“You’re an idiot.” Pushing at bunches of white crinoline and lace Callie attempted to sit up as the Jaguar pulled away from the intersection.
“Oh, and you’re some big prize.” Brian shot back flipping a U in the intersection as he reached for the carphone built into the console of the Jaguars dashboard and began dialing.
“Hey it’s me………yeah, yeah I remember about the motherfucking bet…….yes…..yes…….okay just shut up for a second and listen to me.” Callie listened intently to Brian’s cryptic conversation her hand on the door handle in case she needed to make a quick escape.
“You have to go and pick up my car. It’s at the intersection of Demont and Lane, parked in the middle of the road with the emergency blinkers on……nope I don’t have a clue where they are…….thanks Howie bye.”
“Howie is an idiot.” Callie announced loudly as Brian replaced the phone in its cradle. “If it weren’t for him I’d be Mrs. Nickolas Conrad Carter right now.”
“His middle name is Gene.” Brian replied in an irritated tone.
“Okay now c’mon, would I really want to be Mrs. Nickolas Gene Carter? That sounds so….common.”
“You were going to change his middle name?”
“Of course?”
“And he was okay with that?”
“I don’t know?” Rolling down her window Callie let the morning sun warm her face.
“Did it ever occur to you that maybe he likes his middle name?”
“Why would anybody like the middle name Gene?”
“Well what’s your middle name?” Brian could hardly believe he was even having this conversation with the Ice Princess when he’d much rather drive her out into the middle of the woods and leave her there for the forest creatures to devour.
“Marie.” Callie replied an air of superiority in her voice.
“Oh you mean like Marie Osmond.” Brian snorted.
“Shut up.” Callie kicked at the back of his seat.
“Are you a little bit country Callie……and Nick’s a little bit rock and roll?”
“Are you about finished?”
“No way, I just got started.” Cackling evilly Brian launched into a barrage of Osmond jokes that had Callie wishing the guy at the intersection would have taken her up on her challenge and then knocked her out cold.
* * *
“Put him on the phone I want to talk to him.” Kevin demanded as A.J. leaned forward flipping up the volume knob on the radio.
“What Kev…what did you say…I can hardly hear you?”
“Then turn down your freaking radio A.J.”
“Huh……what did you say…..you say you want a Peking Ho?”
“Ninety hundred bottles of Peaking Ho’s on the wallllllllllll.” Nick screeched in a voice that only dogs could hear.
“A.J. I want him on the phone by the count of five.”
A.J. laughed holding the phone up to the car speakers letting Axl Rose to drown out Kevin as he did his best to count to five. Glancing up to the road up ahead A.J. realized he was approaching a belt route. Which way should he go and would it really matter?
To Nick it would.
If he chose wrong it could mean destroying Nick’s future happiness.
East or West…..East or West….……..A.J.’s mind went a million miles an hour as he watched all of the cars merging into the West bound lane………….
~Robert Frost~
Signaling to merge right along with the flow of traffic A.J. suddenly changed his mind. Dropping the cell phone he placed both hands on the wheel giving the car a quick jerk as he swerved into the East bound lane with a big smile on his face.
* * *
“Did you talk to him?” Walking onto the hotel balcony Beth scooped her hair up into a scrunchie securing it in a messy knot on top of her head.
“Hello? Hello?” Shouting into his cell phone Kevin shook his head. “Little shit put me on his own brand of hold with Axl Rose for elevator music.
“Where are they?” Leaning on the railing beside her husband Beth touched Kevin’s elbow with her own.
“Who knows. A.J. won’t say and Nick’s about three sheets past being three sheets to the wind.”
“He’s drunk?” Raising her eyebrows she tried to hide the amusement creeping onto her face.
“Saying he’s drunk would be a major understatement.”
“He’s a grown man Kevin, you have to let him do what he’s going to do.” Placing a hand tenderly on Kevin’s arm Beth took the cell phone from his hand pressing end.
“What if what he’s going to do is make a mess of his life?” Sighing Kevin watched his wife toss his phone to the chaise lounge.
“He was going to make a mess of his life if he married Callie Kevin. It was a no win situation.”
“Maybe I should go and look for them?” Chewing on a fingernail Kevin glanced out to the horizon.
“Kevin.” Looking back into Beth’s big brown eyes Kevin smiled.
“I just want him to be happy Bethie.”
“It’s time to let Nick make his own kind of happy, even if it doesn’t have the Kevin Richardson seal of approval.”