“Oh please,little miss intern doing her hot boss.”
I immediately cringed at the sound of that, but nodded. “I guess so,” I said softly. “Oh God. I’m such a fucking cliché. All I need now is to find out he’s some kind of Persian Prince and fall pregnant with his illegitimate baby and then fall in love and get married and become the princess of some far off country called Genovia.”
Bruce and JJ laughed out loud. “Have you been reading JJ’s romance novels?” Bruce teased.
“What can I say, they’re my guilty pleasure,” JJ said with a naughty smile.
I shook my head. “No. But every now and then I read the descriptions on the back. Oh, and P.S., just how many virgin brides are there out there in the world these days?”
“Enough for all those sexy Arab sheiks to claim them as their desert concubines,” JJ quipped. We all laughed but JJ quickly stopped us by belting the song out again as loudly as he could. I sat and watched for a while, but half way through the song I got up and gave them all a wave.
“Hey. Where you going?” JJ stopped singing and yelled.
“Home.”
“Liar,” JJ shouted even louder as I walked to the door, “you’re going home to have wild sex with your hot neighbor.”
“That’s right. And I’m ovulating too so I’ll be falling pregnant with his illegitimate baby,” I laughed as I exited.
23. Inexplicable Anticipation
I was almost home when the car suddenly made a loud, ghastly sound. It started swiveling and skidding uncontrollably across the road. I quickly slammed on the brakes in absolute terror and it finally came to a grinding halt.
“Shit!” My heart thumped in my chest and I cursed loudly. I looked around. At least the place I had stopped was illuminated, the road wasn’t completely dark, dingy and dangerous. I opened the door tentatively and climbed out.
I immediately assumed it would be some kind of major engine meltdown, complete with flames and dramatic smoke billowing out of the bonnet, but that quickly changed when I saw the state of the front tyre. It was completely flat, and there, sticking out of it, as if it was mocking me, a giant nail.
“Shit!” I cursed again, what were the chances? I stood up and tried to figure out my next move. I didn’t have the kind of fancy insurance that you could call when you broke down and they swooped in to rescue you.Or did I need rescuing at all . . .
Perhaps the one and only thing my father had given me, was the ability to change a tyre. And only because it had been a necessity. He’d been too drunk to change the tyre himself so had slouched on the side of the road barking commands at me.
I walked to the back of the car and opened the trunk. I had one of those stupid thin tyres that looked like a biscuit. I took it out, as well as all the tools. It was freezing outside and I momentarily thought of phoning the guys for help, but realized very quickly that they probably knew less about changing tyres than I did. The idea of phoning Ben flashed through my mind for a second, but I quickly pushed it out.
I laid the tyre on the ground next to my car and then tried to locate the jack. But it was nowhere to be found. By this stage my fingers and nose felt like they were about to fall off. And then, just to add insult to injury, a car sped by and through a massive puddle of water and . . .
My face and upper body were covered in freezing cold, filthy puddle water. I wiped my face, trying not to think about what else could be in that water, like rat droppings and drowned earthworm carcasses that had been marinating for days.
I shivered and my teeth began chattering together as the water seeped through my top and coated my skin. It was official, I needed help. I pulled my phone out, dialed JJ and Bruce’s numbers, but both just rang. They probably couldn’t hear their phones over all the singing, so I left a message. I looked down at my phone, realizing that I didn’t really have a choice, unless I wanted to freeze to death on the side of the road, or worse, be whisked away by highway bandits.
I went to my messages, and looked at Ben’s number for a few moments, before summoning up the courage to dial it. This was the first time we’d talked on the phone, and despite the cold, my heart started pounding with some kind of weird inexplicable anticipation. I didn’t have to wait long, two rings was all it took before he answered.
“Sera!” He sounded so pleased with himself.
“Hey, what are you doing right now?” I asked. “Like, this very second?”
His voice took on a predictable naughty tone. “Whatever you want me to be doing?”
“Okay. And do you have a jack?” I asked, through chattering teeth.
I heard a chuckle on the phone. “Is that what you’re calling it these days?”
I let out a frustrated sigh. This was definitely not the time for not-so-subtle sexual innuendos. “Ben, what I need is acarjack. And what I really need is for you to please come to the off-ramp of the M1 North and help me change my car tyre, please.”
“Shit! Have you broken down?” He sounded worried.
“Yup.”
“That’s not safe. I’ll be there in five minutes. Climb into your car and lock the doors.”
