What Could Have Been

Chapter Seven

Oh no no no, Rebecca thought. It can't be. Adam couldn't be that cruel.

Making her work at a tire store. She had been on the cover of Forbes for Christ's sake. She had multiple degrees and had received a world-class education.

She was Rebecca fucking Armstrong, at this pathetic excuse for a life wasn't hers.

"You mean I sell tires... me?" She said deadly serious, a part of her unbelieving. "Selling tires?!"

Rebecca shrugged her shoulders and walked off.

The brunette turned forward to stare dully out the front window.

"That's what I do. I'm a tire salesperson..."

Rebecca's was driving down a busy Mai Khao commercial street when she spotted something a hundred yards down the road.

"Good Lord..." She muttered to herself, aghast once more at this entire situation.

A vast, three-story-tall plastic likeness of Pook sat on a billboard above the tire and automotive store. A ten-gallon hat, lassoing a tire and looking the ridiculous part ever.

Clearly, Pook's business had a theme.

Rebecca approached Jerry's from the parking lot, slowly and taking it all in.

It was like a Pep Boys on steroids and with a Texas theme. A big retail store for tires and auto parts, and a repair bay for everything from alignments to brake jobs.

Rebecca pulled up in a parking space with her name labelled on it in white paint and got out of the car. She slowly walked towards the tire bay where a middle-aged blonde mechanic in overalls was standing next to a large, portly salesman.

The second the salesperson spotted her, he called out with a smile.

"Hey Rebecca, you happen to know the stock number on those new Michelin X1's?"

Rebecca scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Uh... lemme get back to you on that one..." she replied, squinting to read his name tag. "Tommy."

The blonde mechanic poked Tommy in the shoulder sharply and suddenly.

"Thomas, why you bother Rebecca about that," he said in a thick German accent. "Look it up yourself."

Tommy rubbed his shoulder, and the mechanic turned to Rebecca with a smile of her own.

"Okay Rebecca, we talk later."

She nodded amiably and then continued into the store.

Walking in, she looked around; the store was teeming with activity, a post-holiday sale in progress.

Pook spotted Rebecca from behind the counter and began to stride towards her with a broad smile. The brunette noted he was wearing a PRIDE pin on his lapel and felt a slight twinge in her chest at the sight.

"Rebecca, my girl!" The man called out. "You are looking mighty worse for the wear. Guess my girl must have torn you a new one for your adventuring yesterday."

Rebecca resisted the urge to roll her eyes, but Pook didn't linger on the subject.

"Hey, guess who I played bridge with two nights ago?"

Rebecca stared blankly at the older man, his moustache quivering with evident excitement.

"Hell, you'll never guess. Sydney Potter. That's Sydney Potter, Chief Executive Officer of BuyRite Transport. Only the third largest trucking company in the country. I even let the sonuvabitch win, which wasn't easy because the guy's been bashed in the head by Teamsters so many times his brain's like porridge."