Breaking Through. AM Hartnett

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СКАЧАТЬ again, Other Miranda knew how to drive and rode a comfy sedan from her waterfront cottage in the country, and didn’t work in a call centre because she made a tidy living selling her paintings online.

      In real life, Miranda wrung the moisture out of her hair and busied herself with braiding it into a long rope.

      She jumped as the car nearest her chirped and flashed its lights, and moments later a figure followed the thump of footsteps on the pavement. Miranda kept her eyes on the view before her, but her body went on alert as the car’s owner appeared on the periphery. She reached into her purse and wrapped her fingers around her keys, something she often did when she shared a bus shelter in the dark, then relaxed as the slam of the car door echoed through the concrete shelter and moments later the vehicle coughed and hummed to life.

      The momentary worry – that she’d end up a corpse in the trunk of that shiny silver sedan – having passed, Miranda resumed her mundane task, pulling her braid loose and starting again.

      ‘Hey, you need a ride somewhere?’ a man’s voice called out to her.

      Miranda turned and prepared to make a grateful but firm refusal. Her stomach flopped as she saw who was in the driver’s seat.

      Of course, it was the Bathroom Blowjob Guy.

      Her spiel of thanks-but-I-have-someone-waiting-he-should-be-here-any-minute vanished, and when she spoke to him it was to say, ‘Are you serious?’

      He stared back at her for a moment, then nodded. ‘Yeah, you got me. This is my thing. I ask women caught in the rain if they want to get into my fancy ride, and when they say yes I floor it and laugh like hell all the way home.’

      She wasn’t sure if he was trying to be funny or merely sarcastic. Either way, his remark did nothing to change her mind.

      ‘Thanks,’ she said, her voice as flat as her humour, ‘but I have someone waiting. He should –’

      ‘If you did, you would have had him pick you up at the entrance.’

      She crossed her arms over her chest. ‘Why would I get in a car with a stranger?’

      ‘Well, if you want to get technical, we’re not exactly strangers.’

      ‘I can’t tell whether you’re referring to the fact that I caught you getting a blowjob in the ladies’ room, or the fact that you decided to brag about it to me later on. Either way, you’re not doing anything for your case. If you’re trolling for a handjob while you drive, you’re talking to the wrong woman.’

      He chuckled, a sound that grated up one side of her and down the other. ‘Listen, darling, I know you have no reason to think I won’t stick my dick in any wet hole, but trust me when I tell you I can do better than a drenched rat with raccoon eyes.’

      Miranda’s sense of vanity overcame her need to be a hard-ass. With a horrified squeak, she reached up to rub her fingers beneath her eyes.

      The man produced a can-shaped package of moist towelettes. ‘By all means, walk around the city terrorising old people and small children while incubating a nasty cold if you would prefer that over my heated seats.’

      Miranda knew that the last thing in the world she should do was accept a ride from a stranger, let alone this one, but the chill was setting into her ass and she could feel the heat radiating from the car.

      She could practically hear her sister advising opportunistic imprudence: Don’t be such a pussy. Get in the car and let him stare at your tits for a few minutes if it gets you out of the cold.

      Hell, Juliet would have talked this guy into buying her dinner in addition to the ride.

      ‘One second,’ she said, and strode to the back of the car. She dug into her bag and pulled out her phone, and as she snapped a picture she saw the man adjust the mirror.

      She came back around to the driver’s side where he waited with a smirk and started to type on her phone. ‘I’m sending this to my sister. If I end up floating in the harbour, they’ll know who to look for.’

      ‘Fair enough,’ he said, and she heard the click of his power locks. He gestured to the trunk. ‘There’s an emergency kit in the back with a poncho inside. Lay it on the seat before you sit down. I’m trying to be chivalrous, but this car has less than twenty thousand kilometres on it and I’d rather you not fuck-up my upholstery.’

      She’d accepted his ride, but she wasn’t about to dissolve into graciousness just yet. She plucked the plastic wrapper from the emergency kit, and once she was at the passenger side she didn’t drape the poncho over the seat but stripped off her wet denim jacket and covered herself with the poncho before getting inside.

      ‘I’m a little impressed,’ he said as she placed her plastic-wrapped ass on the seat. ‘I never thought of asking you to put it on.’

      ‘I already look hideous with my mascara running down my face, I might as well look pathetic dressed like a gas-station sandwich.’

      He handed over the towelettes and locked them in. ‘Where to?’

      ‘Agricola Street, just before you get to the brewery,’ she told him as she pulled down her visor and saw what he had seen.

      He hadn’t been kidding about scaring small children and old people. She looked like the monster from a Japanese horror movie.

      ‘Is that in the South End?’

      ‘No,’ she said with a laugh and pulled out a towelette.

      He glanced at her. ‘Isn’t that where all the students live?’

      ‘Yeah, but I’m not a student and I haven’t been for about five years. OK, you know where the grocery store is on Young Street?’

      ‘Nope.’

      ‘The television station?’

      ‘Sorry.’ He grinned at her as they neared the exit of the parking garage, but this time he looked sheepish. ‘I’ve only lived here for about a month. I know how to get to the office and I know how to get to the highway. Otherwise I have to Google everything.’

      Her face less frightening, she crumpled the towelette in her hand and her gaze slid to the GPS device on the dash.

      He laughed. ‘Broken. I ordered a new one but it hasn’t arrived yet.’

      ‘What are you, some kind of dinosaur?’

      She grabbed his iPhone, docked next to the GPS. A few taps and a female voice announced that he should turn left onto Cogswell Street.

      ‘I never even thought of that,’ he admitted as she returned the phone to its cradle, then held out the hand closest to her. ‘Simon.’

      ‘Miranda,’ she replied, and gave him her clammy hand.

      His was so warm that she wanted to take possession of it and tuck it against her, but instead she slipped her feet out of her flats and wriggled her toes under the heat coming from the vent.

      ‘So, Simon, I’m not one to ignore the СКАЧАТЬ