Opposites Attract

by Michelle M. Pillow

  ‘Good to know he lacks for manners as well,’ she mumbled, pulling her door open herself, careful not to ruin her manicure on the handle. Sitting on the black leather seat, she turned her eyes to the window and didn’t say a word. Ethan started the car and she was amazed that it sounded quiet. She braced herself, waiting for the engine to backfire like she’d seen in movies. The car slipped into gear without so much as a choke.

  Susan giggled in the back seat at something Ted said and Alexis could hear them kissing. She closed her eyes. This was going to be a long trip.

  3

  Ethan glanced over at the passenger seat. ‘Sam’, as she wanted to be called, stared out the window. Her body looked to be wound so tight, it was like she thought she’d get a sexually transmitted disease just from sitting on his seats.

  He looked over his car and didn’t see what the big deal was. His car was a beautiful machine – one he’d put way too much money into. Though, to be fair, he’d done most of the work to it himself. The silver and black dashboard was a true work of art, as were the silver-plated foot pedals. It had clean, formal lines and a beautiful black leather interior with white accents. The suicide doors were factory, but he’d put on a new grille and custom wheels. It had power brakes, power steering and power windows. The V8 engine could purr like a kitten or roar like a lion.

  He glanced at the woman again. She was so close to the door she looked ready to bail if he so much as tried to touch her. He had no desire to touch her. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. The wind had blown her skirt up slightly as she belittled him and his life of crime to her friend and he’d seen two very delicious thighs. Hey, he was a man. Just like he could get a woody looking at some actress on TV, so could he get hard looking at the little ice princess next to him. She was slender, too slender. No doubt she was on some kind of diet. Her kind always was.

  Ethan didn’t mind a little meat on his women. In fact, he much preferred them to be softer. That’s how women were made to be. How in the evolution of culture they ever got to the point that it was considered sexy to be thin as a rail with bones poking out, he had no idea. Give him a softer woman any day. Someone who was ten pounds overweight – just the right size to be damned sexy in a dress and still have a nice soft feel to hold on to while he slept with them. Like Susan in the back seat. She was a nice size and cute too. Besides, she liked his car. That was always a plus in his book.

  Glancing in his rear-view mirror, he reminded himself that Susan was taken. Too bad. Just thinking about sex had made him hard. He shifted uncomfortably on his seat. He would’ve thought he got enough action the night before.

  He glanced over at ‘Sam’. Hell, he knew who she was. Alexis Grant. He read the papers. Of course, Miss High and Mighty would never believe he could read – what, with being in prison and all. He frowned. Had she actually said that? And in front of him? What a bitch.

  ‘So, Ethan,’ Susan said, leaning up to rest on the edge of the front seat. New York City was slowly disappearing into the distance. It had taken a few hours to get off the island of Manhattan. Thankfully, traffic hadn’t been too bad. ‘What do you do?’

  ‘I’m an unemployed tattoo artist,’ Ethan said. Alexis snorted. He chose to ignore her.

  ‘Is that why you’re going out to California?’ Ted asked.

  ‘Yeah, going to open my own shop.’ He got nervous and excited every time he thought about it. ‘I met up with a piercer last year at the Las Vegas convention. Thought I might look him up and see if he wanted in on it.’

  ‘What kind of business plan is that?’ Alexis demanded, turning her dark eyes to him.

  ‘I got a plan,’ Ethan said. He gripped the wheel tighter and felt the tension working its way up his arms.

  ‘What? Look up some stranger you met at a convention and maybe open a shop?’ She shook her head. Mumbling, she said, ‘That’s not a plan. That’s stupidity.’

  Susan quietly pulled away, sinking into the back seat. An uncomfortable silence followed. Alexis didn’t seem to notice. Ethan shook his head. This woman was really too much. He hadn’t been in prison before, but he might just be after this trip – for throwing the she-bitch out of a moving vehicle.

  ‘You know, doll, I’ve never been in prison so you can ease up on the fear,’ Ethan snapped.

  ‘I was arrested once,’ Susan said, her voice cheery. ‘In college.’

  Ethan chuckled. It was obvious Susan was trying to lighten the mood.

  ‘You did?’ Ted asked. ‘For what?’

  ‘Um,’ Susan sounded guilty. ‘Jaywalking ticket I forgot to pay.’

  Ted laughed. ‘My little rebel.’

  ‘I got you beat,’ Ethan said.

  ‘I bet you do,’ Alexis said under her breath. He did his best to ignore her.

  ‘I’ve only been arrested one time and that was for drunken misconduct when I was sixteen. I’d been caught peeing in public at our town’s annual Thanksgiving Day Parade.’

  ‘You did not,’ Susan said.

  ‘It was a dare. I hit one of those stupid floats,’ Ethan said. He didn’t think it was such a big deal. It hardly qualified him for America’s Most Wanted. Besides, he was still kind of proud he was able to hit the moving target from the kerb. ‘My family still plays the news footage every year at Thanksgiving. It’s a new James family tradition.’

  Susan and Ted laughed. Alexis said, ‘How quaint.’

  ‘Listen, doll, I don’t know what your problem is, but you better stop taking it out on me or I’ll pull this damned car over and let you walk your scrawny ass back to New York. That is if they’d even let you back in.’ Ethan forced his hands to relax as he dropped one to his lap. There was no way he was going to let Alexis know she was getting to him. Her kind was like piranhas. They liked attacking the weaker fish.

  ‘You can’t threaten me,’ Alexis gasped. The look of stunned amazement on her face was priceless. Ethan would’ve traded his favourite tattoo machine for a picture of it. He’d hang it in his new shop, right on top of a dart board. ‘How dare you speak to me that way?’

  ‘It’s my car,’ he said dryly. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. She snapped it shut and glared out the car window. Directing his question towards the back seat, he asked, ‘So, what’s your guys’ plan?’

  ‘I work online as an internet stockbroker,’ Ted said. ‘So basically, I can do that anywhere.’

  ‘What about you?’ he asked, glancing over his shoulder at Susan.

  ‘Oh, you know, get apartment, get jobs,’ Susan said. He looked at her reflection in the mirror. She was staring at the back of Alexis’s head. Ted met Ethan’s eye and gave an apologetic glance to the woman in the front.

  Ethan shrugged it off. He was irritated, but he wasn’t going to let it bother him. Maybe they’d just got off on the wrong foot. Glancing across the seat at Alexis, he stiffened. And, then again, maybe not.

  Several hours and a gas station on the New York–Pennsylvania border later, Alexis still stung from Ethan’s remarks about her butt. In fact, she was so self-conscious about it that she’d made her way to the gas station bathroom to check it out. It looked the same to her, but maybe it really was scrawny. She resolved to start doing leg lifts immediately.

  The bathroom was disgusting. Toilet paper stuck to the dirty tiled floor. Used paper towels were piled so high on the trashcan they fell over the side. Alexis didn’t dare look, but some kind of water leak came from underneath a stall door. Really, what had she expected? This bathroom had to be symbolic of the whole trip, perhaps of her whole new life.

  Alexis took a deep breath and then another. Tears welled in her eyes. Her life had become a dirty bathroom. It would explain why, for brief instances during the drive, she thought Ethan looked almost cute.

  ‘Hey, Al – ah, Sam?’ Susan called, knocking on the door. ‘You all right in there?’

  Alexis sniffed, looking around for a tissue. She didn’t dare touch anything. Dabbing her wet eyes with her fingers, she took a deep breath. ‘Co
me in.’

  ‘The door’s locked,’ Susan called.

  Alexis rolled her eyes and unlocked it. Susan looked around. ‘Why’s the door locked? There are like five toilet stalls in here.’

  ‘I needed some private time,’ Alexis said.

  ‘Oh, your period didn’t start today, did it?’ Susan asked, instantly sympathetic. ‘Do you need something? I might have some pads out in the car. That would explain why you’re so irritable today.’

  ‘No, my period didn’t start.’ Alexis sighed. ‘Thank God, I could not deal with that right now.’

  ‘Then what are you doing in here?’ Susan glanced around.

  ‘I told you.’ Alexis turned to the mirror, moving back and forth as she looked at the way the straight skirt pulled against her as she moved. Her butt didn’t look too bad so long as the skirt was moving around it. The dress was by designer Helen Wang. It was one of her favourites. The charcoal flower print on lilac silk chiffon was a gorgeous combination. The dress was sophisticated, yet light and fun with its ruffled bodice and spaghetti straps. Luckily, when the agents took everything, the dress had been at the dry-cleaners, or they would’ve taken it along with everything else. It really must have been divine intervention that she finally remembered to pay one of the hotel maids to take her dirty laundry. ‘I needed some private time. I’ve been cooped up in that car with Mr Insufferable for so long I was going crazy.’

  ‘Ah, it’s only been a few hours and he’s hardly said a word to you,’ Susan said, frowning. ‘I think he’s pleasant. You should be a little nicer to him.’

  ‘Me? Nicer to him?’ Alexis balked. ‘Did you hear the way he talked to me? He’s already threatened to do me bodily harm.’

  ‘What? He threatened to hurt you?’ Susan asked, finally looking appalled. ‘When? What happened?’

  ‘You were there,’ Alexis said, shaking her head. ‘Remember, he threatened to throw me out of the car.’

  ‘Lexy –’

  ‘No, it’s Sam,’ Alexis corrected.

  ‘Fine, Sam, I wanted to threaten to throw you out. You insulted the man’s car, called him a criminal and assumed he’d been to prison because he has tattoos.’ Susan took a deep breath. ‘I think you might have deserved that one.’

  Alexis had never seen her friend so worked up. She bit her lip. ‘He said I had a scrawny ass.’

  Susan blinked several times before laughing softly at that. ‘What does he know? He’s a man. He probably just meant you’re skinny. I’ve been telling you that for ever now. You should gain some weight.’

  Alexis sniffed. Smiling gratefully, she said, ‘Thanks, sweetie, you always know what to say to make me feel better. All right, I’ll try to be good. I promise.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Susan said. ‘Now, come on, the guys are ready to go.’

  Alexis followed Susan out of the bathroom and through the crowded aisle of the gas station. Ted was paying for a couple of drinks at the counter. The sales clerk, a middle-aged man in a red vest, barely even looked up as he counted back change. Ted in turn ignored the clerk. He glanced at Alexis. ‘You want anything?’

  ‘No, I’m good. Thanks.’ Alexis forced a smile, thinking, See, I can be good.

  Alexis walked to the car. Ethan leaned against the hood, his arms crossed over his chest, his head thrown back as the light breeze tried to whip his spiky red-tipped hair. His T-shirt moulded his torso, blowing up slightly at the stomach. What in the world possessed a man to get that many tattoos on him? She didn’t understand it at all. It wasn’t as if he was ugly to begin with. Sure, a little band of barbed wire if you were going for the rebel look or that black tribal stuff, but a whole arm? Two arms full of bright colours? And who knew what else.

  Her eyes dipped over his stomach and thighs. OK, why was she suddenly curious to actually see what else for herself? Telling herself to say something nice to him, she said, ‘You’d look better without the red goatee.’

  Ethan tilted his head down, looking over the top edge of his sunglasses. Slowly, he pulled them off his face. Blue, his eyes were blue with just a hint of green. She was surprised to find they were very pretty. Slowly, he looked her over and she felt her body heating at the way in which he seemed to take in her every curve. Breathless, she waited for him to speak. ‘You’d look better if your body could actually fill out that dress.’

  Alexis gasped, too stunned to retort. She didn’t move as he slipped his glasses back on and walked around the car to get in.

  ‘Let’s go,’ Susan said. Ted opened the door for her. ‘I’m ready to roll.’

  Alexis opened her own door, sliding into the passenger seat. Without looking at Ethan, she lifted her chin and said, ‘I need you to stop somewhere.’

  He turned to her. ‘We are stopped somewhere.’

  ‘This place won’t work,’ Alexis insisted. ‘I need you to stop some place else.’

  ‘For what?’ He was gritting his teeth now. She could actually see it.

  ‘I need to use the restroom, if you must know.’ Alexis pressed her lips tightly together and gripped her little handbag.

  ‘Didn’t you use the bathroom inside?’ Susan asked.

  ‘No, ew!’ Alexis turned around in her seat. ‘Did you see that place? Gross.’

  ‘It’s a bathroom,’ Ethan said, his voice rising in exasperation.

  ‘It’s a gross restroom and I have to go. Just pull over some place else,’ Alexis said.

  ‘Listen, doll, I am not stopping every five miles so you can inspect bathrooms to see if they’re good enough to pee in. Either you get out of this car and go to the bathroom right now, or the only place I’m pulling over will be the side of the busy interstate where everyone can see you. Your choice.’ Ethan motioned his hand towards the gas station. ‘Decide fast.’

  ‘Oh!’ Alexis gnashed her teeth and got out of the car, storming back inside. The man was really too much.

  Ethan watched Alexis leave for the bathroom before taking a deep breath. All day it had been something with her. The music wasn’t right. The car was too hot. The car was too cold. The roads were too bumpy. He drove too slow, too fast, too straight. The bathrooms were too icky for her delicate, pampered bottom. Turning to Susan and Ted, he asked, ‘Is she for real?’

  Ted couldn’t meet his eyes. He turned to gaze out the window.

  ‘She spent nearly a half-hour in that bathroom and she didn’t even use it?’ Ethan continued. ‘Is she doing this because I tried to kick her out of the car? Because I really can’t think of anything else.’

  Ted chuckled. ‘My guess? It’s because you made a comment about her ass being scrawny.’

  Susan looked embarrassed. ‘I’m sorry, Ethan. She’s going through a hard time right now in her personal life. I’ve never seen her act this horribly before. She’s just under a lot of stress.’

  ‘You always do that,’ Ted said softly. He sighed, shaking his head. ‘You don’t have to make excuses for her. Her attitude today has been horrible. I’m embarrassed we even invited her at this point. This trip was supposed to be a fun adventure. She’s done everything she could think of to make sure we’re all as miserable as she is.’

  ‘I know,’ Susan said, her voice harder than usual. Ethan saw Susan stiffen, getting a little defensive at Ted’s words. Alexis really didn’t deserve such a loyal friend. Under her breath, she asked, ‘Can we not talk about this now?’

  Ethan turned in his seat to look straight ahead. He took a deep breath, doing his best to be calm, to just let everything that had to do with Alexis Grant roll off his back. ‘Listen, I’m trying hard to take into account that her mother just got arrested. I know that stress can make people act in ways they don’t usually behave, but this? This really is too much.’

  ‘I know.’ Susan leaned forwards and placed a light hand on his shoulder. ‘I’ll have a talk with her. I promise. It’s just she’s not used to living like a real person. She’s grown up in hotels with maids and room service and limo drivers that she has gotten to boss around si
nce the age of five. I’m so sorry –’

  ‘Don’t apologise for her. She’s a grown woman and not your responsibility.’ Ethan saw Miss High and Mighty coming from inside. He started the car before she got back in.

  Sliding into the seat next to him, she crossed her arms over her chest and didn’t say a word. That suited Ethan just fine. It seemed the only time they could get along was when they didn’t talk at all.

  ‘Can I see the map?’ Alexis asked, turning around to look at Susan. Pennsylvania was a pretty state full of mountains and trees, with apparently no place to pull over to eat along the interstate. Alexis wasn’t hungry, but she was ready to take another break away from Ethan. ‘Where are we?’

  ‘We’re not almost there yet, if that’s what you’re wondering,’ Ethan said.

  ‘I wasn’t,’ Alexis snapped at him, making a face and rolling her eyes. They’d been driving pretty much nonstop all day. Though it was beautiful, the state seemed to go on for ever.

  ‘I think we should be almost out of Pennsylvania,’ Susan said, handing the map she’d printed off the internet to Alexis. ‘Close to the Ohio border. We just passed a sign that said Youngstown.’

  ‘It doesn’t seem like we’ve gotten very far,’ Alexis said, eyeing the map. She looked out the car window, watching the rolling green hills in the distance. Pennsylvania wasn’t a bad state. She’d been through the area before. She’d actually stayed at a bed and breakfast once with her mother when she was little. It was one of the rare times they had vacationed together. Well, her mother was taking a working vacation with her current lover at the time. She ended up buying the bed and breakfast and tearing it down when the man dumped her. Anyway, the place had been beautiful, close to a quaint little covered bridge and a quiet stream.

  Alexis took a deep breath, drawing her thoughts back into the car. The landscape around them looked the same as it did back then, but it didn’t hold the same childish fascination and pleasure. ‘Why did we come this way anyway? Isn’t there a shorter route?’