“So what? We have insurance and LoJack. This car was meant to be driven and enjoyed. Think about how much of a stud you are going to look pulling up to the bar with this car and me on your arm. Every guy there will want to be you, and every girl will want to be with you.”
She was trying to appeal to my vanity, and it was working. I was thinking earlier about how some people have never even sat in a car like this. I had the opportunity to drive it, and drive it with a beautiful girl in the passenger seat. Every guy’s dream right? The chance to experience this was worth the fear I was feeling right now. I pushed the red button next to the steering wheel, and the engine roared to life, like a tiger’s growl.
“Whoa” was all I could get out. Aimee giggled.
I found the button to put the car in drive. There wasn’t any stick to shift, and I realized the car was controlled by levers on the wheel. Smart idea. I engaged first and pushed lightly on the gas. The car purred gently as it crawled out of the garage and onto the stone driveway. Aimee hit a button on the dash as we drove by the side of the mansion, and I saw the garage door descend in the rearview mirror. Aimee’s dad must be my height since I didn’t need to adjust any of the mirrors or the seat.
We got to the end of the driveway, and Aimee hit another button on the dash. Then the gate opened, and we were off the property and on the roads of Bel Air.
“I don’t really know how to get out of here. I used my GPS on my car to get here.” I looked over at Aimee.
“No problem! This car has a nav too. Let me figure out how to use it.” She touched a few other buttons on the center console, and a screen rose from the middle dash area. Aimee fiddled around with the touch screen for a few minutes, while giving me directions to get to Sunset Boulevard.
By the time I made it to Sunset, she had the computer set with directions to the bar. The clock said it was a quarter past nine, and the computer said we would be there in thirty-five minutes. I hadn’t really gone past twenty miles per hour yet, but after I turned on to Sunset, I opened it up a bit. Or at least I thought it was going to be a bit. Aimee and I ended up being thrown back into our seats as I quickly hit sixty in first gear. The engine grew from a deep purr to a joyful roar. She laughed as I remembered to flip the shift lever, putting it into second, and then quickly into third so the gas pedal wasn’t so sensitive.
“Daddy said he did the same thing when he first drove it. You’ll get used to it.” I nodded and started to smile. Sunset had some gentle curves. I had gotten my speed down to forty-five and was starting to get the hang of driving it. The seat and ride felt amazingly comfortable. I thought it would feel much harder.
“Take Sepulveda to the 405,” she said as I approached the right off Sunset. The computer said differently, but I followed her instructions. The car angled down the ramp and slid onto Sepulveda easily. I had my eyes transfixed on the speedometer. I was beginning to get a feel for the car. It was really easy to maneuver; it was just hard to keep it under the speed limit. The dark-red animal wanted to go fast.
We stopped at the intersection light next to the left turn onto the 405. An older-model Honda pulled up next to us, and a man and his wife looked over at the Ferrari; their mouths were open in appreciation. I’m sure the locals saw these cars every once in a while, since we were near Brentwood, Westwood, Bel Air, Hollywood, and Holmby Hills.
“These windows are so tinted; no one can see in. Hi!” Aimee said as she waved from her seat at the people next to us. They didn’t acknowledge her. The light turned green, and I made the left onto the ramp to get on the 405. There was no one in front of me, so I decided to open it up on the straight away.
Aimee cooed as the Ferrari ended up reaching 80 within a few feet of the on ramp. The engine sounded unreal as I merged into traffic. I was in second gear still, and I think I had an idiotic smile glued on my face. I was so glad I decided to drive. Actually, who was I kidding? Aimee convinced me. I looked over and saw her studying me carefully with a smug smile on her face. Her eyes had dark liner that accented their slightly almond shape. Her legs crossed at the ankles, and I could see the skirt ride up on her hips, exposing more of the smooth leg between the top of the boot and the skirt hem. She was gorgeous. I could have been sitting at home right now studying for classes that I was already weeks ahead on. I was such a prude.
The flow of the traffic was going about eighty, and I moved over to the left lane before we hit the grade that took the 405 over the Santa Monica Mountains and into the San Fernando Valley. On the freeway, the car felt magnificent. I could probably drive all day in the seats without fatigue, and it wasn’t bumpy at all, even though the 405 was pretty rough. I didn’t expect it to be more comfortable than my new car, but it was. The only issue I had was that I randomly put my left foot down where there should have been a clutch and tried to grab a stick to shift. Then I remembered the levers on the steering wheel.
“So, what do you think?” Aimee’s hand rested on my right shoulder. I should have been annoyed by her touch, but I was so happy with this new experience.
“This car is fucking awesome,” I said, breathlessly.
“I’m so glad you like it. You look good driving it. My dad only takes it out sometimes on the weekends. He doesn’t take it into work, because he wants to have a more-frugal image. I don’t know why, all the other people at his company drive nicer cars.” I looked at the instrument gauges more closely and saw the car had a little over 4,000 miles on it.
“How long has he had it for?”
“About a year, I think.” I guess he didn’t really drive it that much.
“What does he normally drive?” I asked. The garage was only half full, so I figured he must have taken one of the cars to the airport.
“He normally drives the blue BMW. He likes blue colors.” I recalled that it was a BMW M5. I hadn’t paid much attention to it in the garage, but I recalled that any BMW with an “M” on it was supposed to be fast. I didn’t ask why it was parked in the garage. Hell, he probably had a helicopter come pick him up from the house when he wanted to fly out. “The cute Lexus is mine; my parents sometimes take the little convertible into work together when the weather is nice; my mom has an Audi she likes; and Beth doesn’t drive yet.”
“Ahh, I was just going to ask you which cars were whose,” I said as I glanced over to her with a smile.
We reached the top of the grade, and the San Fernando Valley stretched out beneath us. I started to change lanes to get on the 101. A song started playing out of Aimee’s purse, and she dug around to find her phone.
“Hey Sam! How’s it going beautiful?” Aimee said. I could hear Samantha’s voice from the phone speaker, but I couldn’t make out the words. “Oh no! Is he going to be okay?” I looked over at Aimee. She looked concerned. “Icky! That sucks! Hold on a second, let me tell Eric.” Aimee put the phone down from her mouth. “Brent got food poisoning at dinner and is throwing up. Sam drove him home and is taking care of him.” Uh oh.
The wheels in my mind turned as I tried to figure out how to get back. I guess I could get off the 405 in Sherman Oaks after the 101 ramp and flip back around. I was a little disappointed I’d have to cut the drive so short, but there was only another ten minutes left in our trip anyways.
“Oh, okay.” Aimee was talking to Sam again. “Yeah, we’ll just pick them up at Will Call then. Tell him we hope he feels better.” Then she hung up. “He left two tickets under your name at the bar, so we can still get in. Sam was saying Brent told her this place was going to be full tonight, so we won’t be able to get in without the tickets.”
I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. She had a smile on her face as she looked at anywhere but me. Crap. This wasn’t what I signed up for. I didn’t want to be there alone with Aimee. I thought Brent and Samantha were going to be there as well.
“Oh, okay, I guess that is good news. I mean, I hope he feels better, but I really wanted to see these guys play. You are still cool going, right?” I asked her. Maybe I wo
uld get lucky and she would say that she wouldn’t want to go. It was a shot in the dark.
“Oh, I totally want to go!” Aimee sat up in her seat. “We are going to have a great time. We’ll have an even better time with just the two of us.” I swallowed hard at the last sentence. She hadn’t really said it with any sort of emphasis on a double meaning; she sounded like her normal perky self. I looked over at her again and then back to the road. She was looking at her phone.
“Okay. I do feel a little weird that it turned out this way though. It feels more like a date now…” I trailed off, waiting for her to confirm or deny my statement.
“Well…” She paused as she put her phone back in her purse. “This is a date! I mean, we had dinner, dressed up, and are going to see a show. Date, right?” I could see out of the corner of my eye that she was staring at me intently. I was trying to get on the 101, and the off ramp was always a mess, so I didn’t want to take my eyes off the road.
“Listen Aimee…” I didn’t want to bring this up. I thought she agreed she wouldn’t be like this. I thought back to when I was playing piano; she had tried something then too. “I don’t think this is a good idea. Jack is your boyfriend and my best friend, and I-”
“Wait,” she said as she put her hand up. “Hold on a second. I think you have the wrong idea about Jack and me.” She sounded angry, but I couldn’t afford to take my eyes off the road. I dropped the car a gear and punched it to get around a slow car. The Ferrari ate the road up like a tidal wave and sounded twice as cool.
“What do you mean?” I asked once I got back down to eighty. I was safe on the 101, heading into North Hollywood.
“You are making it out to be more than it is. Maybe Jack told you differently. I mean, Jack is a great guy, but we’ve been dating for only a few months. I wouldn’t call him my boyfriend. I’m certainly not in love with him,” she said as if I should have known this.
I didn’t know what to say for a few seconds. It was obvious to me that Jack was in love with her, but I might have had my perception of the situation skewed. If someone as great as Jack loved her, then she must love him. Right? Maybe I had been telling myself a story about Aimee. If what she was saying was true, then it wasn’t so weird that she was flirting with me. She didn’t think she was attached to Jack. It still seemed weird though. My gut was telling me that it wasn’t as simple as she made it out to be.
“I don’t know, Aimee. You took the guy to Catalina with your family; you hang out with him most nights; you both have the same friends; and you spent the night together at his parent’s house. It sounds like you are more than ‘just dating’ to me.” I said it smugly. There. That’ll fix her wagon.
“I took a few friends with me to Catalina. Sam and Katherine went with me, as well. Remember, I also invited you, too? Jack didn’t tell you Sam and Katherine came with us?” I shook my head. Ugh. I was starting to feel sick. I really may have read this whole relationship wrong.
“I hang out with him most nights because he hangs out with me most nights, in study groups. Next quarter, we’ll have different classes, and we probably won’t see each other as much. And the friends, they are my friends. I brought him into my group. He doesn’t have a lot of friends at school. He’s pretty shy; you know that. My friends all like him because he is a nice guy. But if I decided to date someone else, Jack probably wouldn’t be hanging around them anymore.” She paused to study my reaction. I was pretty shocked. Not really at what she was saying, but at what I had assumed the situation was. I had really been wrong with everything.
“And as for the spending the night at his parent’s house, not that it is really any of your business, but we haven’t had sex yet. I was going to that night, but he got so drunk and stoned that he fell asleep. It really pissed me off. I was so fucking horny. I thought about sneaking into your room, but I saw Katherine and her friend walk in there so…” She looked out her window as she finished.
We didn’t say anything for a while. I wondered what would have happened if Katherine and Kim hadn’t come in, and instead Aimee would have walked into the shower with me. Would I have turned her away? I’m glad it hadn’t happened, so I would never know what I would have done. The booze and pot had made me super horny.
I thought about Jack. I didn’t know if Aimee was telling the complete truth, but she didn’t have much of a reason to lie, did she? I could see how I may have only looked at their relationship from his point of view: the love struck guy who had never really had a girlfriend and now found someone who was completely out of his league. I could easily see how he convinced himself their relationship was more than it was, and I saw how I bought into his story because I wanted him to be happy. Since I loved the guy like my brother, I probably thought everyone else would too once they got to know him. I thought about all the good times we had experienced through the years growing up. I thought about when he helped me overcome the depression from my parent’s death. I thought about last Saturday night at the restaurant when I had a nervous breakdown. He had been there for me.
Aimee might not want Jack, but that was her dumb mistake. He was a great guy and would have made her happy forever.
“So, why are you dating him, if you don’t like him?” I broke the long silence. My voice was slightly above a whisper. Aimee considered carefully before she turned to look at me.
“Don’t judge me, Eric. Everyone wants different things out of a relationship. I didn’t say I don’t like Jack. I just said I don’t love him. Maybe I will someday. Or maybe someone better comes along. And if someone better comes along, shouldn’t I go after him? Don’t you think I owe it to myself to have what I want in life? After all, I’m only twenty. I want something beautiful, and sexy, and romantic, and new. I have the rest of my life for everything else.”
I tried to find holes in her argument and I couldn’t. I thought about Kelly and me. I really did want a relationship with her, but let’s say it was a hypothetical, imaginary world where I was with Kelly, happy, and then I had met Aimee (in this hypothetical world, she wasn’t dating Jack). Wouldn’t I always wonder what it would be like to be with Aimee? What if I had met an eighteen-year-old Beth when I was Kelly’s boyfriend? Wouldn’t I always wonder what life would have been like if I had tried with Beth?
Then I came to an epiphany.
I realized that I might feel the same way if I was with Aimee, or Beth, and then I had met Kelly. It wasn’t about the girl. It was about the unknown. I didn’t know what I was missing, and the possibility that one of them was more right for me than the one I was currently with would have ruined any happiness.
Wasn’t that the way these stories went thought? Boy meets girl. They fall in love. They live happily ever after. It was probably a more realistic story to say: Boy meets girl. Then another girl. Then another girl. And so on… till boy realizes what he wants. Then, once he knows what he wants, the boy can meet a girl he knows he will love, or hopefully he hasn’t burned bridges with a previous one he would have been happy with. Then you figure the girl is probably doing the same thing the boy is doing: trying to figure out what she wants while tearing through different possible mates. This whole love thing gets pretty treacherous.
The 101 turned into the 134, and I easily flirted in and out of lanes and traffic to get into open lanes. I would have gotten a ticket if there had been a Highway Patrol around.
“Do you love Katherine?” Aimee’s question caught me off guard and interrupted my thoughts.
“No!” I said, maybe a little too suddenly.
“What about that other girl you were dating? The one from your school who plays volleyball?” I kept my eyes on the road and didn’t look at her. “Do you love her?”
“No. I like her though.” I didn’t know where this was going, but I had a feeling Aimee was about to school me in Love Logic 101.
“So, you like this girl… sorry, what is her name?” she asked.
“Kelly.”
“So, you like Kelly, but then you sleep wi
th Katherine, or at least, I’m going to guess that you slept with her and her friend.” She waited for me to confirm or deny. After a few seconds, I hadn’t, and she continued. “But if someone better than both of them came along, would you want to date her? Sleep with her? Don’t you want to keep your options open? It’s kind of a rhetorical question, because you already proved my point by sleeping with Katherine.”
She had me there. Oh wait. No she didn’t. A good rebuttal popped into my head.
“Yeah, you are right, but the difference is that Kelly and I haven’t made any commitments to each other. If she wanted to be exclusive, I wouldn’t have slept with Katherine.”
“That’s a bunch of bullshit, and you know it. For one, Jack and I don’t have any sort of commitment to each other either. He’s been smart enough not to bring it up, because he knows what I would say. Second, are you telling me that you are going to deny yourself potential happiness because someone else wants a commitment from you? And, you don’t even care about getting a commitment from her? You are lying.”
“I’m not sure I follow.” The GPS showed that I needed to get off the freeway, so I angled the Ferrari through the right lanes. I was getting the hang of driving it now.
“Okay, you say you like this girl, Kelly, but you obviously didn’t like her enough to prevent you from sleeping with Katherine. Then you said that if Kelly had told you beforehand that she wanted a commitment from you, you wouldn’t have slept with Katherine. But if you really wanted a commitment from Kelly, then you wouldn’t have slept with Katherine in the first place, even without the verbal commitment beforehand. You would have said something like ‘Sorry Katherine, I really like this other girl, so I’m not going to sleep with you.’ But, you didn’t do that. You obviously didn’t care enough about Kelly to reject Katherine. So, in essence, you are saying that while you don’t really care about Kelly, you wouldn’t have slept with Katherine if Kelly had asked to be exclusive.” She finished with a self-satisfied “Hurmpf” at the end. “What do you think?”
Rock God_Book 1_A Contemporary Harem Fantasy Page 19