“Where do you want the tow truck to take it, sir?”
“Is there a Ford dealership in Milton, Rasheda?”
She nodded. “Yes sir,” she said.
Vince almost corrected her. Why was she suddenly calling him sir? Because his secretary was? Was she suddenly waking up to the fact that he was no bum like she seemed to think? But he ignored it. “Take it to the Ford dealership in Milton, Connecticut and I’ll pay the repair costs.”
“Who should they contact once the work is completed, sir?”
“You. And then you contact me.”
“I’ll get right on it,” Diane said. Then Vince ended the call.
Relief washed over Ricki to know that she would have transportation back to Brooklyn. “Thank you,” she said. “I’ll pay you back every dime you spend once I get back to work and earn some money.”
Vince didn’t sayno worries, ornever mindthe way she expected him to say. And she appreciated that.
“Now where’s the best hotel in this town?”
“But I told you I can’t afford to pay a hotel bill.”
“I’m going to pay the hotel bill for as long as you wish to stay here,” Vince said. “Now where is it?”
“We have a motel right here in downtown.”
“I didn’t ask you about a motel. Where’s the best you got?”
“It’s on the edge of town. You take a left and keep going straight for a couple miles until the stop sign. Then you take another left.”
Vince pulled out of the courthouse parking lot and made a left. Then they were on their way.
Ricki felt so disconcerted that she leaned her head back against the headrest and closed her weary eyes. “Some birthday,” she muttered beneath her breath.
But Vince glanced over at her. He heard her. “Whose birthday? Erica’s?”
Ricki looked over at him in shock. She didn’t think there was any way he could have heard her. But he did. “Ah no,” she said, still caught off guard. “It’s not Erica’s birthday.”
“Then whose birthday were you referencing?” When she didn’t respond, his eyebrows raised. “Yours? Today is your birthday, Rasheda?”
Ricki nodded.“Yep.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
That sounded foolish to Ricki. “Who was I gonna say it to? Nobody cares.”
Vince almost blurted outI do, but he managed to stop himself. But he kept glancing at her, as if the fact that today was her birthday was worrisome to him.
Then he let his feelings be known. “Where are your friends, Rasheda? And why can’t you go home to your family?”
“They don’t want me. Okay? They disowned me years ago.”
“Why?”
“Because I went my own way. I did my own thing. I thought for myself.”
Vince had a feeling there was far more to that story than that, but he didn’t pursue it. “And your friends? Where are they?”
Ricki hated to admit it. “I don’t have any.”
