“I’m not joking Nathan. Give me my phone.”
“Didn’t you give Marissa time off?” he asked and I froze as yesterday’s events came back to me, “She would come get you if you asked but doesn’t that take away from her time off?”
I hated that he was right and the last thing I was going to do was admit it to him so I settled for huffing and crossing my hands over my chest.
“Listen, I know this isn’t ideal and you would rather cut off your left arm than be here.”
I cut him off, “That is the understatement of the century.”
“But,” he ignored my obvious disdain, “All we can do is make the most of this. Besides, you had a massive event yesterday; it wouldn’t hurt anyone if you took a week off work.”
“I have a show in less than a month. I do not have time to take a week off work. I need to make sure that everyone is doing what they need to do.”
“If your workers cannot function without you for a week then I’m sorry to say but you have failed as a boss.”
“They can survive without me.”
“Then take the week off,” he shrugged as if it was that simple, “Unless you don’t really believe that.”
In that moment I wanted nothing more than to claw that stupid smirk of his off his face because he had me in a tight spot. If I said no, I would be proving that my workers are incompetent and if I said yes, then I would be agreeing to stay in a rundown town.
“Fine,” I muttered, “Let’s do this before I change my mind.”
Nathan went to tell Darius that we would be staying and he was over the moon. He droned on and on to Nathan about the best stops in town and the best places to shop. He tried to include me in the conversation but after a while he seemed to pick up on the fact that I wasn’t as enthusiastic as him so he gave up and continued speaking to Nathan.
While they spoke, I sent an email to my parents, Marissa and Olivia informing them that I would be off the grid for a while. It took all my self control to resist the urge to look for an alternative solution but that would have meant admitting defeat to Nathan.
I could hear Darius talking but the last thing I wanted to do was hear about the wonders of his town so all I could do was stay silent and resist the urge to throw myself out of the moving vehicle.
I didn’t even realize I had my hand on the handle of the door until Nathan whispered to me. “If you’re thinking of throwingyourself out remember that the truck isn’t moving fast enough for you to die. You would probably just hurt yourself and end up having to stay longer.”
“Or I could throw you out and I’d only have to suffer the town and not your overbearing presence.”
“I’d love to see you try.”
A loud bark of laughter cut through our argument and I turned to see Darius glancing over at us with an amused look on his face.
“Please, don’t let me interrupt,” he chuckled, “I haven’t seen anything as funny as this since three months ago when we got another city visitor.”
“Do you get a lot of that around here?” I asked and he shook his head.
“Although, if y’all are going to keep coming with this level of entertainment, then we might just have to change that.”
He drove in silence for a few more minutes before I saw the first building. It was a beautiful cottage surrounded by trees and a flower garden. A heavily pregnant woman was standing in the middle of the garden and she waved at Darius as he drove past.
More houses began to pop up and the reality of the situation began to dawn on me, I am actually going to be stuck here until further notice. Darius drove down a bumpy road and came to a stop in front of a two story building.
The sign in front read Bea’s Inn and it looked like a stone cottage. It had a triangular roof with ivy growing over it as well as the walls. There were three sets of circular tables with two chairs in front and each time the door opened, a bell rang out.
“Bea is the best you’ll get around here,” Darius said as he got out of the car, “And she’s really close to town. The supermarket is a five minute walk from here and so is the farmer’s market.”
“How far is the nearest bridge that I can jump off?” I muttered
“I’m sorry, what?”
Nathan was quick to cut in, “She didn’t say anything,” he turned to me, “Be nice.”
“I’m sorry but that wasn’t part of our agreement,” I whisper yelled, “All you said was that I have to stay here.”
