The App Still Says Eleven Minutes

We started splitting the ride home after close because it made sense. Same direction, same shift, no reason to pay for two cars. That's still the reason I give if anyone asks.

Her phone's mounted on the dash and the map has said eleven minutes since the first night we did this. Not roughly eleven. Eleven, exact, the whole ride, every night, some glitch in the app neither of us has ever mentioned to the other. I check it more than I need to, half hoping it's still broken.

Tonight she told me she got the transfer, the one people have been talking about since spring. Three more shifts, maybe four, and then someone else splits the fare with her, and I go back to fighting a real number on a screen.

I took the long way past the reservoir without saying so. She didn't ask why we weren't on the highway. Neither of us has ever asked the other anything that might end the quiet we've built out of an eleven minute lie.

Somewhere past the second light I noticed my foot easing off, not braking exactly, just not hurrying us there, and I realized I've been doing that for weeks. Driving like this ride is the only appointment I've ever kept on time for.

The map still says eleven minutes when I pull up outside her building. It's never once been true. I don't know why tonight is the night I finally want it to be.