Chapter 4
Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Handsome Arrogant Asshole sat down in the booth right in front of Marti. She scowled. He looks a bit cocky with that swagger. Asshole.
He smiled and nodded at her. She grimaced. He smiled again. She grimaced again. He noticed she was drinking her tea like it was laced with whiskey. Maybe it was whiskey. He chuckled to himself. She frowned.
He stood up and walked toward her. Shit! She didn’t feel like talking to anybody, especially some asshole who walked like he owned the place.
“Hello”, as he put out his hand to shake hers. “Why such ugly faces on an amazingly beautiful lady?”
“’Scuse me? You always talk to strangers?” She snapped, with a bit of attitude.
“Oh, I’m sorry; I didn’t realize you were strange.” He joked. “Are you from around here?”
“Yes, I’m from this hell hole.” She sneered. “What’s it to ya?”
“Nothing really, I just saw this beautiful lady sitting over here by herself; I thought maybe she might want some company. Someone to help her get that mad dog look off her beautiful face. You got a name?”
“Yeah, I got a name. What is this…twenty questions?”
“No” he laughed. “My name is Nick, Nick Vargas. Nice to meet you, uh – what should I call you?”
“Marti, Marti Odell. Sorry to be such a bitch, but this is been a really rough week.”
“Marti? As in your parents wanted you to be a boy?”
Giving him the mad dog look again, “No smart ass, my name’s Martha, everyone who’s anyone calls me Marti”
“Alright then… it’s Marti.” His smile lit up. “Well, Marti, are you hungry? Would you do the honor of having lunch with me?”
“Sure, why not? Have a seat.”
As Nick sat down, Marti looked him over from head to toe. Damn! He’s gorgeous. He was about six-two, six-three, his skin was the color of an espresso with little bit of extra cream, black wavy hair fell on his brow and big dark eyes glistened in the sunlight peeking through the blinds. Wonder what he was doing around these parts.
“You come here often?” Marti asked in a snappy tone. He was beautiful, way too handsome to be a truck driver; the only drivers Marti had ever seen around town were big, burly men who needed to shower really bad.
“No, Marti, this is my first time around these parts.”
“So, what are you doing here? You don’t look like a truck driver.”
“I don’t? What do I look like?” he laughed. She’s feisty.
“You look like a guy who doesn’t drive a truck, that’s for sure.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment, but for now, I’m a truck driver. My business is booming and I need to get some cargo to the west coast ASAP. My drivers are buried right now.”
“Your drivers?” Hmmm…he was starting to sound a bit more interesting.
“Yes, my drivers, my family owns a freight company, Vargas International, ever heard of it?”
“No, I really don’t know anything about freight companies.”
“Well,” he paused…“with this crappy economy, a lot of smaller freight companies have fallen by the wayside, so we’re really busy. Great problem to have, I just can’t find enough drivers to cover all the loads, so I am hauling this one myself. I’m actually on my way to L.A.”
She perked up. “L.A.? You’re going to L.A.? Like today?”
“Yeah, I’m on my way to the beautiful city of Los Angeles.” He smiled. She noticed a little accent on the Los Angeles.
“How about some company? I’d love to go to L.A.!” She smiled and winked. Hell yeah! I could get out of this god-forsaken town and get across country with this fine specimen of a man. What could it hurt?
“You really want to go to L.A.?” He asked, a bit surprised a beautiful lady like her didn’t have anything or anyone tying her down.
She jumped up, grabbed her bag and said “I’m ready! Let’s go!”
Holy shit! This was the first time Nick saw her standing and when he saw Marti’s curvy figure and big round ass, he almost choked. Hijo de la…he thought in Spanish. Mamma Mia! Nearly choking on his own breath, “I thought we were going to grab a bite to eat?”
“Oh yeah, let’s do that first. Duh!!” she rolled her eyes and sat back down. Her curly red hair fell onto her face, he instinctively reached over to move it and she jumped. “Hey, watch out! Why you gotta go touching me and all?”
They ordered their food to go and as they were waiting, they chatted about the weather being so hot for fall. It was hot. Marti was sticking to her shorts and tank top in the high humidity. She couldn’t figure out how Nick could even stand to be in those jeans. Though he did look quite yummy in them.
He paid for their lunch and they walked out to his truck. He had a brand new semi truck with a brand new trailer hooked up to the back of it. It was a metallic cherry red color that shone in the sunlight. Oh, hell yeah! Perfect ride to the city of her dreams!
Marti peeked at him through the corner of her eye. He was freakin’ gorgeous. His body was thin, but built. Definitely a six pack up under that t-shirt. His arms were muscular and his butt, well, his butt was perfect. It pooched out at just the right angle melding into his muscular long legs. Shit! Shit! He’s fine! She giggled to herself. She didn’t want him to know the thoughts she was having. She just wanted to get out of there and get on the road, hoping he wasn’t a crazed killer or something.
Nick opened the passenger door and helped Marti up the steps. Her round ass was in his face and he couldn’t resist. His hand grazed her bottom as she was going up the steps “Hey now!” she swatted his hand away, wondering if she had made the right decision.
She was finally leaving Georgia and it was a relief. She was almost twenty nine years old and had lived in Mountain View all her life. She knew just about everyone and there was absolutely nothing there for her anymore. Yes, she loved her mama, but times are a-changin’ and Mama would understand. She exhaled.
As they pulled away, Nick hooked up his iPod to the truck speakers and soft Latin music started to play.
After a crappy week in a hotel and the horrible day she had, Marti was exhausted. The soft music and the rhythmic bouncing of the truck gently rocked her to sleep.
The truck jolted and she woke up, startled. When did she doze off? How long had she been sleeping? It was dark outside. How long had they been driving? “Dude, why did you let me sleep so much? Where are we? Where are we going?”
He looked over at her, slobber on her cheek, her hair disheveled. He smiled. “Go ahead and sleep, I just need to refuel”. She had been sleeping for the last 3 hours.
Nick pulled into a bay to refuel and grabbed his iPad to log his miles. Marti scooted over toward him and watched as he entered the information in the tablet. “Hey that’s cool, you do your business on an iPad?”
“Si, Marta, it’s the new thing. It sends all the information directly to corporate so we don’t have to worry about paperwork or logs or anything. Real easy to use. See?” showing her the display. “Now they know where I am and how long I’ve been driving.”
Good, then they will know where to find me if he’s a freak.
“So like…where are you from? You speak Spanish, are you from Spain or something? You called me Marta. Is that Spanish for Marti?”
He laughed, “No, Chiquita, my family is from Mexico, but I was born in East Los Angeles.”
“Cool, uhm,” she paused, biting her lip, “Does this place have a bathroom?”
“Sure does.” He opened his door and stepped down out of the truck, walking around to open the passenger door. “Come on, I’ll show you,” as he took her hand and helped her down the steps and out of the truck.