Learning to Drive... Him Crazy (8 page)

"Okay, sure. Thanks, John."

"No problem. Just keep them both here until
I get back, okay?"

"Sure," Cal agreed.

Alana had moved to stand beside John now.
She looked up at him and said, "John, I'm really sorry."

"We'll talk about it later, honey. I need to
take my car back." He gave her a small kiss on her cheek and
left.

Cal saw the look of rejection on her face as
John left. "Come on, girls, let's go inside to wait for John. I'm
anxious to hear what happened today."

Kelli giggled, though Cal had no idea why,
or what she found amusing about the situation. Alana just stood
there staring at John's car as it drove out of sight. Cal went to
her and said, "Come on inside, Alana."

"But he's really mad at me," she said more
to herself than him. "I never thought about it being illegal for me
to drive if she was drunk. I thought I was doing the right thing by
driving instead of letting her."

Cal knew she was being honest, and had a
feeling his brother knew that, too. He had a feeling John was more
upset about what could have happened than about her being illegal.
He put his arm around her and steered her toward the house. "I
think he'll understand that, Alana. But he's still a police
officer, and he knows what can happen because he's seen it. Once he
calms down a bit I'm sure he'll talk to you about it."

"That's what I'm afraid of," she said as she
absentmindedly reached back to her bottom, as if to protect it.

Cal got them both in the house and took them
to the kitchen, where he could keep an eye on them. He wasn't too
worried about Alana, but he wasn't sure what Kelli would do and he
wanted to keep her in sight. He put some coffee on. He asked Alana,
"Does John know the story here, how Kelli ended up drunk and you
driving her car?"

"No, not yet."

"That's what I figured. I'll wait until he
gets here then to ask. We may as well both hear it at the same
time." She nodded and continued to look down at her hands.

Meanwhile, Kelli came over to him and
wrapped her arms around his neck. "Why's everyone so upset? Nothing
happened."

He gently removed her arms from his neck and
steered her to a stool at his counter. Once she was seated, he
poured a cup of coffee and set it in front of her. "Drink some
coffee, Kelli," he suggested. She looked like she was pouting, but
he was glad when she picked up her coffee and took a few sips.

John got back with his own car and went to
the kitchen. He had to smile a bit when he saw Cal had Kelli
drinking coffee. He went to Alana, who was looking very upset and
nervous. He took her in his arms and gave her a quick kiss. Then
looking at his brother he asked, "Did you find out what happened
today?"

"No, I waited for you. This way they can
explain it once instead of twice."

"Thanks," John said. "I appreciate that. We
need to go get Kelli's car, but I really want to hear how they got
to that point."

"Me, too," Cal agreed. Looking over at
Kelli, he said, "But I'm not sure she's able to tell us right
now."

"Let me try," Alana offered. "I got off
early today and Kelli always gets off earlier than me, so we went
over to my favorite department store, Newjangles, to look for a
wedding present for my cousin. After we were done shopping, we went
next door to that little restaurant to get some iced tea. They were
giving free samples of a new kind of wine they started carrying. I
didn't care much for it, but Kelli did."

"I can see that," Cal said.

Kelli, who had been drinking her coffee this
whole time, was starting to sober. "It was really good," she
said.

"How much of it did you have?" Cal asked
her.

"I don't know," she said. When he look at
her with his eyebrow raised, she explained, "I really don't know. I
know I drank my sample and finished Alana's when she said she
didn't care for it. Then a different waitress came around and gave
us each another sample and I drank both of them. Then I bought a
glass of it because I really liked it."

"So you had four samples and a glass of
it?"

"Yes, for sure, but things start getting a
little fuzzy then. I think I may have gotten another glass of
it."

John turned to Alana. "How much did she
have, Alana, and why did you let her drink that much, especially
knowing she's your licensed driver?"

Alana was nervous, knowing she was in
trouble and now understanding why, but she was also hurt by his
question, and a little angry. Unfortunately, the anger came through
when she answered, "I don't know how much she drank."

John's eyebrows shot up and he said, "Alana,
this is not a good time for an attitude."

Realizing he was right, she took a deep
breath and tried to calm down. "I'm sorry, you're right," she
admitted. "Let me try to explain. When I bought my gift I asked
them to wrap it. They were busy and short-handed and said it would
be about 30 minutes, so we went next door to have some tea. Half an
hour later we were still drinking our tea, so I went back to
retrieve my wrapped gift, while she stayed at the restaurant. When
I left all she'd had were the four samples. I ran into an old
friend I hadn't seen in a long time, and I was gone about 30
minutes. When I got back she was finishing a glass of wine. I
thought it was her first one until she stumbled when she stood
up."

John and Cal both turned to look at Kelli,
who was avoiding their eyes. Alana went on, "She had driven there,
but I knew she couldn't drive home. I never thought about it being
illegal for me to drive us home, so that's what I was doing." She
looked straight into John's eyes as she said, "I'm sorry." She
turned to Cal and said, "And I'm sorry to you, too, Cal. I never
thought of her drinking that much. I shouldn't have left her there
alone."

Cal quickly said, "Her drinking too much
isn't your fault, Alana. I do have a question I want to ask you,
though, and I'd appreciate an honest answer."

"What's that?"

"Does she do this often? Is alcohol a
problem?"

Kelli jumped in and said, "Hey, I'm right
here, you know. You can ask me."

"Oh, I plan to," Cal assured her. "But at
the moment I'm not sure how sober you are, so I would like to hear
Alana's opinion." Seeing the worried look on Alana's face, he said,
"I'm not going to run the other direction if it is a problem for
you, Kelli, but I can't help you if I don't know you need
help."

"I'm not an alcoholic," Kelli insisted.
"Every now and then I find a kind of wine I really like and I drink
too much too quickly. I feel fine, until all of a sudden it hits
me. That's what happened today."

Cal looked at Alana, and she could easily
see the question in his eyes. She assured him, "She's right. I've
seen her drink too much three different times now, counting today.
The other two times were at parties and she wasn't driving. That's
why I was so surprised today. I didn't see it coming at all."

"So the only time you've seen her drink too
much is exactly as she said, when she found some wine she liked
real well?"

"I know it sounds odd, but that really is
it. Neither one of us are too big into alcohol because we don't
like the taste of it much. Every now and then she finds a wine she
likes, and I like the fuzzy navel wine coolers, so I won't drink
more than one or two of them, either."

"Thank you for telling me that, Alana." He
turned to Kelli and took her hand in his. "We'll talk about this
more in private, Kelli, but thank you for telling me about you and
wine. Now that I know about it, I'll be watching you when you have
wine. For now, I'm glad you're both okay."

He asked John, "So did you want to take me
to Kelli's car and I'll drive it and her home, then you can bring
me back here on your way home tonight after taking Alana home?"

"That will work. What do you think about
dinner, though, do we still want to try the new restaurant
tonight?"

"I'm thinking it might be a long wait to get
in there tonight, as late as it's getting," Cal answered. "Maybe we
better go there another night." He turned to the girls and asked,
"What do you two think?"

Kelli reached up and rubbed her head. "I
think I'd enjoy it more if we went another day. My head's not
feeling real good."

Looking at Alana, John asked, "Is it okay
with you if we hold off on that? Maybe we can order some Chinese
food delivered to your apartment and we can all eat there
tonight."

"That's fine," she agreed.

"Okay, good. Let's go get Kelli's car. I
don't like leaving it sit along the side of the road," John
said.

Fifteen minutes later they were at Kelli's
car. Cal helped Kelli into the front seat, and he drove it back to
her place. John and Alana followed behind them. On the way there
John asked, "Honey, what's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," Alana answered.

"Alana, I thought we talked about what I
think of lying when we talked about what types of things I would
spank you for." Her head snapped up to look at him. "I can tell
something's bothering you," he said, "You've been too quiet. Why
don't you tell me what it is while we're alone?

She considered his words a moment before
admitting, "Okay, maybe that would be a good idea. Um, I know
you're upset with me. Are you going to, are you thinking of— what
are you—"

"Are you trying to ask if I'm going to spank
you?"

Her face was red as she nodded her head.

"Do you think I should?"

"No," she quickly said. She tried to
explain, "John, I really didn't know it was illegal."

"I believe you, honey." She relaxed until he
said, "But you should have known. I'm sure it was in the book you
studied to get your permit." He held his hand up to stop the
argument she was about to make. "But we'll talk about it later
tonight, after we have dinner with them."

She nodded, but still seemed upset. He tried
changing the subject. "We'll have to remember to get your gift out
of her car before we go home."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. I'll have to
get it."

"There were four or five bags in the back
seat. How many of those are yours?"

He saw her stiffen, and she didn't answer.
He had a bad feeling more than just the wedding gift she bought was
hers. He asked again, "Alana, how many of the packages are
yours?"

"Um, the wedding gift, of course."

"Of course. And how many of the others?"

"Oh, let me see."

He gave her plenty of time to answer. When
she didn't, he asked, "Alana, are any of the packages Kelli's?"

She looked up at him and could practically
see him losing his patience. She admitted, "No."

"What are in the packages, Alana?" She was
stalling, and he said, "We'll talk about this after dinner
tonight."

"Does that mean you're going to spank
me?"

"Well, that depends. You know what your
budget is, you agreed to it. Did anything in those packages go
against your budget?"

She lowered her head as she quietly
answered, "Yes."

"Then the answer to your question is yes,
you will be getting spanked tonight."

To his surprise, she didn't argue. Instead,
after a couple moments of silence she asked, "Do we have to wait
until after dinner? Can't we get it over with beforehand? I'll be
so nervous I won't be able to eat dinner."

"Maybe anticipating what's going to happen
will help deter you from doing it again."

She looked almost in a panic as she said,
"John, please don't make me wait that long. I'm starting to feel
sick to my stomach already, just thinking about it, and having to
wait. There's no way I'll be able to eat anything and keep it
down." She literally did look pale as she pleaded one last time,
"Please?"

"Let me give it some thought, Alana, and
talk to Cal." She nodded and was quiet during the rest of the trip.
John pulled up beside Cal. He said, "You can wait here while I get
your packages and talk to Cal. I'll be back shortly."

He came back a few minutes later and put
four packages in the back seat. He got back in and went to the next
building down, where Alana's apartment was. Once they were inside
her apartment he put her packages down on her kitchen table, then
closed and locked the door. He led her to the couch in the living
room. "Cal and I are wondering how often you two together are going
to give us sore hands."

"What do you mean?"

"The two of you together seem to find a way
to get yourselves into trouble. Then you both end up with a sore
bottom, while we have a sore hand. Is this becoming a trend, the
two of you getting into trouble together?"

"I don't know. I hope not."

"Well, it seems you're not the only one
anxious to get it over with before we eat, so they're going to come
over for dinner in roughly an hour. They're going to call before
they come over, though, to be sure you're ready for company. Then
we'll order Chinese."

He watched as she sighed in relief. He was
going to have to talk to her about that later to see why the
thought of waiting for a punishment would upset her so much. For
right now, though, she was still very new to this whole spanking
idea, so he was glad she wasn't going to have to wait.

"Okay, let's get to it then," he said,
looking at her again. "Come over here and stand in front of me,
young lady." Just that quick, the relief she'd felt a minute ago
was gone and he watched her tense. To her credit, though, she
paused only momentarily before slowly making her way over to stand
in front of him.

He looked up at her and caught her eyes and
held them. "Okay, Alana, tell me why you're about to get
spanked."

She looked at him with pleading eyes,
obviously not wanting to have to put voice to her misdeeds. He
looked at her sternly and asked, "Am I going to have to take you
over my knee first, to get you to answer me, young lady?"