Authors note: OmG! working with the right and left side of your brain should be illegal.

As I continue on my journey to become a programmer, I’m finding that I use the other part of my brain to code, which leaves the creative side idle and restless. If I’m not listening to music or something it’ll start telling me stories. Not just any stories but these awesome omg I can’t believe I thought of it stories that I have to write down…

Ugh…

Hence the extension on my work in progress page. http://sylviahubbard.com/wip

I even found an extra Black cousin to add to the series. http://sylviahubbard.com/blackfamilyseries.

enjoy…

Before even driving from the parking lot, Regina realized her problem and why she hated to drive at night. Her Ford Focus had also been specially fitted with a tinted windshield for her eyes. She had partial night-blindness and it had always been difficult for her to see after dusk for any reason.

Regina wasn’t driving her car, though. She was driving Lola’s rusted Escort and it was a bitch just making to the main road. She pulled to the side of the road and took off her regular glasses. In her purse she had around her waist, she had a pair of thick tinted bifocals on. Checking the driver’s rear view mirror, she crinkled her nose in distaste at herself, noting that she looked extremely dorky with these glasses on, which was why she had asked for the windshield to be done.

The rain pouring down like a gigantic waterfall, didn’t make it any better on driving conditions. To make matters worse, she got on the wrong Interstate and ended up on the East Side of Detroit, before she realized she was going the wrong way.

Getting off at the Van Dyke exit before she did a turnaround only to realize she had to take East Grand Boulevard around to get back on the freeway. When she finally found the entrance to the freeway, it was closed for construction.

She reached in her purse to get her phone, so she could look at GPS to find her way home.

Sighing in frustration, her phone died right in her hands. On top of that, the charge cord in Lola’s car in the car was not compatible with Regina’s phone.

Cursing to herself for being out this late, Regina continued down the Boulevard which curved sharply around the auto plant and would lead her over a horrible pot-holed filled bridge. She knew if she were in her Focus, the suspension would take it, but Lola’s old car wouldn’t, so Regina’s best bet would be to go down Milwaukee. That street ran down the side of the bumpy bridge, but took a little longer to down.

Regina’s father used to work at the plant and would drop Regina off at a babysitter’s house on this side of town. He would take these side roads and would amuse her pretending he was lost. By the time she was eight, she realized her father was only pulling her leg, but she would fall for it every time and instruct her father on how to get home from where they were. The feeling of being in charge had made the events so memorable in her mind even at that age.

She missed her father and briefly wondered why the events of his death clouded her memory. Whenever she would bring him up with her mother, the subject was always quickly changed.

There were no street lights around. It was a good thing the road was bare, because she was only going twenty miles an hour praying she wouldn’t hit anything.

Out of nowhere she swerved not seeing the hazard lights on the van until late. She went right through a large volume of water, the splashing a person standing in the front of the van with the hood up. She felt awful, but continued to drive stopping at the next light.

Looking in the rear view, squinting ridiculously hard, Regina tried to see if the driver was still in front but she couldn’t see a thing. Was it a woman or man?

Despite the feeling she shouldn’t, Regina went all the way around the block and then slowly pulled up beside the van. A very tall well-built man was still standing in front of the van soaked. She rolled down the window and shouted, “Are you okay?”

He only shook his head.

“I’m sorry about that,” she said.

He gestured that he couldn’t hear her with all the rain.

Biting her lips, she unlocked the door and reached to open the passenger door to invite him in. He had the nerve to hesitate as if she could do something to him, but then slid his long thick body in. He still had the hood over his head as he closed the door and rolled up the window.

Lola’s awful vehicle didn’t have the interior light and the only light they used was parking lights from the van behind them to see and access each other.

Her heart was racing praying she hadn’t put herself in danger by inviting this complete stranger in her car. She made sure she didn’t lock the doors on car and held her breath while he slowly pulled the hood off of naturally curly short cut hair. She could tell it hadn’t been combed today, but he was pretty much well-groomed with a goatee. Looking up into his face, she had to squint to see that he was a dark brown almond skin and had large eyes. With her horrible night vision and the low lights, Regina couldn’t see much else and a sinking feeling encompassed her chest knowing this had been a bad idea. He was ten times her size, barely able to squeeze in this car and she had invited the danger in.

She said apologetically, “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I’m sorry about soaking you.”

He was staring at her, but she couldn’t tell what he was thinking because she could barely see his face. It was as if there was a tint on her glasses and she couldn’t determine details. If she took off the glasses, she knew her vision would just be blurred and dark so it was best to keep them on.

Yet, even though she couldn’t see him, she could just sense this wasn’t his part of town by the way he carried himself. “How long have you been out there?” she questioned just to make conversation.

“A couple of minutes,” he grumbled.

Regina had a feeling he was scoping her out carefully. Reaching under Lola’s seat, she pulled out a towel she knew Lola kept under there. He quietly thanked her, wiping his face and opening his jacket.

“Are you alright?” she questioned, squinting hard to pick out some features.

“Do I look okay?” he growled.

She grew very apprehensive. “I could call someone for you. I have road side assistance somewhere.” When she reach over to find her phone forgetting she had no power, he suddenly caught her wrist in a firm grip. Her heart raced feeling how big his hand was compared to her own.

“I locked my keys in the car while I was trying to pop the hood,” he explained gruffly. “I’m just pissed off. It’s no reason to get upset.”

“I-I wasn’t getting upset,” she said shaking her head.

“I was making you uncomfortable,” he pointed out. “I’m just stressed.” He released his grip from her wrist.

“Do you always know when you make someone uncomfortable?” she asked picking up her cell phone.

He nodded confidently. “Especially women.”

Now he sounded like an arrogant ass, she thought.

“I’m not arrogant,” he said suddenly.

She gasped because he had read her thoughts.

“I just know women,” he admitted.

Regina really wanted to get away from him. Her breathing had been irregular since allowing him to get in the car and sit near her. “Do you need me to call someone?”

“No, especially since your phone is dead.”

Regina sighed upset at herself for not remembering.

He said, “It would probably be much better assistance if you would take me down the street on the Boulevard. I was meeting a friend there and I know he could help me.”

By the way he spoke, he was not from this side of town “I could,” she said, “But what if I wasn’t going that way.”

“Were you?”

“I was,” she admitted easily.

“Do you mind? I’d make it worth your while,” he promised his tone of voice getting strangely deeper.

She hesitated on her answer to catch her breath. “No, I don’t.” Putting the phone back in her purse, she noted the silver-ish wrapper in her purse and her mind went back to the bathroom earlier this evening. Lola’s words rung out strong in her brain. ‘I want you to go out, find the first good looking stranger you see, and show him a good time.’

Regina looked back at the stranger trying very hard to determine how he looked, but her eyes failed her. “I don’t suppose you’re in a hurry to meet your friend?”

He looked at his watch making the Indiglo light come on. “I’ve got about twenty minutes to meet him since you’re interested.”

Nervously she secretly took the condom out and held it in her palm as she slowly put the car in drive and slowly rolled away from the curb.

“Is there something on your mind, Lola?” he asked.

Stiffly, she shook her head. “Why’d you call me Lola?”

He held up one of Lola’s business cards her friend kept in the empty ashtray. “That is your name, isn’t it? It says here you’re a party girl because I’ll be damn if you aren’t a race car driver.”

Regina took the card away from him and tossed it on the dash. “If you’re discussing my driving, then I’ll admit now, I have no business driving this late at night. I feel like I’m blind as a bat.”

“Are you intoxicated?” he questioned.

She giggled more to herself. “I haven’t gotten the urge to swing from a chandelier, but my inhibitions are certainly going away because I would never pick up any strangers.” She stopped at the light.

“What does a party girl do?” he inquired.

She looked over at him. When Lola was seducing a guy, Regina remembered, her hands would touch in innocent places, but Lola was usually at a club or in a public place. What could Regina do now, to make her intentions known to this guy? “They plan parties. Mostly large parties and they make a great deal of money.”

“What about private parties?” he questioned.

She nodded. “Those too…” Regina realized his face had gotten closer to hers and she looked up in the direction of his face cursing that she couldn’t see a damn thing. “Private parties are her specialties.”

“Why are you speaking in third person?”

Regina bit her bottom lip, then quickly released it. Looking forward feeling still breathless, she squinted at the light. Yes, it was green and there was one more light to go before she would turn on the Boulevard. That light was a block away and slowly she allowed the car to just roll down the street. Did he notice they were going unusually slow? And if he did, why didn’t it bother him if he was meeting someone? “We were talking about what party girls do, weren’t we?”

“I was more interested in what you exactly do?”

She frowned not getting his meaning. “What exactly holds your interest?”

“You,” he stated with enough meaning that she certainly got. “Do you hold intimate private parties?”

She pushed the brake down to stop at the green light at the end of the block. There was no traffic at all coming in either direction. If she wasn’t breathing hard before, she was definitely breathing hard now. She could hardly see his face, but she could hear the inflection in his tone that told her whatever she had to offer he would be interested.

If she answered like Regina, it would definitely turn the guy off. Lola’s voice burst in her head, ‘Then don’t be you. Be someone else. Be me.’ What would Lola say? “Those are my favorite and they’re no charge.”

Regina felt wickedly aroused at that moment. A feeling she had never felt before. Her hand moved down to the gearshift very close to his thigh.

Licking her lips warily, she placed her hand high on his thigh and leaned in close to him. At any moment he could reject her advances and this would be more embarrassing than anything, but there was a chance he would and they could…