Got To Be Good-looking ('cause he's so hard to see)

~19~

Clare

After escaping the inn, we were greeted with a coupe that would start. 

A fight over a 30-pound bill and twenty minutes of bickering later, I jumped in the driver's seat. It was my seat, my pocket thirty pound lighter. Highway robbery!

Down the narrow lanes, over the hills and dales, past the trees, green fields, sheep and cattle and more sheep.

The hour and a bit went quickly, too quickly, well not quick enough to be rid of Cap but I would miss driving. I love driving, loved driving songs, like 'Born to Be Wild'.

I tapped thinking of the words, Peter Fonda a usual prick was a total babe in that movie. I should call him when back in LA.

"How's that song go?" He spoke as I tapped the steering wheel to the silent beats.

"What song? I'm not singing"

"Thank God"

"Hey!"

"Thank Christ?" He raised an eyebrow and smiled as I turned to check his dial.

"You know 'Born to be Wild'...." He started singing, in a real Yankee way "Born to be wyyyyald"

And I nearly crashed, the car swerving right then left sharply back onto the narrow lane.

"What the fuck! Are you drunk!?"

"Sorry. Sorry! You just sang and I.... never mind." I flexed my fingers on the steering wheel, what the hell, how did he have the exact same song in his head.

"I'm not that bad a singer"

"No, no, it's not that" I tried to save myself, I was sinking inside. How he heard my thoughts was evil, sinister, or strangely compatible and calming. I shook my head of the damnation of thoughts flooding it.

"What then? That was ............ Shit, I had a vision of my whole life" He groaned, wiping his face of sweat.

"Short and boring, was it?!" I shot back hoping to deflect the rays coming from his eyes.

"Bitch"

"Arsehole"

I spotted a sign and pulled over suddenly "Oh look, my stop!"

Salvation just when I'd had enough of him.

"I thought you said you were going to Campbelltown?"

"Well you have to say a town, don't you, to the rental person" I replied as I grabbed my duffel bag and guitar case, sitting them on the grass beside me, holding my hand out for the pack of smokes.

"Oh, I thought they were a parting gift" He prodded.

"Bollocks"

"Nasty.... a gift from the bottom of your tiny teeny weeney heart..... Oh right, you don't have one!" He laughed and stood up out of the car, taking three smokes and passing me the rest "Hire charges" 

He held up the three smokes waving them like mini flags of tobacco.

"Alright then" I turned around and looked at nothing... it was just a narrower lane than the one we were driving on two minutes ago. "Well thanks and all that shit. It's been a......a...."

"Pleasure, my luv. I think that's what you're trying to pluck from your gob" He pulled my glasses down my nose a smidge and I smacked him away "Take care, yeah?"

"Right ok, it's been less like pulling teeth than I expected" I wasn't one for touchy feely goodbyes, I'd rather shove off quickly.

"You really should have some sugar when you can; might make you a bit sweeter" Cap sang out as he rounded the car and climbed in the driver's seat.

I stood back and I shoved my sunglasses up my nose again.

How rude.

I'm not that bad, am I?

He turned the key and the coupe started, warm and ready. Off you go then I thought.

Why is he still parked here, he should just drive off.

I picked up my gear.

"Might see you about the town then?" He called out"Campbelltown"

"I don't think I'll be going to town much"

I needed the mail but I wasn't telling him that.

I walked away lugging my gear and I heard the car move off, then heard the car get closer again, then saw the car pass by and stop. 

As I reached the window, I noticed the cottage ahead.

"Oh look, my cottage awaits" he crowed gallantly.

"You're not staying in my cottage, nick off!" I banged the roof of the car.

"No, course not. I'm not daft. I want a holiday not a nightmare" I leaned down to see what he wanted me for then "In my cottage" The big arse grin that covered his face was a nightmare as I followed his pointed finger out the filthy windscreen. Swinging my head round to the left, my eyes came to rest upon one cottage, then a little more to the left... my eyes landed on another.

Two cottages stood atop the mighty cliff, held steady against the wind that whipped at my skin.

Two.

One for Him.

One for Me.

Crap, crapola, shit, just no.

He drove on past me to his cottage with a jaunty wave of his fingers.

Just great, fantastic, just .....

Help me someone!