Early the next morning, Jennifer left with Hans.
“James is not going?” Jennifer stood at the garage door and watched Nancy put the suitcase into the trunk, but she did not see James.
Usually, James would drive Hans when he was on a business trip.
“He has other things to do.” Hans glanced at her and threw the key into her hand.
“No more nonsense. Drive.”
“I… I’ll drive?”
Jennifer’s eyes widened in disbelief.
She got her driver’s license when she was in the second year of university, and she had barely driven ever since. Now Hans was asking her to drive?
“Well, I’m not going to drive.”
Having said this, he opened the door of the passenger seat and got in without giving her any chance to refute.
Jennifer had always thought that the negative connotation to female drivers was custom-made for people like her. If it weren’t for the fact that the road around the villa was very spacious and empty, she would have been in big trouble.
It was relatively convenient for Jennifer to drive an automatic car. She had forgotten all the driving knowledge and it could not be picked up in a short time. As soon as they got on the main road, she accidentally ran a red light and almost collided with a truck.
In the passenger seat, Hans visibly gasped.
Jennifer’s face was pale. She held the steering wheel and took a long breath after keeping a distance from the truck.
“Get into the left lane. You are in the middle right now, how are you going to turn left? Did you not see the sign?” Hans couldn’t help but remind her.
“…”
“Where’s your signal? Are you going to turn without signalling?”
“…”
“After this trip, I guess you would probably get your license revoked..”
Holding the steering wheel, Jennifer was sweating profusely. The more Hans gave her instructions, the more nervous she became.
“Pull over, we are getting on the highway.”
Hans took a deep breath. If she continued to drive, it would be a miracle for the both of them to reach Seattle alive.
“Huh, stop the car?” Jennifer froze. She didn’t know what she had done wrong. She panicked and stepped on the accelerator accidentally thinking it was the brake. The car suddenly sped up to the highway toll booth.
“Hit the brake…” Hans roared and he jumped up from the passenger seat and took control of the steering wheel. He turned the steering wheel around and the car screeched as it turned, leaving skidmarks on the road. The car was smoking as it barreled towards the guardrail.
At the last moment, Jennifer stepped on the brake. The car slowly hit the guardrail, the airbag deployed, and it prevented the two of them from any injuries.
Jennifer was a little dizzy. In a daze, she felt that she was being pressed under someone’s body, and her arms were numb. She raised her head and looked into his jet black eyes. There was a sense of panic that flashed through his eyes.
“Do you want to die?” Hans roared at her and pushed her out of his embrace, his face was ashen.
The traffic police on duty all rushed over to assess the situation. A limited-edition Maybach hit the guardrail, and the front was completely smashed. As Hans said, Jennifer’s driving license was probably going to get revoked as soon as she started using it.
After getting out of the car, the traffic police made a simple inquiry, gave them a ticket, and called roadside assistance for them.
“I called the car service centre. They said that it would take a month to repair it. It’s getting late now and we have a meeting at two o’clock in Seattle, we don’t have time to go back and change cars.”
“So?” Hans stood aside and looked at his ruined car. His face suddenly turned cold. “You are not expecting me to come up with a solution, are you, Secretary Jennifer?”
“Well, Seattle is too far away. No taxi will go that far, and there is no taxi here anyway, so I think it is the fastest way for us to get there is by express bus. We can get there in two hours.”
“…” Hans’s face darkened slightly.
“I’ve asked the police. It will only take 10 minutes to walk to the nearest bus station. There’s a bus to Seattle every 20 minutes. It’s an express bus so we won’t have to wait too long…”
Seeing Hans’s gloomy look, Jennifer’s face turned pale, and her voice became softer. “Express bus is actually not so bad. It’s just a little bit crowded, not very spacious, and quite stuffy…”
Fifteen minutes later, Jennifer held two bus tickets in her hand and pushed two small suitcases beside Hans, waiting at the turnstile.
There were a lot of people at the station, and there were all kinds of smells. Jennifer carefully looked at Hans’s face and she really felt like it was the calm before the storm.
When they got on the bus, some elderly women were holding bags of souvenirs in their hands and shouted in their California accents, “Miss, let me through, let me…” They kept squeezing in as they yelled as if their seats would be taken away.
Jennifer was worried that the food in their hands would dirty Hans’s expensive suit. Her whole body was tense, and she opened her arms to shield Hans behind her like a hen protecting her chicks. She was wearing 12cm high heels and wobbled like a roly-poly.
Hans was much taller than her. He stood behind her awkwardly and smiled at the elderly women passing by. Then, he pulled her back and pushed her to the window seat impatiently.
“Just sit down.”
“I’ll take the aisle seat…” Jennifer nervously stared at the elderly women who were constantly carrying their luggage into the car.
They bought the tickets late. The two seats were not next to each other. Only the seat next to the window was theirs, and the other seat was at the back.
“Alright, just sit down and put on your seat belt.” Hans glanced at her with an indifferent expression. He leaned against his seat and closed his eyes.
Before they left, the driver was doing a headcount when three young women ran into the bus all flustered. All of them were blushing and they apologised profusely as soon as they got on the bus. “Sorry, we are late, we had something else going on.”
The elderly women were all kind to them. The three of them looked like college students from the nearby university town. They were dressed decently. One had a ponytail, one had long hair down her shoulder, and the other had short hair and she looked cool. She followed the two long-haired girls, carrying a backpack on her back and two carry-on in her hands.
The woman with long hair sat down in front of Jennifer. The woman with the ponytail went straight to Hans. She looked down at the ticket in her hand and subconsciously looked back at the short-haired woman. She seemed to be in a dilemma.
The short-haired woman was stuffing a backpack in the overhead compartment. Seeing this, she frowned, put down the bag and said coldly,
“Sir, are you in the wrong seat?”
Hans opened his eyes and looked at the two women in front of him. One was imposing and the other was gentle and beautiful. Their characters were so distinct and full of vitality.
“No…”
“Can we change seats?” Before Jennifer could say anything, Hans spoke over her impolitely as if he was not asking for a favour, but was demanding it instead.
Jennifer’s heart sank and she looked at the two young women awkwardly.