[Aldo]
The next day, we wake up early and are on the road straight away. We don’t talk about last night. The only acknowledgement is how gingerly Dawn is sitting on her seat.
I grin widely.
That was the hottest sex I’ve ever had. Not even just the first round. By the time we got to round three in the early hours, we were exhausted, but it was… I shake my head and keep focused on the road.
As tired as I am, the memories that are flooding my mind are distracting.
I claw my fingers around the coffee we’ve just picked up. I drink a long sip and then take one of the donuts. The rain that had promised to pour down overnight has only come this morning. We’ve got a proper storm pelting us. Dawn watches me drink my coffee and then smiles too.
I lick my lips, grinning like a wolf. I’m trying to think of a fitting joke, and I can tell that she can tell that I’m thinking of one when-
“Shit!” Dawn points out the windshield.
I look back and see some idiot pulling out of a slip lane and into ours!
I veer away to the left of the car.
Sliding across the lane with slicked tires, I yank the wheel back, and the coffee is flying along with the donuts. We come back across to the right, skirting the damn idiot, and then crash down into the storm drain.
A tire pops and we jam back upwards, crossing the little cement trail. The front of the van clunks down, and I screech on the breaks. We’re sliding forward over grass, headed quickly and yet painfully slowly towards a side rail…
The van crashes to a stop as we impale the grill onto the rail.
“Are you alright?” I grab Dawn.
“Yeah, yeah, fine! That asshole just pulled out!” She’s leaning over her seat and looking out.
I wrench open the car door and jump out. That asshole hasn’t even stopped. I see it heading off down the highway. I run after it for a bit and then stop. We’re barely an hour into the day, and now we’ve come crashing to a halt.
I go back to the car and inspect the front. Coolant is leaking out of the radiator. We need a new one. I go around to Dawn’s side and see where the storm drain has ripped one of the wheels to shreds.
“Fuck!” I bark.
“How bad is it?” Dawn asks, getting out.
“Bad.” I grab my head and she rubs my back. “You sure you’re alright?”
“Yeah, a little shocked. I mean, I didn’t see the morning going like this, but you know.”
I nod my head in agreement. I stare at the tire and then sigh. “Well, I can fix that. But that I can’t fix.” I point at the radiator.
Dawn purses her lips, and suddenly I realize the water is battering down on her. She looks beautiful in the rain. She realizes I’m staring…
“Think with the other head,” she snaps her fingers.
I laugh. “Sorry. You’re right. I just-” I take a deep breath in. My body feels light. I almost feel like this isn’t even a bad problem. “I couldn’t help it. But you’re right.”
“I know I am,” Dawn says. But she smiles too.
I head back around to the other side of the van as she gets back in her seat. I get my phone and call Luca, inspecting the cargo in back as I do. He answers on the second ring. “Aldo! How are you?”
“Hiya, Luca. Sorry to call so early. Bad news.”
“Oh,” is all he replies.
“Some idiot pulled out in front of us. A merge lane onto the highway. Didn’t look and cut across us. It’s storming up here in Georgia. I’m lucky I saw him so that I didn’t plough right through him.” I leave out the part that Dawn saw the car and not me.
“But anyway, we were veering all over the road and then crashing down into the ditch and back out over it and ran into the end of a guard rail.”
“Jesus,” Luca utters. “You’re alright?”
“Yeah, we’re fine. But the van isn’t. A busted tire I can change. An impaled radiator, not so much.”
Luca is talking on the phone and I hear Sophie’s gasp. I’ve caught them in bed. Probably sleeping in for once without Michael. “Alright, where are you?”
I look about, there’re not many signs anywhere, but we’ve been out of Savannah for over an hour. We’re in the backwoods, and the area is mostly flat. But there’s not much else.
“Hold on,” I exit the phone app and look at the gps. “Honestly, we’re near Walterboro? But there’s not much around here. GPS has had us taking some roads off the beaten track for quicker speeds and road works going on, you know.”
Luca sighs. “Too far to get towed?”
“It would cost way too much all the way to New York.”
“Right,” I hear Luca exit his call app and begin searching on his phone. “You think you could limp up to Columbia? I got a friend that lives up there who could help with a radiator. An older guy, but he’ll fix the car as quickly as he can.”
“We’ll have to try, gotta get to New York.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Luca says. “Just focus on getting to Columbia. The Kumarin’s might be tight on punctuality, but they’re not inhuman. I’ll call Reggie and let him know you’re coming. How bad is the radiator?”
I exit and go around again. The rain hisses at my ears and patters my skin, but with the heat, it actually feels good. At least it’s not humid yet. The radiator, on the other hand, has been completely severed. The fence has bent it in, but there’s no way it’ll hold coolant. I tell Luca as much.
“Stock up on water at the next gas station,” he says. “Just keep pouring it through as you need. I’ll get onto the connections and let them know there’ll be a delay. Other than that, are the goods fine?”
“No issues with anything. Boxes haven’t even budged in the truck.” I grab a strap in my hand.
“Good,” Luca sounds relieved. “Thank you for calling. Let me know if anything else happens.”
We hang up, and I get back in the cab. Dawn is texting like crazy, and I assume it’s Sophie. “Sophie can’t believe what happened!”
I nod. “Asshole didn’t even stop.” I watch the road like it’ll give us our mystery person’s coordinates.
She shakes her head and texts those exact words. I leave her with it, get back out, and head to the back of the van. I open the rear doors and open the side hatch for the spare tire. I take the jack and iron and muscle the tire out. It bounces down onto the grass, and I roll it towards the side with the puncture.
Technically, no one should ever jack up a car in the grass, or on soft ground, but we don’t have time. If I let us sit here in the rain, the ground is only gonna get softer.
I position the jack and start pumping it up, the metal closes in on the lip of the van edge and then it bites in. The van inches up slowly, Dawn bouncing in her seat with each little pump I give.
She opens the door. “I got a sore ass here. Gentle please!”
We laugh, and I keep pumping the iron. She watches me though, watches my arms moving up and down, and we feel the tension light up instantly.
The van is high enough, and I twist off the nuts with ease. I swap out the tire and have it back on, and the van is lowered in minutes. It ain’t the first tire I’ve changed. I roll the dud towards the back and put it in the hatch. I chuck the iron and jack in too, and now it’s the moment of truth for the radiator.
The engine starts with no issues, a luck I hadn’t even imagined, but it’s fine so I don’t question it. I shift into reverse, and we both tense up as I pull back slowly. There’s a small rending of metal, and then we’re free. With the engine running, I get out and look. It’s like a heart pumping blood, there’s spurts of coolant escaping the vehicle. It’ll be empty soon.
I hop back in and shift gears. I’m soaking wet, but I manage to get us out on the road with no issues. I smack the hazard light button on.
“So what’s the plan?” Dawn asks.