Jake didn’t seem nearly as amused by the jam we found ourselves in, peering intently out the windows while the rescue efforts took place. His security guard had already hopped out of the limo to offer help, as did a man from the car behind ours. Still, we were making very little progress. For every forward movement, the limo had to take a similar backward one. After several minutes, we were no closer tofreedom.
By now, three photographers were out of their cars, snapping pictures of ourpredicament.
“At least they can’t see inside,” Jake said, bravely looking on thebrightside.
“Um, yeah, about that. I have totinkle.”
He glanced over. “You havetowhat?”
“Tinkle,” Irepeated.
He stared back at me with ablankface.
“Piddle?” Itried.
Still nothingfromhim.
I sighed. “I’m about to pissmyself.”
His brows raised. Finally! It took him long enough. “You’ve got to bekidding.”
“Do I look like I’m kidding?” I groped myself just a little bit to drive home mypoint.
“You can’t wait until we get to thehotel?”
“I mean, I guess if I knew which century we’d be arriving, sure, I might be able to hold out, but as it appears now, we’ll be stuck here a good long time. So, no, Ican’twait.”
Jake sighed as if I’d been planning this inconvenience all along. “All right, I’ll have Pete escort you in. Just ignore the paparazzi. Don’t answer anyquestions.”
“Uh, Pete?” I asked, scrunching my face to show my displeasure with his suggestion. “Yeah, I don’t think thatwillwork.”
“Whynot?”
“The dress. I need helpliftingit.”
Jake studied me a moment before realization dawned on him. “Wait… are you… you want me to go into the women’s bathroomwithyou?”
“I mean, I guess I couldaskPete.”
Jake didn’t hesitate a second longer as he opened the limo door, stepped out, and offered up his hand to me. “Oh, and Casey, don’t forget to smile for thecameras.”
Luckily for us, two more of Jake’s security guys had been following behind our limousine and ran up as we exited the vehicle, and they held back the paparazzi as we crossed the grass. We almost made it to the restaurant when the heel of my expensive shoe caught in the crevice between the grass and the concrete, snapping clean off. Jake, who’d been holding my hand, jerked back and gaped at me insurprise.
“My heelbroke.”
“No, it didn’t,” he said,grinning.
“I’mafraidso.”
“This is like a scene out of some warped Cinderellamovie.”
I laughed and was about to remove the other shoe when Jake swooped me up in his arms and carried me across the threshold of the McDonald’s. Oh, the romance ofitall!
“Excuse me. Coming through, people,” Jake called out, now clearly enjoying himself, as he weaved past diners. For this late at night, the restaurant was impressively busy. Good for them. Jake used his foot to push open the women’s restroom, and we came face to face with two women washing their hands at the sinks. They both jerked their heads in our direction and seemed ready to pounce on Jake for illegally crossing into their sanctuary when they took a closer look and their mouths dropped to thefloor.
“Ladies, I’m really sorry about this, but my bride is about to…” Jake stopped mid-sentence to address me. “What did you call it inthelimo?”
“Tinkle,” Ianswered.
