by Helene Laval
“I wouldn’t call this fair weather,” I said noticing that the sky was getting darker than usual this time of day.
“It’s October. It’s cold and windy, but I don’t see snow yet. We’ll be fine,” Steve assured me.
11
Annie
An hour later, we were most definitely not fine. We were in a ditch off the highway nearly one hundred feet from the road. The sky looked like it was nearly dusk, even though it was noon, and we were dead in the center of an honest to goodness blizzard. The roads were impassible, and we heard on the static filled radio that the highway was shut down. Of course there was no cell phone reception.
I sat in the car, somewhat stunned, and trying to come to grips with what just happened. Steve was outside the Camaro yelling at his car. “Shit, fuck, damn!”
“Baby, are you ok?” Then, “Oh, no… What'd you do to your bumper? That tree swallow it up?” Then a beat of, “You fucking fuck!” I heard a thump, presumably him kicking said tree.
“It’s okay baby, we can fix you up, no problem. I’ll take care of you.” Then he started mumbling in Spanish. Cooing and soothing rhythmical speak that I didn’t understand a single word of, but sounded like music, nonetheless. I knew Steve was of Latin descent, but he had no accent that I could detect. So when he started rambling words in another language as if they were his native tongue, I had to open the door, get out of the car and gawk at him.
“Steve?” I interrupted. He was kneeling down in front of his car with his hands on the hood. Snow blanketed his black leather jacket and dark hair. He raised his head to look at me, and those beautiful dark eyes softened when they met mine. I involuntarily clenched my thighs together.
“She’ll be okay. I can fix her.”
“Mmmm hmm,” I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest, and I could feel my eyebrows rising. “What now?” I asked.
The initial shock of careening off the road had faded, and I was now in “take care of it” mode. We had to get out of here before the storm got even worse than it was. I raised my cell phone up to the sky hoping for a signal. There was none. Go figure we wreck on the one stretch of highway without reception.
“I know you said you were okay, but I have to ask again,” he said, walking around the front of the car. Standing directly in front of me, he reached a hand to my cheek, then both hands cupped my face. Those big strong veiny hands I had fantasized about roaming my body less than an hour before. Concerned eyes darted around my face, looking for injuries. He was so close, I could smell hints of aftershave. I couldn’t breathe.
“Stop it. I’m fine. We’ve already been over this, twice.” I turned my head. I didn’t want him to get a read on me and my body’s traitorous reaction toward him when he touched me.
“I’m going to hike up to the road and see if I can see any vehicles,” Steve said.
“I’m going with you.” I quickly followed and started zipping my jacket.
“No. Stay here out of the snow.”
“I will not stay here. I have two legs, same as you.”
“No,” Steve tried again, turning around.
“I’m going too. Don’t say no to me again.” I caught up to him.
He looked down at my body assessing my clothing. I had on my heavy winter coat with the fur hood, jeans, and combat boots. I assessed him right back, leather bike jacket (not too warm), jeans and work boots.
“I’m better dressed for this than you are,” I said, pulling a beanie from my pocket and securing it on my head. At least we were both wearing boots.
“Fine,” he said and turned toward the road.
We followed the tracks from the car up to the highway. It was the slowest and the fastest “wreck” I’d ever been in. One minute we were on the road, the next we were going down an embankment. Steve didn’t even have time to try to correct. Down the hill and into the woods we went. Luckily we weren’t going fast, we were going relatively slow, as Steve was trying to navigate the suddenly snow-covered road.
One minute we were fine, the next, blizzard conditions. The next minute, we were in the woods. Fucking global warming. When we reached the top of the embankment to the highway, there was—nothing. Not a sound but the roaring wind. There was no windbreak like there was down at the car, and the cold wind stung me over and over as I attempted to look down the highway. Not a vehicle in sight. Shit.
“We can’t walk out of here,” I said.
“I know. Stay here and keep an eye out for somebody. I’ll be back.” And he quickly hopped back down the hill toward the car before I could say a word.
I was cold, and I was going to get colder fast. I knew my body, and it didn’t tolerate winter very well at all. I was definitely a cozy up by the fire type of girl. If I could, I’d hibernate for the winter. My body hated the cold.
I couldn’t see the car from where I was standing, but I heard a door slam indicating he was on his way back up. The snow was falling thicker now, and the wind was still fierce. There was no way we’d get far on foot, let alone anybody actually seeing us.
Steve trudged up the hill carrying a black duffel bag.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Emergency roadside bag,” he said, raising it up so I could see it better. When he was next to me, he knelt down and unzipped it.
“Well, aren’t you prepared,” I said, watching him ruffle through its contents.
“It was in the trunk. Right now I’m grateful for rich kids with rich parents—aha!” He pulled out a small black case that when opened revealed a set of orange discs.
“What the hell are those?” I asked leaning over trying to figure out what I was looking at.
“Emergency road flares, the modern version.” He took one out and turned it on. Bright LED lights flared to life and blinked in a rhythmic beat.
“Those are cool!” I said reaching to grab one and turning it on. It looked like a kids’ toy or a mini spaceship, and I was grateful we had them.
“We’ll leave these here and go back and wait in the car. Somebody will be by eventually,” he said.
It took some time to set up the discs. The snow was falling so fast, they would’ve been buried in no time sitting on the ground, so we found a large fallen log and dragged it to where it looked like it was pointing to where the car was located. We set the discs on top and made our way back to wait in the vehicle.
I hadn’t said a word the entire time we were out there about how cold I actually was, but once we got back into the car I started shivering hard, and I couldn’t control it. I huddled in the passenger side hunched over so my head rested on the dash. It was good to be out of the wet and the wind. I tucked my hands into my armpits, closed my eyes, and tried to will the pain away. Fuck. I hated being cold.
I heard Steve rummaging through the contents of the emergency kit, oblivious to my crisis, and I vaguely heard him rattle off contents. “Rope, shovel, first aid kit.” And then his voice faded, and he tuned out.
“Annie?” I heard faintly a short time later. “Annie, you okay?” I felt Steve’s hand on my shoulder gently shaking me. I must’ve dozed off for a minute. I rolled my head sideways to look at him, my cheek now resting on the dash.
“I’m cold,” I managed to get out. “I’ll be okay, give me a minute.”
“Shit. Let me turn the car on, get the heater going.” Steve tried to turn over the engine. Nothing. He took the key out, waited a minute and tried again. Nothing.
“Fuck!” Steve yelled and slammed both hands on the dash.
I jumped at the abrupt action, jolting me more awake. “I’ll be alright, just give me a few minutes.”
Steve looked around wildly then turned his head toward the backseat. “Get in the back seat.”
“What?”
“I said, get in the back seat.”
“I don’t want to go out there. I’m fine.” I was not going back outside.
“Crawl back from here. Hop on back there, woman. Now.”
I don’t know
why I didn’t argue. Maybe it was the panicked look on his face, maybe I simply didn’t have the energy. I managed to shift my body around in the small space and crawled between the two front seats. Steve crawled in the back after me with surprising grace for a man his size. He put the duffel on his lap, pulled out a small plastic wrapper and tore it open.
“Hand warmers.” He smiled brightly at me as he shook up the little bags and handed them to me. “Here.”
I took them gratefully, but then tried to hand one back.
“You need one too,” I insisted.
“No, I’m okay. Take them.” He pushed my hands back toward me. I took them.
Next he pulled out a thin bright yellow blanket. He unfolded it and spread it over me, tucking it in around my body. I didn’t say a word as he pulled my fur-lined hood up and over my head and beanie.
He tossed the duffel into the front seat and turned toward me. “Better?”
“Yes, thank you.” And I was. I was already feeling the effects of the hand warmers and blanket.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you up on the road when I went to the car. It was brutal up there.”
“I’ll be fine. My body just hates cold weather,” I said, looking over at him.
“I see that.” He smirked at me.
I managed a weak smile back. “Thank you,” I said again.
His smile widened on his face, those damn dimples gracing his cheeks. His eyes crinkled slightly, and he pointed a finger at me. “You smiled! I made you smile.”
I couldn’t help it, I smiled bigger.
12
Steve
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I had no idea what I was going to do. What was I supposed to do with this situation? My Camaro was wrecked, again, there was a killer storm outside, and no signs of rescue. On the plus side, it was still early afternoon, which meant we wouldn’t be dealing with plummeting temperatures soon. Even though it felt like it, we weren’t in the middle of nowhere. This was a major highway. And the biggest plus? Annie. It scared the hell out of me when I saw her shivering. Thank God I never took the emergency pack out of the car.
My family is from Ecuador, and I grew up in Texas. Not exactly winter weather. Last year was my first ever full-fledged east coast winter, and it wasn’t easy on me. This early storm shit? It sucked. I was not the best guy to deal with a winter storm. But I had Annie with me, and I’d be damned if I’d let anything happen to her.
Annie had repositioned herself against the back passenger side door, and I took the opposite position, so we were facing each other. There wasn’t a lot of room in the back of the Camaro. Both of our legs wouldn’t extend comfortably straight, but it worked for now. She looked adorable wrapped in that bright yellow blanket and her fur-lined hood. She wasn’t shivering anymore and looked downright comfortable. That filled me with relief. She shifted and leaned forward enough to swipe the black beanie off her head and tossed it to me.
“Here,” she said as it landed neatly in my lap.
“Nah, I’m good,” I said tossing it right back to her.
“Take it. I have a hood on my coat. You can’t be warm. All you have on is that leather jacket, and I doubt you have long johns under your jeans.”
“I don’t have any johns at all,” I smirked.
Her eyes widened. “Commando? In winter?”
I raised my eyebrows at her questioning expression and shrugged my shoulders.
“Jesus Vega, you need the hat. Wear it.” She threw it back at me and tried to scowl, barely succeeding.
I felt my mood shift slightly. “I’m sorry for getting you into this. I guess we aren’t going to make it to see your dad today.” I meant it. I felt incredibly guilty for getting her into this cluster-fuck.
“It’s not your fault. As far as things with my dad, I’ll have to figure that out. I really needed to see him in person,” she said, readjusting the blanket so it snugged up underneath her neck.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“I really don’t want to get into it. Let’s just say, I want him to leave me alone to live my life. He already got me into enough messes cleaning up his shit.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes. I didn’t want to push things about her dad. Annie could be downright bristly. But it did make me think of her living at the bar, and not telling anybody.
“So, how long have you been living at the bar?” I finally blurted out.
“About a year. It wasn’t a secret, you know,” she answered defensively.
“But you didn’t tell anybody?” I asked.
“I didn’t, but I if somebody asked me straight out, I wouldn’t have lied. So, not a secret.”
“So, why are you living in the bar?” I asked again.
She blew out a breath as if exhausted with the effort. “My dad left me with a lot of debt to clear up. Some of it was honest debt, from an actual bank. The worst they would do is foreclose and take the bar. Some of it was other debt. From people you don’t want to mess with. It wasn’t a huge amount, and I got that cleared up pretty quick, within a year or so. But the bank payments suffered, and I got way behind on the bills. So to save money to pay off the bar debt, I gave up my apartment. I started opening for lunch too and that ended up paying off. All the loans are up to date, and I’m turning a small profit.”
“Is that why you haven’t hired more staff?”
“More or less. It wasn’t so busy up until a year ago. Then the town started getting more business, urban sprawl started seeping in, full of the rich and privileged. I started getting some regular live music in, and that really kicked things up a notch too. I was so busy working every single day, even on Sundays when we’re closed during the day. I didn’t have time to hire anybody until Jimmy.”
“That’s the skinny barback, right? Gamer looking kid?”
“Yeah, he’s the son of somebody my dad knows. I didn’t actually hire him, he just sort of showed up with a note. He’s doing okay but isn’t the most personable. Not that I have much to say about that. I don’t like to get too close and friendly with people either.”
“Huh, I’ve never noticed,” I said deadpan.
“Shut up.” She grinned at me. I could never get sick of that. She looked beautiful snugged up in the corner.
“What?” I asked affronted.
“I’m just busy is all. I don’t have time for friends, and chit chat and parties and get-togethers.” She shifted a bit, pulling the yellow blanket up to her chin.
“When’s the last time you actually went out with friends?” I looked at her straight on.
“I got my haircut yesterday and visited Betsy and Rina,” she responded.
“That doesn’t count, but I’ll give it to you, anyway. When is the last time you went on a date?”
“A date?”
“Yes, a date. With a man.” I had to know. A part of me wanted to know what type of guy she went out with.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been on an actual date.”
“Come on, you’re kidding me!” I sat up straight and leaned forward, intent on listening to her answer.
“Look. My dad went into the Pen when I was nineteen. I was running a bar and wasn’t even old enough to drink. It’s all I have, that place. I lost the house when Dad went in. I have no family. I only have the bar, and I’m not losing it. I don’t care if I have to work twenty-four hours a day. I never had time for a date.”
That was a lot, and I wanted to tackle all of it, but I was focused on the date thing. “Are you telling me you haven’t been out or interested in a guy since you were nineteen? Five years?”
“So?”
“Woman, you have to go out and live a little. You do nothing but work. Your friends truly want to be your friends. I heard Rina and Betsy talking the other night about trying to get you to go out. You need to connect with people, Annie. It’s important.”
“Is that so?” And we were back to her deep scowl. She was angry.
I didn’t care. “It’s so. People car
e about you. You should let them in.”
“I don’t need you, of all people, telling me to connect with others, Steve Vega. I’ve seen you ‘connect’ with others.” She made little quotes with her fingers as she continued. “On many occasions you’ve left with some random chick, only to never see her again. You smile and flirt and pretend you’re best friends with everybody, but I don’t believe it for a minute. It’s your way of hiding who you really are.”
“I’m new in town. I’m a nice guy. I like to have fun. So what?” I defended myself, but the truth in her words had me burning inside.
“You’ve been new for over a year now. That’s a bullshit excuse and you know it.”
“Well, maybe I haven’t connected with anybody because they aren’t you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” she said, startled, eyes wide.
“You heard me. When I close my eyes and picture what I want, I see you. Why do you think I’ve been hanging at the bar? Playing bouncer? I can’t get close to you, never have. Lord knows I’ve tried. You just scowl and get prickly when I’m around. You redirect, you bristle, you walk away. You won’t give me the time of day, damn it!”
“Steve—”
“Don’t Steve me. I’ve seen the way you look at me, Annie. Don’t deny it. I’m not going to let you deny me any longer.”
She stared at me, jaw open. She shut it and looked away. I did not want her to look away when I said this to her. I sat up and leaned toward her to put my hands on her cheeks and gently steered her face, so she was looking directly at me. Her pretty blue eyes widened.
“I want you to see me say this, Annie.” I ran a thumb over her cheek. “I want you. I’ve wanted you since the first day I walked into your bar.” My thumb swept over her full lower lip. “I realized I came on too strong, so I backed off. But I don’t want to back off any more. You’re going to be mine. It may not be now, nor today, but soon. Very, very soon.” I leaned my forehead into hers until they touched. She didn’t move a muscle, but I could feel the rapid rise and fall of her chest. I glided one hand from her cheek to around the back of her neck. I brought my mouth to hers and kissed her.