1
“Fuck!” I shout, steering into a skid as the car drifts sideways in the snow as I fight to regain control. Thankfully, the road is deserted except for me, this road is way too dangerous as it is without throwing more cars into the mix. After a moment the car returns to a straight line and I blow out a long breath to steady the heavy pounding in my chest and the shaking of my hands.
“You alright, Roy?” Warren asks on the other end of the phone which I have on speaker on the passenger seat.
“All good, man. Just trying to not die out in this fucking blizzard.”
“You’re driving? Where the hell are you?”
“No clue. The country’s at a standstill so I’ve had to drive back to the city.”
“That sucks,” he says with no feeling behind his words. “So… about Brentley’s…” Of course he cares more about the money than the possibility of me dying today.
“We need to secure those shares before Landsdown does. If we wait any longer we’re gonna lose it,” I say, squinting my eyes, struggling to see out of the windshield.
Fucking snow…
“I’ve just got a bad feeling about it, Roy.”
“Yeah, I know, that’s all you’ve said for the past four days but my answer is still the same.” I take a deep breath to ease my irritation. Warren, my friend and colleague has been against this deal from the start and he hasn’t hidden that fact.
Every deal that I get involved with he fights me at every turn, voicing his fears and doubts and I’m tired of it. I’ve never got us into a bad deal in the past so why does he have such little faith in me? Surely he knows me well enough to know that I’d never steer him wrong.
“It’s risky,” he continues.
“Every single thing we do is a risk, War, the best things usually are. Look, I’m driving back to the city now, so we’ll talk about it then, just please trust me on this and get it done, alright?” I clench my jaw, grinding my teeth.
I hear him huff on the other end. “Okay, fine. I’ll make a start in a couple of days and make some calls. I’ll see you when you get back.”
“Thank you.”
“Merry Christmas, Roy.”
“Yeah, right.” The phone goes dead and with a roll of my eyes, I return my attention back to the road.
Huh… Christmas, the most pointless and over hyped time of the year. It’s where we gather around with family members we don’t actually like and never see for the rest of the year, but for those few days pretend to like them. It’s where we spend tonnes of money on things that people will use once, toss in a draw and never look at again.
I’m sure if you’re a kid, Christmas is magical, like it once was when I was a boy, but now I’m older, the magic is gone, the veil has lifted and I see the holidays for what they really are. Commercialised bullshit. The true spirit of Christmas is dead, which is only a small percentage of reasons why I hate this time of year, if you haven’t figured that out yet.
No, my main reason is that Christmas day marks the end of my marriage three years ago. It was the day I found out my not-so-loving wife had been cheating on me with my ex-best friend and business partner for the majority of our marriage. So in one day, I’d lost my wife, my best friend, and turned into a bitter cynic with a dark outlook on life. One in which I trust no one and if anyone crosses me, God help them. It was the day I vowed to focus on my work, throw all my time and energy into it and spend less time thinking about the opposite sex. Sure, I’ve been with a number of women since, but never long enough for anything to become serious. I’ve written off that part of my life and laid to rest the possibility of something more.
It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m on my way back to New York City from a last minute business meeting in Washington. It’s a journey that should have only a taken an hour or so on a plane but due to the bad weather, all flights and trains have been suspended. Instead, I’ve had to hire out a shitty rental car and drive back through a hundred inches of snow in the middle of a blizzard. The freeways are jammed up by last minute shoppers and people trying to get home in time for tomorrow so I’ve had to detour off into the middle of nowhere with no navigation and no clue where I’m actually going. I was lucky to even speak to Warren on the phone considering the signal has been cutting out every few minutes for the past half an hour.
“Jesus,” I grumble to myself, leaning forward in my seat to see where the fuck I’m going as snow pelts the windshield making it nigh on impossible to see anything.
The heater is turned up to full which fogs up the windows, making visibility all the more difficult. The wipers are on max speed but even that doesn’t help. I fucking hate snow. Give me a martini on the beach in ninety degrees sun any day over this shit, which reminds me, I am in dire need of a vacation.
A few more miles up the road, the car begins to splutter, shuddering and jolting beneath me before slowing to a crawl.
“Are you fucking kidding me!” I yell, steering the car off the road and into a ditch at the side.
Could today possibly get any worse?
Once I roll to a complete stop, I try the ignition once, twice, but it doesn’t start. I pound the steering wheel with my fist hard enough to have me wincing from the pain which ricochets up my arms.
I sit behind the wheel for a few minutes and heave a sigh, figuring out my next move. I make a grab my phone but as luck would have it, there’s no signal for me to make a call for help.
Perfect.
