“I…” Arden heard Kade say hesitantly. In the next second, he blurted, “I’ll tell you, all right? I’ll tell you…” The next sounds were of Kade taking more large gulps from the bottle of water. “But I have one condition,” he continued once he was done. It was hard to tell whether he was breathless from drinking or from something else.
“What is it…?” Arden asked, chancing a worried glance at him.
Kade replied, “Don’t take me home tonight.”
…
A time later, the two were quietly parking the car in the spacious lot of a generic motel, the nearest one on their route that they came across.
It’s possible that the implication of going to such a place wasn’t what Kade wanted when he gave his condition. Arden doubted it, but even if he turned out to be wrong, this was what he wanted.
This entir
