Page 40 of Wrong Cabin, Right Time
“This is Travis! He’s helping me film some content for my channel right now, actually,” I say. A smile beams across my face as my parents take him in.
I see Travis in the small rectangle in the corner of the screen, stiffening, his face completely blank as he awkwardly raises a hand to wave. My stomach twists, and I immediately realize I shouldn’t have done that. I got carried away.
I click the button again and take the camera off Travis while forcing a smile.
“Tell us about yourself, Travis,” my mom says with a curious grin on her face. My dad is mumbling unintelligibly about something, which I think is him commenting on how cute a couple we make.
Travis doesn’t move from the chair, but I see how uncomfortable he is. I wish I could take it back. At some point he’ll have to meet my parents, but that has to be on his own terms.
He’s also a dangerous man, and I need to be careful giving out information about him. Especially considering there’s somebody nosing around, trying to look into him.
“He’s being shy,” I say, stepping away from Travis and trying to redirect the conversation away from him. “Wait, I think I might be able to film the festival. When is it, again?” I ask. Thankfully my parents are very easily distracted, and they don’t ask anything else about Travis as they start bombarding me with information about everything they’ve done. I feign interest for a while longer, and eventually I manage to hang up the phone.
Travis is still sitting down behind the camera, and his hands are gripping the arms of the chair. He might be mad, and I completely understand why he would be. There’s a devious hope that he might punish me for what I did, just like he did in the gym. I cautiously approach and take a seat across from him.
“I’m really sorry, Travis. I wasn’t thinking. I totally understand if you’re mad at—”
“I’m not mad.” Travis’s grip on the chair loosens, and he takes a deep breath as he looks around. “I was actually thinking about my parents. I was just comparing everything you told me about yours to mine. They’re just so different.”
I wait silently for him to elaborate, but he doesn’t. He just stares off into space while he thinks. I want to ask more, but I know that would be pointless. Travis is guarded, and I doubt he’s going to willingly give me information about his life. He didn’t even tell me what happened to his sister when he mentioned her the first time.
I can’t help but wonder if I’ll ever meet his family. If things go well between us, I know that I want him to meet mine. What if the two of us end up getting married? Are we going to have the big wedding of my dreams, or just a small courthouse wedding between the two of us so he doesn’t have to integrate me into his life fully?
“I’m all finished filming for the day,” I say, packing up my camera and tripod. Travis stands up and helps me before we walk back inside.
I set everything down in the living room before packing it into its proper place, not wanting to get on Travis’s bad side with the mess of it all. After I zip up the camera bag, I remember the brownies on the counter.
I run over to them and see that they are completely cooled, and I immediately cut into the pan. Travis watches me as I put a small piece on a plate for myself, and a smile creeps onto my lips.
Travis has been guarded since the moment I met him, and this could be my way to break his walls down. My special ingredient might just be his kryptonite.
“Remember how you said you’ve never had a brownie? Well, that’s about to change,” I say as I cut a piece for him and put it on a plate.
This should be interesting.
Chapter Twenty-One
Travis
I don’t understand the point of brownies. I look at the plate and see a brown glob of gluten, sugar, and fat that is only going to disrupt my perfectly coded digestive system.
Sage approaches me with a small plate with a brownie on it. I look at it and shake my head. “I’ve already told you I have no interest in eating that.”
“Come on,” she continues, looking up at me and batting her eyelashes as if she is going to seduce me into eating a superfluous treat. “I worked hard to make these. Just a couple of bites is all I’m asking.”
“You followed instructions on the back of the box. A five-year-old could do the same thing. I wouldn’t exactly call thatworking hard.”
Sage rolls her eyes and inches closer, biting her lower lip seductively. Clearly, she thinks sex is going to sell this brownie, and that won’t work.
“I made them for you. You have to try them.” Her finger lands in the center of my chest, and she traces a small circle around it. I raise my eyebrows and shake my head again.
“A single brownie averages around two hundred calories and has excessive sugar. They provide no value in terms of nutritional value or micronutrient density.” I push the plate away, but she still doesn’t take the hint.
“Okay, you’re built like a marble statue. I think you can afford a few empty calories every now and then.” She holds the plate out to me once again, this time losing the seductive edge she had before and focusing more on being annoying. “Sure, these may not be good for you nutritionally. But brownies are good for the soul. They’re warm, with ooey, gooey chocolate that provides immeasurable joy.”
I stare at the brownie like it might explode. Lowering my face, I sniff it. It doesn’t smell bad. Quite the opposite, actually. Still, I’m not convinced.
“Joy isn’t a dietary category. I eat for function, not pleasure. My daily caloric intake is specifically calculated to my dietary needs, and consuming that much sugar will cause a spike in my blood glucose levels, disrupting my insulin regulation and interrupting the metabolic rate I’ve maintained for the past ten years.”
