Diesel knew Friday was a bad day for her to be at the truck stop. “What if I come to you this time? Then there won’t be a chance of us getting interrupted with my job, because the truth is, whenever I’m here, I’m working.”
Her beautiful smile lit up her face. “Perfect.” She ripped a blank piece of paper out of her steno pad and started writing. “Here is my address. I have a small apartment just off campus, in Doraydo. And I’ll also put my cell phone number down.” She stopped writing and her gaze found his, giving him an intensely gratifying stare. “You know, in case you need to call me before Friday.”
“What time on Friday would you like to meet?” He glanced at the address and number she’d written down to memorize them before folding the paper to shove in his front pocket.
“I could make us some lunch. So how about around eleven o’clock?”
“Great. I’ll be there.” Diesel took a step backward, knowing that if he stayed close, smelling her scent, he might kiss her again.
She looked down and then retreated toward her car, taking a small step in that direction. “I’ll see you in a few days then.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you for your time.”
“Sure.”
Juliana got into her car, started it up and backed out of the parking space. Diesel didn’t exhale until she drove out of the truck stop parking lot. He stood there for several minutes watching her car merge onto the surprisingly light Route 88 traffic headed west toward Doraydo, a nearby college town.
Wait until he mentioned to anyone in his family that he was taking Friday off to visit a human in another town.She lives in Doraydo, less than an hour away.That news would certainly generate some wild speculation and fuel the truck stop gossip mill for weeks to come.
Even the idea of being the fodder for gossip didn’t stop Diesel from looking forward to seeing Juliana again.
Juliana drove home as if in a trance. She didn’t remember arriving at the Big Bang Truck Stop and she barely remembered the drive back to her place. What she did remember, vividly, was kissing Diesel Grey. That moment played over and over in her mind all the way back to Doraydo.
Before she knew it she was a mile away from pulling into her apartment parking lot, marveling at her lack of awareness during both the trip to Alienn and the return journey. Not to mention the surprise nap she’d taken before even going inside the truck stop’s convenience store to inquire about speaking to the manager.
The boringly named College Apartments sign and turn-off came up soon enough. She steered her car into the lot and drove slowly toward her assigned space. She’d been lucky to find this place.
The apartment she had lived in since moving to Arkansas was a bit older, but also very clean and the neighbors were friendly. The ones she saw, anyway. She’d renewed the lease after graduation because a quick search around town yielded nothing else she could afford.
Besides, it would be difficult to leave Miss Penny behind.
Her neighbor across the hall was quite a pistol, but she was also a good soul. No matter what time of the day or night Juliana returned to her apartment, Miss Penny would stick her head out and offer a greeting.
Juliana hadn’t figured out how Miss Penny sensed her comings and goings, but she always did. Perhaps she was psychic or she had a motion detector trained on Juliana’s assigned parking space.
Either way, true to form, Juliana had just stepped on her welcome mat when her neighbor cracked opened the front door directly across from her place. Miss Penny scanned Juliana from head to toes with her rheumy-eyed gaze. “Hello, Juliana. Late night at the campus job or were you coming from someplace else?”
Juliana turned politely and said, “Both. I came from somewhere else, and I was working on a special project for a writing job.”
Miss Penny studied her face for a moment longer than usual, but it was as if she wasn’t seeing Juliana at all.
“Everything okay, Miss Penny?”
The older woman dropped her intent gaze, shook a head with frizzled graying hair framing a wizened face and smiled. “I’m fine, just fine. And I think you’ll be fine, too, young lady.”
“Thanks, Miss Penny.” Juliana didn’t want to be rude, but she wanted to get inside. Miss Penny—as if sensing her hurry—had already closed her door.
Once inside her coveted first-floor apartment, she pulled the steno pad out of her purse, wondering again why she hadn’t asked Diesel the “real” question she’d gone to get answered. All she’d managed were soft-ball queries regarding the cellular signal and far-out rumors about resident aliens.
She didn’t remember writing the note to herself to check on cellular providers to discover if they had reasonnotto erect towers to deliver service in that area, but there it was on her notepad. Maybe there was a good reason. Or the renegade aliens had kept the towers out because it was easier to take over the world without immediate discovery. Juliana shook her head, closing her eyes in foolish defeat.
She’d been so fired up to find out about the Boogieman Affair? But had choked and never even brought the question up. What was wrong with her?
Had there truly been a malevolent creature loose in the streets of Alienn causing mayhem and chaos for the residents less than a year ago? Had it been swiftly covered up? Would she have the nerve to ask Diesel when he came over on Friday for lunch? She’d gone to ask him hard-hitting questions like an investigative reporter on the trail of a hot news story, and instead she’d kissed a gorgeous stranger like it was her job, on the flimsy premise that heseemedfamiliar, and promptly garnered a date for four days from now.
