Danielle
ISTARED DOWN at my dashboard console and willed the check engine light to stop the infernal red glow. How I got where I was, I had no freaking clue, which meant I had no freaking clue how to find the freeway entrance to get home. “You are an idiot, Dani,” I whispered out loud.
As if on a mission from the devil, my nineteen ninety-nine Honda shuddered, then back-fired, slowing to a crawl as I inched forward down a non-descript side street. Why Portland didn’t have better signage was beyond me.
I jumped as my cell phone pealed in the silence of the car. Without looking at the screen, because really, I was trying not to end up dead in some obscure place I’d never been before, I flipped it open. “Hello,” I whispered.
“Why are we whispering?” Kim, my best friend of more than ten years, whispered back.
I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. “I’m kind of lost and my stupid car won’t go over nineteen miles an hour.”
“So, no different than any other day,” she quipped. “How did the date go?”
“Sucked.”
“How bad?” she asked.
“Getting my eyeballs plucked out by crows, while my fingernails were ripped off one-by-one would have been much more enjoyable kind of bad,” I ground out.
“Ew, sorry honey,” Kim commiserated. “Did you stay and have dinner with him?”
“No. I endured one drink and an appetizer and then faked a phone call. Seriously, Kimmie, the guy was a douche.”
“So, online dating’s not for you?”
“Dating,periodis not for me.”
Kim chuckled. “Where are you?”
“I have no freaking clue,” I admitted. “Somewhere in Arbor Lodge I think?”
“Holy crap, girl, you don’t want to be lost there when it’s almost dark.”
“Thanks, Captain Obvious.” I leaned forward to get a better view out of the windshield. “It’s totally deserted, and I can’t find a street sign to save my life.”
“What’s around you?”
“Nothing.” I squinted trying to make out the light in front of me. The area was heavily commercial, so I wasn’t sure what business would be open past eight on a Wednesday night. “I think I see something. Crap. My contacts are killing me.”
“Pull over and take them out, silly. You have your glasses with you, right?”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to stop, Kimmie... what if I can’t get started again?”
“What if you can’t see what you’re about to hit?”
“Stop being so logical,” I ground out.
Kim sighed. “Please, Dani, be safe. Pull over, put on your glasses, and call your brother.”
“Fine. I’m pulling over. Hold please.” Guiding my car to the curb, I put it in park. “Okay. I’m gonna hang up and call Elliot.”
“Good. Call me when—”
The phone went dead.
“Crap.” I took a second to pull out my contacts and slide on my glasses, before I glanced in my side mirror and put the car in drive again. “Okay, old lady, please get me somewhere I can find a phone.” I inched out into the street again and rolled about three hundred feet before my car let out a sputter and a hiss and the engine died. “Okay. It’s okay,” I chanted. “We’ve been here before, girl. You can do it.” I cranked the engine and although it turned over, I couldn’t get it to fully engage. I tried again, got it started, but had barely pulled further to the side of the road when it died...again. “No, no, no, no!” I cranked the engine again, but still no luck, so I put it in park.
Grabbing my purse off the floor, I rummaged around for my phone charger, finding it and plugging it into the lighter, hoping for enough juice to call my brother. I pushed every button on my phone in an effort to power it up again, but it had been losing its charge quicker and quicker over the past few weeks and it was now officially dead. “Damn it!”
