How interested he was in my game.
The way my body felt when he touched me.
“No,” I say out loud, breaking the silence. “I’m not interested in dating. And just because Alec was nice to me doesn’t mean he is, either.”
Unsurprisingly, there’s no answer.
If Jess were here, she’d encourage me to be open to the possibility. She’d remind me of how she never thought she’d find the one, and now, here she is. Married. Beyond happy. Even considering having kids.
But Jess isn’t here. No one is.
It’s just me, alone in my car, my headlights illuminating an otherwise empty road.
Now that I’m outside town, I bring my speed up to fifty. If it were daytime, I’d go even faster, but in the dark, on a winding road with steep hills on one side and a drop to the river on the other, I’d prefer to err on the side of caution.
And anyway, I’ll be home in plenty of time to shower and get online to meet Jess. So there’s no need to hurry.
Did hehaveto touch my back? Twice?
Would he have touched anyone? Or was theresome meaning behind it?
Why do I care?
As I come up on the next curve, I press down on the brake.
But it feels strange. Kind of… spongy.
The car doesn’t slow.
My heart skitters.
No. It’s fine.Fine.
I press my foot down harder.
But nothing happens.
If anything, the car’s goingfaster.
My heart isn’t just skittering. It’s galloping. Stampeding.
I jam the brake to the floor.
Nothing.
The curve is coming up, and my car isn’t slowing.
How can this be?
I just had the car inspected last month, and it passed easily. The brakes are only a year old. They should be working just fine. I even sprang for the nicer ones at the repair shop—Max, the owner, gave me a great deal on them, and he threw in the installation for free. They should?—
Why am I thinking about the deal I got on brakes?
Think about how to get the car to stop.
Now.
Oh, God. The curve is right there.
