AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Amos
I’d almost had a stroke when I had seen June in my office. First of all, she was the least sneaky spy in the history of spies. She had left the light on—the only light in the building—and the door wide open. And I’d heard the roll of wheels and squeak of the chair spinning long before I had actually found her.
When I did, my first thought had been panic. She’d had my journal in her delicate hands, and while her chair spun in a smooth, rapid cycle, she’d stared at the page with a surprised look on her face. As far as I could tell, anyway. She had been going inhumanly fast, and I didn’t understand how that didn’t make her puke. But my anger nearly fizzled out when I saw her legs outstretched in front of her, wide apart like a kid on a tire swing, and my annoyance was replaced with a twinge of something else. Something that admitted she was… cute?
I struggled to banish that thought and channel my outrage that she would dare to snoop in my office, even if I’d been an absolute a-hole to her for three weeks.
Thankfully, I managed to put some kind of fear into her pocket-sized body. She pushed my buttons like no one else did, and the urge to control her went beyond boss and employee. It was compulsive. Maddening.
The smell of her fruity bodywash and the little sheen of sweat glistening on the curve of her cleavage had distracted me completely. It was the most messed up cocktail of anger and lust I’d ever experienced. Something about June dressed down in shorts and a crop top made me want to see what she looked like on the side of the pool wearing next to nothing.
Dangerous thoughts.
Ironically, I’d come back for the notebook, intending to use my forced downtime to think and get some creativity on paper. I didn’t care if June read my poetry—it was published for anyone to read if they looked up my name. But Ididcare that she had thought to snoop in my office. If I had to guess, she had been looking for a way to retaliate.
I wasn’t about to let her get away with that.
I turned off the lights, locked the door, and headed out to the parking lot before I pressed the fob on my shiny sport utility vehicle. I loved that car. It was brand new, glossy, gunmetal gray, and upgraded to the nines. It had way more space and luxury than I really needed, but wasn’t that kind of the point of luxury? I did it because I could.
I turned up a song by Halocene to full blast before I pulled into the gas station and filled up the tank. I wasn’t a fan of road trips—too much time to think and no way of being productive. Who enjoyed that? No one could possibly enjoy that.
I got myself a water and some jerky before heading off into the middle of the West Coast’s buttcrack. No offense, Idaho, but why? Why even live here? Cows and dirt.
There was nothing to look at before I got to Wyoming where I knew, at least, snow-capped mountains and green hills waited. Until then, it was a lot of flat, boring scenery punctuated with a few mountains through lower Idaho before I branched off to the remote Route 34.
As I nodded absently to a Theory of a Deadman song, I recognized a little silver sedan on the side of the road. Its hazards were on, and there didn’t seem to be any other cars within sight of it on the deserted, old highway. I knew that car, but it couldn’t be. Silver sedans, even old, beat-up ones, were a dime a dozen.
Then again, it could be June’s car. Was her luck really that abysmal? June did seem to end up on the wrong side of the lucky coin toss more often than not, but surely her car wouldn’t break down in an area with no cell service, miles from the closest gas station.
I slowed down, checking behind me, and then pressing my hazards lights to crawl up behind the car to make sure the driver was alright.
Sure enough, I’d seen that plate before. It was June.
I put the car in park and saw her eyes flicker to me in her rearview mirror. She immediately disappeared, ducking down. I snorted to myself. Like I hadn’t seen her already. I put my sunglasses in the compartment next to my sun visor and undid the seatbelt. Everything in my car made satisfying whooshing sounds, which somehow never got old. I opened my door after checking that we were alone. We were. Frighteningly. Then I walked to June’s side and leaned against the window frame.
She had her head against the steering wheel, and her windows were all the way down. She rotated her face to me, still keeping her forehead on the steering wheel. “Hey,” she said.
I looked around the interior of the car. It was a disaster. A girl bomb of used water bottles, college sweatshirts, paint tubes and brushes, fast food wrappers, and unopened bills had exploded all over her worn fabric seats. It smelled like acrylic paint and potato chips. I gave her a confused look. “What happened?” I meant the car, but a good portion of my brain meant her life in general.
“I forgot to get gas.”
It was even worse than bad luck. She was an airhead. I gave her an eyebrow raise. “For real?”
“Yeah,” she said weakly.
I sighed, looking around at the deserted, arid landscape. Nothing for it. “Roll up your windows, grab your stuff, and lock the car.”
She straightened, tapping her chipped, short fingernails on the steering wheel. She looked like she wanted to argue.
I opened her car door. “Okay, leave your windows open and doors unlocked. I’m sure you’re right and no one will bother stealing this dumpster anyway.”
She gave me an outraged look. Her wild, red hair had been clipped away from her face with a desperate-looking claw thing held together with springs and a prayer. Sweat beaded her brow and down her neck, sliding down her shirt, as if daring me to look. I didn’t. I focused on her dark green eyes and the interesting fluttering thing her lashes were doing while she thought about the situation. Finally, she said, “Fine.”
“I’m so glad you came to the only inevitable conclusion here,” I muttered dryly. “I’ll open the back for you.”
“You’reso salty,” she said in exasperation, turning to her right to gather up some junk I had assumed was just trash. They were art supplies, apparently.
I made my way back to the SUV, punched a button on my key fob, and leaned against my door, waiting for her to lock up her car and gather her stuff.
