Whole Lot More

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven
Two Months Later

The phone rang that April night like clockwork. He always called like clockwork. If there was one thing she could count on every day, it was his phone call. No matter what he was doing, whether he had every guy at the track in his coach, he always called her.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

She smiled. “Hey yourself. What are you up to?”

“Trying to get Junior and Josh off my ass about going out. After that shit during practice today, all I want to do is bury myself in my coach and get drunk.”

“Maybe you should go out with the boys, it might get your mind off of your weekend so far. Besides, I’m sure you’ll do fine in qualifying tomorrow. You just had a bad day today.”

“It best only be a bad day, I don’t know how much more of this shit I can deal with. I have critics up my ass saying I was better cut out for Busch than Cup. It’s only been two months and half the shit I’ve gotten caught up in wasn’t my fault!” He sighed. “I’m sorry to put all this shit on you. Really, the reason I called wasn’t just to bitch and complain.”

“You have to bitch and complain to someone, and I don’t mind it being me, really.”

“No, I’m seriously going to quit bothering you with my problems, besides, I want to know how your day was.”

“Boring,” she laughed, “I slept, woke up, ate lunch, watched my shows and did some grocery shopping. In that order. And now I’m getting ready for work, and I really don’t want to go.”

“Call in sick then and talk to me. It’ll give me an excuse not to go out and it’ll make it so you don’t have to work.”

“Wish I could, but there’s no one who could really do what I have to do. So, if I called in, they’d be shit out of luck.”

“Let them be.”

She sighed, “I wish I could, but then I’d feel bad and yeah... I don’t want to feel bad. But maybe I can come home early, I don’t know.”

“I just think you work way too much.”

“I could say the same thing to you...”

“Brynne, I’m being serious, here.”

“I know,” she nodded, “And I agree. But right now, there’s nothing I can do about it. I wish I could, but I don’t have a choice but to work as much as I do.”

He sighed. “I think you need a weekend off.”

“I agree,” Brynne chuckled, “Hell, I could use a whole month off.”

“Take next weekend off, and come to Phoenix with me.” The request was said so simply, almost like it wasn’t a request to fly halfway across the country to meet someone she’d been talking to for months.

“Martin –”

“Listen Brynne, just think about it and get back to me. I really don’t want an answer now. Give yourself a couple days and just think about it and I won’t bring it up again until you give me your answer.”

“Okay,” she nodded, knowing more than likely that the answer was still going to be no. Unconsciously her eyes slipped to the clock and she groaned, “We’ve been talking a lot longer than I thought and now I’m going to be late.”

“Yeah... the guys are back here to harass me again. Might as well get them to leave me alone. Or else, it’s going to be a long ass night.”

“Well have fun. Lots of it.”

He laughed, “I will. You have fun, too.”

“I’ll try, and I’ll talk to you later, right?”

“Of course you will, just like normal. Bye, Brynne.”

*

Brynne had sent Julie a message on her way to work, saying she really needed to talk to her, so as soon as she walked in the door, she dialed her best friend’s number.

“So what’s this big news you have to talk to me about?”

“Martin made me a proposition...”

“If it was that he wanted to have sex with you and you turned him down, tell him I’m ready and willing.”

Brynne laughed, shaking her head at Julie’s antics. “No, no, no... it wasn’t anything like that.”

“Well then, what was it?”

“He asked me to take next weekend off and fly to Phoenix for the race weekend...”

“Well do it, then! You shouldn’t even have to think about that. I mean, how often does a popular race car driver tell a girl he’s been talking to for months to take a weekend off and come see him? Hello! That like never happens... only in most girl’s dreams.”

“You know I can’t do that... just take a weekend off, especially not on such short notice...”

“Please tell me you’re not thinking about telling the poor boy, no!”

“What else can I do?”

“Tell Tara to get her ass in gear and take over for you for the weekend.” She said it like it was such a simple thing to do, when really it wasn’t.

“Tara’s not nearly ready to take over for me...”

“Then train her! Or tell her what to do! I understand that you don’t want to go far, much less out of state, but sooner or later you’re going to have to, Bry.”

“I couldn’t do it in like two or three days... it’d take nearly a week, at least...”

It was as if a lightbulb flipped on over Julie’s head, as she jumped up and grinned. “Oh shit, Brynne! I can’t believe it didn’t hit me before...”

“What?!”

“What’s the weekend after next?” Julie asked.

“Um... I have no clue.”

“Dega!” Julie said, excitedly.

“Yeah...”

“And who has tickets to Dega?”

“You?” Brynne guessed.

“Me!” she exclaimed, “It’s perfect! You get Tara trained this week and pack your shit up and get your ass out here in time for Dega. We can go meet lover boy and you can get me introduced to Junior and let my charm do it’s work! It’ll be perfect, I promise.” Before Brynne could say anything, Julie cut her off. “And before you say anything, take your time and don’t give me an answer right away.”

“Fine,” Brynne sighed, “I’ll think about it.”

*

Her mind was a whirlwind when she finally made it to bed that night. Two propositions in less than twelve hours. What the hell was she going to do?

She wanted to say yes to Martin, she really did; but she knew she wouldn’t be able to get away the next weekend.

However, Julie’s offer she could handle. By that time, she could have Tara all ready to take over when she was gone, and she could sneak away for the weekend.

A thought struck her and she smiled; she could surprise him in Talladega. And she figured, that’d make it all better for not being able to make it to Phoenix.

***