VIOLET

The sun had just given the horizon a final good-night kiss before disappearing behind the darkened tree lines along the roadside.

     Just as the sun bid it's fare-well, a neon-lit sign ahead signaled for Violet the greeting of something wonderful.

     "Ellis, that's it! That's the motel!" Violet called out while she pointed toward a yellow sign for the Darkwater Motel.

     "Thank god, I'm exhausted." Ellis sighed with relief and turned the car into the fairly empty parking lot.

    It was one of those old-fashioned, red-brick-style motels that was horribly dated. It looked like they'd made minimal renovations; just enough to keep the health inspectors off their backs.

    I can't believe I'm finally here.

     She was exactly where she wanted to be. The third stop on the Joey Long trail. The Darkwater Motel, where Joey had met the love of his life, a girl named Lucy Griffin.

     Ellis forced the most fake smile ever. "Yay! We're going to die horrific deaths. This is the kind of place teenagers are murdered at in horror movies, and you want us to stay here."

     Violet rolled her eyes and unbuckled her seat belt. "They're only killed in horror movies if they have sex. So, I think we're fine."

     Ellis reached into the backseat and grabbed Violet's crutches, without even being asked to, and said, "That's so not true! All the old movie rules no longer apply. It's just teens in stupid situations who get killed. This is one of those stupid situations."

     She pushed open her door and stood beside it until Ellis could bring her crutches. "Don't worry," she grinned. "I'll protect you."

     "You'll protect me?" he asked in disbelief as he placed the metal into her slender hands.

     "You don't think I could protect you?" Violet took the crutches, and for the first time her fingers brushed against his.

     Ellis laughed and shook his head. He really did look beautiful whenever he laughed.

     "You're cute," he said genuinely with a soft gaze.

     Her heart skipped a few beats.

     What was that?

     Violet wasn't the kind of girl who felt crushes, or butterflies, or any of those stupid, useless emotions. She thought and felt things logically. She'd been around attractive guys before, sure. They were usually pompous jerks with ugly personalities that it ruined their pretty faces for her.

     Ellis wasn't like that. He wasn't a jerk.

     He was obviously the kind of guy who got a lot of girls, but not a jerk.

     Violet quickly broke physical contact with him and tucked a crutch under each arm. She didn't really know a lot about Ellis, but she figured he was easy to read. He was probably really smart in school if he was going to college all the way in California instead of Florida. He'd probably leave behind a lot of broken hearts in Tampa. She wasn't going to be one of them.

     They made their way to the motel lobby. It looked the way she'd expected it to, with old wood, fake plants and musty pea-green curtains.

     The curly-haired woman at the front desk even had her fat cats tucked under her arms, violating probably a hundred different health codes. Large-bodied, fluffy cats roaming freely to spread their fur and dander everywhere.

     "We got cable TV and Wi-Fi," the woman said with a strong southern drawl. "Phones in the room too, but you can't call long distance with it. Sorry."

     "Can I pay with credit card?" Violet asked, with a silver card from her wallet offered out.

     "Sure can, hon. That's a nice ring. You two on a honeymoon?"

     It was then that Violet realized the woman had spotted the engagement ring on her finger and connected it with Ellis.

     Violet tried to hide her ring, but it was too late. Ellis caught sight of it and gave Violet a confused expression while he mouthed, "You're married?"

     "Yeah, we're on a road trip to Vegas," Violet said, playing along. It was easier if the woman thought they were a married couple.

     Violet reached out her hand and took a hold of Ellis's, awkwardly trying to seem like she was more affectionate with him than strangers should be.

     Ellis laughed uncomfortably. "Can you give me a moment with my wife, please?"

     The woman nodded and went back to petting her numerous cats and watching her reality TV show. Ellis turned with Violet so that if the woman looked at them, all she'd see were their backs.

     "When were you going to tell me that you're married?" Ellis whispered furiously.

     "How about never? And I'm not married—yet—I'm engaged. You and I are not going to see each other again once we get to Vegas, so why should it matter to you if I'm engaged or not?" Violet whispered back with just as much heat.

     "Because it seems to me like you could have asked your fiancee for help instead of dragging me into this!" His voice rose above a whisper in his frustration.

     "You're going to freak the woman out!" she warned, even though her own voice rose in volume.

     "Her?What about me freaking out? I want some answers, Violet!" Ellis hissed.

     "Fine, let's get the room first."

     "Fine!"Ellis snapped.

     "Fine!" Violet snapped in return.

     When they turned around to face the woman, she was all smiles and kissing her cats' foreheads. She slid a single room key toward them. "Y'all remind me of me and my husband. We were the same way at your age. If you ever get lucky enough to be married as long as we have been, you'll find that you don't have the energy to keep fighting like that anymore."

     Ellis slapped his hand over the key and took it into his grasp.

     "I'm sure we won't be fighting like this anymore pretty soon." Ellis's voice was icy when he said the words. Violet knew he was implying that in after another day and a half, they would never see each other again.

     Violet took hold of the plastic ice bucket, and Ellis pulled out their overnight bags from the car. They checked the tacky green plastic tag for room 14F at the end of a long series of mustard-yellow doors.

     With a few clicks of the lock, they were inside the room. She had low expectations for it, so she was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. The furnishings were outdated, sure, but they were very clean. The beds smelled like fresh linens, and the bathroom smelled like cleanser. White towels and milk soaps wrapped in brown paper were at the corner of the bedspread, along with some chocolate mints.

     She liked it.

     Violet could picture why Joey Long must have stayed at the motel, especially in the '90s, when alternative rock had been at its peak.

     Ellis dumped the bags on the floor and flipped every lock the door offered to keep it closed.

     "We're in the room, start talking," Ellis demanded.

     Violet sat down on the foot of the bed and stared into her palms. "My boyfriend asked me to marry him, I said yes, and then the next day I changed my mind and ran away from him. In my attempt to escape, I had a car accident and here we are."

     "So you don't want to marry him anymore?" he asked.

     She snorted. "Not even a little bit."

     "Why did you initially say yes?" Ellis joined Violet on the bed, sitting beside her without being too close.

     Violet sighed heavily. In her mind she could see her boyfriend's face when he asked her to marry him. She hadn't felt joy, or excitement; she'd felt pure panic.

     "I love musicals, so he hired a bunch of singers and dancers at an amusement park to ask me to marry him in front of a lot of people. If I said no in front of all those people, it would have horrified everyone. I guess I said yes to let him avoid public shame."

     Ellis dropped his head and rubbed at his temples. He made being deep in thought look good somehow. "I think that we should go back to Tampa and you can go back home. My parents know I'm on this road trip, but they have no idea that I'm traveling with you."

     She placed her hand on his shoulder and shook it gently. "My family is in Vegas. So you are taking me home. I don't belong in Tampa anymore. Please get me home."

     He took a deep breath, and on exhaling, he seemed much more relaxed. "Okay, okay, I won't ask anything more about that. I will get you back to your family in Vegas. Your love life is your business."

     "Thank you, Ellis." She smiled at him sweetly.

     "You're welcome, Violet."

     With the turbulence in the past and the feeling in the air settling back to whatever was considered normal for them, Violet could finally voice her thoughts. "Please tell me you saw how that woman was the ultimate cat lady."

     Ellis looked into her eyes and found an immediate connection. "So it wasn't just me who noticed." He smiled.

     "What do people feed their cats to get them to be that huge?" Violet made dramatic hand gestures demonstrate the size of the cat on the woman's desk.

     "Bacon fat, straight from the pan," Ellis guessed with a dashing smile.

     "Heart attacks for days, right?" Violet felt a little giddy with their verbal pacing.

     "Definitely need to get some animal rights activists up in here," he agreed.

     They were laughing. It started to feel like, despite the fact that they were so different and knew so little about each other, they had one thing in common.

     "I guess we have the same sense of humor," Ellis said with amusement.

     "Yeah, I guess we do . . ."