Wed or Dead

XXX

Today Eliana passed the second part of the driving test.

"Congratulations," said Giovanni.

"Thank you. By the way, we're not coming home yet, we're going shopping to celebrate. "

As part of the celebration,  she decided to buy her first car.

She asked Giovanni to drive her to the address where the car dealership is located. She couldn't afford a new car yet so she will buy the used one.

Giovanni nodded in understanding but he didn't really know what her celebration entails. He politely opened the door for her.

***

Soon they arrived at some old grey square-shaped building behind which had a huge parking lot filled with used cars.

Giovanni followed her but watched with consternation at the choice of location.

"Why do you look surprised? I got a driving license so I'm buying a car "

"Here?" He asked weakly.

"Yes?"

The black, new, and shiny Mercedes looked a bit comical against the background of the old, dusty cars. Eliana didn't care. 

The salesman was busy encouraging the purchase of a red Audi by a couple with two kids so instead of approaching him, Eliana decided to look around on her own first. 

There was one car that instantly caught her eye a very small fiat in olive colour. It had only two seats, perfect for her and Casey. 

"Are you going to buy this?" Asked Giovanni he didn't bother to hide disapproval from his voice.

"Well, if it's not too expensive"

Her bodyguard's jaw simply dropped.

"How much does that one cost?" Eliana asked the salesman pointing at the car she was interested in. 

The salesman, John, just finished dealing with his previous clients and approached her the moment he noted he has another potential buyer at hand.

"$22,500"

The price was, the salesman argued, a bargain. However, seeing Giovanni's attitude, he wanted to leave this place as soon as possible. Without the car. Of course.

To Eliana - the price really made sense. 

***

"Before you buy it, you must take it to a mechanic to check if it is okay" Giovanni reminded. 

"I'll give you an address my friend, he is an experienced mechanic," said John in an overly positive voice. 

"That won't be necessary," Giovanni said before she could respond "We will go to someone else. You offer test drives, right?

"Of course," said the salesman politely.

***

To Giovanni's dissatisfaction and her satisfaction, the mechanic did not find any damage in the car. I had the feeling he would use any excuse to dissuade her from buying it.

"We're getting it" Eliana decided.

"I'm not sure if it's a good idea. Boss won't be happy about it" Giovanni argued. "Mr Vincenti has a lot of cars, some in his private collection, others for the company. It won't be an issue to assign you the one I am sure and they will be of far better quality"

Eliana rolled her eyes.

"This is exactly why I am getting this car. If something happens to this one, it's my property that I destroyed not someone else. I don't want him to give me a car"

He didn't like her response.

"Eliana, you're way more valuable to Mr Vincenti than any, don't even try to get into an accident because don will have my head" Giovanni warned.

"Geez, okay, relax"

John patiently waited till Giovanni and Eli stopped arguing to ask. 

"How about a discount?"

***

Well, so guess what? Eliana bought her first car.

She felt so free behind the wheel.

When she tried to drive through the gate, the security guards got a little puffed up seeing a strange car, but their mood quickly changed when they saw who was driving. They looked questioningly at each other, but without a word, Eliana was allowed to enter the property.

Unfortunately, fate was not in her favour today.

The weather today was very pleasant so everyone was hanging out in the garden. Casey and Milo were swimming in the pool. Remi was lying on a hammock and sunbathing his head covered with a magazine with a woman in a bikini, and Rafael sat at the table traditionally with his nose covered in papers, does this man stop working sometimes?

As Eliana entered the property, four pairs of eyes fell on her.

"Where did that come from," Milo asked in disbelief. That forced Remi to move and look at what was going on

"You mean my new car?"Eliana asked, offended. 

"You call this thing new?" Remi asked in utter disbelif. 

"You know what I mean," Eliana said frustrated. 

"In great shape for what? A museum exposition?" Asked Milo, who managed to get out of the water, and now he approached the car and tapped the hood as if checking something and pretending to be surprised. Remi was laughing somewhere in the background.

"Did you decide to drive this garbage?" Raphael hissed, and I was alarmed by his eyes darkened with anger.

"This car is perfectly okay," Eliana said defensively.

"Perfectly okay for scrap processing?" 

I watched in horror as Rafael stood up and slowly walked toward her.

"Give me back the keys"

"What for?" Eliana asked handing him the keys. Rafael tossed them to Milo.

"Give it back, make sure they return the money, and be careful while driving"

"He won't be returning anything this is my car damn it," Eliana said angrily. "This car is staying," Eliana said firmly. 

"Fine" Rafael replied, his voice indifferent. 

Ha. 

"Th-" Eliana started saying but she was interrupted. 

"It's your first car, I get that you might feel attached to it. It can stay here but you won't be driving it. Over my dead body" 

🔆🔆🔆

Hi!

Your comments under the previous chapter motivated me to post a new one. I hope you like it.