“Need a lift?”
I try to shield my eyes to make out the man’s appearance.
It doesn’t look as though I have much of a choice.
I can continue to wander aimlessly, or I can take another stranger up on their kindness.
My mind flashes to Charlie and how he’s hurt me. I think I would rather wander on my own than to put any faith into another man.
“No thanks,” I call out.
The loud hydraulic sound large trucks make squeals, and the driver takes off to places unknown to me.
I walk some ways further when I hear the sound of another motorcycle. My heart beats rapidly in my chest until it blows past me with two riders. Another false alarm.
I bury my face in my hands.
He’s gone.
My tears fall as freely as the rain that has started to downpour on me.
I spread my arms and spin around in the rain letting the drops wash over me as I look up at the sky, hoping they will somehow cleanse me of him, because I feel him deep in my bones, in every breath I take.
It is almost laughable. My situation.
Here I am in the middle of nowhere.
Charlie has left me.
I can’t stop thinking about him though. He’s embedded himself in every fiber of my being.
>
His smile.
His rough touch.
Those dark eyes that captivate me completely.
That heart he tries to keep hidden away.
All the things that make him the man that I crave.
Lightning cracks in the sky, lighting up the road. There is an exit ahead that will take me to the police station. I don’t want to go there. I want to go back to that trailer in the woods. The one shut off from the rest of the world where there is nothing but Charlie and me.
A loud rumble sounds behind me but I don’t dare look. I don't need to. I already know it won’t be him. The sound fades. I hear my name. “Shelly!” The name he gave me carries through the sheets of rain. Maybe I am hearing things. I already feel a bit crazy anyway.
But his hand on mine, that I can’t ignore. Charlie spins me around.
He opens his mouth, but no words come out.
“What!” I yell over the storm.
The light from his motorcycle headlight illuminates his figure as he towers over me. Soaking wet and mad at the world.
His Adam's apple bobs as he swallows hard. “You remind me of Kristen. Of my shitty past. All the bad things I have done. Sometimes I can’t stand to look at you. I want to hate you. I want to punish you. I’m not supposed to care. You’re not supposed to mean a damn thing to me. But you do.” He pulls me in close. My clothes are heavy and clinging to my body. He stares down at me, holding my gaze.
“Come on,” he says leading me back to his bike and I climb on and hold on to him.