Oh, brother.
I make a scoffing sound and look to the left.
No cars.
I step out onto the road and in a blinding rush he quickly reaches out and puts his body in front of mine just as wheels screech and a car honks, the suitcase handles clattering to the ground.
My heart thuds against my chest.
“You fucking donkey!!” Tai bellows, shaking his fist at the taxi that nearly ran me over. “Pedestrian crossing means pedestrians are crossing, you chucklefuck!”
For a moment it looks like Tai is going to smash through the taxi’s window and pull the driver out by his collar, but the driver hits the gas and speeds through the crosswalk, thankfully not hitting anyone.
Tai’s dark complexion has turned deep red as he looks back to me. I’m about to thank him for saving my life but his eyes are fiery. “Why don’t watch where you’re fucking going? Look right, not left.”
I’m speechless, and I think I’m approaching Tomato Zone One because once again, I’m totally embarrassed. Not only that I forgot they drive on the other side of the road here, but that Tai is reprimanding me for it.
But I refuse to cower before him. “Give me a break, I just got here,” I tell him, hoping he can’t pick up on the warble in my voice.
He glares at me and snatches up the suitcase handles, looking both ways again before he starts crossing.
My pulse is racing in my neck as I follow behind him. He’s really getting all worked up about this and I don’t know why. He must think I’m the biggest idiot.
Probably because he’s used to dealing with Lacey, I think to myself. And you’re her airhead sister.
Yeah, the words are harsh. I know I’m not an airhead in the slightest, I just come across that way sometimes. Usually because I try to look on the positive (at least that’s what pre-job loss and pre-break-up Daisy used to do), and I guess if you’re always smiling you’re seen as dumb. Whereas someone like my sister, who rarely smiles and is always serious, seems smart by comparison.
Okay, she is smart. Like, brilliant. She’s got her damn PhD in botany. She’s a doctor and she’s marrying her equally as smart fiancé. And me, well I was the head of marketing for yoga pants and white-washed self-care. A job I couldn’t even hold on to.
I take in a few deep breaths through my nose as I follow Tai into the short-term parking area. I’m getting all worked up and I only just got here.
We don’t talk, I stay right behind the suitcases. He doesn’t even glance over his shoulder to see if I’m following him.
Finally, we stop at a shiny red pick-up truck, an old model that looks straight out of the 50’s. He throws my luggage in the back of it without a care.
“Hey, I have breakables in there,” I tell him, but he doesn’t seem to hear me. I suppose he’s not doing any different than the baggage handlers.
Then he gets in his side, which for a moment I mistake for the passenger side before I remember, again, how everything is switched around.
My poor hungover brain doesn’t like this one bit.
At least by the time I get in the passenger side, my face has calmed and he seems to have simmered down.
It’s a nice truck, shiny tan leather seats, but it’s awfully cramped. He wasn’t joking about someone else having to sit in the back, because my thighs are pretty much touching his and I am not ready for this amount of intimacy with this man.
I need to ignore it, even though at this proximity I can pick up on the scent of his cologne, or maybe his body wash. Something salty and bracing, like ocean air. It’s definitely not aftershave since he has a respectable five o’ clock shadow, the kind that would tickle the soft skin between your legs.
Oh my god, stop it.
I blink and buckle up, trying to shift my weight to the outer corner. These thoughts are entertaining but they’re bad news, especially since this guy seems to hate me for no real reason.
Maybe I won’t have to deal with him much at the wedding.
“So, how do you know the bride and groom?” I ask as he pays for the parking.
“Grew up with Richard,” he says out of the corner of his mouth as the parking attendant hands him his credit card back.
“Oh,” I say. “You know, I haven’t even met him.”
“I did know that,” Tai says as we exit the lot. “Lacey’s mentioned how you’ve never come to visit.”
“Well, you know…I’ve been busy. She’s been busy.”
He doesn’t say anything to that, still the set of his brow implies that this seems to be an issue to my sister. I guess five years is a long time…