Just then, a patrol car with flashing lights slowly cruised past the entrance of the food strip.
Nora's heart clenched. Terrified it was coming for them, she stopped hesitating, ducked into the passenger seat, and pulled the door shut.
Two hundred dollars!
Ethan had used that against her with pinpoint accuracy.
If Ethan had just offered her two hundred dollars, she'd never have taken it — just like last night. But the thought of costing him two hundred dollars? That was a completely different kind of panic.
Ethan glanced at the girl sitting ramrod straight beside him. She'd only perched half her weight on the very edge of the seat, her body angled stiffly forward, both hands pressed flat on her knees like the leather was lined with needles.
He couldn't help a quiet laugh. "Nora, is the passenger seat somehow on fire?"
"No — no, it's not!" She shook her head quickly, voice small, cheeks flushing pink.
"Then why are you sitting like that?"
"I just... I was sweating a little..." She swallowed. "I didn't want to dirty the seat." She'd been walking all afternoon under the blazing sun — her shirt really was damp with sweat.
Ethan started the car, his tone easy. "It's fine. Just sit normally. You're not going to ruin anything."
"Really, it's okay — I'm good like this!" Nora stubbornly held the uncomfortable position, her body trembling faintly from nerves.
Ethan glanced over and added, "If you don't put your seatbelt on, I can't drive. There's a traffic camera at the next intersection — passenger no seatbelt is another two-hundred-dollar fine."
"What?!"
Nora froze. How was there a way to rack up fines just from riding in a car?
She twisted around frantically searching for the buckle, grabbed the seatbelt, and yanked it hard — clunk. The locking mechanism triggered, and the strap snapped taut, completely stuck.
She went still, at a total loss, her fingers tugging uselessly at the frozen strap.
"Don't move."
Then Ethan unclicked his own seatbelt and leaned across.
Nora's entire body went rigid. His presence filled the space around her instantly — clean, faintly sharp. His arm crossed in front of hers, his chest nearly brushing hers, his breath just barely grazing her ear and the side of her neck.
Too close. Close enough that she could make out the weave of his shirt fabric and the clean line of his jaw.
Her heartbeat shot up. Her mind went completely blank. She held her breath and didn't move a muscle.
Ethan's movements were quick and precise. He pressed a release point at the base of the seatbelt housing, the locked strap popped free with a soft click, and he drew it smoothly across and snapped the buckle into the latch.
Click.
"Alright." He shifted back into his seat, put the car in gear, and pulled out.
Only then did Nora let herself breathe again, the tension slowly draining from her shoulders.
A beat later she realized — somewhere in the middle of all that panic — her body had drifted back into the seat on its own. She was actually sitting in it properly now.
"Oh—!" She jolted, instinctively trying to perch forward again.
"Stop." Ethan's voice carried a trace of amusement as the car merged smoothly into traffic. "It's already done. Too late to fix it now."
He kept his eyes on the road, tone relaxed. "When you get a chance, just help me wipe down the passenger seat."
Nora looked at his profile, hesitated, then quietly settled back against the leather.
"Okay," she said, soft but certain. "I'll clean it properly."
Ethan tapped the steering wheel lightly. "Actually — now that I think about it, the whole interior's been due for a deep clean for a while. How about you do the full inside and out?" He paused, then glanced over. "And I'll take you to dinner tonight. Fair trade, right?"
"No — you don't have to do that!"
Nora shook her head fast, voice urgent. "Cleaning the car is the least I can do. You're already driving me back to campus and I haven't even thanked you for that yet."
Her fingers twisted together in her lap.
Ethan looked straight ahead. "Driving you back took me ten seconds. But a full interior and exterior detail? That's easily worth a few meals." He let a brief pause land. "So here's how we settle it — you clean the car, I owe you three meals. This is the first one. That's the deal."
"Ethan, I really don't think—" Nora was waving her hands, words tumbling out fast, on the verge of refusing outright, when—
Buzz buzz buzz. His phone rang, cutting her off perfectly.
It was Robert calling.
Ethan hit the Bluetooth button on the dash, and Robert's booming voice immediately filled the car:
"Yo! Ethan! Bro, I'm telling you, our dorm is an absolute disaster. At least three out of six guys are completely insufferable. You have no idea, man—"
Robert launched into a full rant — terrible roommates, the dining hall food, classes that made no sense, everything. Ethan responded here and there with a quiet "yeah" or "damn" or the occasional dry joke, mostly just letting him go.
Eventually the call ended.
The car went quiet again.
Nora opened her mouth — but the thread of her refusal had been completely lost.
She snuck a glance at Ethan, focused on the road ahead, and thought: Maybe... he'd forgotten about the dinner thing?
The black Audi rolled up to the familiar campus gate. Ethan rolled down his window and, without looking, flicked an unopened pack of cigarettes in a clean arc straight to the security guard on duty — the same one from move-in day.
The guard recognized the car immediately. His face broke into a grin. He took the pack, gave a cheerful wave, and hit the button to lift the gate.
Ethan drove through and pulled into the lot beside the dining hall.
"Here we go." He cut the engine, unbuckled, and pushed the door open. "Come on, let's eat."
"Ah — okay." Nora got out.
Ethan had already eaten with Diana not long ago. This was purely about making sure Nora got a meal.
The moment they reached the entrance to the second floor of the dining hall, Nora instinctively started drifting toward the corner window — the one serving the cheapest plates of plain rice and vegetables.
"Nora."
She stopped.
Ethan nodded toward an empty table by the window. "Sit there."
She turned to him, confused.
His tone was easy, but there was no room to argue. "We made a deal — you help me clean the car, I owe you three meals. This is the first one." A brief pause. "Sit down. I'll grab the food. Stay put."
The last two words landed with a strange, quiet weight.
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