Adriana's POV

They left El Camino before the sun figured out what it wanted to do. The sky was stuck between orange and pale gray.

Adriana slid on her sunglasses, threw her hair into a messy bun and leaned back against the passenger seat, prepared to enjoy the ride. The silence in the car though, was much more than she liked. She just couldn't forget last night, no matter how hard she tried. And she refused to let Jose see her rattled.

“Music?” she asked finally, reaching for the dial.

“Sure.” Jose’s tone was flat, though not cold. He sounded guarded. He’d been that way since she told him not to treat what happened between them like it meant something.

She turned the volume low, something with a steady beat, and drummed her nails against her thigh. “You’re quiet. Are you still thinking about her?”

The moment she said that, his face went dark. “I’m thinking about everything.”

“Which is another way of saying yes,” Adriana countered, tipping her head toward the window. The desert blur outside was easier to look at than his expression. “Don’t worry, I’m not jealous. I am just curious.”

“Curious?” He arched an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” she muttered. “I mean, you just broke up with your fiancée, right? Then you’re here with me, driving west like an outlaw. I’d be curious too.”

Jose let out a tired grunt. “You make it sound reckless.”

“Isn’t it?” she pushed. “I invited you half-jokingly, remember? Most sane men would’ve laughed, said thanks and gone home.”

He rolled the steering wheel as they turned a corner. “And yet, here I am.”

Adriana smirked under her sunglasses but kept her face angled toward the window. “Exactly. Here you are. Guess you’re not that sane after all.”

He let out something between a scoff and a laugh, but his eyes stayed on the road. “And what about you? You just found out your fiancé was screwing your best friend. Most women would be crying into ice cream, not picking up strange men on highways.”

Adriana turned sharply toward him then. “First of all, you’re not strange. Everyone in Mexico knows who Jose Torres is. Second, don’t do crying. That's not my brand.”

“That’s not healthy either.” He replied.

“Neither is staying with someone who treats you like garbage,” she snapped back. “So maybe we’re both disasters, just different kinds.”

He looked like he was fighting a smile. “Maybe.”

It wasn't until they stopped talking that Adriana realised that somehow, he'd annoyed her with talk of Carlos. This was supposed to be a trip where she'd forget Carlos existed.

The car rolled toward a checkpoint, and a couple of guards were already waving them forward. Adriana straightened instinctively, threw her shoulders back and kept her expression polite. She’d practiced this mask a thousand times for press junkets, paparazzi ambushes, red carpets. Smile without smiling. Be pleasant without being too friendly.

The guard glanced in, nodded and waved them through. Too easy. Adriana’s gaze wandered to the side mirror, and that’s when she caught something that made her curious. She saw a black SUV lingering two cars back. It was a little too neat, not stained by the dusty Mexican road like the other cars on the line. It looked as though it had joined the journey three minutes ago.

She didn’t react. Years in the spotlight had taught her how to spot eyes without letting them know she’d seen. She leaned back again, slid her sunglasses higher, and forced her voice to be calm. “You ever get that feeling that someone is watching you?”

Jose’s eyes flicked to the rearview mirror. “Everytime. I am a popular man, it's a part of the job.”

“Yeah,” she murmured, pretending to stretch. “Guess it’s not just me.”

They drove another ten minutes before she spoke again. “Last night.”

“What about it?”

“I don’t regret it.” Her voice was a murmur. “I just don’t want it to own me, you know? I’ve already been owned once by a man, and I am not doing it again.”

He glanced at her, and the tone in his voice made her feel a little regret. “It didn’t feel like nothing.”

“I didn’t say it was nothing.” She pulled at the hem of her plaid shirt, twisting the fabric. “I said I can’t afford to feel things right now. That’s different.”

They drove in silence again. The road hummed under the tires, and the horizon was wide open ahead. Adriana slipped her sunglasses down, letting the morning light catch her eyes.

Behind them, the black SUV blinked into view again. It was like an ad she couldn’t skip.

*******

The diner they stopped in looked like it had been left behind by time. It was old, but comforting. Adriana slid into the booth closest to the front door, crossing her legs under the table and trying to pretend like she was still at a café in Mexico City instead of nowhere land.

Jose leaned back across from her with his eyes scanning the room. He didn't look at ease. Two ranchers some tables away argued about rodeo bulls at the counter, their voices bouncing around the small space.

“This place is… something,” Adriana muttered, picking up the menu.

“You’ve eaten worse, I’m sure,” Jose murmured.

“Excuse you?” Her brow traveled up behind the rim of her sunglasses.

“You travel a lot, Adriana. I’m guessing this isn’t the worst meal you’ve ever had.”

She rolled her eyes but couldn’t help a small laugh. “Fair. But if the pie makes me sick, you’re carrying me back to the car.”

“Noted.”

A waitress came over, probably nineteen, with chipped nail polish and eyes that went wide the moment they landed on Adriana. She nearly dropped her notepad.

“Oh my God—” the girl whispered before catching herself. “I mean… can I get you something? Coffee? Pie?”

Adriana slid her glasses down just enough to give her a warm look. “Pie sounds perfect.”

The girl hovered for a beat, shifting from one foot to the other. “Would it be… totally crazy if I asked for a picture?”

Adriana’s annoyance flared out of control for a second before she forced her lips into a soft curve. “Of course. Just quick.”

The girl’s hands shook as she fumbled for her phone. She leaned in close, squealing under her breath, while Adriana tilted her head slightly, perfecting the practiced pose.

“Thank you! You’re even prettier in real life,” the waitress gushed with red cheeks.

“That is sweet of you,” Adriana replied smoothly, even though her stomach turned. She hated how fake it felt.

When the girl scurried away, Jose was staring at her with an amused look.

“What?” Adriana challenged.

“Nothing.” He leaned back, but he couldn't fight his smile anymore. “It was just funny. You looked like you’d rather be at the dentist.”

Adriana stabbed her fork into the table’s paper napkin. “You try being everyone’s fantasy all the time. Tell me if it doesn’t make your skin crawl eventually.”

“Maybe I’m just not pretty enough,” Jose teased dryly.

She let out a snort. “Oh please. You know exactly how you look. Half the women in this state would climb over tables to sit where I’m sitting.”

He raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue.

Soon their pie arrived, steaming and sticky, and Adriana pulled out her phone almost without thinking. A notification blinked across the screen and she saw her face in the diner’s bad lighting, with Jose blurred in the background. There was a caption full of hearts, and the location of the diner tagged. Already liked by thousands. If she guessed right, at least two dozen girls would be making their way to the diner to have pictures taken with her too.

Her heart did a nosedive to the pit of her stomach.

“Well, that was fast,” she muttered.

Jose glanced up from his own pie. “What?”

“The selfie is online already. Look—” she turned the phone so he could see. The picture was harmless enough, just her smiling politely, but his presence in the background made it look staged. Like she had soft-launched him without meaning to.

Jose stared at it for a long second. “Does it bother you?”

“Of course it does!” Adriana snapped before softening her tone. “But whatever. It’s nothing.”

“Doesn’t look like nothing.”

“Exactly the problem.” She shoved the phone back into her bag, refusing to check the comments section. “If I start caring, it owns me. And I don’t want to be owned by hashtags.”

Jose didn’t push further. He just picked at his pie, eyes back on the window.

When the check landed, Adriana tossed a few bills on the table and stood first, tugging her sunglasses down again. Jose followed her silently. Outside, the sun was harsher now, glaring off car hoods. She slid into the car and forced her smile wide.

Back on the road, she leaned against the window, pretending to nap. But she wasn’t asleep. Her eyes cracked open every so often, darting to the side mirror.

And there was the black SUV again. Same tinted windows, same too-near distance.

Her pulse jumped, but she kept her face steady. She started rehearsing in her head, what to do if something happened, what to grab, how to spin it later if she had to.

“Something wrong?” Jose asked quietly.

“No.” Her voice came too quickly. “I'm just tired.”

He didn’t believe her, she could tell, but he didn’t press either.

Adriana kept her eyes on the horizon. It looked huge and endless, like freedom was only a few miles away. She could be bigger than fear and braver than shadows.

She decided to look like it, even if she didn’t feel it yet.