sheriff. And no one likes it when we have to call the sheriff.”
I fell silent, ashamed. What had I been thinking? Sure, the cop had been rude, but at the end of the day, he was still a cop. And it wasn’t going to help our situation any to start mouthing off. They’d probably arrest me. Lock me up in some deep, dark desert prison and throw away the key. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my next five to ten.
“Sorry,” I muttered.
“Well, you should be, little lady.”
Ooh, it took all my strength to stay silent. I forced myself to smile and then turn to walk over to the plastic waiting room chair. I sank into it, head in hands. The air conditioner in the police station must have been broken because it was about eighty degrees inside. My sweaty legs stuck to the plastic in the most uncomfortable of ways. I noticed a coffee machine on the table next to me and poured myself a Styrofoam cup of thick mud. Disgusting, but hopefully it’d wake me up.
How were we going to get back to San Diego? It was a two-hour drive: too long for a taxi, not that the town probably had any to begin with. Surely no busses came through this Nowhereville.
And since Jamie knew next to no one in San Diego, it’d be up to me to call someone back home to rescue us.
How embarrassing.
I pondered my options. Dad? No. I still wasn’t speaking to him. Besides, he’d probably want to bring along Cindi with an “i” and I couldn’t face meeting her looking like a desert rat. There was Lulu, but she didn’t have her own car and I had the keys to mine in my pocket. I’d been meaning to have a spare set made, but had never gotten around to it. Mom was probably in London, on a spending spree down Bond Street at the moment, so no use trying her.
Jodi. I’d have to call Jodi.
I didn’t want to. I knew she’d be able to figure out what was going on. She’d see through my lies. Know that Jamie and I had a thing going. That I was aiding and abetting a man cheating on his fiancée. Actually, make that past tense. After this incident, I doubted Jamie would want to lay eyes on me again. Not that it was my fault.
The night had been so perfect. Jamie, opening up, sharing his soul. But tomorrow had come with a vengeance and now he looked at me with scared, mistrusting eyes. As if I were the girl who was ruining his life. It wasn’t fair.
I flipped open my cell phone to call Jodi, then remembered there was no reception out here. I looked around the police station and saw an antique-looking pay phone tacked to the wall. I rose and walked over to it.
It cost me a dollar fifty in change for three minutes. Jodi picked up after two and a half rings. “Hello?” she asked in a suspicious voice. I’m sure the caller ID area code from deep in the desert confused her.
“Jodi, it’s me.”
“Maddy? Where the hell are you calling from?”
“Um, a little town called Calla Verda. About two hours east of San Diego.”
“What on earth are you doing there?” she asked. “Richard’s looking for you. He said he tried to page you fifteen times yesterday.”
Oh, great. I knew I should have changed the battery on that pager. My once brave idea of leaving it dead because I didn’t feel I should be kept on an electronic leash now seemed pretty lame.
“I told Alicia at the assignment desk that I was going to the desert to work on a story,” I said defensively.
“And you’re still out there this morning? When are you coming in? I can cover for you.”
“Um, actually, that’s what I was calling you about.” I explained the whole sordid tale. Well, actually not the whole sordid tale. I kind of left out the sordid part. The drug use and the almost-kissing-a-coworker-who-had-a-fiancée bits.
“So you’re stuck out there?” Jodi asked incredulously.
“Unless some wonderful best friend in the whole world comes to pick me up,” I cajoled.
Silence on the other end of the line. “Jodi?”
“Uh, sorry,” she said quickly. “But Maddy, how can I pick you up? I’m already at work. I can’t just leave. I’ve got a shoot in an hour with a woman whose carpet almost killed her.”
My heart plummeted. “O-oh. Oh-kay,” I said, my voice cracking. My one hope.