The road to love (editing!!)

Chapter 3 - A different view (edited)

Dean

"I don't get it. You have enough money to buy a Porche if you wanted to. Instead you insist on driving this... this 'normal person's' car." I sighed at my best girl friend Bianca currently riding shotgun. We had this conversation at least once every two weeks, usually when I gave her a lift into town for work on her driver Duncan's day off. Bianca hated driving in traffic, so she opted to be driven around instead. Unfortunately for her, her father had chosen the driver himself. Duncan was an ex-policeman who couldn't turn down Mr Williams' offer. Of course, knowing his daughter had a driver/body-guard helped when she was off on one of her crazy nights out with her friends. Being the spoilt, only daughter of a wine baron that she was, Bianca used her dad's money like water. Not that it made up for the love she was missing, but according to her it was a close second. I knew her better of course. She was just as lonely as I pretended not to be. That was probably why we became friends when we met in class at an exclusive high school in the 8th grade. We tried the dating thing, but since it didn't really work for us, we decided to stick to what did – a close friendship. Bianca's antics in life had made her much loved by the society pages, but had caused many a headache for her dad, Duncan and even me. I had a feeling she did most of it to annoy Duncan more than her father. I smiled at myself. Yep, there was something brewing between those two, even if she wouldn't admit it... yet.

"You know why I like this car", I pointed out once again. "I paid for it with my own money, not the company's. I own it outright. I know it's not flashy or expensive, but it drives like a dream. Anyway, you know I leave the flashy part of the Parker brothers to Joe. He's the show-off, I'm the back up."

"Yeah, yeah I know, Mr Dark and Broody," she smiled at me before filing her nails again. "So anyway, last night I went to Jordan's party at his beach house..." I nodded and smiled as I usually did when she started relating her adventures to me in detail. My mind, however, was on other things this morning. One thing in particular, actually. A funny little beetle car with a red-headed occupant, to be precise. Ever since our weird car-versation in traffic the other day, I couldn't seem to help but think of her whenever I was driving. She seemed so different from the sophisticated, reserved, if not stuck-up girls I usually found buzzing around me. I mean, she actually blushed when she caught me looking at her and I'm betting my new Oakley sunglasses that she had no idea who I was. Usually girls started trying to catch my eye the moment they recognized the Parker features. But not this one. It was quite a refreshing change, actually.

I tried to zone in on Bianca's babbling story again when I noticed a flash of red in my side view mirror. Well, well, well! Miss beetle-girl. No singing today?, I wondered as I watched her get closer in the traffic. "Bianca," I interrupted the girl next to me mid sentence. "Remember I told you about the girl who sang in her car every morning? She's about a car behind us in the left lane."

Not being a complete blond, Bianca used her common sense and looked in the side view mirror next to her instead of over her shoulder so as to not make her looking at the car's occupant so obvious. "Mmm, no singing today?" she asked the same question that I had been thinking only moments ago.

"Yeah, I wonder why"

Bianca looked at me with a knowing look. "What", I said, kind of agitated with myself that I spoke out loud. "She's entertainment in traffic."

"Yes, tell yourself that."

The left lane moved and Beatle-girl pulled up along-side us. She seemed to be in deep thought and didn't notice me until I switched on the radio rather loud. She jumped and looked to her right and smiled when she saw me smiling at her. I gestured with my hands to the radio, wanting to know why she wasn't singing. She shrugged and made a 'broken' movement with her hands. Oh ok, so that was the problem. My lane started moving, so I waved at her and followed the traffic to my side of town as she waved back. For some weird reason my day just got a little bit brighter as I dropped Bianca off before heading to the office.

Jessie

"So? Any interesting singing partners this morning?" Sharon sat down on my desk while picking at the muffin in her hand.

"Nope, radio's busted. Probably just a fuse again. I'll get another one during lunch." I hit Sharon's butt to get her off my desk. "You know, I have chairs," I smiled at her and motioned to the two chairs in front of my desk.

She got up from my desk and sat down on a chair opposite me on the other side of my desk. "I was so looking forward to this morning's installment of your dream guy story" she pouted.

"Oh, I didn't say I didn't see him. I just didn't sing on my way to work" I teased her a bit. Sharon immediately perked up. "Tell me, tell me!"

"Nothing to tell," I shrugged. "He had a girl in the car with him. Probably his wife or girlfriend." Seeing the beautiful blonde in Dream guy's car this morning had been a major downer. A girl could dream, couldn't she? "Anyway, I have too much to do today to mope about some guy I only see in the traffic every morning."

"I get the hint, I'll leave. See you for lunch?"

"Yup," I replied, my mind already running through the new marketing campaign for Parker & Sons that I was working on. Mark walked into my office just as Sharon left.

"Just a heads-up, Jessie-girl. The Parkers will be here on Friday at 10 for our pitch. We only have 2 days left to get everything perfect."

"Don't worry boss, we'll be ready."

Mark smiled at me before leaving in a rush again. I turned my attention back to the presentation I had been working on, trying my best to concentrate. I couldn't help but think that my traffic days would be a tad more depressing now since dream-guy was obviously taken. Darn.

I ended up working straight through lunch so I could get the finished product to Mark before closing. We would be putting the finishing touches on everything the next day and he still had to study the proposal well, as he would be presenting it to the client. My nerves were shot just doing the preparation!

Coming in earlier on the Thursday meant I effectively missed my usual morning traffic chaos. Mark and I worked behind closed doors for most of the morning and by lunchtime we were satisfied, well prepared and exhausted.

"Anyone who disses a pitch as good as ours after the work we put in, needs to see a psychiatrist," Mark smiled at me as we walked out of the building together at home time.

"We're ready for this, boss." I said goodbye to Mark in our parking lot and started my journey home, hoping to heck my words would be true at the pitch. For now though I only had one goal in mind – I seriously needed sleep after the week of preparation I just had!

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