by AnonYMous
The stall opened and Chad’s date stepped up to the mirror. It was like watching a train wreck; I couldn’t tear my eyes away. She layered red lipstick on her full pouty lips and fluffed her bleached hair even higher. She caught my stare in the mirror, turned, and snarled almost catlike. “Do I know you?”
If I’d had better sense, I would have said no and made my escape. There was something in her tone that set my blood to boiling. “Chad never introduced us. I’m his ex-girlfriend.” I fought to control my voice. “My advice to you, sweetheart, is keep that dog on a short leash!”
“Don’t you worry about Chad. I give him what he wants.” Her lips curved condescendingly.
“I bet you do, and to anyone else who’s willing to pay,” I shot back, striking a nerve.
“You little witch!” A blur of red acrylic nails coming at my face forced me backward.
What do I do? My mind went blank as I thought about a self-defense class that I had taken years ago. Kick? Punch? Bite? I really didn’t want to fight, but running was not an option as I had backed myself into a corner. Her arms were swinging wildly in my direction.
Immobilize her arms! I raised my hands and she instinctively ducked. Grabbing the back of her shirt, I pulled it over the top of her head. Her vision was momentarily cut off and her arms were trapped.
“Gotcha!” I held firm, not knowing what my next move would be, while she screamed bloody murder. She squirmed and jerked backward while I clutched her top for dear life.
Suddenly, she was free. Her top had come off in my hand. She wasn’t even wearing a bra! Trying to cover herself with one arm, she went for my throat with the other.
“Give it back!” she howled as I leaped back.
“Not a chance, sweetheart!” I had the upper hand now. Seeing the path to the door clear, I made my escape.
“Quick, Gem, we have to get out of here!”
“Huh?” The panic in my voice kicked her into action. She set her unfinished drink down. “Now?”
“Now!” I headed for the exit with Gemma hot on my heels.
Gemma had the engine running as soon as I slid into the seat “What gives?”
“I did something crazy!” I dangled the tiny black top with “Hot Stuff” spelled out in glitter.
“That’s not…you didn’t!” Her eyes went wide with surprise as she recognized the shirt.
“I did!”
“Heather, you’ve stepped off the straight and narrow.” She grinned proudly as she put the car in gear.
“There’s one more thing I want to do before I get back on the straight and narrow.” Before I lose my nerve. “You still keep that Louisville Slugger under your seat?”
“Yep,” she nodded. “My Daddy insists on it.”
“Find Chad’s truck!”
Gemma drove around the parking lot. “There it is.” There was no mistaking Chad’s pride and joy with the bars and stars painted boldly on the tailgate.
“This will only take a second.” Grabbing the bat, I jumped out of the car. Taking aim, I thought of all of Chad’s lies. I swung at the headlight. The sound of breaking glass filled the air.
“You go girl!” Gemma urged me on. One more swing and the other light was shattered, just like he had shattered my heart.
“Let’s get out of here!” I jumped back into the car. Already people were rushing in our direction.
“That might not be a bad idea,” Gemma agreed, spraying gravel as she sped out of the lot. “We’ll go to the Village Pub.”
The Village Pub, only a few miles away, was much quieter—only a few regulars lined the bar. We were greeted with a chorus of “Hey, Gemma” as we walked in. I let my nerves settle as Gemma’s friend, Bob, brought us a round.
Last call had just been announced when a deputy sauntered in. “Who owns that red Nissan?”
Panic formed a cold knot in my stomach as I exchanged a worried glance with Gemma. She was as cool as a cucumber. “It’s mine.”
The towering deputy stepped closer. “Had a report of a crazy ex-girlfriend busting up a pick-up truck tonight.” He glared accusingly. “Know anything about it?”
“You must be mistaken, officer,” Bob calmly spoke up. “These ladies have been here all night.”
Surveying the room, the deputy asked, “Is that right?”
“Yep. All night.” The patrons echoed. The woman behind the bar silently nodded.
He didn’t have a leg to stand on, and he knew it. Red-faced and about to explode, he shook his finger. “I’m warning you, Thelma and Louise, stay out of trouble!” And then he stormed out.
Gemma dissolved in giggles as she related the story to the whole bar. They cheered me as if I were a hero. “Serves him right!”
Certainly not proud of my bad behavior, I was relieved that I wasn’t going to jail. Never again! I planned on keeping on the straight and narrow from here on out.
The lights came up and we helped stack chairs and pick up glasses. Many of the regulars wished me luck as they filed out the door.
“We’ve all been there,” one woman whispered to me. “Don’t worry. The right guy will come along.”
“Who’s up for cheeseburgers?” Bob asked.
“I’m starving!” Gemma affirmed. “The truck stop is still open.”
“I just want to go home,” I groaned.
“Nah, you’re coming.” Gemma wasn’t ready to call it a night. Did she ever slow down? Emotionally drained, I was exhausted. I should have stayed home tonight and saved myself all this grief.
With Bob in tow, we headed for the twenty-four-hour truck stop by the interstate. Only a few cars and several big rigs were in the lot.
“Seat yourself,” the waitress called as we walked in. “Specials are on the board.”
“Bring that coffee with you,” Gemma said, watching the waitress pouring for a slim figure hunched over the counter.
“What’ll it be?” The middle-aged woman looked as tired as I felt.
“Cheeseburgers?” Bob waited for our nods. “Cheeseburgers and fries.”
“And keep the coffee coming,” Gemma piped up.
“Really,” I protested. “I need to get some rest.”
“You can sleep all day tomorrow.” Gemma dismissed my pleas. “Besides, you should feel liberated.”
At the sound of my voice, the figure at the counter slowly turned around. “Heather?”
“Nick.” I had forgotten all about him. Tongue-tied, I was jolted into action by Gemma’s elbow to my ribs. “Would you like to join us?”
“You disappeared and I figured that I’d struck out again,” Nick said, sliding next to me. “Then all hell broke out at the bar. First there was a girl fight in the bathroom, and then the cops were called for an incident in the parking lot.”
“Cheaters need to be taught a lesson!” Gemma broke in. “Ouch!” She yelped as I landed a kick to her shin.
Nick quickly picked up on the guilt written all over our faces. He clapped his hand to his forehead. “No, don’t tell me.”
“Let’s just say that I was wrapping up some unfinished business,” I blushed.
“Well—” His eyes softened. “If this business is finished, would you like to go out with me?”
“I would love to.” I smiled back. “How about a trip to the batting cages?” THE END
City Girl Goes Wild
FOURTH OF JULY FIREWORKS
Call the fire department! Her heart is burning!
The sun was just climbing above the horizon when I pulled into the parking lot in front of my uncle’s place. I drew in a deep breath of the desert air and stepped down from my Jeep.
My blue heeler stood up, stretched, and leisurely jumped from the seat to the ground and trotted slowly in front of me as we made our way to my uncle’s front door.
Aunt Betty answered smiling. “Jill, we didn’t expect you so early. Come on in.” My aunt threw her arms around me.
She smelled like soap, safety, and my childhood. I swallowed the lump in my t
hroat, blinked back my tears, and returned her hug. “Am I too late for breakfast?”
“You’re right on time,” my uncle said. “Betty was just scrambling the eggs.” He reached down to pat my dog. “Blue, there’s a piece of bacon for you in the kitchen.”
My cousin Tom was already sitting at the kitchen table. His leg with the cast was stretched out in front of him, and his crutches rested against the wall nearby. He grinned when he saw me. “It’s about time. We ought to be insulted. You haven’t seen us for three years, and the minute you hear I broke my leg, you can’t get here fast enough. If I’d known that’s what it took to get you here, I would have broken my leg a long time ago. How’d you get here so early?”
I reached down to hug him. “I drove all night. I’m sorry I’ve been away for so long.”
Uncle Joe pulled out the chair next to Tom, and Aunt Betty set a plate of eggs and bacon in front of me.
“Did you have to take a leave of absence from your job?” My cousin wanted to know.
“No. I resigned about a week ago, and your call couldn’t have come at a better time. I needed a change.”
Tom raised his eyebrows. “What did Geoff think about you coming here?”
“Geoff and I are history. I finally realized we wanted different things out of life.”
My cousin reached over, squeezed my ringless left hand, and nodded. He didn’t say he’d told me so, but the flicker in his eyes let me know he approved of the breakup.
A loud knock at the kitchen door interrupted us. When my uncle shouted to come on in, the door opened, and a tall, dark-haired man stepped inside.
“Is there any coffee left?” he asked.
“You bet, Roy,” Aunt Betty answered. “Anything for the fire chief. Come on in and meet our niece Jill.”
He shook my hand. “Is that your Jeep parked outside?” I nodded and he said, “It looks good. Did you restore it yourself?”
“My dad and I did it when I was a teenager,” I told him.
“Jill has come to take over my job while I’m laid up,” Tom explained. “We’re hoping she’ll remember how much she loves it here and decide to stay.”
“Will you be driving in the Fourth of July parade?” Roy asked.
I glanced at my uncle. “Will I?”
“We’ll see,” he said.
Roy grinned. “I’ll be driving the water truck, and if you’ve been here before on the Fourth, you know what that means.”
I nodded. “Yes, I know.”
While Roy drank his coffee and shot the breeze with my uncle and cousin, I helped my aunt load the dishwasher.
“You’re probably tired after traveling all night,” my aunt pointed out. “You’ll want to take it easy and rest today.”
I shook my head. “No, Aunt Betty. I’m too excited to rest. I want to go to work.”
By the time I finished helping my aunt, my uncle and cousin had already walked over to the office, which was beside the house. I stepped outside and took a deep breath of the desert air.
During the years I was growing up, I had spent a few weeks every summer with my aunt and uncle in Megalith, Arizona. The town got its name from the huge red rocks that surrounded it on the south and west. To the north, a mountain range stretched across the horizon, and to the east, the open desert was the only thing between the town and the rising sun. To me, the place had always seemed like paradise.
I hadn’t been back for a visit for three years because my fiancé, Geoff, hadn’t liked it here. His idea of paradise was a luxury apartment in a busy city, which was okay for him, but I was a different kind of person.
Geoff and I had met while I was still in college. Our relationship was fun while we were in school, but after graduation he had taken a job for a large corporation that expected its employees to put in long hours. When Geoff wasn’t working, he was no longer satisfied with quiet evenings eating pizza and watching DVDs. He’d begun to adopt a lifestyle of expensive restaurants, clubs, and vacations. He had wanted to be seen at fashionable parties with fashionable people. At first, I had gone along with him, trying his new lifestyle, but I hadn’t felt comfortable.
Geoff had persuaded me to take a corporate job like his, and I’d had little time to myself. When I was off, I didn’t want to spend my time chasing after people I couldn’t care less about. When I told Geoff how I felt, he’d called me foolish and unsophisticated.
The last straw had come when I informed him that I had quit my job.
The color had drained from his face. “You what?”
“I handed in my resignation today.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
I had sighed. “Because I knew what you’d say.”
He shook his head. “Please tell me you accepted an offer from another company and you’ll be starting there at a higher salary.”
“I can’t tell you that. I don’t want a higher salary. I want a life. I’m tired of working for a place that expects me to be at my desk seventy or eighty hours a week. I’ve done that for three years, and I’m sick of it. Do you know how long it’s been since I took my dog to the park or went four wheeling in my Jeep?”
“Are you kidding? Your job paid big bucks, Jill. You were in line for supervisor. In a few years, you could have made district manager.”
“I don’t care about that, Geoff. What good is all the money in the world if I don’t have time to spend it?”
“So you want to spend more time driving around in your old Jeep with your dog? Is that it? When are you going to grow up, Jill? You’ll never be able to afford to live a sophisticated life without a high-powered job. The best thing you could do for yourself would be to sell that old rattletrap. I’ve been telling you for the last three years to get a new car. You should be embarrassed to be seen in that thing, and in case you haven’t noticed, your dog is getting old too. It won’t be around much longer.”
“All the more reason I should spend as much time with her as I can.”
“You’re nuts, Jill. When you work for a big corporation, that’s your life. Working long hours and playing your cards right gets you to the top. You’re throwing away your business degree and your future. Didn’t we say that we would be millionaires before we were thirty? Didn’t we say that we would work our way up the corporate ladder until we were successful?” He looked at me like he expected me to agree with him.
“No, Geoff. You said those things. I went along with you because I didn’t know what I wanted. My parents were dead and I was lost. You seemed to have a plan.”
“I do have a plan, and it’s a good one. Listen, I know of a position in my company. Let me call them and see if I can get you an interview.”
It was always the same. Whenever I said anything Geoff didn’t agree with, he paid no attention at all. “In case you haven’t been listening, I don’t want another job like the one I just quit. I’ll find my own job.”
“Get over yourself, Jill. I’m going to call the personnel office at my company. I’ll get you an interview. You can wear your black suit and that new embroidered blouse.” He had pulled his cell phone from his pocket and was dialing the number when I blew up.
“That’s enough, Geoff. I’m not going to work for your company, even if they pay me a million dollars a month. I’m going to take a little time off to decide what I want to do with my life.”
“You’re going to find yourself,” he sneered. “That’s what losers always say. What you will do is go broke and end up working in some dead-end job for low pay. Is that what you want?”
I raised my voice. “I’ve been trying to tell you that I don’t know what I want.”
“Okay, I get it. You don’t have any ambition. That’s why you don’t like my plan for making a million before age thirty. Well, if you don’t want my plan, then maybe you don’t want me either. I’ll tell you what, Jill, I’m going home now. If you come to your senses, you can call me.”
I had pulled my engagement ring off my finger. “I don’t think I’ll be co
ming to my senses, Geoff. You’d better take this with you.”
He snatched the ring from my hand. “You’re not going to be satisfied until you throw it all away—your education, your job, your future, and now me. And for what? An old Jeep and a dog. You’ll be sorry, Jill, and when you are, don’t come crawling back to me.” He slammed the door on his way out.
Blue stared up at me, a worried look on her face. I knelt down to hug her. “It’ll be okay, Blue dog,” I promised her out loud. “We used to be happy, and we will be again.”
When Tom called a few days later to tell me he’d broken his leg in a fall from a horse and asked me to come and help out, I figured it was fate.
Uncle Joe was my dad’s brother, and they had been born in Megalith. Dad had drifted around after high school, finally settling in the Midwest where he had married my mother and gone to work for a company that manufactured tools. Every chance he got, he brought Mom and me to Arizona to stay with Uncle Joe’s family and to experience life as he had known it as a child.
Each time we visited, I couldn’t understand why my dad had left.
Uncle Joe was standing next to my Jeep when I approached his office.
“I can tell you’ve been taking good care of this old baby,” he commented. “It looks as good as the day you and your dad finished it nearly ten years ago.”
“Thanks. It means a lot to me to hear you say that.”
“I thought after you graduated from college you would buy a new car, something fancy and flashy.”
I shook my head. “You know, I’ve never been a flashy person. This is the only car I’ve ever wanted. I guess I just don’t have any ambition.”
He chuckled. “That’ll be the day. You know, your mom and dad would be real proud of you, Jill, finishing college after…” His voice drifted away.
“Are you two going to hang out all day in the parking lot?” Tom asked from the office door. “There’s work to do.”
“Okay, Boss,” my uncle and I said in unison.
