How many times was I gonna fix this crap car? I’d been under its fucking hood more than I’d been under Gia.
The day after I picked her up on the side of the road, I’d gone back to where it was parked in front of the maternity shop to try to get it running again.
At this point, getting it to run was like a battle against an enemy, and there was no way I was going to let this piece of junk win. I think fixing it repeatedly was like a challenge to me. That had to be the only reason I continued to mess with it, especially when it would have been much easier to just replace it.
After about an hour, I finally got it running. My plan was to drive it to Gia’s and walk back to my own car.
Halfway there, the damn thing started smoking like crazy. I’d finally reached the end of the line. This was the last straw.
Breaking out into a laughing fit, I pulled over and leaned against it, buried in a cloud of smoke. Then, as if a switch went off inside of me, I began kicking the shit out of the car—over and over. This moment must have been the culmination of all of the stress I’d been under over the last several weeks. But it just felt so damn good to do it. Add to that, the fact that I was picturing Elliott the whole time I destroyed this thing, and it was exactly what I needed. People were driving by and honking, but I didn’t care.
After about five full minutes of beating the crap out of the car, I’d wrecked it beyond repair from a physical standpoint.
I just kept staring at it, and realized that this finally gave me an excuse to do something I’d wanted to for a while: buy Gia a new and reliable mode of transportation. The best part was she really couldn’t refuse it. It wasn’t like I was doing her a favor. I’d destroyed her freaking car, for Christ’s sake. She had no choice but to accept a new one as a token of my apology.
Sweaty as all hell and feeling beat from my outburst, I walked the rest of the way to Gia’s house.
When she opened the door, she said, “You look like you’ve been through hell and back.”
I laughed, moving past her. “I was just in a fight.”
“A fight?” She shut the door and clutched her chest in a panic. “With Elliott?”
“No…uh…” I chuckled. “With your car.”
“My car?”
“I sort of trashed it. Went apeshit on it.”
“What? I thought you said you were fixing it?”
“Well, I was. And I did. But then the damn thing broke down again and started smoking on the way home, and I lost it. Kicked the shit out of it, and now it’s gone.”
Her eyes were wide. “Gone? I don’t have a car anymore?”
“Correct. It needs to be junked.”
Gia’s mouth was hanging open. “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
“We’ll go tomorrow and get you a new car.”
“What? Just like that? You say it so casually like that’s not a big deal. I can’t afford to buy a new car.”
I sat down at her kitchen table and kicked my feet up on a chair. “Gia…I trashed your vehicle. It’s my responsibility to replace it.”
“Well, you don’t replace a used car with a new one.”
“I don’t want you driving the baby around in something unreliable.”
She crossed her arms and blew air up to her forehead, looking frustrated.
Then I said, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll handle the down payment to make up for destroying your car. You can cover the monthly payments.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
After twenty more minutes of arguing, she finally agreed.
I suddenly got up and smacked my hands together. “Good. I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning.”
Gia was shocked that I’d taken her to the Mercedes dealership. I wasn’t going to buy her anything I didn’t consider to be the safest possible option, and I’d done my research over the past twenty-four hours.
She kept saying she could never afford the monthly payments on a Benz. I reminded her that I was handling the down payment. That didn’t mean it couldn’t be a large amount of money—a small detail I neglected to discuss with her. I assured Gia she’d be left with a reasonable monthly bill. Very reasonable. Like almost nothing.
She was wearing one of her new maternity outfits, and this particular one hid her stomach and accentuated her tits. The car dealer likely didn’t even know she was pregnant. That gave him free rein to flirt like hell with her. I was ready to snap his neck because he wouldn’t stop staring at her knockers. Not to mention, when he asked if we were married, her answer was, “No, he’s my boss.” Little shit. Then she winked at me after, and I wanted to just take her right on the goddamn showroom floor. I would’ve loved to do so much damage on the hood of one of these cars that I’d have no choice but to purchase it. She was teasing about the boss thing—sure—but that just egged Dealer Dimwit to flirt with her more.
“What can I show you next?” he asked her tits.
“Give us a minute,” I snapped, placing my arm possessively around her.
We’d just come in from test driving the SUV, when I told her, “You wanna test drive the E-Class?”
Gia was mostly considering “practical” vehicles. I couldn’t blame her because I had always rented those for her in the past whenever her car would shit the bed. But I couldn’t help noticing how she lit up when we’d passed the E-Class convertible.
She shrugged her shoulders. “Why bother?”
“Because you seem to love it.”
“I can’t get a convertible with a baby.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not practical.”
“In what way?”
“Well…there’s no…space.”
“You planning on having more than one kid anytime soon?”
She laughed. “No. But what about things like the stroller?”
I went in search of Dealer Dimwit. “Hey, can you pop the trunk of the E-Class open?”
After he did it, I peeked my head in and smirked as I looked back at her. “Looks like plenty of space for a stroller.”
Her eyeballs were flitting back and forth. She still looked like she was searching for reasons why she didn’t deserve to have the car she actually wanted.
“Let me ask you this…” I said. “Do you plan on chopping off your hair and wearing Mom jeans after the baby is born just because those things are practical?”
“Hell no.”
“Then why do you need to sacrifice what you really want in a car? Besides, there’s plenty of room. Believe me, I wouldn’t let you get something too small.”
Her eyes were glued to the shiny silver convertible.
Gia was caving. “I guess we can test drive it.”
I winked. “That’s my girl.”
We went to take it out, and the dealer had some nerve trying to get into the passenger seat next to her this time.
I practically shoved him to the side. “Excuse me. I’ll be sitting in the front. And if you look at my girl’s tits again, not only are you gonna lose out on this deal, you’re gonna lose a mouthful of teeth.”
He swallowed and stayed quiet as he crawled into the backseat. Gia looked a little embarrassed, but my reaction shouldn’t have come as a surprise to her.
I barely remembered that he was even there once we took to the road. Gia had turned into a little speed demon in this thing, and I was loving it. Her wild hair was blowing all over the place, and all I could do was stare at her and enjoy every second of it.
This car would be worth every damn penny if I got to do this all the time.
Turning my head around to look at the back, I envisioned a car seat there and got chills. If only I could figure out what the chills were trying to tell me.