“Everything okay over there, dear?” I ask, dripping as much sarcasm into my voice as I can.
“The handle’s not working,” he says more to himself than to me.
“You’re probably doing it wrong,” I parrot.
Fancy Car Guy glares at me, then continues pressing the button. “What the fuck?” He turns back to his steering wheel and tries to start the car. Nothing happens.
“What’s happening?” Lex asks, panic rising in her voice.
“Why won’t the doors open or the car turn on?” I ask, reiterating the problem to Lex.
Fancy Car Guy sits back in his seat. “I’ve heard of this happening, but it’s never happened to me.”
“What?”
“There’s a wire that can get disconnected and shut everything off like this,” he explains. “Probably from all those speed bumps.”
I bridge my fingertips together. “So, you’re telling me your hundred-thousand-dollar car—”
“Two-hundred-thousand-dollar car,” he corrects.
“Wow,sorry.” I raise my hands in mock defence. “You’re telling me that this thing can just disconnect from some wire and lock you inside the vehicle with no way to get out?”
Lex utters a string of expletives.
He sighs. “That’s what I’m saying, yes.”
“Isn’t there, like, an emergency release button?”
“Of course, there is,” he tuts before reaching under the dash to pull a lever. The windows open a crack.
I blink at him a few times. “That’s it?”
He nods. “Now we have air flow.”
“What’s even the point if we still can’t get out!” I sit backin my seat. I don’t believe this. Actually, Idobelieve this. The inevitable impending doom of the curse cannot be escaped. Lex told me not to get into his car, and I didn’t listen, and now we’re stuck in here for who knows how long—with the July sun beating down on us. A bead of sweat trickles between my breasts. “Are we going to get cooked alive in this thing?”
Fancy Car Guy chuckles, though it’s without humour. “No. I’ll send a message to the McLaren team. They’ll have someone here in...” He opens an app on his phone, presses a few buttons, and then shows me the screen. “Two hours.”
“Two hours!” I screech. It’s way too fucking hot in here. This car is too small. The walls are closing in. I’m soaked in sweat. I can’t breathe. “I can’t be stuck in here with you for two hours!”
“Two hours?” Lex cries. “Fuck that!” Her AirPod clicks off, which only makes things worse. How am I supposed to get through this without her?
“Relax, babe,” he says, leaning back and wiping his own sweat from his forehead. “We can get to know each other better.”
This is it—I’m officially in hell. “Can we call the fire department? Or the police? A tow truck? Anything?”
“No way I’m letting any ofthosepeople near my car. This baby’s special.” He strokes the dash lovingly. “They don’t know how to handle it. If anything happened to it—”
“OH MY GOD,” I interrupt, pointing past him to where Lex has appeared with a giant rock in her hands.
Fancy Car Guy looks out his window and screams at such a high pitch I’d have sworn the sound belonged to a teenage girl and not a full-grown man.
“Cover your eyes!” Lex shouts through the window.
“Don’t you fucking dare!” Fancy Car Guy shouts back.
“I’m breaking the window!” she informs him.
