“Yeah, I’m probably a little crazy. But it’s no fucking big deal to me. I don’t want some douche stressing you out over money. Life’s too short for that.”
I stare at him for a moment, realizing he’s very serious. “Why do you care?”
He shrugs nonchalantly. “I dunno. Why not? I’m not a greedy person.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, but thank you.”
He yawns. “No problem.”
“Do you work?” I ask him, trying to keep the conversation going. I don’t want to sit in silence in the truck. That would be really awkward.
“Yeah, even people who look like me have jobs,” he says sarcastically. Ouch.
“I didn’t mean it like that... I meant what do you do for work?” I really need to watch how I word things. Sometimes really dumb stuff spews out of my mouth.
“I build custom motorcycles.”
Wow. I’ve never been on a motorcycle, and I’m pretty scared shitless of them, but it sounds like an interesting career to actually build them.
“That sounds pretty cool. I’ve never been on one.”
He bugs his eyes out at me as if I have ten heads. “What? Seriously?”
I nod. “I’ve always been scared of them.”
He smiles a smile that lights up his entire face. “I’ll tell you what, Evie. Come spring, I’ll take you on a ride on this very road where we just crashed. It’s awesome that time of year. There’s a cool little waterfall a ways up that’s beautiful and so freakin’ peaceful. You’ll love it.”
“I don’t know about that...”
“Trust me, I’ll go slow and take you on my favorite bike. I promise you’ll love it.” He looks so hopeful that I have to agree to it. And he called me Evie. No one’s called me that since I was a little girl.
“I guess I can think about it. If you promise to go really, really slow.”
“Deal.”
I wonder if our little ride will ever really happen. What if this storm gets worse and we are stuck out here for days? What if no one finds us and we starve or freeze to death? Will the insurance company pay for my car damage? Will Michael remember to feed Halo?
I start to shake and breathe heavy and my hand instinctively grips the door handle. I close my eyes shut tight and will the fear to stop. Please stop, I beg myself. Not here, not now, not with him. But it’s too late. The trembling has already started.