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Nile slammed the hood of the car shut, trying her best to suppress her urge to scream.
“How’s it looking?” Booker asked, and Nile caught sight of his head poking up from over the top of the car.
“Not good,” Nile admitted as she wiped oil off her hands with a ratty towel. “I think it needs a new part, so we’re stuck for now.”
“Ah well,” Booker said, and Nile could hear the shrug. “At least the weather is nice.”
Nile snorted, throwing the oily rag on top of the closed hood, and walked around the car so she could talk to Booker face-to-face.
He was lounging on top of the trunk, sunglasses on his face even in the waning light of the sunset as he took a sip from his metal flask. He slid the glasses down his nose and into his pocket before tilting the flask toward her, a silent offer. Nile sighed.
“Yeah, why not,” she said, hopping up onto the back of the car with him before taking the flask from him. “This is not what I imagined happening when I asked you to go on this trip with me, sorry Book.”
“These things happen,” Booker shrugged again as he stretched his arms out over his head, cracking several joints before laying back a bit more.
“Yeah, but we’re in the middle of nowhere, USA,” Nile said, glancing around at the barren desert landscape. It was serenely beautiful in its austerity, though Nile would have been happier to see it from the window of a working car.
“We’re in Arizona,” Booker snorted. “Which… well, what’s here anyway?”
“The Grand Canyon,” Nile said wistfully. She’d proposed the road trip to stop the man from drinking himself to death in Paris, but also because this was something she’d wanted to do since she was a little girl.
She’d never had the time after she’d graduated high school. Instead, it was one job after another while she attended night college classes, trying to help her mom every way she could. When her brother got a full ride scholarship to the University of Chicago, she figured it was her turn. The military had been her best bet at affording art school by that point, already seven years graduated with a plethora of security, retail, and service jobs under her belt.
And… she had wanted to honor her father though she knew her mom had been hesitant to let her go. It broke her heart that she could be on the same side of the world, in the same country as her family, but she couldn’t-
Nile shook her head and took another sip from Booker’s flask, the burn of the mystery alcohol burning the back of her throat terribly.
“I always wanted to see all the states when I was kid,” Nile said instead. “Take a trip with my friends, do the tourist thing.”
“Better late than never,” Booker said as he took back his flask. “You have all the time in the world now.”
Nile leaned into Booker’s side, soaking up his warmth as the heat of the day faded and the chill of the desert night began to sink in.
“Yeah, I do, but I’m glad you came with me, Book,” Nile said, looking up at the sky. The orange glow was fading from the horizon, giving way to the inky, purple sky and silver netting of stars.
It was a sight she’d seen before, though never at home. There was something magical about it here and now, something soft and sacred.
“Really, Booker,” she said glancing at his face. “Thank you.”
He turned his head to look at her, his half-lidded eyes infinitely sad and yet they always glowed with warmth and compassion, just for her.
“Anytime,” Booker said as he threw his arm over her shoulder, pulling her in. She huffed, burrowing as deep as she could under his arm. “And, honestly, I should be thanking you. So…”
“Merci?” Nile suggested with a grin as she looked up at him.
“Oui,” he said with a startled laugh. “Merci.”
They sat back and watched the stars turn over their heads. Their troubles could wait until tomorrow, now there was only the earth, the sky, and each other.