Joan cringed and focused out the passenger window. Once again, the obvious class difference between them reared its ugly head. “To my surprise, he didn’t get upset at all. Instead, he laughed, took me up on my offer and went back to dancing with Analee like nothing had happened. Everybody else acted like it didn’t matter to them either. That’s when I knew they didn’t like me because of me. Not because my kingdom was smaller or whatever else I’d assumed.”
“Then what? How did he get to be your head of security?
And good friend if the affection in your voice is any indication.”
Joan couldn’t help but ask. She’d never admit it out loud, but she was curious how Jai had gone from his low lot in life to hobnobbing with a prince. If he could do it, then maybe there was hope for her. Despite everything, she had to admit she kinda liked Tom. The jury was still out on how he felt about her. Sure, he was going out of his way to help her, but that was only his well-‐-
developed sense of honor.
“After the dance, he treated me like a pal despite the fact that I’d tried to embarrass him. If anyone said anything bad, he was quick to defend me. Even when there was no reasonable defense.”
Tom tapped the steering wheel. “I’ll admit, I was, without a doubt, in the wrong on many of those occasions. In public, he stood with me. In private, he read me the riot act.”
“So he was a true friend to you?” Joan nodded her understanding. Maybe there was no hope for her after all. She was the one who needed help. Not the other way around.
“Yeah, he was. Is,” Tom corrected. He looked at her. “I’m nowhere near perfect, Joan. But quite a bit of who I am is because of Jai.”
She met his eye. “Why do you say that like you’re warning me off or something?”
Joan watched indecision cloud his eyes for a moment. Up to this point, she’d seen many things in the man. Indecision had never been one of them. It had to be a terrible quality for a man who was about to be crowned king to have.
“I don’t want you to think… I mean… oh shoot.” He scratched his jaw. “It’s been my experience that people who haven’t grown up around royalty tend to have skewed perceptions and want to… test their theories so to speak.”
Joan frowned. What in the world was he talking about?
Tom shifted in his seat before elaborating. “The problem is the worst with women.”
Joan’s mouth dropped open when what he was saying dawned on her. Did he think she was going to jump his bones the first chance she had just to give ‘royalty’ a test drive? She closed her mouth and tried to form words. She had no idea what to say.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’d be honored to be your lab rat.
Unfortunately, I cannot. Not this close to my coronation.” Tom checked over his left shoulder and merged into the next lane that was moving a bit faster. “Celibacy is a requirement of the year before.”
Joan stared at him. The man was serious. She had to admit that the celibacy thing surprised her. How had he managed that living in Santa Monica for the last year? Unless of course, he hadn’t.
She didn’t dare ask. Not for reasons of decency, but because she didn’t want to hear about some little beach babe who had been worth his attention while she wasn’t. She glanced out the back window at their pursuers. The guards were a couple cars back, but still with them. Perfect opportunity to change the subject.
“I think we have more pressing issues at hand. Wouldn’t you agree?”
He checked his mirror again. “And we’ve been addressing it during our discussion.” He smiled at her. “I’m glad you understand.”
Joan glared at him. She wondered if he’d be willing to be her lab rat if she wanted to smack him around for a while. Given how much he was annoying her with his ‘experience’, that was one experiment she’d be eager to run.
“How exactly are we addressing the issue? ‘Cause it looks to me like they can stay with us forever.”
“How funny you should ask, m’lady.” Tom slowed the car so the cars around them sped past. A significant gap opened between them and the car in front of them for a bit. Cars from other lanes filled in the space. After a moment, the cars behind them passed, too, leaving no one between them and the guards.
“This is your brilliant plan to escape them? Why don’t you pull over and yell, ‘take me now’?”
“Calm down, Joan. We want them close.”
“For what possible–” She was tossed back in her seat when Tom stomped on the accelerator. He found holes in the other three lanes of traffic and zipped across them straight to an exit. The guards weren’t so lucky. She watched the guards fight to negotiate the traffic to keep up with them. Despite causing numerous other drivers a few tense moments, the guards missed the exit. Joan smiled while they coasted down the off ramp toward the intersection.
“That was my brilliant plan,” Tom confirmed with a smug smile.
“Well played, sir. Well played,” she conceded. “How about we not stick around the vicinity, though? It’s not going to be long before they reach the next exit and double back.”
“My thoughts precisely.” He took the right at the end of the ramp then turned onto a boulevard. “With any luck, though, they’ll figure we headed back to Los Angeles and go there. It’ll give us some time to get to Dallas.”
****
Tom hoped. He negotiated traffic on the city streets then pulled into a gas station. He’d filled up last night while Joan had been dozing in the car, but he wanted to get a full tank while they had a brief reprieve. If their ruse worked, they’d have plenty of time to vacate the area before the guards returned. If not, then they were on borrowed time.
He inserted his credit card in the reader then replaced it in his wallet when Joan stepped out of the car. He started the flow of the gas then gave her a reassuring smile. She didn’t smile back.
“Did you just pay with a credit card?”
He frowned at the question which came out of nowhere.
“Yeah. Why?”
She leaned on the roof of the car. “I’ve been wondering how they found us. I mean, they were at our hotel waiting for us.”
“I know. That bothered me, too. The GPS on my phone is secure. What about you?”
She shook her head. “I took the battery out since I don’t have my charger. It’s been ringing off the hook since…” She trailed off with a shrug. He hadn’t even thought about people who might be missing her. He was sure she had a boyfriend or husband worried sick about her right about now.
“I’ll get you home as soon as possible. I don’t anticipate this mess being hard to straighten out once I put some pressure on the right people from the right position.”
“The right position meaning from Rafferstonia,” she commented.
“Yes.”
“But we have to get there first. If they catch us again, I don’t think they’re going to be so caught off guard. We’ve already been lucky twice.”
Tom topped off the tank despite warnings to the contrary and replaced the nozzle. “We’ve lost them. It’s going to take a while for them to catch up again. We’ll have plenty of time to get to Dallas.”
She studied him a moment longer then nodded. She got back in the car while he pulled his receipt from the machine and climbed in after her.
She gave him directions before he even asked. They were back on the highway and heading out of Phoenix before she spoke again.
“We can’t use your credit card anymore.”
“What are you talking about?” He thought about the paltry five hundred dollars he had in his wallet. That wouldn’t even cover one suite at their next stop, forget about two. Besides, they’d need the card to check in.
“That’s the only thing that makes sense. They tracked us through your card. Why don’t we send up a red flag and yell ‘come get us’? If we want to keep them off our trail, we’ve gotta go to a cash basis.”
“There’s one little problem with a cash basis.” Tom glanced at her i
n the darkening night. His sleep schedule was going to be all screwed up. “I only have five hundred bucks on me. That’s not going to get us to Dallas.”
She stared at him with an expression he had to describe as disbelief. “You only have five hundred dollars? Are you kidding me? That’s enough to get us to New York.” She hesitated. “And I have the eight hundred on me I was going to deposit. We can totally make it to Dallas without using your card.”
“You can’t be serious. There is no way one thousand three hundred dollars can stretch for two whole days. We have to eat, we have to buy gas, we have to sleep.”
“You do know us commoners have to make it on much less than that on a daily basis, right?”
Tom frowned. “Are you calling me a snob?”
“If the shoe fits.” Joan folded her arms across her chest and looked out the window.
He wasn’t a snob. He was very down to earth. His year away had seen to it. He’d learned to live on much less than what he’d been accustomed. He’d taken no jaunts off to Monte Carlo. He hadn’t had dinner in Hong Kong longer than he cared to remember. He’d become downright thrifty.
“The shoe doesn’t fit. In fact,” He twisted to pull his wallet out of his back pocket. He slid the bills from the soft leather folds and held them out to her. “Here. Let’s see you get us to Dallas on thirteen hundred dollars. I’m telling you, it can’t be done.”
Joan raised an eyebrow and gave him a lopsided smile.
“What’s in it for me?”
“Besides getting to safety?”
“Yeah.”
“The moment I get home, I will repay your eight hundred dollars with 1000% interest.”
Joan frowned at him. In silence, she pressed a few buttons on his cell phone. She stared at the screen for so long he was beginning to think she wasn’t going to accept the challenge. Maybe she’d finally come to her senses and realized it couldn’t be done. At last, she studied him through a narrowed gaze.
“Eight hundred thousand dollars? That’s what you’re going to give me if I get us to Dallas on less than thirteen hundred dollars.”
“That’s the interest, yes. I’ll also return the eight hundred you invested in this folly, too.”
“What’s the catch?” She was still staring at him with a frown marring her smooth features.
He shrugged. “No catch. There doesn’t need to be.”
She bit her lip. “I have a condition.”
Here it was. “Yes?”
“You have to do exactly what I tell you. No arguments.”
“Can there be I-‐-told-‐-you-‐-so’s?”
“Sure.” She was starting to look a little too smug. He was beginning to rethink his challenge. There was no way she should be this sure of herself over an impossible task. Unless, it were possible and she knew more than he did. What was he thinking? That was crazy.
“Deal.”
“Deal.” She smiled and tucked the money he’d given her into a large binder she pulled out of the canvas bag she was toting.
“Good.” He tilted his nose up in the air. “Just in time, too.
I’m starving.”
“I can eat, too.” She consulted the map on his phone, but the screen blinked off. “Do you have your charger?”
“Sorry. It’s at the apartment.”
She nodded then pulled out her phone which was almost identical to his. She wasn’t so frugal after all, he snickered in his head. He watched her replace the battery and turn it on At once, it began to ring. Again, he thought about the people who had to be missing her. He tried not to notice when she hit the ignore button.
“Don’t not answer on my account.”
She didn’t look at him and he got the impression she was shutting him out for the first time since they met. It was curious. It wasn’t like he was entitled to know everything about her life. She still didn’t know quite a bit about his. That didn’t stop him from wanting to understand who she seemed to be avoiding.
She pulled up a map on her phone and did a search.
Seafood, he hoped. He suddenly had a taste for lobster.
“How much longer are you okay to drive?” The question surprised him. He was beginning to think she’d never do anything he expected.
Tom shrugged. “I’m okay for a couple more hours at least.”
She nodded and went back to her map. “Here we go.” She pointed at the highway. “You’re going to take the third exit coming up.” He nodded and followed her directions to the letter. When they pulled into the parking lot of a major grocery chain, he raised an eyebrow at her. “You can’t be serious. You want to go grocery shopping? Now?”
“It’s cheaper than restaurants and you can get whatever you want.” She pulled twenty dollars out of her binder and held it out to him. “Within reason.”
She pushed the door open and tossed him a smile over her shoulder while stuffing the binder back in her bag. Despite his annoyance, he was immediately turned on. He smirked at the twenty now clenched in his fist then popped out of the car himself.
Feeling snarky, he called after her, “What are you going to use?” She gave him that smile again then continued inside the store. The doors had closed behind her before he could gather his wits enough to stop staring at her backside. He hurried after her.
It didn’t take long to catch up to her. She was standing inside the door reading a paper from the stack on a nearby stand.
“What are you doing?” He asked, looking over her shoulder.
“Planning.”
“Ah. Well, meet you at the car when you’re finished?”
Joan nodded and continued going through the paper almost like she didn’t hear him. She reached for a couple more of the papers then headed off deeper inside the store. Tom shook his head and went in search of dinner. He frowned at the twenty she’d given him and wondered if they would cook the lobster in the store for him.
Chapter Nine
Forty-‐-five minutes later, Joan surveyed her full cart and tried to think of anything she might have missed. Toiletries. Now that she was in control of their finances, they wouldn’t be spending another night in a place quite so upscale like the Ritz Carlton. It would be a good idea to pick up the necessities their next hotel wouldn’t provide. She wished they had time to find a CVS or Walgreens because the items would be much cheaper if not free at those two stores, but she’d found some Catalina deals that should make up the difference.
Joan wheeled the cart down the aisle scanning the prices of toothpaste. Another woman stood in the aisle doing the same. She held a toddler on her hip while two other kids stood nearby. Joan hoped she was unobtrusive while she watched the woman from the corner of her eye. She seemed to be weighing a travel-‐-sized brand name toothpaste against a larger tube of the store brand. Joan took note of her faded dress and her heart went out to the woman.
Joan reached for the brand name toothpaste the woman had replaced on the shelf in the size that was on sale. “This one is free with a coupon.”
The woman gave her a startled look. Had she not heard Joan’s approach? “Excuse me?”
Joan handed the woman the tube with a smile then opened her coupon binder to the dental care section. “Free. With this coupon.” Joan pulled out the stack of coupons for the toothpaste.
She kept one for herself, but handed the woman the other nine.
“This store doubles coupons up to a dollar. Since that tube is on sale for ninety-‐-nine cents, a seventy-‐-five cent coupon will make it free.” The woman stared at her with hope daring to blossom in her eyes. “Really? Because my ex just got mad at me for not having the kids brush regularly. But they do. So they must need different toothpaste. It’s just that it’s so expensive and the checks he sends don’t stretch very far.”
Joan nodded her understanding. “Before I started couponing, I used a particular toothpaste because it was cheaper and ended up needing a root canal. You should try these. And don’t be afraid to stock up. You have enough coupons the
re to get nine tubes this size.”
“You don’t need them?”
Joan shook her head and put one of the tubes in her cart.
“Nope. Just need the one tube at the moment. And a couple toothbrushes.” She scanned the toothbrush section and picked up two more that would be free with coupons. “Do you need any? I have some extra coupons for these, too.”
The woman bit her lip for a moment. Joan feared she was about to cry. At last, she nodded. Joan handed her those coupons, too. She smiled at the little boy by the woman’s side. “See those baskets over there? Why don’t you go grab one for your mother?”
The boy nodded before rushing off to get a basket. When he returned, Joan helped the woman fill it with toiletries that would work out to be free with the coupons while getting some for her and Tom. Together, they headed toward the check out.
Joan could see how nervous the woman was getting when they neared the cashier. She patted her shoulder and said, “Just check out before me. I’ll make sure it all works out right.”
It was a good thing Joan had made the suggestion. The cashier turned out to be a coupon nazi.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, I can only take one coupon per purchase.”
Joan paused in unloading her cart to look at the cashier. She was scowling down her nose at the mother and trying to hand the coupons back. When the woman reached out with a tentative hand to take them, Joan jumped in.
“Excuse me. A ‘purchase’ is defined as an item. She has one item per coupon.”
The cashier held up the small bag of items. “No. This is a purchase. I can only accept one coupon for everything in this purchase.”
“It’s alright. I can just…” The mother gathered her kids toward her and looked like she was going to bolt at any moment.
“If that’s how you want it, ring everything up separately.”
Joan stared down the cashier who puffed out her sizeable chest and glared back.
“It’s not how I want it, ma’am, it’s the corporate policy.”
Joan bristled at the insulting emphasis on the word ‘ma’am’
and worked hard to keep it from showing. She forced a smile to her lips and plunked her coupon binder down on the conveyor belt with a thump. She flipped to the back section where she kept the store’s coupon policy. “Hmmm. Let’s see. According to your corporate office, a purchase is defined as an item just like I said at first.” Joan unclipped the page from the binder and held it out for the cashier to read.
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