I was driving cross country on my way to a new job. It was the second week of August, and we were in the middle of a raging heat wave. I was somewhere in Indiana, and the thermometer in my car said it was 103 degrees outside. Luckily, I had a fairly new car and the a/c was in good working order.
I was traveling pretty light. The moving truck bringing my things was a day or so behind me, so it was just me and the open road. I was making really good time, but being alone I could only go so far in one day.
It was starting to get dark, and I wasn't too far from the border of Illinois, so I decided to find a motel to stay the night and make the drive through Chicago the next day. Unfortunately every hotel I found was booked up. Everyone kept telling me to go a little further down the road and I would find a room.
About an hour latter I finally found a place with a vacancy. They had one room left with a single bed. I told the clerk it was fine and took it. The hotel was pretty run down and old, what most people would refer to as a "flea bag". I didn't really care at this point though. I just wanted to get out of the car and get some rest.
I was also starving ans after checking in and getting the key, I didn't even go in the room to have a look, I just got back in the car and headed for the restaurant a little ways away the clerk had told me about. It was a typical place, kind of like an Applebees, but I had never heard of it before. I went in and sat at the bar and order some food and a drink.
About five minutes latter, a guy came up to the bar beside and asked the bartender if it was too late to order some food. He told the guy that it wasn't, so the stranger looked at me and asked if it was alright for him to sit next to me.
"No problem." I replied, and he took the bar-stool next to mine. He was very handsome, taller, and had jet black hair. His complexion was also quite dark, and he had big blue eyes.
"My name's Tyler." he said politely and shook my hand. I told him my name and that it was nice to meet him.
He told me he was on his way to Boston to visit some friends and that he had stopped to find a motel room for the night, but not having any luck so far he decided to stop and get some food before it got to late. I was sorry to have to tell him the bad news, but felt duty bound to let him know that he wasn't going to find a room for long ways, being that I had come from the direction he was heading.
"Shit!" he exclaimed after hearing it, "That sucks."
He explained how he had been driving all day and was just dead, and the thought of having to go for hours still was not a good one.
Our food soon arrived and we started to eat. We chatted the whole time, where we were from, what we did for work and fun, that kind of thing. The entire time we talked I felt really sorry for the guy. He was super friendly, and I wished there was some way I could help him out. Then it hit me.
"I could share my room with you, if you want." I blurted out without really thinking about it. He didn't respond at first, but after a moment said, "Are sure that's cool?"
"Yeah, totally."
"I won't lie to you, I really don't want to drive anymore tonight."
"Really. It's no problem with me whatsoever." I reassured him.
He agreed and we decided that we might as well get a couple of drinks and relax in the cool air of the bar.
We headed back to the hotel after a while. I hadn't mentioned to Tyler that the room only had one bed. I didn't know why I didn't tell him at first, but I figured he probably wasn't going to care that much anyway, given his situation. We got our bags out of our cars and I opened the door to the room.
"There's only one bed." Tyler said as he set his bags down.
"Sorry," I said, "I guess I hadn't thought about that before."
"It's cool, I can just take the floor or whatever." he replied.
It was still blistering hot outside, and our room was like an oven. Unfortunately it also had no air conditioning. I quickly opened the window to try and get some air in, but it had very little effect.