What if... (A Barely-True Short Story)

The Music's Between Us

My brain is completely on overload. How is THIS man, of all men, sitting beside me, in my car, grinning at me? How is it even possible? It's too... weird. And we're still holding hands, even though the shake has ended. Embarrassed, I snatch my hand back, and he - John - lets out a little chuckle.

"And you are?" he prompts, looking like the cat that ate the canary.

I think, He's enjoying this. Whatever this is. But I can't speak, as my mouth has gone dry. Without my eyes leaving the lock they have with his eyes, I clumsily reach for my reusable water bottle in the car door pocket. After a few moments of me floundering around, I find the bottle, pop open the spout, and bring it to my mouth, sucking a ton of water down. I'm still looking in his eyes, sucking on the bottle spout, and he quirks his eyebrow at me. His grin takes on a sexy quality, and I realize how sexual it probably looks, me sucking on the damn bottle spout. I immediately stop, and slam the bottle back into its spot in the door. I must be the biggest idiot ever! And I am completely embarrassed.

"Your name, love. You can't suck on things in front of me, and not give me your name." Oh my gosh, he's flirting with me!

"I-I-I'm... Candy," I tell him, and the big smile returns to his face.

"See. That wasn't so hard," he teases.

"But I am," I hear from the backseat.

My eyes go wide, and I turn my head towards the voice, looking over my right shoulder. I forgot about the other guy in the back seat.

"I'm Simon," he says, also grinning as he offers me his hand.

I take his hand and shake it, then I turn back to John. Our eyes meet again, and my cheeks flame for no apparent reason. Other than the fact that I am face to face with the man that I have fantasized about since I was oh... fourteen!!!

"Cindy. As in Cindy Crawford," John says and that does it. I can practically feel the ice break between us as I scoff.

"Hardly," I answer. I'm in my frigging work uniform for goodness sake!

"Where are you headed?" he asks.

"Home," I tell him. I'm trying my best to not look or sound like anymore of an idiot than I already have, so I'm keeping my answers short and to the point.

"Well, we couldn't help but hear the music you were listening to," he flirts, and gives me the raised eyebrow again.

I'm quite sure he knows the effect that eyebrow has on women, and he's using it on me. Damn him! But it's time for me to flirt back.

"Yea? Your point is? I like to share my music with those in close proximity to my car," I say, quirking my eyebrow at him. His eyes go large for a minute, and then a half smirk pulls at his lips. Good Lord, this man is beyond sexy!

"Well," he starts, looking back at Simon with a knowing look. "Since you like to share." He pauses for the innuendo to float out there. I quickly catch it, and blush once again. "How about if we ride along with you to your home, and see if we like what we hear?"

Is he kidding?! I would love that! In fact, I've thought about him listening to my music and what he would have to say about it for years. Because he shares his music so much on various social media platforms, I know my taste in music runs pretty similar to his. This should be interesting.

"How will you get where you need to go after that?" I ask, thinking about these two men in my house. Is it clean? Crap!

"Our security team will follow and pick us up when we're done, okay?" he explains. I simply shrug my shoulders.

"Okay," I answer, reaching forward and pushing the button that starts my car. The engine purrs to life, and I put the car into drive. I look over at John, wearing my own teasing smirk. "Don't say you didn't ask for it," I flirt, and I pull away from the curb with a squeal of tires.

Moments later, we've turned on to the main road, but the car is still silent. I've forgotten to turn the stereo volume back up. Let's just see what my iPod is playing. I press the volume up button on my steering wheel, and soon my car is filled with the sounds that we all call music. I usually can recognize a song within a second or two, and my brain quickly recognizes the song as Candy Girl by New Edition. A classic in my mind, and I smile. And out of the corner of my eye, I see John nod his head in approval. Yes!

"Good song," I hear from the backseat, and my smile gets bigger.

They like my music... so far. I'm quite sure there will be something that they don't like at some point. I turn up the volume a little bit more, letting the stereo stretch its legs. It really does have a great sound, and I enjoy listening to my music on it.

"How long is the trip to your house?" John asks, his flirtiness more subdued. Darn it! I look at the clock on my dash board control panel, and quickly calculate the time.

"About 25 minutes," I tell him as we approach the light just before we get on to the highway.

"Well, I'd like to hear as much of your music as possible in that short time. So, would you mind if we only listen to snippets? To hear more?" he asks, I don't have a problem with it, so I shrug my shoulders again.

"Okay. Skip," I say as I press the button on my wheel to change the track. This time, it's Move Bitch by Ludacris. Not kidding. The bass begins really resounding in the car, and I have to contain a giggle.

"Wow. This car has a great sound system," John says sounding a little surprised. I simply lean forward and point to the Fender logo on the windshield post speaker. John nods his head, again impressed.

At that moment, it's our turn to turn into the entrance ramp to the highway. And a slow driver, coming from the other direction, turns in to the entrance ramp just in front of me. So what do I do? Sing the words to the song, rather loudly, all while gesturing to the driver in front of me.

"Move bitch! Get out the way, get out the way bitch! Get out the way!" I yell sing, both John and Simon starting to laugh at my very animated and pointed singing. I skip to the next track and smile as soon as it starts.

"Uh oh. This song usually makes me want to drive fast," I pronounce, speeding up a little, and riding a little closer to the car in front of me. What song? The Mark Reeder Remix of C'est Tout Est Noir by Koshii and Hush, featuring none other than the man sitting beside me in the front seat of the car.

We finally get to the point where we can merge out on to the highway. I look in my mirror and see that both lanes are completely clear of cars, so I step on the accelerator, and the turbo kicks in, thrusting us quickly forward. Within seconds, I've rocketed over into the left lane, passed the slow poke, and then we're cruising, going close to 80 miles per hour.

"Woo hoo!" Simon exclaims in the back and I laugh. I soon slow down a bit to a more respectable 67, and drop into the right lane, grinning. This is going to be fun.