Driving Miss Catherine

Prince Charming

Catherine rushed through her last exam of the semester, eager to get out of the hot, stuffy classroom she and her classmates were in. As she walked to the front of the classroom to hand in her test, she glanced out the window and tried to find the familiar black car waiting for her, like it had been the past few weeks. She smiled when she didn’t see it; ‘Seb,’ she thought to herself and shook her head. He’d been on time ever since that first day, when he was a few minutes late. They’d already grown closer than she and her last driver, who had been more of a fatherly, no, grandfatherly figure to her. Seb was kind of like that boy next door, that friend you could get into all sorts of trouble with; Cat had never had anyone like that before.

“Have a nice summer Miss Catherine,” her professor said quietly, smiling up at her from his desk.

“I told you, please call me Cat,” she whispered back.

“I’m sorry, but you’re father wants me to call you Miss Catherine,” he whispered back, glancing at the other students still taking exams.

“Whatever,” Cat sighed and put her text on his desk and got out of the classroom as fast as she could. She rushed down the stairs and opened the door to the sunshine. Cat skipped down the last few steps to the sidewalk and was about to sit down on the steps to wait for her driver when she saw him step out of a sleek black car.

“What is that?” Cat asked and her mouth dropped open in shock and amusement.

“It’s a Ferrari,” Seb replied smugly with the smile of a kid who’s been given whatever he wanted in a candy shop. “Isn’t she beautiful?”

Cat walked over to the car and ran her hand along the edge of it. “Does my dad know you have this?”

Seb chuckled. “Yes, he paid for it. I told him I needed a faster car to get you around.”

Cat starred back at him in shock. “My father bought this?”

“Yeah, he said the old Lincoln needed to be replaced anyway, so he let me pick the car. I was kind of joking when I showed him this one, but he liked it,” He smiled and looked back at the car to admire its sleek black curves

Slowly, a smile spread across Cat’s face that almost matched Seb’s. “How fast does it go?”

Seb smiled mischievously and bit his lip, “Want to see?”

After nearly getting whiplash several times, Cat was glad when Seb pulled the car to a stop in a parking lot. It took her a few minutes to catch her breath after the exhilarating ride and her driver watched her carefully. Mostly, he was concerned that he’d scared her, but he was also worried that she’d get sick- and that was not happening in this brand new car!

“Too fast? Too many corners? What’s wrong?” He turned to face her, trying to judge her reaction, but her face was unreadable.

“Well, Sebastian, the crab, first I have to say that this is the first time I’ve ridden in the front seat with my driver,” Cat looked back at him with a hint of a smile until they both started laughing, and glanced back at the lack of back seat in the small two-seat car. “However, that was also probably the fastest I’ve ever been in a car; that was almost like a rollercoaster.”

“So that was nicht gut,” Sebastian replied, and when Cat gave him a confused look, he corrected himself. “That was not good?”

“It wasn’t bad but….” Cat stared at him for a moment until it hit her. “You’re German!”

Seb laughed awkwardly, “Yes, I’m German, I thought you knew.”

“That’s cool; I’ve been to Germany a few times, it’s very beautiful. We went to Berlin for a while for something with Dad’s work, and we stayed somewhere in the Alps one winter to go skiing. I liked the Alps much better than I liked Berlin, it was kind of…”