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  Jason moved to turn off the water, then held out a towel and wrapped me in it.

  “You are so damn beautiful Cara,” he said while drying me off.

  “So are you Jason,” I reciprocated because honestly, it was the truth.

  Once I was dried and wrapped, he smacked my butt, wrapped himself, and led me back into the bedroom, where I had pajamas and a strong, intoxicating lotion waiting for me. I picked it up and gave him an inquisitive look. He held out his hands and lifted his shoulders as if to question my look.

  “It made me damn near cum at the store, so I bought it for you.” He laughed, and I could do nothing but shake my head at his candor.

  “So you make your purchases based on their ability to make you lose your junk?”

  “Pretty much,” he smirked, as he began to rub it in on my back.

  I stood and allowed his seasoned hands to work their magic on me. Once he finished, he pulled on a pair of boxer briefs, grabbed the remote control, and pulled the blankets back to the bed.

  Jason must have started the fire while I was rummaging through his bathroom trying to find towels. The room smelled delectable, almost like we are camping, but in much more luxurious digs. As I lay down in the bed, my text message alert went off on my phone. Reaching over and looking at it, I saw that there was a text from Mila. Before I got a chance to look at it, Jason grabbed my phone and turned it off.

  “It’s too late for this – and besides, you’re with me.”

  I looked at him with astonishment. Did he just take my phone and turn it off?

  “Jason that was Mila. She may have needed something,” I said, glancing at him with angry eyes.

  “Well, I left the number to the house. If it’s an emergency, they can call here,” he stopped, and looked at me, “when it’s our time, it’s our time. Your friends will figure that out.”

  He turned the television on, and while I wanted to be mad at him, I was sated, and the need to be cordial won out. I decided, since he had returned to his good mood, that I could ask him some more of the questions that had been on my mind.

  “So why do you have this huge house, if it’s just you living here?”

  He turned to me, and looked into my eyes, almost like he is trying look into my soul.

  “This house belongs to my dad. He bought it when I decided to go to school here. I wasn’t going to be the only person living in it.”

  Now he had sparked my curiosity. “Who else was going to live here with you?”

  “He sat up using his elbows to balance his weight. He stared at me, and I suddenly wished I hadn’t asked the question.

  “Why are you so inquisitive tonight?”

  “Because I don’t know much about you. We are working this relationship in reverse order, remember?”

  He smiled at me, kissed my forehead, and then lay back down.

  “We are doing things in reverse order, but some stuff is just irrelevant.”

  “I thought you said there were no secrets between us Jason,” I angrily snapped at him.

  “There are no secrets… there is also no need to speak about bullshit that doesn’t matter.”

  I lay back in the bed, pondering what could be so important that he didn’t want to talk about it, and decided on a new line of questioning.

  “You have so many double standards. No secrets for me, but yet, when my dad asked you about what you did prior to getting in school, you were so vague with him. Why?”

  He sighed an exasperated sigh. “Cara, I don’t want to meet your parents and immediately start talking about my family and their wealth. That is considered poor manners and would cause your parents to think I was just trying to flaunt my wealth.”

  “Isn’t that what you did tonight?”

  “No! Tonight I showed my girlfriend a good time.” He said with a menacing tone. “Are you trying to pick a fight?”

  “No! Why would you say that?”

  “Because it seems like you have created this line of questioning, in search of a fight.”

  “It wouldn’t be a fight if you would just answer the questions Jason. I don’t see the point in being so vague.”

  He turned to his side again, and steadied himself on his elbow. “Cara, you asked about my family and my brother specifically. I don’t get along with him, at all. He’s three years older than me, and we have done nothing but feud for as long as I can remember.”

  I listened intently; he was finally giving me some information.

  “My parents have always wanted us to be close, but sometimes that just doesn’t happen with siblings. I can’t be in the same room with him without wanting to kick the shit out of him.”

  I sat up and looked into his eyes, which were burning with fury at the talk of his brother.

  “But, you have pictures of him up in the house…” I cautiously threw out there, not wanting to be the cause of anymore rage.

  “Yes I do. He’s my brother, and I love him; I just don’t like him,” he paused. “You and Ryan seem to have a nice sibling bond, but unfortunately, I don’t have that with Jacob -- never will.”

  The end of his sentence told me that he was done talking about his brother, so I gave it up. He was right, Ryan and I were close – so it was hard for me to fathom brothers hating each other.

  He ran his hand through my hair, and kissed my forehead. “Hey, sorry for getting so mad, I just don’t like talking about that asshole.”

  I smiled at him, glad he had somewhat calmed down. “Well, I’ll let it go.”

  A look of relief washed over his face. He lay back down, pulled me closer to him, nuzzled his nose in my still damp hair, and we lay there -- watching television until we fell asleep.

  Chapter 4

  I woke up to the bright San Diego sunshine glaring through Jason’s colossal windows. I turned over only to find that Jason was not in the bed next to me. Sitting up, I went over our conversation from last night. Why did he hate his brother so much? He was pretty adamant about not wanting to get close to him, which made me wonder if I would ever get the opportunity to meet Jacob – if Jason and I ever got to that point.

  I could hear him walking back to the room, and it appeared that he was on the phone.

  “Yes, Mama. I love ya’ll too. Tell Pa that I will call him soon… ok… bye.” He hung up the phone and stepped into the room, slowly, trying not to wake me.

  “Good morning,” I said lightly.

  “Hey! Good morning gorgeous.” His voice was full southern drawl and that made me laugh.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You-- sometimes you can tone down the southern-ness in your speech, and other times it completely takes over.”

  “Yeah, well talking to my mom does that to me. She is as southern as they come and it tends to rub off on me.”

  He sat down at the end of the bed and looked into my eyes so deeply that I looked away. I was never comfortable with face to face stares. I tried to break the awkwardness by doing what I did best… asking questions.

  “So, what are we doing today?”

  His face lit up and I knew he had more surprises up his sleeve.

  “I can’t tell you that, I have to show you – so get up,” he said in a very authoritative voice.

  I complied, and the anxious feelings went coursing through me again. After last night, what could he possibly have planned for me today?

  Once I was dressed, I proceeded into the kitchen where Jason had a full breakfast laid out: bacon, scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, and orange juice; a real southern treat. I was starving. The last time I had eaten was the night before with my parents. We sat in relative, but comforting silence, and once finished, I straightened the kitchen.

  Jason instructed me to wear my hair up, so I filed around in my purse to find a hair

  tie. My anticipation was building. Wearing my hair up meant we weren’t going out on the motorcycle, because with the helmet, my hair would need to be down. My thoughts drifted to the Mustang.

&nb
sp; “Jason, what are we doing today?” I asked with a tone that resembled more of an impatient child than an actual adult.

  He looked at me with warm appreciation for my obvious anticipation, but didn’t give much away.

  “We are going to take the Shelby out.” His eyes almost sparkled as he said it.

  I looked at him and he signaled with his head for me to follow, so I grabbed my purse and went running out the door. He took my hand and led me around to the driver’s side. I immediately turned to go around to the other side, but Jason stopped me.

  “Hey, where are you going?”

  I looked at him with big, frightened eyes, “um, I can’t drive stick, and I’m not about to destroy your car.”

  He laughed at my remark, and I was curious as to why this was funny. Seriously! This was a $60,000 car – I wouldn’t put some inexperienced person behind the wheel.

  “Well, I’m not all that concerned about the car, so I guess your fears are unwarranted.”

  What the hell? Who doesn’t worry about this overpriced, special edition car?

  “Jason, I’m scared. I hardly think a Saturday in San Diego is the time to go learning to drive this piece of machinery.” At this point, I was willing to try anything to keep from driving that car.

  He started laughing profusely, then took my hand, kissed it, and finally opened the driver’s side door. I sat, hesitant at first, but finally settled into the seat. Jason ran around to the other side, and took his seat.

  “Alright, you are about to learn to drive this piece of machinery.” He mocked me. “Adjust your mirror settings, and get comfortable, it’s really not as hard as you’re making it out to be.”

  I felt my hands shake as I switched the mirrors to my settings. The most expensive car I had ever driven was my mom’s car, and it wasn’t even in the same league as this one. I decided to give it a try. I turned to look at Jason, focusing on his every word.

  “Okay, the hardest part about this is getting out of first gear. Once you figure that out, you can drive this car like you do any other car.”

  I looked at him completely bewildered, and he sensed it because his cool, calm demeanor faded away, and he was all business now.

  “Alright! You have to hold down the clutch in order to start the car. Put your left foot over the clutch, your right foot over the break, and turn the key.”

  I dis as I was told, and the car started, with a thunderous roar. I was a bit startled by the sound of the car; there was definitely power under all of that metal.

  “Now, remember, whenever you want to change gears, you’ll have to push down on the clutch. Put the gear shift in reverse, release the parking break, come off the break, slowly easing off of the clutch, and give it a little bit of gas.”

  Once again, I followed Jason’s directions to a tee, and so far so good. This really wasn’t as hard as I had imagined, but then again, I had only moved out of the garage, onto the driveway, and into the street. My anxiety was beginning to ease up on me – thank God for that.

  "Alright …" and I heard the drawl creep back in, “this is going to be the most difficult part of this process. Shift the gear into first, and slowly come off of the clutch, while also, slowly, giving the car some gas.” He started using his hands to simulate the process, and demonstrated what the two pedals should look like when done correctly.

  I did exactly what he said, or at least what I thought he said, and the car lurched forward and stalled. Jason looked at me, told me to press down on the clutch, and start the car up again. I went over his instructions again, and again, and got the same result. The intense stare coming from him had me flustered and wanting to jump out of the car, but I knew that would do nothing but infuriate him, so I continued trying, and each time, the car did the exact same thing. As patient as Jason had been, I could see his tolerance starting to fade. I was overcome with frustration, and could feel my eyes start to burn, as tears began to well up. I internally fumed at myself. He looked at me and noticed that I was in the beginning stages of an emotional breakdown.

  “Cara. You can’t accomplish anything like this, and I’m not going to let you quit – just give it a little more gas as you come off the clutch.”

  The tears were now streaming down my face. I usually had success with almost everything I tried, and I didn’t take too kindly to failure. Jason was right; I wasn’t going to accomplish anything like that. He took my hand, firm in his, and looked fiercely into my eyes.

  “Damn it Cara! This just shouldn’t be this damn hard. You are defeating yourself before you even try. FOCUS!”

  He was obviously irritated by that point, and I didn’t think it was with the fact that I was stalling, but because I had basically relegated myself to failure before even trying to maneuver the car. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and avoided looking at Jason.

  I pressed down on the clutch, started up the car, followed his earlier instructions, and in one fluid motion the car moved – without stalling. I was overjoyed and I let out a sigh of relief.

  Jason told me to watch the RPMs and listen to car, but he also instructed me on when to shift. He was right, the shifting was easy; the hardest part was behind me. He took me through his neighborhood, and, thinking with my rational mind, I realized that he had no intentions of putting me on the freeway in this car – not yet anyway.

  We arrived at a stop sign, and I was paralyzed with fear once more. I knew that getting to the stop sign would mean I would have to try to get out of first gear again. I took a deep breath, attempted to do what I did the last time, and to my surprise, I came out of first gear. I must have given it a little too much gas because the tires squealed, but nonetheless, I was out of first gear and the car was moving. Jason instructed me to make the next two rights and that would put us back on his street. At the bottom of the street, was an incline, and that presented another challenge that I was not prepared for.

  Jason sensed my fear and without looking at me, barked the next set of instructions.

  “When you come off of the clutch, the car is going to naturally roll back, so you’ll have to give it enough gas to propel us forward.”

  I heard his words and fear gripped me again.

  “What if I stall and we roll backwards?” My voice was barely audible by this point.

  “Well, I guess the cars down the road are going to have to file an insurance claim,” he said very sarcastically. “Seriously, if that happens, just hit your breaks.”

  I took note of my new instructions and prepared myself for what felt like a monumental task. I eased off of the clutch, and just as Jason said, the car started to ease back. A bit startled, I pressed the gas. Apparently, I gave it too much gas and the tires squealed. The car jerked forward, but to my surprise, the car moved up the incline – we didn’t stall.

  Feeling victorious, I pulled the car back into Jason’s driveway and beamed my pearly whites in his direction. He was trying very hard to stifle a smile, but I could see it creeping through. I turned the car off, and set the parking break. I sat back in my seat, feeling the rigidity leave my body.

  We walked back into the house, and taking my hand in his, Jason ran his other hand through his hair, while simultaneously blowing out his breath. I guess I stressed him out. Once we were back in the house, I realized that I had not had my phone since Jason took it the night before and I ran into the bedroom to retrieve it. Six missed calls, and five text messages. Two of the missed calls were from Chelsea, and four were from my dad. Three of the text messages were from Chelsea, while the other two were from Mila. I began to scroll through the text messages and found Chelsea apologetic, and Mila pissed.

  from Chels

  *hey doll. I’m sorry about how I acted. Tell Bradley I’m sorry too!*

  from Chels

  *I get it if you are mad, just let me know you are okay.*

  from Mila

  *Seriously, Chelsea told me what happened. She is sorry, let us know you are okay.*

  from Chels

>   *Okay Cara. Enough of the ghost man act. I’m worried… respond to one of us.*

  from Mila

  *What the fuck Pinks? So unlike you, I will call for a search party soon.*

  A sting of guilt hit me. I was usually a very responsible person, and I didn’t leave people worrying about me – well not anymore. Having my two best friends so apologetic, worried, and angry put a bad taste in my mouth. Jason took my phone last night, and while I understood why he did it, I had to let him know that he couldn’t dictate things to me. I turned to go and find him but he was already standing in the doorway of the bedroom. Because I was startled, and pissed, I stared at him with anger in my eyes. He looked confused and moved into the room.

  “What’s wrong?” he said with caution in his voice.

  "Jason, you took my phone and shut it off last night; my roommates have been worried about me,” I angrily barked at him.

  He stepped closer to me, and moved further into the room.

  “Cara, do you really think I would leave your roommates hanging like that?” He tried to gauge my reaction, but I didn’t allow him to read anything on my face. “I called Mila shortly after you fell asleep and assured her that you were just fine. She said she would let Chelsea know.”

  I was curious as to how he got Mila’s number, since my phone was off and on my side of the bed all night.

  “How did you get her number?”

  He laughed as if I had just asked the most absurd question. In all actuality, he was a very resourceful guy, so this just might have been the most absurd question that he had ever heard.

  “Um, your phone. Not that difficult to get into.”

  I felt my blood start to boil, and I unleashed it on him.

  “Jason!” I was practically screaming. “You took my fucking phone last night, and then you went in it this morning without my permission. That’s a total lack of regard for my privacy.”