“A delivery? Are you sure it’s for me?” I asked the delivery man who was still gawking at Danielle.

She put her hands on her hips, which only made his eyes widen, “Uh… dumbo, he already said the delivery was for you. Your name is on the slip. Unless your name is NOT Jane Greiner and you have something you want to tell me?”

“Yeah, yeah, okay. It’s just that I’m not expecting anything. What is it?” I looked around, expecting to see a box hiding behind him or for him to pull out an envelope from his pocket.

“Do you mind signing here and then I’ll show you?” He said. The name tag on his shirt read Charlie. And I wondered if he’d always been Charlie, or whether he’d been Charles once upon a time.

“Sure, sure. Okay, where do I sign?” I quickly signed the papers and then looked expectantly at him.

“You girls are sure going to love this.” He said. “You’ll have to follow me outside though.”

“This is so exciting. Wait, let me get my towel quick. I can’t walk outside in my bikini now can I.” I could literally see as Charlie’s face turned from happy to disappointed when Danielle fetched her towel and wrapped it around her body. I reminded myself to let Danielle know that she needed to be a little bit more aware of the effect that she had on some men. It was good to be confident but it also just as good to be aware.

“Right, so anyway, come with me. Actually… do you want to close your eyes? It will be more dramatic and all that. We can do a big reveal.” Charlie seemed very excited. So either I was getting something cool or else he was still showing off in front of Danielle.

“No! For all I know you’re some weirdo and you’re going to shove us in your car and drive off with us.” I said and then felt bad when I saw the look on his face.

“Ma’am. I am certainly not going to do that. I just thought it would be more fun. That’s all. Never mind then.”

“Sorry. Sorry. I didn’t mean that. I’m just not good with surprises.” I wasn’t sure why I was being so snappy with him.

“Well, I think it’s a fabulous idea. And I LOVE surprises.” Said Danielle, who was big fan of secrets and surprises. “Come on Jane. It will be fun. I’ll join you. And if you don’t like whatever it is then you can give it to me.” Charlie beamed at her. I think he was falling in love.

So the two of us closed our eyes. I held Danielle’s hand and she held onto Charlie. Again, something I’d have to warn her about. If we got kidnapped I was totally going to blame her for it.

“Okay, we’re here.” Came Charlie’s voice, “Keep your eyes closed. Okay… are you ready? Now… OPEN!”

We opened our eyes. I looked around in confusion.

“Uh… what am I looking at?”

“Jane Greiner, I would like to present you with… your new car!” He pointed to the bright blue Prius that was parked up the sidewalk. It was obviously brand new and incredibly shiny.

“Excuse me?” Was this a joke? I looked at Danielle, half expecting her to burst out laughing and say ‘got you!’ but she looked just as surprised as me.

“I’m so confused. Are you sure this is for me?”

“Yes, it’s for you. I knew they should’ve put a big bow on it. Then at least it would’ve looked like a gift. Oh sorry. It came with a card!” Here we go. Poor Charlie. This was not the response he was expecting from us. I had a feeling that I would look at the card and see that he’d gotten the whole thing confused. Some lady down the road was probably waiting for this car while I was probably supposed to get some bill that I had forgotten or something. Charlie would have to go through the whole thing again.

“Open the card!” Danielle said. She’d stopped staring at the car and was now jumping up and down in excitement. But when I took too long she just took it from me. “Okay let me open it for you.”

She opened it, read it and then smiled. “It is for you Jane. Here.” She handed me the card.

Jane, I’m so sorry about your car and the accident. I know Mr Honda meant a lot to. Here’s a new one. You can call him Mr Prius. Or Mrs Prius if you prefer. XOXO, Sebastian.

“I told you he liked you!” Danielle said to me and then she looked at Charlie. “Isn’t this exciting? Do you do this often? Bring cars to people?”

“To be honest, this is my first car. I usually deliver boxes and never really get to see what’s inside them. So this was a big deal.”

“How did you get it here?”

“Oh, I drove it here. But my company is just down the road, so I’m going to just walk back. Otherwise I guess I would’ve come with someone else. But you were luckily enough to live super close. I was so excited to bring this to you. And a bit nervous of course. I mean, it’s brand new. I didn’t want anything to happen to it. I had to practically fight all the guys in the office to be the one to take it to you. That’s a cool gift to receive, especially if it’s unexpected – which it clearly was.”

“I cannot believe this. Hey… Jane. What’s wrong? Why are Charlie and I more excited than you?” Danielle was waving a hand in front of my face.

I looked at her as if she were from out of space. I couldn’t believe what was happening and I had no idea why she thought that accepting a car from someone I barely knew was a good idea. I felt sick to my stomach. Is this the kind of man that Sebastian was? Did he just buy his way through life? Had he never heard of something like flowers? Or just a simple ‘I’m sorry’? Even a card would’ve been fine. I would’ve been happy with a card.

“Danielle, I cannot accept this. It’s a brand new car. A CAR! What was he thinking? There’s absolutely no way I’m taking this car. I’m sorry Charlie but you’re just going to have to take it back. I’ll let him know that it was a mad idea. I really do appreciate you bringing it here and I’m so sorry for ruining the whole thing. But I didn’t ask for this.” I was still staring at the car, trying to take it all in. What made it worse was that it really was such a beautiful looking thing. I never in my wildest dreams ever imagined that I would ever own something like that. I found myself almost wanting to accept it but then quickly shook my head and tore my eyes away from it.

“Jane!” Danielle exclaimed, “Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind? Of course you can accept this. It’s a gift. Actually it won’t look good if you say no to something like this. Especially since he’s your boss. Imagine you giving someone a gift and then instead of being happy with it they tell you that they don’t want it. You can’t do that to the poor man. Anyway, you don’t even have a car at the moment. And it was Sebastian’s fault for that accident. So he owes you one. Listen, Charlie, Jane has already signed for it so the car is hers. Thank you so much. It was very sweet of you to come over and to surprise us this way. Jane just needs to get over the shock. It’s not every day that someone gets a car delivered to their door. Thank you again. Come on Jane, let’s go inside for a bit.”

“Uh… thank you Charlie.” I didn’t know what else to say or what to do. I just let Danielle lead me inside.

“So, are you going to stop being so rude and be thankful that somebody actually bought you a car?”

“I’m not being rude. It’s just a very hard thing to accept from someone. I didn’t want him to do this. I would’ve managed just fine. I was on my way to sorting out another car.”

“Don’t be silly. We both know you were a long way away from that.”

“Well, yeah. But he didn’t have to buy me something like this. It’s so expensive. I think these go for like $20,000 or something. That is by far the most expensive gift I have ever gotten. If he had gotten me a necklace worth $200 I would’ve STILL thought it was too much.”

“Actually, that one is pretty upgraded, so I think it’s more like $35,000. I don’t know if you peered inside but it seems to have all sorts of fancy gadgets. I think Mrs Prius is going to bring you a lot more happiness than Mr Honda ever did. Also, Mr Honda still had Justin memories all over him. This is your chance to start afresh with new memories.”

She made a valid point. But all I could think of was the price. Thirty Five thousand dollars! What was he thinking?

“Also, Jane, you must remember that spending $35,000 or whatever it was, is probably nothing to a man like Sebastian. That’s probably pocket change. It’s like you spending $20 on buying someone a gift.”

“I don’t think his $35,000 is equivalent to me spending twenty!”

“Actually, it might be. You forget he’s a multi-billionaire.”

“Oh Danielle, what was he thinking? This is absolutely insane. Look at my hands… I’m shaking.” I held out my hands to show her.

“Well, I’m thinking it means that he likes you, he feels bad about your car and he really wants to give you a present. I’m thinking you should be happy and that you should let him know that you appreciate it. Otherwise… you know… you can give it to me.”

“The car IS pretty awesome. But what message am I giving if I accept his gift?” Surely if I take it then he’s going to think that I want to take the relationship further. That he can just easily buy me with gifts. Surely if I accept then he is going to think that I’m the type of woman that is easily swayed by money.

But Danielle just batted her eyelashes at me and feigned innocence at my question. “I think that if you accept his very generous gift than the message you’re giving is – thank you.”