“I thought you rode a bike,” I blurted.
He looked at the three of us, shrugging one shoulder. “Nope. I have a real car.” The irritation in his voice rang through the night air. “It’s kind of hard to ride a bike to work in the winter. Also, I’m normal. Every chef I know thinks I go home to a treehouse in the middle of the woods and live off the land. But the truth is, I’m a normal guy. I live in an apartment. I eat sugary cereal and I drive a car.”
Sugary cereal? How did that prove he was normal?
“I’m going to get going,” Benny said interrupting the awkward short silence. He saluted us before running off like a coward.
Wyatt glanced at his phone. I knew he wanted to get to Kaya, which only endeared him to me more. But I needed backup here. I couldn’t be left alone with Vann Delane and his crusade to prove how normal he was to everyone.
My mouth didn’t get the message apparently and I heard myself offer, “If you need to get going, Wyatt… you can.”
He looked up from his phone and said, “Yeah?”
“Sure, I think we have this covered?” I looked to Vann who nodded in response.
“Can you pop your hood?”
Was that a yes to my question? I looked back to Wyatt. “Worst case scenario, I’ll call a tow truck and uber home. I’m not far.” Wyatt started to protest and care for my friend overcame the concern for myself. “Go, seriously! I’ll be fine.”
He glanced nervously at Vann. “All right, but only if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.”
“The hood?” Vann asked, his irritation back loud and clear.
I waved Wyatt off. “We’ll talk later. I’ll have questions I’m sure.”
Wyatt said his goodbyes, but I barely heard them as I leaned inside my car and pulled the trunk lever. To Vann, I said, “The battery is in the trunk.” The trunk opened with ease and I heard Vann’s sharp intake of breath.
Nervous something was seriously wrong, I hurried to where he stood surveying the clever casing. “Is something wrong?”
He looked up at me, awe glinting in his gray eyes. “You drive a nice car.”
His compliment nearly knocked me off my feet. I mean, itwasa good engine. He was right in saying that. It was just strange to hear him admit something positive. “You like cars?” I guessed, surprised again.
“I grew up working on cars with my dad,” he explained. Leaning forward to clamp the jumper cables in place, he continued, “He worked a lot, so it was pretty much the only thing we ever did together. It’s still one of our favorite things.”
I turned and looked at his Jeep again. It was an older version, one that the entire top came off. It looked like it had fresh paint though. And new wheels. In fact, the whole thing gleamed in grayish blue.
“It’s a 1959,” he explained, catching my ogling. “I just finished restoring her.”
Her. He’d called his car a her. Something so simple shouldn’t have made me like him more, but it did for some silly reason.
“I’m impressed,” I told him. “I figured you preferred two wheels to four.”
He looked up at me from between our two cars, a befuddled look on his face. “Just because you cook for a living, does that mean you want to cook for every meal? Or do you sometimes go out to eat? Maybe even to restaurants that don’t carry your specialty?”
“All right, I get your point,” I conceded. “I don’t always want to cook.”
“I love my bikes,” he added. “But riding one to work at one in the morning seemed exhausting.” I smiled unexpectedly and stared at him, working on a witty comeback. “Do you mind starting mine?” He tossed his car keys at me before I could decline.
Catching them reflexively, I followed his bidding. We awkwardly stood there until we thought Veronica had gotten enough juice to get going. After another ten minutes, we’d gotten her juiced to the point that I felt confident enough to go our separate ways.
I stepped out of my car after coaxing her to life. Vann rolled down his window, but didn’t step out of his car. It wasn’t like I expected him to come around and give me a hug or anything, I just hated feeling like I was this big inconvenience to him.
I stepped up on the footboard and rested my elbows on his window frame. “Hey, thanks for your help.”
His smile was the biggest I’d seen tonight. “I should have known you drove something like this.”
