Afterlife - Stephanie Hudson Page 0,139

said,

“There's someone here who wants to speak to you, hang on.” Oh no, this was bad… this was a very bad idea.

“Hi Keira.” I let out a sigh of relief when I heard Sophia's voice on the other end. I was just thankful it wasn't her brother's.

“Hey Sophia, I was just telling Karmun that I think there has been a mistake.” I was about to explain but like Karmun she already knew.

“No, there's been no mistake, we have just added a bit onto your wages, like an advance so you can get a car.” WHAT! Was she joking, they were giving me money to buy a car? I couldn't speak, I couldn't think of anything to say.

“Keira are you still there?”

Chapter 24 - Gift or Demand.

When I got off the phone from Sophia I was still in shock. Sophia went on to tell me how she and her brother felt it was important that I had my own transport as my shifts might be getting later and they felt it was unfair to ask me to do this if I would have to rely on other people. In the end I had no other option than to agree to keep the money but I stated that I would pay it back monthly, which she didn't fully agree with but I decided it was best to approach it in person so I would let it wait until Monday.

It didn't help that Libby’s smugness lasted the rest of the day as she had been right in thinking I would spend it. When Frank came in it was the first thing out of her mouth.

“Guess who's buying Kazzy a car?”

“He's not buying me a car! They have loaned me an advance on my pay from work and I am paying it back!” I said with a temptation to stick my tongue out at her.

“Cool, how much are we talking about here?”

“$4000 bucks!” Libby said in a corny American accent. Frank's face lit up and replied,

“Nice, but babe, leave the American to the pros ok, so when do you want to go and spend your hard earned dough?” He said mocking me, but it was hard to stay in a bad mood with Frank and that huge teddy bear smile.

“So does this mean you'll go with me?”

“Of course. I'm not letting you get ripped off, coming back here with a piece of crap like that rusty tin can your friend's got!” He got up and put back on his jacket and baseball cap and I asked,

“What, you want to go now?” He raised his eyebrows and lifted up his hand as if to say “Well of course!”

We were in his car and I had put the money in my bag stuffing it down into the bottom, paranoid that it would fall out or that I would lose it.

“You’ve got your licence right?” Frank had already gone over everything that I needed before I left the house.

“Yeah got it, but are you sure this guy is gonna be open? It is a Sunday!”

“Trust me this guy never shuts! You’d better let me do all the talking because this guy...well let's just say he's a bit of a ball buster.” I didn't have any problems with that. I wasn't exactly brimming over with car expertise.

“No problem,” I said as we pulled up to a set of traffic lights.

“So... I guess this means you couldn't have pissed him off that much.” Frank said giving me a wink and I shook my head in denial.

“I don't know what you mean,” I said rolling my eyes and looking out of the window casually.

“Yeah sure you don't...well ok if you want to play it off as nothing then I'm game but you have to know that this isn't the normal behaviour of a boss…. right?” Well yeah of course I knew that, but was there anything normal about Draven. I mean I couldn't imagine he was spending his Sunday watching the game, drinking a Bud!’ If I thought about it I couldn't imagine him doing anything average.

Thankfully he dropped the conversation as we pulled up to an intersection then took a left into “Bobby's Used Car Lot” as the sign read. Frank parked the car near a guy washing a big pickup truck. He looked about sixteen and there was no meat on him whatsoever. In fact he resembled a beanpole.

There was a gritty office and a man emerged from behind a door that had seen better days. The man