WE SHOULD STOP NOW

PART 24 - AFRICA

JOANIE

Cranking up the heat to the max level I blow out a puff of air and see wisps of my breath form and dance around before it disappears. Holy shit, it's cold! Rubbing my hands together is doing nothing, I'm like a block of ice but I'll be damned if I'd admit that to Caleb. We're driving my car and that's the end of it. I look back in my rear view mirror and see Bruce looking back at me with big sad eyes, he's annoyed with me too. He loves Caleb's SUV.

Shaking my head, I turn my radio on to distract myself but quickly turn it off when Christmas tunes start playing out. I love a good Christmas song as much as the next person, but it's mid November and I'm not quite ready to get my Xmas vibes on just yet.

Through my steamed window I see Caleb plodding through the snow that's now pretty thick across the floor looking grumpy as he heads to my car. Caleb yanks my car door open with zero respect to it before slumping in the seat and banging it closed so the glass tremors.

"Jesus Caleb! Show a little respect to my car will you!" I snap at him and he turns to me with his mouth hanging wide open in shock.

"You are fucking joking! You're saying this to me!" He shakes his head with disbelief.

"This car is...vintage!" I snap back.

"It's a piece of shit J, I wish you'd let me just buy you a new one. Can we please just go in my car, you don't even know where we're going." He tries to reason but I'm not having any of it.

"I will never let you buy me a new car, I worked and saved hard to buy this old 'rust bucket'. It may not look like much, but it's all mine." I throw back at him and he scoffs as he's heard this all before.

Caleb is desperate to buy me a new car, the mere sight of my old Chevrolet seems to insult him but I kind of like that it irritates him. He can be too wasteful with money and I think it's a good lesson for him to learn that not everything can be paid for by his huge trust fund. All three Maverick brothers are fast car and motorbike junkies. They go through new cars like I go through socks, but I will not be swayed on this. Caleb just has to suck it up.

I go to pull out of the driveway, but the engine cuts out. I bite my lip refusing to look at Caleb because I just know he'll be insufferably smug right now. So I try to turn the car over again and it shudders to life and I give out a victorious yelp, but it cuts out again just as fast, wiping the smile off my face at the same time. Well, shit. Beside me I hear Caleb stifling a laugh so I glare at him which makes his grin even bigger. I tried the car again and now it won't even fire up.

"Shit, shit, shit!" I mutter to myself as I bang my hand on the steering wheel.

I side glance at Caleb who's put his hand over his mouth to try and stop laughing at me and I look away trying not to giggle at him. Ahh, why does his smile have to be so fucking contagious all the time. We both look at each other and burst out laughing.

"Give it up baby." Caleb smiles at me. "Look how about this, let's go in my car today and I promise I'll get your car fixed up as good as new." Caleb says as he takes my cold hands off the steering wheel and gently plants featherlight kissing to the fingertips to warm them up.

I give out a big sigh in defeat. "OK." I whisper begrudgingly.

"OK." Caleb laughs.

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Forester's Canyon is about a two hour drive inland from our town. I've never been before but Caleb has told me it's a great place to go for long distance runs which I love to do. However, as the land has turned to snow and ice, today we're doing a three hour hike instead to enjoy the spectacular views.