crème glacée [the fate of coincidences 1]

16: Jade

Despite the awkward fact that he was the ex-fiance of her brother's ex-girlfriend, Jade found Glen to be a very easygoing person. He obviously wasn't used to someone like her who talked entirely too much, but he was never rude, and honestly Jade appreciated that more than anything. Especially when her own friends had a running competition on who could come up with the best insult.

That's why she felt entirely too guilty as she dragged Glen by his arm to her car. It was an early Friday night and she was running late so resorting to extreme measures such as this was her only choice.

"Please?" she pleaded as she opened the car door. "You're house is in the completely opposite direction and I promised I would be on time. Plus, you didn't have dinner yet, right?"

Glen took off his suit jacket as he got into the car. "Jade." He looked uncomfortable. "I don't know these people."

"And that can be easily fixed!" She tried to channel as much desperation as she could into her widening eyes. "Come on, they're just my friends, they won't bite." She reconsidered that last sentence with a nervous smile. "At least not enough to draw blood."

He gave her a look of incredulity and let out a sharp laugh.

"We won't stay there long, I promise," she said in her most persuading tone and tilted her head so he would have to look at her. Their eyes met in one long tension-filled second and then Glen crumbled back into his seat.

"Whatever--"

"Yes!" She started the car. "Thank you, thank you, I promise I'll repay you."

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Glen mumbled into the window he was leaning his cheek against.

Jade's phone started ringing and she put it on speaker as she pulled into the road, checking her blindspot.

"Jade, please tell me you're almost here," April's displeased voice came through the speaker.

"I'm almost here," she said, switching lanes and planning the fastest route to the restaurant in her mind.

"That better not be a lie. It's 7:03, and we decided to meet at 7."

"I'll be there in ten minutes, I promise." She glanced over to the passenger seat. "Oh, is it okay if I bring Glen along? I have to drive him home but that would take twenty more minutes, so I thought it would be better to bring him with me."

"Glen...?" The noise in the background started intensifying. "Hold on." The sound became muffled but Jade could still hear April yelling at Sebastian for doing something stupid. "Okay I'm back. What were you saying? Glen? Sure, the more the merrier. Just get here faster."

Jade hung up and focused on driving as fast as she could without breaking the law.

"So, are your friends celebrating something?" Glen asked as Jade made a sharp left turn.

"Kind of. It's a combination of a really late welcome back party for my brother, a celebration for Danny, my artist friend, who sold his most expensive painting yet, and a celebration for Mika. She's studying for a pharmaceutical degree, and she got into some pharmacy program thingy and apparently it's a big deal. So it's like three-in-one. My brother has to leave early, though, so that's why April-- remember I told you about her-- wanted us all to be on time."

"That also sounds like a lot of people." Glen squirmed in his seat. "How many of your friends will be there?"

"Well, there'll be six of them, excluding me." She glanced over to catch his expression, suddenly understanding what was going on. "Are you scared of people?"

Glen gave her an outraged expression. "If I was scared of people, I wouldn't be in this car talking to you. I would live in the mountains all by myself."

"Then why do you look like you're about to face the guillotine? Your face is all pale."

She noticed him sneaking a look into the side mirror. "No it's not. I just have a lot of work to do at home."

Sometimes she really wondered if he ever did anything besides work. "It's healthy to take a break from work sometimes. It reduces your chance of heart disease and cancer."

Jade had no actual scientific proof for that statement but she figured it must be at least partly true.

Glen fumbled with his cufflinks. "I guess."

They stopped at a red light.

"Actually, can you..." She gestured in his general direction, frowning at the crisp button-up and slicked back hair. "You look way to formal."

With a sigh, Glen loosened his tie and brought it over his head, undoing the first two buttons of his white dress shirt. "Better?"

Jade glanced over at him again and almost ran into a bicyclist. With her eyes now firmly on the road, she pretended the almost accident never happened and continued driving. "Yeah, but please do something about the hair."

"I saw that. Please pay attention to the road when you're driving."

Jade nodded and started to turn her head in his direction, but he pushed her cheek with his finger so she would face the front again.