The Distance Between Us

Xander has a sensitive stomach. Stay away from career fields involving anything gross.”
    At the car he pulls off the sweatshirt, nearly taking the shirt underneath with it and then steps out of his shoes. He throws them in the trunk, exchanging them for his nice ones. Trying not to let my gaze linger on the strip of still-exposed skin above his jeans, I tug off my sweatshirt as well.
    “Do you want me to drive?” I ask, noting his still-too-pale face.
    He hesitates for a moment.
    “You don’t trust me with your baby?”
    “It’s not that. . . . Okay, it’s that.”
    “Rude.”
    He gets into the car.
    I climb in the passenger seat. “You’re really not going to let me drive it? You let that valet guy drive it at the hotel.”
    “That was in a parking lot. And if you wrecked it we couldn’t be friends anymore. Then where would you be?”
    “Don’t you have three others just like it?”
    “Four, actually, but who’s counting?”
    I think he’s kidding, but then again . . .
    He starts the engine and pulls away from the curb. I look at the clock on Xander’s dash. Five. It’s hard to believe four hours had passed.
    Xander moves into the right lane and starts to turn.
    “Where are you going?”
    “I thought we could get dinner. There’s this French place over here that I love.”
    He’s obviously feeling better. “I shouldn’t. My mom’s been stuck at the store all by herself half the day. I should get back and help her clean up.”
    “One more hour won’t hurt.”
    “I should go back.”
    He continues his path down the wrong road. “Come on.” He throws me his smile. I swear the thing could end wars.
    “Okay. Then home.”
    “Of course.”
     
    It’s not until I’m out of the car and walking up to the fancy French restaurant that I think about the layer of dirt coating my skin. Xander had smashed dirt into my hair and I can still feel some caked against my scalp. I self-consciously try to comb it out with my fingers. When we step inside, the people waiting in the lobby are all dressed up. I’m sure the hostess, who’s dressed up herself, is about to turn us away. Xander has a streak of dried dirt across his forehead, after all.
    But she offers Xander a gleaming white smile. “Mr. Spence. Your party is already here.”
    “Really?” He tilts his head at her. “Then lead the way.”
    “Did you have plans?” I ask as we walk behind her toward a back room.
    “Apparently plans were made without me.”
    I have no idea what that means, but when we get to the back room a dozen well-dressed, perfectly put-together people laugh when they see him. One guy stands and then addresses the hostess, “See? Didn’t we tell you we were with Xander Spence?”
    “I shouldn’t have doubted you,” she says, then to Xander adds, “I’ll make sure the waiter comes to take your order.”
    “Thank you.” Xander steps into the room and walks around to an empty chair.
    “You look like you’ve been doing community service,” someone comments, pointing to his flannel shirt and dirty face.
    Xander’s confidence isn’t shaken. His posture is still as straight as ever, his presence bigger than the room. There’s a twinkle in his eye when he says, “So which fool is using my name to avoid waiting?”
    The guy already standing, with glasses I’m pretty sure aren’t prescription and a tan he probably pays for weekly, bows. “That would be me.”
    “I should’ve known.”
    “It’s going on your tab, too,” the guy adds.
    Xander looks around and then spots me still by the entrance. “Everyone, this is my friend Caymen. Caymen, these are people you probably don’t care to know but who I sometimes call my friends.”
    There are several shouts of disapproval followed by laughs.
    I’m not sure I’m ready for this kind of initiation. I’m barely getting used to Xander. So when he pulls out the chair he’s standing behind and gestures for me to sit, I want to go screaming out of the restaurant.
    My stomach twists in tight knots over and over. It doesn’t help that one of the girls on the end is glaring at me. Xander seems oblivious to the fact that I’m coated in mud and underdressed.
    “Caymen. Come. Sit.”
    I clamp my teeth together because the phrase “Am I wearing a collar?” had been on its way out my mouth. I’m impressed I stopped it in time. I point back the way we came and mutter, “Bathroom,” before I disappear without waiting for his response. Just when I’m almost out