“What?” I asked. “You want me to drive?”
“I want you to drive home,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy the journey.”
I wasn’t so sure he would be saying that once we were on the road. I wasn’t exactly on the brink of passing my driving test.
“Are you sure?” I pushed. “I’m still quite a learner…”
“Very,” he said. “Now let’s get a motor on and get this show on the road.”
I took a breath before I turned the key in the ignition. A very deep one.
My legs felt bandy and awkward, and it wasn’t from the butt pain at the top of them.
“You really can’t do this,” I said, before we were off the forecourt. “You really can’t get me a car. I mean this is crazy generous, way too much.”
He shrugged it off like it was nothing. “It’s really not some high end sports car,” he said. “It’s a nice little motor in a colour I knew you liked. It will be good for you to have an incentive to push on with your lessons.”
“Yeah, but still,” I said, and pulled out onto the road at a suitable break in traffic. I only hoped I really was as good as the instructor had been saying I was. “It’s still crazy generous. This is a car. An actual car.”
“And I’m sure you’ll get great use out of it,” he said.
I made sure I was well within the speed limit as I eased my foot onto the accelerator. I could feel him burning the side of my vision, my eyes desperate to chase down another look at him, even though I was fixed on the road.
The car was fantastic. A nippy little thing which made my heart sing. I couldn’t believe it was really mine. My own little motor to ride around in for years to come.
I’d done really well out of my eighteenth. As well as a sack load of sweet little presents, my uncle Eric had bought me a great little printer for university, and my parents had invested in a new study laptop. But this was something else. Something super different.
“Thank you,” I said, with a really genuine tone to my voice. “Thank you so much for this.”
“You’re very welcome, sweetheart,” he said back, and there was a really genuine tone to his too.
I concentrated as hard as I could on being the best driver I could be, and he was a great navigator, telling me which junctions to take long before we arrived at them, and encouraging me to speed up and slow down with as much easy authority as my driving instructor ever had. Being next to him was such a joy. The conversation was so natural, and the laughter came light, and I trusted him so much to guide me and push me and urge me on.
Just like in the rest of my life.
I couldn’t believe it when we arrived back at the outskirts of town. There was a relief at having the journey nearly completed, but a weird tinge of sadness to know that our two-person bubble was soon going to be broken.
The real world was still waiting out there.
“We’d better get this parked up at your place,” he said, and my belly did a lurch.
“My place?” I quizzed. “You want me to drive it home?”
“We’ll need to get it there in the imminent future,” he said. “May as well be now, and we can show your parents you in the driver’s seat.”
I couldn’t even begin to imagine what they’d say when they saw me pull up in the driver’s seat. I couldn’t hold back a whole new bloom of a grin.
Time to find out.
I indicated onto my estate and pulled up into our road, and there was Dad on the front lawn, pushing along with the lawnmower. I couldn’t resist beeping the horn, and he heard it over the mower roar, his eyes jolting up to see me pulling onto the driveway.
I put the window down with the engine still running and let out a squeal, and he turned off the mower, heading on over as Mum appeared out on the front porch and came over too.
They were shocked. As shocked as I was. Both of them open-mouthed as they looked from the car, to me, and over to Miles, both of them trying to fathom it.
“It’s my birthday present!” I squealed. “The birthday present from Miles!”
I turned off the engine with shaky fingers, and had to hold back a wince as I jumped up out of that driver’s seat. Miles was getting out the other side, looking so much calmer than me as he came around my side to join us.
“That’s quite a birthday present,” Dad said, and he wasn’t looking at me. His eyes were all on Miles.
Miles shrugged, again like it was nothing. “She’s been such a trooper at the office, I figured it would be a good asset to her at university.”