Unlovable (40 page)

“
I didn’t give you that for
your birthday, so technically I haven’t gotten you anything yet.” I
rolled my eyes. “Let’s go, you can complain on the way to the
mall.”

We picked out several pairs
of pants with coordinating tops. I was surprised to see how well he
mixed and matched things. “Are you sure you’re not gay?” I asked as
he tried to find a shirt in
just the right
shade
of green.

“
That’s stereotyping,” he
said, kissing me until I was completely lost. “Tell me, would a gay
man kiss you like that?”

“
Definitely not!” I leaned
against a clothes rack for balance.

He also picked out a beautiful pink
dress with black piping along the bottom and neckline, and a pair
of black strappy pumps. The shoes looked almost identical to the
ones I’d admired when he brought me to the mall last time, except
these were better quality. “I wanted to buy you something special
to wear,” he said, putting his credit card back into his
wallet.

I looked at the many packages in both
our arms and felt a rush of guilt. “I need a job, Seth. I can’t
keep leeching off you.”

“
You’re not leeching,
Maggie.” He shook his head.

“
Can you understand how I
feel, just a little? It doesn’t matter anyway, I can’t leave my mom
alone for that long,” I said, frustrated.

“
If you’re serious about
getting a job, I think I have the perfect solution. We will be
needing some help with paper work at the Lunch Swap starting in
June, and there’s an extra laptop at the office. You can take it
home and do the work there. You’ll be with your mother, and you can
earn some money.”

“
That’d be
perfect.”
A little too
perfect
. “You’re not making this whole job
up just for me are you?” I eyed him suspiciously.

“
No, our secretary is
leaving to have a baby. You’d be doing me a big favor, although I
do have an ulterior motive,” he smiled sinisterly. “Since you’ll be
using a laptop, you’ll be able to work at my house occasionally.
And I promise to be a good boss and distract you from your work
every chance I get.”

“
Hmm, sounds like sexual
harassment.”

“
Darn straight! Maybe we
should go back to my place, and I’ll show you how I plan on
distracting you,” he said.

His cell phone interrupted a perfectly
good kiss. I readjusted the packages in my arms while Seth took the
call.

“
Change of plans,” he said,
stuffing the phone into his pocket. The expression on his face
could only be described as elation. “Booker invited us to have
lunch with him and his grandfather, Sam. You’ll love Sam. He’s
sarcastic too.”

***

We turned right on
Country Cottage Lane and
pulled up to number 69. It was a beautiful old colonial home,
gray with black shutters and stately white pillars. Booker, and I
presumed his grandfather Sam, were standing out front to greet us.
Time for all my cat jokes.

“
Play nice,
Maggie.”

“
I will.” Maybe.

“
Happy birthday, Jailbait.”
Booker walked over and gave me a hug.

“
Seth, you
let the
cat
out of the bag and told Booker about my birthday?” I said,
scratching Booker behind his ears. Seth mumbled something about me
not waiting even two seconds. I ignored him. This was going to be
fun.

“
You told her? You’ve
betrayed your best friend to a girl?”

“
You’re still my best
friend, but she’s the love of my life. She would have found out
sooner or later anyway.”

“
I would have preferred
later.”

“
Don’t be
angry, Booker. I’ll take you out for some catnip later if you
promise not to be a sour
puss
all afternoon.” That was a good one, even Seth
had to laugh.

“
I’d like you to meet my
grandfather, Sam,” he said, ignoring me. I stretched out my hand to
the frail looking old man who took it in both of his.

“
My, my. Booker wasn’t
kidding, you are a hottie.”

“
Grandfather!” Booker
immediately turned to Seth. “I swear I never said that. I did say
she’s a beautiful girl.”

Sam squeezed my hand. “Alright, maybe
I’m embellishing a little, it still doesn’t change the
fact.”

He guided me into a large dining room
where there was an elaborate lunch of sliced meats and cheeses set
out on glass platters. There were several small bowls filled with
condiments, and a black basket lined in red linen held oversized
rolls. It was all spread out on an ornate Rosewood
table.

“
What a beautiful table.” I
ran my hand along the edge, it had the feel of silk.

“
Booker built the table,”
Sam said with pride. “He built most of the wooden pieces of
furniture throughout the house.”

“
You do good work, Book,” I
said, walking over to the equally beautiful china hutch in the
corner. The intricacies and details in the woodwork were fantastic.
It had to have taken months to carve.

“
Thanks, Jailbait. Come on,
let’s eat,” Booker said, embarrassed by the attention. Who knew it
was possible to embarrass Booker?

“
I’m 18 today, you can’t
call me that anymore,” I said, sitting down at the
table.

“
That’s what you think,” he
smiled.

We ate and listened as Sam
amused us with
’The Adventures of Booker
and Seth,’
in which he chronicled the
different assignments they’d been on over the past two years. A
couple of the stories were hilarious, but way too many sounded
dangerous. Seth reassured me Sam was exaggerating.

Somehow, I doubted it.

After lunch, Sam suggested Booker take
me on a tour of the house. Booker’s place was wonderful, it
reminded me of Seth’s home; beautiful, inviting and nothing like my
trailer. Each room housed magnificent wood furniture that was
mostly built by Booker. Sam and his wife had traveled extensively
before she died, and he had tokens from all over the world, such as
an African tribal mask from Ethiopia, wooden shoes from Holland,
and a jade Buddha from China. It was fascinating.

Booker had an elaborate gun collection
he kept locked up in a large wall safe, but the lock was broken so
he couldn’t show them off to me. I was way okay with that! He also
had the most sophisticated security system that I’d ever
seen.

“
You can
even set a code that will send electrical currents through all the
doors and windows. If anyone tries to break in, ZAP! They get
shocked with a thousand amps of electricity,” Sam exaggerated. I
think.
Was that even
legal?

Sam led us to an outside door and we
walked down a small stone pathway to a separate garage behind the
house. Sam opened the side door and we continued though a short
hallway where two intimidating looking samurai swords hung on the
wall.

“
Are those things
real?”

Seth nodded. “From Japan, and very
sharp.”

We stopped at the end of the hall and
Sam announced, “Now for my most prized possession.” He winked at
Seth, who looked as if he was about to knock the door down. Sam
slowly opened the door, and there sat the most gorgeous car I had
ever seen. It was a dark smoky blue color with a black convertible
top. I knew at once what it was.

29

“
This would be the
celebrated Roadster, correct?” I asked needlessly.

“
Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren
Roadster,” Sam informed.

“
What a lovely shade of
blue,” I said, stroking the front fender.

“
Digenite Blue Metallic,”
Seth and Sam corrected me simultaneously, their eyes glazed
over.

I coughed over my laugh, Booker didn’t
bother covering his snort. Evidently, he didn’t share the same
obsession with the car as Seth and his grandfather.

At the far end of the garage sat
Booker’s woodworking tools, along with large piles of wood neatly
stacked against the wall. Between the tools and the false idol car
sat a battered wreck of a car.

“
What is that?” It was
impossible not to sneer. Parked next to the Roadster, the poor old
thing looked even worse.

“
That’s Booker’s car, a 1983
POC, which means Piece of Crap, in case you couldn’t tell.” Sam
scowled.

“
I’m a simple man with
simple tastes,” Booker said heroically.

“
More like a simple man with
a simple piece of junk,” Sam corrected.

“
I don’t need a silly car to
define my manhood.”

“
It’s a good thing because
that car screams wuss,” Seth said, giving Booker’s car a look of
revulsion. Sam nodded in agreement before holding out a small black
rectangular box to Seth and pointing at the Roadster. “No, Sam, I
never intended to drive it, I just wanted Maggie to see
it.”

“
I haven’t driven it since
my stroke, and as you know, sitting for long periods of time isn’t
good on a car. Please, you’d be doing me a favor.”

Seth stood staring silently at the
strange little box, I wasn’t sure but for a second I thought he was
about to cry. Finally, Booker snatched it and walked over to the
car. “Come on, I’ll take you for a spin.”

“
No, I’ll take her.” Booker
grinned at me as Seth promptly grabbed both the little box and my
right hand, leading me to the car. He pushed a small rectangle on
the side of the car and the door opened—vertically.

The inside of the car was also
stunning. The tan leather seats felt like silk against my skin as I
climbed into the two-seater. Seth probably knew the exact name of
the color; tan was good enough for me. There was a console nestled
between the seats, with a myriad of intimidating buttons and a
silver stick shift. The numbers on the speedometer read up to 220,
and hopefully it meant kilometers. I half expected James Bond to
jump out and demand his car back for some secret mission. Seth
flipped open the top of the gear shift and pushed a button. The car
roared to life. Whoa! The thing had some serious power behind it
and we hadn’t even moved yet.

“
Usually you don’t need a
key,” he explained, “you just type in a code and it starts. Sam had
them replace the key pad with this button, claiming he was too old
to try and remember another number after memorizing Booker’s
complicated security code.”

“
Don’t you two be out late,”
Booker teased Seth as he slowly backed it out of the garage. “I’ve
heard through the grapevine Donald’s Pass was shut down for
maintenance, which doesn’t begin until tomorrow.”

“
What was the whole cryptic
Donald’s Pass message about?”

“
It’s where we can take this
baby out, open her up, and see what she’s got.” He looked over at
me and grinned. Oh boy!

Once we arrived at Donald’s Pass, he
climbed out to make sure no one else was on the road. After
double-checking, he sat back down and pressed a button, opening the
convertible top, before buckling his seatbelt and flooring the gas
pedal. My head pressed back into the seat, I don’t know how fast we
were going, but it was definitely fast. The weeds and tall dead
grass on the side of the road were mere blurs. Halfway down the
road, he stopped the car and jumped out. Before I knew it, he was
opening my door. “Your turn.

“
Oh, no! Except for Drivers
Ed, and the time I’d used Zack’s junkie car to take the road test
last October, my driving experiences are nil.”

“
Maggie, this is a once in a
life time opportunity, besides, we’re on a deserted road. You can’t
hurt anyone.”

“
Only us,”
I mumbled, reluctantly climbing out and going around to the
driver’s seat. A sense of power pulsed through my body as I slid
into the buttery leather seat.
I
felt like James Bond
. I revved the engine
twice before engaging the stick shift. Out of the corner of my eye,
I could see Seth struggling not to laugh. We took off fast and were
at 60 miles an hour in less than five seconds. We were up over 100
mph without me realizing it.

“
Maggie.” There was definite
panic in Seth’s voice; he wasn’t laughing anymore. “Do you know how
fast you’re going?” I immediately removed my foot from the
accelerator.

“
This car is incredible. I
want one!” I drove for several more miles before Seth suggested we
head back.

“
We don’t want Sam thinking
we skipped town. Do you know the way back?”

“
I think so. Don’t you want
to drive it again?”

“
No, I want to watch you.
You should see the look on your face.”

I turned the car around and headed
back, driving a little too fast. “I have to admit it’s easy to
understand your obsession with this car. It’s so fun to drive, it
feels like you’re gliding along.” Who knew I could channel Richard
Petty?