Taxi Cab

Taxi cabs are an unavoidable part of New York City. They occupy most of the streets and as a tourist with a subway fear, they're practically inevitable.

Naturally, they have their faults. They're hard to flag down, and once you finally catch one you better be prepared to spend your life savings just to get across town.

On this particular day, however, taxi cabs pissed me off more than they would on any other day. Specifically taxi cab drivers. Specifically the taxi cab driver that refused to kick the man in the nice suit out of the cab that I flagged down.

Let me back up a bit.

The streets were insane. Seemingly more insane than they typically would've been. Now, maybe I'm only saying that because I'm not what you would call a "New Yorker" and I'm not even a frequent visitor of the city. But to me, the streets seemed pretty fucking insane. 

I'd been standing on the side of the road by my hotel in ankle-blistering heels,raising my arm every single time a yellow vehicle passed by. None of them stopped, and I was terrified of being late to my sister's wedding. Horrifying images flashed through my mind of me barrelling through the doors just as they said their vows and ruining the entire ceremony because of my lateness.

Typically, I'm never late. To anything. Ever.

But that's not the point. I slowly began to think that literally every single cab in this damn city was taken, but thankfully I was proven wrong.

I actually breathed a sigh of relief when one of them finally pulled over for me. I was so focused on the fact that a cab actually stopped that I didn't even notice the stranger sliding in through the other door.

He didn't notice me either, and I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. We spotted each other at the same time. Our eyes locked and confusion settled on both our faces. It took a moment of awkward silence for me to finally realize what was going on.

"Where to?" the driver spoke up when neither of us offered him a destination.

"Um, excuse me," I ignored the driver, turning back to the man that sat beside me. "I think there's been a mistake. I have somewhere to be, and I've spent the last ten minutes trying to flag down a cab, so can you please take the next one?"

I tried to sound nice, but he just laughed and shook his head.

"Listen, sweetheart," he began. I hated his condescending tone, and it only pissed me off to the point where I felt like shoving his sorry ass out of the car and onto the street. "You're not the only person in this city with places to be, and I've been trying to catch a cab for fifteen minutes now. You can get the next one. Okay?"

"No," I snapped. "Not okay. This is my cab. It pulled over right in front of me. I'm already late, and I need to get going so can you please be a civil human being and leave?"

"Actually, it pulled over in front of me. And there's nothing you can say that's going to make me leave this car."

I felt like crying. Not because I was that upset or angry that I had to express my emotions through tears, but because maybe if I cried he would feel bad and leave.

"You're losing me money here," the cab driver said, annoyance and slight anger evident in his voice.

"Which one of us did you spot first?" the man asked him.

"Actually, I wasn't stopping for either of you."

"Please take the next one," I spoke up, my voice raising ever so slightly. The man smirked. He found this amusing. I glanced at my watch to see that the time left was slowly decreasing "I'll...I'll pay you," I offered. "Twenty bucks if you get out now."

"Deal."

I fumbled to grab the money, dealing him two ten dollar bills as fast as I could. He finally left and I told the driver the address with instructions to hurry, though i don't think it did any good. By that point I was stressing out. The maid of honor, late to the wedding. This was so unlike me.

By the time I got there, I wasn't actually late. But coming from someone who's usually early, I wasn't on time either. I helped my sister get ready, and she looked gorgeous. I was incredibly happy for her. She'd awaited this day for so long, and at that point it almost felt surreal.

The time for the ceremony grew closer, and I was handed a bouquet with instructions to walk. My heels were still killing me, but I was numbed by happiness as I began to move forward. So many familiar faces surrounded me. THe rest of the bridesmaids trailed behind, and it was only when I reached the front that I saw him.

Dressed in his nice suit.

Standing beside the groom.

Smirking at me.

The guy from the taxi.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hey guys :) You might be seeing some more of these short little stories from me. I just have all these story ideas in my head and I think "Oh, one day I'll write that when I have some time" and I never have time to write huge long books because of all my other huge long books I'm currently writing, so this is basically just a sneak preview of one of my story ideas :p Until I have time to make it something bigger :) Will probably be edited/added to in the future. For now this is all. I hope you liked it! Thanks for reading!! x