“Well,” I said, sighing. “You’re just a little chatter box when you get going, aren’t you?”
“Now you know how I felt at the beginning of this ride,” he said, grinning.
“So, you didn’t just give me this ride to keep up your image?”
“Oh, no,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong. Upholding a positive public persona is what allows me to run my business the way I can. No one wants to do business with an asshole, so I can’t go around acting like an asshole.”
“But they’ll do business with a Scrooge?” I asked.
“I hoard myself up in my office, and I don’t make holiday appearances,” he said. “No one’s any the wiser.”
Then, I saw his eyes dart toward the clock before his body tensed back up.
“Relax, tin man. It’s only two in the afternoon.”
“I have to be at the charity by six,” he said.
“But you don’t make that speech until eight, right?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“So, you can be a little late and still make it?” I asked.
“Yes, but it isn’t becoming to be late.”
“But you could be if it was necessary,” I said. “You know, since there’s snow on the road and stuff?”
“Did you just call me the ‘tin man’? I do have a heart, you know.”
“I wasn’t referencing your lack of heart,” I said.
“What were you referencing then?”
“I was referring to the armor you’ve built around yourself that seems to be impenetrable.”
He looked over at me with a wary look, and I could tell I’d just peeled another layer of him back.
“Relax, Colin. If you’re a little late, I’m sure everyone will understand. As long as you’re there to give your speech, people might not even know you’re not there. Especially if you’re not at the meeting. They’ll be talking with Mick instead of searching for you.”
“You mean Mac,” he said.
“Yep. Him.”
I watched him frown, and I wished I could break through that grinch-like exterior. I felt like I was digging deeper emotionally, but it didn’t feel like he was relenting on this holiday thing. He was probably going to get dressed up and go to this holiday charity ball, and people around him would be wearing green and red with sparkles and smiles on their faces.
And then there would be him, in some all-black tuxedo or something, standing in a corner and being cynical.
“Would you just lighten up a little bit?” I asked.
But his frown only deepened, and his scowl only grew wider. If he could open himself up to the holidays, he would enjoy this time of the year more. He’d enjoy that charity event-ball-dance-whatever a little more.
He might even enjoy this car ride a little more if he’d just give it a damn try.
Chapter 17
Colin
Lighten up? Was she serious? The nerve of that woman! Holy hell, she had balls as big as Satan’s. If she really thought that simply telling me to lighten up after spilling my guts to her was going to work, then she was sorely mistaken. My hands were gripping the steering wheel tightly to keep my head from popping off my shoulders. I needed to get off this highway. Between Abby, who didn’t seem to have any sort of a filter, and the slowly-moving traffic on the highway, I was starting to grow frustrated.
Pulling off the highway, I careened us into a gas station. Even though we’d spent two hours on the road already, we’d only made it do Des Moines, Iowa. We weren’t even halfway through our journey today, and the car already needed to be gassed up. The interstate was awful, I had the worst traveling companion alive, and I needed more coffee. Just when I thought this trip was starting to look up, it was shot to hell by Abby’s big mouth, and all I wanted was for it to be over. I was missing the most important meeting of my business career, I was going to be late for this damn charity event, and I was stuck with a woman whose grand sage advice was ‘lighten up.’
Ripping the car door open, I slipped out as Abby chattered behind me. I tuned her voice out and starting pumping gas into the car. Then I walked myself into the gas station. I no longer cared about what she was saying. I no longer wanted to listen to her rants about the holidays. What I wanted was for the roads to be clear so I could drop this woman off, then have her be gone from my life forever.
I walked over to the coffee machine and filled up the largest cup they had. I was tired of traveling this way. And what made it worse was that every single time I thought I understood Abby a bit better, she threw me some kind of curveball that shattered things to pieces. How in the world was she simply okay with everything? How in the world was she just going with the flow? It was people like her that stunted the world’s conglomerate growth. People like her who stayed ignorant with their positive attitudes and their naivety toward international topics. Like politics and the health crises. People like her didn’t have any important business to get to. They just went through life like it was nothing. Like nothing was of importance, and soon, they’d be dealt another hand they could just try out or something.
It irked me to no end.
Capping my coffee off, I paid at the counter before I returned to the car. I felt the warmth of the drink flooding my system while Abby sat there staring at me. Just looking at her made me upset again. People needed to take life more seriously. People like Abby were way too easygoing, and
