'Music or no music?'
'What, you don't think us having a conversation can make up for the lack of a few good tunes?'
'It's a simple question, Aya.' I said, with a chuckle.
'Oh but the implication, sir. The implication.' She responded, falling into brief laughter as well. 'Okay okay... sure, we can listen to some music.'
As I picked up my phone to skim through my music, she briefly scratched an itch on her face. Which revealed a twinkle on her hand, aided by the dim interior of the car contrasting with the fleeting light from incoming traffic.
My heart sank. 'This day couldn't get worse if it tried.' I thought to myself. To think, Aya was supposed to be my ticket out of being a stressed out pile of crap, now she was single-handedly inclining what was already a steep slope of crap. I gave out a deep sigh, which filled the car with a cloud of sadness. I was worried she'd notice my slight change in mood, so I hit play on a song, and quickly put my phone away to hide my face from the light.
'Hmm, not bad taste you have there' She asked.
'Yeah it's a pretty good song.'
'I will go ahead and Shazam this so that I can later become a better fan than you.'
'I'd like to see you try.' I said, trying my best to sound gleeful.
'Death caaab... for... cutie. Interesting name.' She said, looking down at the Shazam result on her phone. The light accentuating her pretty face. 'First time I'VE ever heard of... them?'
'Yeah it's a band.' I said, vacantly.
It suddenly dawned on me; that's the first time I'D ever seen tha-. I snapped back into the moment, and uttered words faster than I could I think about them.
'I know a nice little lodge, along the way. Wanna grab a couple of drinks?'
Her eyes sparkled from the ambient light as she turned her gaze to me. If I was any less good of a driver, I'd have completely forgotten all about what I was doing, in that moment.
'Sure.' She said, with a gentle smile.
Putting her phone away, she continued, in a genuine tone. 'So hey, why didn't you drive away back there, what changed your mind?'
I widened my eyes ever so slightly, but restored my neutral face just as quickly. 'Yeah 'cause driving away was totally not going to be a douche move.' I responded, doing my very best to sound as natural as possible.
She let out a chortle. 'Hmmm, I think we might have a superhero complex on our hands.' She said, with a wry smile, and her eyes in a light squint.
'Oh. My. Goodness.' I responded, in a slightly elevated tone.
'Oh I see you Mr. Kent.' She said, giggling.
***
Arriving at the lodge brought a host of intrusive thoughts to my mind. Most of which rendered my body an eager mess, especially in light of everything that had gone on over the past hour or so.
Suddenly that broken-down car had all the potential in the world to be an alibi.
I struggled to keep my body calm. Almost trembling with lust at this point. What a battle it was to keep the receptionist oblivious. It almost made me laugh, how quickly things had escalated in my mind. Even though it was the urge to get some kind of release, it was a bit much to try and make up for just a crap couple of hours. That thought did get a chortle out of me. She asked what was funny, and I told her it was nothing, and somehow she left it at that. She's not one to let those go completely. Perhaps she, too, was preoccupied.
Having gotten our drinks, we quickly found a vacant table, and sat down.
I needed to walk off the hots in my pants, so I excused myself on the grounds that I needed to call Davie, to give him instructions and wire him some money for the work and his ride home.
After I was satisfied with how calm I'd managed to get my body to be, which was a minute or so after the phone call had ended. I walked back to our table.
After a few drinks, and what felt like some of the best conversation I'd ever had. She said she needed to use the bathroom, and left me nursing what wondered was going to be my last drink or not.
I blankly looked around at the other people having a good time, quite a few of them supposedly present with the aid of their own alibis.
As I looked back down at my drink, I paused at what I had just caught a glimpse of, in my peripheral vision. I immediately had a broth of fury and exasperation boil up in my chest.
My Son picked this night, of all nights, to go out with his girlfriend. I never cuss, but 'these fucken kids, man.' I said under my breath. 'I guess inclining slopes is a collaborative sport.'
I had half a mind to walk up to his table and ask him what hell he was doing there, but somehow; my rationality kicked in. I let it go, and focused getting my ass out of there.
Aya emerged from the direction of the ladies' room. Triggering my mind to churn up ways and means to get us to leave. My eyes involuntarily looked at her left hand. It was void of all twinkles. Which made me pause briefly, but I had no time to catastrophise.
I suggested we should leave, in the most casual way I could. Instinctively, she sensed something was up, and quickly flicked her eyes left and right, before gently asking me why. She held a sad expression on her face, and her attempts to make us stay only made me feel even more like a douche. But that was no time to fall for her charm.
After a few more exchanges, I managed to convince her to leave. I made some shit up about my sick suddenly dying dog.