Page 75 of American Love Story

“So you’re from New York City, what are you doing up here?”

“I work for Cornell. Look is there a point to this?” Patrice could not keep the annoyance out of his voice when he talked, and before the cop even responded, I knew things were about to get a lot worse.

“Get out of the vehicle.” The cop’s voice all of a sudden shifted, and he sounded pissed.

“What? Why?” If I didn’t know him the way that I did, if I hadn’t spent the amount of time I had with him in the last few months, I would not have been able to hear the genuine fear in Patrice’s voice.

“I saidget out of the car.”

I sat there frozen in terror, praying to every deity I’d ever heard of, to please just make him do whatever the deputy was asking him.

“I’d like for you to tell me the reason why I need to get out my car when you stopped me for going five miles over the limit.”

There was muffled sound as though someone was trying to force the car door open, and for what seemed like forever, I could not make out what Patrice was saying. That’s when I panicked, because I could already see Patrice on the ground, shot. I immediately put the phone on mute and dove to get my work one out. I didn’t know what I was doing, or who I was calling, but I needed to stop this right now. On the screen I saw that Patrice was no longer holding the steering wheel. He must’ve gotten out of the car.

Completely out of fucks and shaking with fear for what could happen if I didn’t do something, I called Day.

He picked up after two rings, even though it felt like a century. I spoke over him as soon as he answered.

“Do you know who’s posted on the road to Trumansburg tonight? You have to call him off. He’s got my boyfriend on the side of the road, Whitney, and it’s escalating.”

“What are you talking about?”

“My boyfriend,” I screamed into the phone, not caring at all how this looked or what it could mean later. “He’s a professor at Cornell, got pulled over, and your deputy is being an asshole. He made him get out of his car for no fucking reason. You need to find out who he is andcall him off.” I was practically barking at him, and I knew this would probably come back to bite me. I did not care.

I could leave my entire career right here, right now, if it got Patrice back in his car and headed home.

Day didn’t hesitate. “Let me call in.”

I waited on the phone, fearing the worst, because Patrice was still not back in the driver’s seat. I thought back to just minutes before when we’d stood on the sidewalk and said I love you. The thought of losing that, of losing him was unbearable.

Finally Day came back on the phone. “It’s Deputy Hines. He’s fairly new. I’ll radio him.”

I exhaled, feeling relief beyond anything I’d ever felt in my life. My limbs felt liquid as the tension started to seep out of me. After a few seconds, which felt like hours, Day spoke again and I could hear the tension in his voice.

“I radioed him, he’s letting him go.”

I nodded, forgetting he couldn’t see me, as I stared at my phone screen and finally saw Patrice getting back in his car.

“Thank you.”

Day exhaled. “No problem.”

I ended the call without saying another word and waited for Patrice to say something, but he must’ve forgotten that I was still on FaceTime. The next thing I knew, it seemed like the car wasmoving. When I looked at the length of the call, I saw we’d only been talking for eight minutes.

The longest of my life.

“How are you doing?” I asked in the most normal voice I could manage. Afraid I’d spook him while he was driving.

But when he spoke, his voice was ice. “I’m fine. I’m going to turn this off, while I’m driving. See you in a few.”

chapter twenty-one

patrice

I spent the five-minute drive to the building between trying to calm myself and figuring out a way to have a conversation with Easton about what he had done without losing my shit on him. I hated feeling like I did, humiliated and scared, so fucking scared.

I pulled into my parking spot, feeling like my head could snap right off my neck from the tension. I didn’t want to blow up, take things out on Easton. I didn’t want to say things that I could never take back. I thought of the sweet moment we’d just had by our cars, and it felt like it had happened to someone else.