Deadly Dosage (38 page)

“Ouch!” Autumn hollered. She
slapped me. “What?” she said continuing her conversation. “Oh, hit my elbow, it’s
okay. Anyway, I knew you were there with a date. I didn’t want her to…” She
paused again smiling. “Knew you’d understand. Yeah, I will. Bye, Sam.”

     “Good
God, Autumn. What did he say?”

     “Said
he saw you dancing with the creep and got suspicious so he talked to you about
him. He said you seemed irritable. Claimed he was so worried about you that he
went to tell his date he needed to drop you off at home. When he couldn’t find
you, he figured you went home with me, that’s why he called. Mentioned he was
able to square it with his date. No harm done.”

     “Ginger-peachy.
He comes out smelling like a rose every time,” I commented bitterly.

“Ginger-peachy?” Autumn inquired quizzically.

 “Old saying for ‘swell.’ So what did he tell her anyway?
That I was a family emergency that resolved itself? Jeez, I owe you, Autumn,
big time.”

     “Sisters
never owe each other anything. You should know that. Someday I may need your
help.”

     “You?
Doubtful, but I’ll be there.” I smiled. “I’m done with the pity party girls.
Let’s go have some fun!”

Chapter
43

Saturday,
February 25th

It was nearly nine in the morning and Brandi still was
not home. I figured she scored with her cowboy but a small part of me worried
about her. She was vulnerable like the rest of us. I didn’t want her going home
with the wrong man and ending up floating in the Milwaukee River.

     At half past nine, I called Lloyd at home. No
answer. I really wanted to see him instead of Sam but I needed my car back.

I wondered if Sam scored with
the sassy blonde. If he did, he broke the rule and I was free to enjoy Lloyd.
That kind of thinking had to mean I was getting close to jilting him. Maybe I’d
do it today.

I tried Lloyd again at
nine-thirty. No answer. Sam would be arriving at eleven. I put my cup in the
sink and went into the bathroom to take a shower. If I had time before Sam showed
up, I would try calling Brandi’s cell phone to check up on her. 

At eleven-fifteen, while waiting at the patio door for
Sam, I finally reached Brandi on her cell phone. She was at the airport Super 8
and doing better than fine, so I could stop worrying. I didn’t care to hear the
gory details, so I was relieved when I saw Sam pull up in front of the
mailboxes. “Gotta run, Brandi. See you later,” I said and hung up. I let the
blinds drop back into place and grabbed my jacket and handbag. I heard him beep
as I locked my apartment door. One thing was certain, Sam wasn’t going to
change. The effort he made was short lived. Either I had to accept him for who
he was, or move on.

     When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I saw
him waiting in my freshly washed car. I walked over to inspect the paint job
and Sam got out joining me.

     “So what do you think?” he asked appraisingly.

     “It’s perfect! I can’t see where he touched it
up. Looks good as new.”

     “That’s what I thought. He does good work. Well,
let’s get going.” He opened the driver’s side door and sat down.

     I ran around to the other side and let myself in.
“Gee, he even cleaned and vacuumed inside,” I said admiring the clean interior.

     “I asked him to detail it for you.”

     I looked at him surprised. “How much is that
going to cost me?”

      “I haven’t decided yet,” he said with a wicked
smile. He leaned over for a kiss, which I gave him.

     Great. I owed the Devil my soul for that ‘new
car’ aroma.

     “When you speak to Autumn, tell her I owe her one
for that little prank last night,” he said sticking a piece of spearmint gum in
his mouth. “She had me going until I remembered that skinny, weird eyed guy
works where you do.”

     “His name is Gus. Autumn thought I needed
rescuing,” I said honestly. “So where are we going today?”

“Chicago Auto Show. Got free tickets at
work.”

“That could be
fun. Are we taking the train?

“No. I’ll drive.”
He noticed my grimace. “Your car gets better mileage than my truck, Sunny.”

“I didn’t say
anything,” I replied, though I was thinking he had a nasty habit of using my
vehicle for the long hauls. “If we took the train down, we could save money on
parking.”  

“I don’t want to
wait around for a train. This way we can leave when we want.”

“All right.” I
looked out the window as he entered the on ramp. “Got toll money?”

He glimpsed at me
with a sour expression. “Why would I get on the toll road without money?”

“Jeez, don’t get
all defensive. I was just asking in case you needed some change.”

“Sorry. I didn’t
sleep well last night.” He shot me a look that suggested it was my fault.

“We don’t have to
go anywhere if you’re tired. We could stay home, make popcorn, and watch an old
movie.”

“That sounds
boring as hell.”

I thought it
sounded more enjoyable than looking at stupid cars I couldn’t afford, but hey,
to each his own. “Why are you so disagreeable today?”

“Why were you so
disagreeable last night?” he countered. “You could have gone home with me.”

I watched the
speeding traffic for a few moments trying to come up with an answer. When in
doubt ask a question back. “So who was she? You seemed rather friendly for a
first date.”

“Someone I work
with. Her name’s Sherri. We’ve been friends for a while.”

“What’s a while? A
month. Two years?”

He looked in his
rearview mirror and changed lanes. “A year.”

“That’s a long
time. You never mentioned her to me. I find that odd.”

He rolled his
eyes.

“Why did you want
to dump her for me?” I asked, closely watching his body language for ticks
suggesting a less than honest response. “That would have been rude and difficult
to explain.”

“Not really. She’s
knows about you. You come first.”

I wasn’t buying
it. “Come off it, Sam. Donna told me all about our double date plan for Friday
that you cancelled to be with her.” He shifted guiltily in his seat. “Chuck
tells Donna everything Sam, you should know that.”

“You make it sound
like I dumped you for her. I only switched nights,” he said minimizing his
action.

“And why not, you
can see me any old time. I get it. But, that’s why I didn’t go home with you,
Sam. I wasn’t your date. That’s the way it works.”

I scanned the
radio stations. No good music—radio void. I sorted through my CD case and
pulled out a favorite group, slipped the CD into the slot and hit play. I
started to sing along to a song and he pushed the button to jump to the next
song. Apparently, my voice was less than pleasing to his ears. “Hey, I liked
that song.”

“I don’t.”

“Would you have
done that to what’s her face?”

“Yes.”

“Before or after
you slept with her?”

“After.”

“That’s what I
thought. Your parents spoiled you, Sam. Once in a while you have to care about
someone else’s feelings.”

“I care about
yours.”

“Sure. Must be why
you changed the song while I was singing along.”

He shrugged, and
then he laughed.

“What?”

“Sunny, I didn’t
want to say anything, but if you’re not singing off key, you’re bastardizing
the lyrics. I thought if I continued to change songs, I’d discourage you from
singing. It hasn’t worked.”

“Thanks a lot,” I
pouted. “I’m not that bad, am I?”

“No, I guess not.
Feel free to sing in front of Lloyd.”

Great. Now I knew
he was telling the truth. “Okay. I promise not to sing,” I whined.

He changed the
song back and I struggled not to sing along.

We managed to get to Chicago in little
over an hour without a speeding ticket, in spite of the record number of patrol
cars. He pulled into a parking lot and handed over twenty bucks. The walk to
McCormick Place was short, but I still froze on the way over. I had to
practically run to keep up with Sam, our footstep ratio being 4:1.

For the heck of it,
I took Sam’s hand in mine when I caught up to him. Lloyd liked to hold my hand
and Sam used to, back in the beginning of our relationship. The handholding
lasted until he eyed the first model. Naturally, he was interested in every car
near an advertising babe and he flirted openly with all of them. Occasionally
I’d blurt out “But Sam dear, you know you can’t afford that on your salary,” to
humiliate him for ignoring me. What about some hot male models? Women bought
cars too!

I tried holding
his hand a little later and he said it was ‘too hot’ to hold hands. When I
tried again later, it was ‘too crowded.’ Finally, he stopped to buy me a diet
cola so I had something to hold. Can’t say I didn’t try my best to act like his
girlfriend. I wanted to give him the same opportunities as Lloyd. That was the
whole point of dating him again.

When we reached
the Dodge cars, I pointed to the new Challenger, flashy with its white strips
racing up its glossy black hood. “Like that one, Sam?”

“Yeah, that’s
pretty cool,” he said admiring it.

It was the first
time I saw one. “I like it too. Lloyd has a 1972 Challenger like this.”

“Really,” he
replied stiffly. “Muscle cars are for guys with small dicks. Real men drive
trucks.”

Gotcha! I grinned
widely knowing I irritated him. Take that for not holding my hand.

As if reading my
mine, he suddenly took my hand in his and maneuvered me away from the sexy,
gleaming piece of machinery. I glanced back at the car, imaging how sweet Lloyd
would look in it with me sitting beside him.

“Can’t put a gun
rack on the back of that, right Sam?” I joked.

“That’s right,
Bill,” he said implying that I sounded like my dad. “Plus I need the rear
window to hang my confederate flag, and a big bumper for displaying my NRA
stickers.”

I laughed. “My dad
loves you, Sam. He might even prefer you as a son-in-law over Aggy.”

“I think that’s a
stretch, Sunny. He would rather see you with Aggy’s money.”

“Like Aggy would
share? He treats us to free food at his restaurant because Nino is part owner.
He writes it off as a business expense.”

“I see the
Chevrolet sign up ahead. The new Silverado should be here. I want to see if the
body style has changed.”

We passed a few
concession stands and my stomach rumbled. Next to the Chevy display, I saw a
sign advertising big pretzels. I pulled Sam in that direction. “Want a big
pretzel?”

“No, but I’ll buy
you one. Then I can have my hand back.”

“Afraid one of the
models might think you’re unavailable?” I blurted out.

He made a pained
expression. “Grow up. Here’s some money. I’ll meet you by the trucks.”

Grow up. He should
talk. I took his money over to the concession stand and pondered my choices.
Cinnamon. Pizza. Nacho. Plain. I went with the nacho version, always the cheese
head, and forked over the money to the pimply-faced, teenage boy after he
handed me my salty pretzel and cup of nacho cheese. I pocketed the change so
I’d remember to give it back and grabbed a bunch of napkins. On the way to the
display, I saw Chuck and Donna checking out an SUV.

“Hey, Donna!” I
yelled walking over to her. I showed her my pretzel. “Want a bite?”

“Sunny! You bet!”
I pulled off part of the pretzel and handed it to her, offering the cup of
cheese. She dipped and stuffed the doughy mess in her mouth. “Yum. When did you
get here?”

“Maybe thirty
minutes ago. You see Sam yet?”

“You’re with Sam?”
she asked surprised, “After last night?”

Chuck sought out
the comfort of the SUV’s seat, far enough away from us, so I felt free to talk.

“I know, I’m a
sucker,” I said with a shrug. “What can I say?”

“How about “no”
for starters.” She took another hunk of my pretzel. “Did he take that chick
home last night?”

“Not really my
business is it,” I said dipping my pretzel in the cheese sauce. “He doesn’t ask
what I do with Lloyd.”

“I wonder why?”
She asked with curiosity. “I’d be checking up on my competition.” She shrugged.
“So ask him anyway.”

“Not sure I want
to know,” I said honestly.

Donna moistened
her lips. “Yeah, I guess I understand that. Seeing Lloyd this weekend?”

“Tomorrow. He gets
to meet the family. Think I’m rushing it? I don’t want to scare him away.”

“Better sooner
than later. Hurts less that way.”