Freeloader

Part 6

We were on a stake out.

At approximately 8:33 in the morning, as soon as Leo shut the door between the laundry room and the garage and started his car, Grace and I snuck out the backdoor. We cut through the neighbor's yard and met Eva in her car on the side street. As Leo drove away, Eva positioned herself to be a couple cars behind him, following him.

Eva knew there was no way Leo was cheating on Grace just like I did, but Grace talked both of us in to tailing him. It was fun, really. The exhilaration of following him. When he would switch lanes, Eva would casually switch lanes too, and we'd giggle at how conspicuous we were behaving.

Grace didn't think any of it was funny, which made it funnier.

Leo made a fast turn into a parking lot.

"No!" I said, but Eva followed right behind him before I could stop her.

It was a Starbucks parking lot, and it was packed. Grace ducked down in the front seat, afraid Leo would see her. But he was clueless. He put his blinker on, waiting for a car to leave a parking spot.

"Back out of here," I told Eva, looking out the back window. But as I said it, several cars pulled in the parking lot behind us.

We were literally sandwiched in between those cars behind us and Leo's car directly in front of us.

Leo finally pulled into the parking spot, and as he walked into the building, another car backed out of its parking spot in front of us.

"Exit over there and we can wait in that parking lot until he leaves," Grace said, pointing, directing Eva.

"I see it," Eva grumbled at her.

But as the car in front of us was nearly backed out of its parking spot, a car across from it started backing out too. They evidently didn't see one another, and collided.

"Oh, great."

We watched as both drivers got out, angry at one another.

Grace looked panicked. "Go around them," she told Eva, demanding.

"Around where?!" Eva shouted.

The entire driveway was blocked by the fender bender. I looked out the back window again as Grace and Eva argued with each other like sisters. There were probably 10 cars stacked up behind us, some still on the shoulder of the road waiting to get into the parking lot. We were just yards away from the drive thru line, which was dwindling down to fewer and fewer cars, a rare sight for a Starbucks in the morning, but couldn't get into it.

We were stopped even with Leo's car.

The driver of one of the cars that was hit was on the phone. The other came over and tapped on Grace's window for her to roll it down.

"Did y'all see what happened?" the woman said, crouching down to look in the window at us. She was dressed very professionally in a pants suit and heels.

"No." "Not really." Grace and Eva both said.

"Damn" the lady muttered. She stood up straight and shielded the morning sun from her eyes. "He is calling the cops now." She motioned towards the driver of the other vehicle.