Page 4 of Hauling Ashe

Slowly, Jane stands from her bent position where she was frantically hitting the keys on her laptop. She stares at me, blue eyes behind yellow framed glasses narrowing a bit.

“Spilled coffee,” she whispers, and I wonder why she’s looking at me like she is. The corner of Jane’s mouth curls upward, taking its time to break into a grin that hints I shouldn’t trust what she says next. Her eyes dart to something in her office and I twist only enough to notice someone else is in the room. I turn back to Jane, realizing too late that I’ve interrupted her meeting, but just as quickly my head swivels in the direction of a woman sitting before Jane’s desk, hands clutching the armrest of a chair, glaring up at me.

“No,” I groan.

“Yes.” The woman from the sidewalk, dangerous with a cup of coffee, leers at me. The scowl she wears suggests I’m gum under her shoe.

Yeah, well, she ruined my suit. “Did you follow me?”

Her head flinches back. “I was here first.” Her tight grip on the armrest confirms her position. She was in Jane’s office before me.

Jane clears her throat. “Tucker Ashford, this is my sister Mae Fox-Holland. She’s visiting today before she…” Her voice trails off, or maybe that’s the unease inside me that dulls the sound of Jane speaking. I stare at the woman sitting before Jane’s desk.

How is she sitting in Jane’s office? She’s in the late summer of her life as am I, but she’s pure sunshine as I called her upon first meeting her. Unfortunately, I’m in a rainy-day kind of mood.

“Just Mae Fox,” the woman mutters at the introduction before turning away from my gaze. She glares at Jane. Her sister? How did I not know Jane has siblings?

“My sister happens to be driving to California. She could take you across the country.”

“What?” Mae and I both say at the same time.

“No.” My rebuttal is definitive. Absolutely not. I need someone responsible to drive me to the west coast. This morning’s encounter with Mae floats through my head. How she slipped into the street after we collided. How she purposely stepped into it for her phone, narrowly missing a taxi. Add in her bumping into me, and she can’t be trusted to walk down a sidewalk with coffee in her hand, let alone drive two-thousand miles.

“She’s already planned a trip and I don’t want her to travel alone. She’d be the perfect traveling companion.” The tension in Jane’s voice is aimed at her sister as they stare at one another, having a silent conversation as only sisters can.

“I need to be in Napa Valley by Wednesday.” That’s seven days away from today.

“Well, I’m going to Los Angeles, and I’m not scheduled to arrive until two weeks from Sunday.” Mae’s voice drips saccharine-sweet and full of sarcasm. She doesn’t want to drive me anymore than I want to ride with her.

“I’m sure Mae could speed up her trip to accommodate you,” Jane says to me first before sheepishly glancing at her sister. “You said you weren’t on a timetable. You can always drive Mr. Ashford to California and do your trip in reverse.”

Mae shakes her head just the slightest bit, silently telling her sister no way.

“Could you even make it to Los Angeles by next Wednesday?” What the hell am I asking? Am I even entertaining this thought?

“No,” Mae snaps at her sister, still clutching the armrest of the chair as if clinging to a lifeline. Her answer should settle it. I cannot possibly take a ride from this woman.

“You could if you left tomorrow,” Jane suggests to her sister.

“What?” Mae and I again say in unison. I watch as Mae’s shoulders fall, her eyes fixed on Jane. This isn’t a good idea. This isn’t the plan. I do not want to sit in the car for one, two—I count in my head—six days with this woman. Six!

“Drive yourself,” Mae offers, her voice full of vinegar. Her head tips as she scans up my body from leather shoe-tips to the top of my head. I’d done the same thing to her on the street, taking in her casual appearance. She was a petite thing but there was something solid behind her small stature. She has iridescent blue eyes that cut me like sharp glass as she glares at me in my workplace. Her hair is slightly lighter than the dark head of her sister and based on what she is wearing—strappy flat sandals, cut-off jean shorts, and a once-white blouse now covered by a cardigan—she’s heavy on casual attire. Then again, it is summer and warm in the city.

Our ages are roughly within a decade of each other. Nearing fifty has hit me hard and while I am still a year away from the daunting age, I am also close enough to that finish line that I’m struggling with the final sprint. I no longer have direction. Sure, I have the marketing firm with my best friend and brother from another mother, which is a story in and of itself. I also have Julia and then there’s Jude, but I don’t have the fulfillment I expected to have as I near half-time in the game of life.

“No,” I snap at Mae again as if that explains why I won’t drive myself. I don’t have the time or the patience for a six-day car trip, thus wanting a driver.

I work. Someone else drives.

Without excusing myself, I step out of Jane’s office and head to my own to search other services for availability while cursing my assistant’s absence. Within twenty minutes, I’m further frustrated as no other transportation company has an open driver on such short notice.

I return to Jane’s office.

She watches me, as does her sister, and something unsettling fills the quiet between all of us. The silence isn’t something unsaid. It is the truth that I’m struggling to accept.

Riding with Mae Fox might be the only option to get me to the church on time for my daughter’s wedding.

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