as sure she had better not. Her skin prickled with electricity and indecision. She hesitated and put a hand on the doorknob. Thinking better of it, she turned and went into the bathroom.
On the other side of the door, Ben heaved a sigh of mixed relief and went back to the car. He took his basketball out of the trunk and spun it on the tip of his finger, leaning back against the car door.
He had almost decided to go for a drive when the motel door opened and Felicity came out wearing a tank top and denim shorts. Ben still didn't feel any less inclined to go forward and act on his earlier impulses. The towel seemed to have covered more of her than what she wore now. He squelched that treacherous thought and shuffled his foot with restless energy. "You want to go for a drive?"
She wrinkled her nose at him, which only made him want to kiss her more. "Now? Is that where you were earlier? Out driving?"
"Yeah. Let's go." He started around the car without waiting for her answer, shifting the basketball under his arm.
"Ben, is something wrong?" She moved to lay a hand on his arm in concern.
He jerked away as if she were a rattlesnake. "Felicity, you really don't want to get too close to me right now."
She went red, then white, and stepped hastily back to let him pass. "Oh," she whispered.
He saw her fumble to push a wet lock of her hair behind her ear. Ben stared at her fingers as they brushed her neck. Spinning away, he went around the car to the driver's side. With the car between them, he breathed easier. She went to lock the door. Ben shifted the basketball into his other hand. His fingertips, hypersensitive with agitation, picked up every ridge and bump in the ball's surface. Running. I need to go running. Swimming. Basketball. Anything. He opened the car door and dropped into the driver's seat, putting the ball on the seat beside him and starting the car.
Felicity opened the passenger door and slid into the seat, still looking sidelong at him. "Where are we going?"
"Don't know," he muttered, slamming the car into reverse and pulling out of the parking lot faster than Baby had probably ever been driven before.