I must've dozed off at some point. I rubbed my eyes, straightened my back, and looked at Cameron with a shade of embarrassment. Then, I checked outside to see us parked in front of a diner.

"Why did we stop here?" I pulled my phone out of my bag to check the time. It'd only been twenty minutes, and he stopped for a break. "I don't need a break."

Cameron scoffed, unbuckling his belt. "Well, I do." He gave me the side-eye. "I skipped lunch, so I'm hungry."

I huffed a laugh. "I can't go out there like this." His eyes moved up and down on me in the meantime. "I look like a runaway bride."

"Amber, you are a runaway bride." He rolled his eyes. I opened my mouth in protest, but he let out a sigh in disappointment. "You know what? Suit yourself." Then, he left the car without another word, leaving me alone.

I watched him enter the diner, his hands in his pockets. Jesus Christ, Cameron. He'd always been impossible to communicate with—for me. Everyone else liked him, but we started on the wrong foot and did nothing to fix it.

Everything was a matter of challenge between us. I always felt the need to be better than Cameron at everything: the better kid, student, and person. It was a nonverbal thing that lasted until we both went our ways to different colleges in different states.

After high school, I didn't talk to or ask anyone about him again. And we didn't cross paths until now since I never returned to my hometown.

I ran a hand through my sweaty neck and let out a sigh. Now that Cameron was gone, the AC was off, and I was about to evaporate in this hot space. In a sick thought, it made sense to disappear right up to the sky, rain on Marcus like acid, and burn him down.

I shifted in my seat, feeling heavy in this uncomfortable dress. I wish I could rip it off right here. I opened my door, hoping that some fresh air would make me feel better.

Then, my eyes returned to Cameron, seated at a table by the window and talking to a server. He was annoying the hell out of me, but I wish I had his calmness in the moments of crisis. This is your crisis, I reminded myself.

I waited for him to look in my direction, wondering about me, but he started to inhale his burger right away.

My stomach growled in the wake. Okay, I skipped lunch, too. But I was in my wedding dress and didn't want to feel people's judgmental looks on me. However, my stomach clenched in hunger in total disagreement.

The diner was small, and there were a few customers inside. I could go there, join Cameron and ignore people's glances at me. It was a better idea than starving and dying of heat in this vintage car.

I unbuckled my belt, got out of the car, and walked into the diner without a second thought. Thoughts, they never did well with me.

As soon as I entered the diner, a tiny bell above my head jingled and captured everyone's attention, including Cameron. Among curious looks, I walked to his table and sat across from him.

I took a fry from his plate and dipped it into his vanilla milkshake. He watched me in horror while doing so; in fact, he tried to swat my hand away but missed it. I stuffed it into my mouth and smiled.

"You test my patience," Cameron muttered under his breath, looking at me like he wanted to kill me. "Don't do that again." Then, he went back to devouring his burger and fries.

I raised my hand to take the attention of the waitress. She looked very disappointed in my presence when she took my order and walked away. "You don't miss any chances."

Cameron lifted his head. "What?"

"I'm talking about the waitress you flirted with." I leaned back with a smug grin. "She's into you."

"I didn't flirt with her, and I don't care if she's into me or not. Let me eat in peace."

"Come on, Cammybear. I smell a cutesy romance novel here." I wiggled my eyebrows.

Cameron snorted in disbelief. "All I smell is fries, smoked meat,"—he leaned closer, sniffing—"a tragedy." The way he looked at me, I knew he meant me.

"Add murder to that combination because I'm so close to killing you—"

I stopped when the waitress served my order on the table and walked away again.

"Don't be so mad, Amberoni," Cameron said mockingly, swallowing the last bit of his burger. Then, he grabbed his milkshake and slurped it in his seat.

Instead of dealing with him, I decided to focus on my meal and make my stomach happy. I hoped we would arrive at the airport as soon as possible and I would never see him again.

Cameron let me eat in peace and paid the check when we were done, saying it was nothing compared to the diamond ring I was about to give him.

Once we hit the road again, I asked him the question that has lived rent-free in my mind since I first saw him. "Why did you wait inside the car?"

"What'd you mean?" He asked his eyes on the road. The road was a little bumpy, so we had to speak louder to be heard against the noise of his car.

"I mean, outside the church. Why didn't you just go in and attend the wedding?"

"Didn't know I was invited."

Technically, you weren't invited. "I told Aunt Annie that she could bring her plus one."

I looked out of the window, resting my hand against my cheek as he remained silent for a moment. His silence made me rethink my question if I should've kept it to myself. I didn't know what I wanted him to say, but there must have been an explanation.

"What do you want me to say?"

When he voiced my thoughts, I panicked that I'd been thinking aloud all this time. "Huh?"

"You heard me right. You asked a question, so you must have an answer in mind." I opened my mouth in protest. "That's how you work, Amber."

I was flustered that he was right. "Oh, so now you know how I work?"

"Not now. I've known you for a long time."

"And you don't have a solid answer in mind, so you pressure me into thinking I'm delusional. Because that's how you work, Cameron."

He shook his head, laughing, yet his laughter was as dry as the sand. "Seems like we are experts at knowing each other."

I turned to my side again, letting the woods silhouette take my mind off Cameron. I didn't want to accept that he still had the same effect on me after a dozen years, making me want to go off the rails. Both of us changed and transformed into our own versions of adults, but some things stayed the same.

The rivalry fire within me still burned bright for him, except that I was too old to be jealous of his relationship with his mother. I used to think if I was good enough, his mother, Aunt Annie, would love me more than him. Maybe she could be my mom, too. What a naive girl I was.

We drove silently for half an hour, both of us in our own heads. I looked at my maps from time to time, ensuring we were on the right track and checked my messages a few times to make sure I didn't miss one from Marcus. On the other hand, Pops and Aunt were calling me constantly, and I knew I was the worst daughter in history for worrying them, but I couldn't take their calls and face the truth just yet.

At some point, I should have texted them I was okay and needed some space, but I wanted to do it at the airport before I turned off my phone for the flight.

Pushing my thoughts aside, I rechecked maps to see a warning saying I had no internet connection. In fact, I had no service.

I looked between Cameron and the maps on my phone in a panic. "Cameron."

"What?"

"Can you check your phone? No service for me." I looked ahead to the fork in the road. He pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket and handed it to me. No service, either.

Fuck.

"Do you have any idea where we're headed?" I asked. The road was bumpy in the woods and with no signs to guide us to the right way.

"Yeah, we, uh, should take the left road."

"That doesn't sound certain to me at all." I examined him to see he didn't look very sure with his pick. "Maybe we should find a place to ask."

Cameron threw me an angry look. "I know what I'm doing." Then, he took the left road.

"'Course you do," I scoffed, leaning back in rage. I didn't understand why he was so stubborn all the time.

We drove in the woods for ten minutes, and this road didn't look like it would lead anywhere. His stubbornness was about to burn my plane ticket because it was impossible for me to get to the airport on time unless this road magically led us to the highway.

"This is no joke, Cameron. We are lost."

"We are not."

I looked down at my hopeless phone, still searching for an available service. "And how can you be so sure?"

That made him pause, but he didn't meet my eyes. He didn't want to admit we were lost.

"You have no idea how I wish you knew where we're going." I ran a hand through my hair and let out an airy laugh. "A diamond ring is at stake, but you still choose to go with your gut."

Cameron shook his head with a dry laugh. "Why don't you drive instead, Miss Perfect?"

"Drive this?" He nodded at me daringly. "Sorry, Mr. Vintage, this car is way older than my father, and it's a miracle that it goes."

"What'd you know about taste?"

"Your taste is—" The engine made a loud, weird noise in return. I almost thought my comment offended it. "What's that?" I asked in a panic.

"Nothing," Cameron said, looking as calm as ever. "It's nor—"

The car begged to differ, cutting him off with the same noise. Then, he pulled to the side and killed the engine. When he walked out and opened its hood, smoke rose from the engine. I took my face between my hands and groaned.

We were now lost in the woods with a broken car. How awesome.

I went out to learn what was going on with the car. I found Cameron hovering over the engine, his eyebrows knitted. I stood beside him for a while, pretending to know those engine parts by heart and examining the damage. The engine was overheated, that was something I could tell, but I didn't know what could be done.

"Are you fixing it?"

He shot me a glance as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with his arm. "Uh," he said, suddenly backstepping from the car with his hands on his hips. "That beats me. Maybe you can fix it."

"Me?" He looked serious. "The engine overheats, obviously."

"Uh-huh."

"And when a... a hard disk overheats, you know, it's usually because of the fans not working, so this case can be similar."

Cameron cracked up a smile. "Not bad, Amberoni." He stood next to me, looking at the engine. "So, what do you suggest to cure it, doctor?"

"We should wait for it to cool down."

​​"What an original idea."

"Unless you happen to have a set of fans strong enough to cool it down."

Standing under the burning sun, the car wasn't the only one that needed a fan.

"Cars don't work exactly like computers, Miss Computer." He mumbled something else under his breath and walked to the truck. He returned with a fire extinguisher tube. I watched him struggling to make it work, his eyes squinted due to the sunlight and his bottom lip between his teeth.

I forced myself to look elsewhere when Cameron let out an exasperated sigh. "It's stuck," he said. "I need something sharp."

I didn't understand if he was just thinking out loud or asking me if I had carried a knife.

"Ah," Cameron continued as if he found it. "Your heels."

"My heels?" I repeated in terror.

"I need to borrow it for just one second." Cameron held my gaze with his hopeful, puppy eyes, but all I wanted was to bash this heel into his skull. "For our salvation, Amberoni. Come on, be a hero."

I looked around. We were in the middle of nowhere, and no car had passed since we stopped. I couldn't see the salvation he was talking about unless my heel was magically going to fix his car. Still, the wannabe hero in me knelt down to her feet and removed one of her heels.

Cameron threw me a broad smile as he took the heel from my hand and smashed it against the lid of the extinguisher.

"Careful," I stammered. The noise absorbed my little warning. "You'll—" Then, the anticipation became a reality: Cameron Wright broke the heel of my fucking wedding shoe.

"Yes," he yelled in victory, looking up at me. Then, his eyes slid onto the broken heel and back to me. "Shit."

I was so close to breaking down like this car, but no fire extinguisher could put me off. "I am at a loss for words," I yelled back, yanking my poor shoe from his dirty hands. "You are born to drive me crazy." I tried to calm my breath, but it wasn't that easy when it was smoking hot. This day couldn't get worse, and all I wanted was to sunbathe in Bali.

I removed my other heel, threw them on the ground, and went to the truck to grab my suitcase. I pulled the noise cancellation mode on him as Cameron followed me, and I swatted his hand away when he offered to help with the bag.

I started walking forward barefoot, but the asphalt burnt my feet to the point I couldn't tolerate it. I stopped, opened my suitcase, and picked up my floral flip-flops since they were the only flat shoes I'd brought with me. I hated my life.

"Amber."

I looked up at Cameron hovering over me as I closed the suitcase again. His body shielded the sun like an umbrella, so I wanted to ask him to stay like this forever. Then, I remembered how angry I was at him, and that rage pulled me to my feet.

"I'm sorry." I noticed he was holding my wedding shoes. "I'll fix them."

I held his gaze. "I don't care." You can't fix my broken heart.

"You do," he said softly. I rolled my eyes, not to let him see how fucking right he was. "Just let me get my stuff from the car, and we—"

"There's no we anymore. This is where we separate."

He barked out a laugh. "We're going to walk in the same direction."

"Walk on the other side of the road, then." I turned around, walking away from him in my flip-flops.

"What about my compensation?"

I span on a whim. "Our deal was you taking me to the airport. So, the deal is off, and no compensation for you."

He threw his hands in the air with a frustrated sigh. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."

That was partially true, but I told him to ask someone for directions. He didn't listen to me. Hence we were here.

"No, Cammybear, we wouldn't be here if you weren't so stubborn."

"Okay, do what the hell you want."

I looked behind him for a few beats as he walked to his car and opened the driver's door. The nerve of this man. Then, I started walking again, determined to find a way to get rid of this mess.

I could write only and only Cammybear and Amberoni banter throughout this whole book if I didn't care about character arcs or plot.

Do you think Amber will find a way out of this mess? Would you be mad at Cameron if he broke your heels, too, or do you think it's more important to fix the situation and be "a hero"?

Drop an emoji here if you like the chapter.

See you next Friday,

Sev