Page 5 of Risk It All

He’s a bit lanky and is easily over six feet tall but I can see his biceps straining against the sleeves of his shirt he rests on the hood of my car.He’s not super ripped but the beer belly is nowhere in sight.

“Are you Emerson?”he asks again and I jerk my eyes away from his arms to meet his dark blue eyes.

“Yeah.You’re late.”

He pushes off of the hood and grabs his suitcase as he heads for the rear of my car.I reluctantly hit the button for the trunk and try not to grumble as he tosses his suitcase in the back and slams my trunk closed a little too hard for my liking.

He slides into the passenger seat, somehow making it seem like he’s taking up all of the space in my car and I roll my eyes, turning onto the street.

The weather is beautiful and I slide my sunglasses on as I merge into traffic and head for the highway.Anthony shifts in his seat, trying to flip down the passenger seat visor but it hasn’t worked since I bought it.

“I have an extra pair of sunglasses,” I tell him reluctantly, not wanting him to break my car.

I pass him the extra pair of Ray-Bans that I have and he mumbles a thank you as he slides them onto his face.

We hit the on-ramp of the highway and I reach over to turn on the radio.I broke down and updated the stereo a few years ago so I can hook my phone up and play music that way.It was getting really hard to find cassette tapes.

“I thought you were a guy,” Anthony says out of the blue and I look over at him, wondering if he’s crazy.

“Why?”I ask, confused about what I could have said that would give him that impression.

“Your name.Emerson sounds like a dude’s name.”

“Stop saying dude,” I say, an edge to my voice as I glare over at him.

“Okay,” he says, drawing the word out like he thinks I might be the crazy one.

We drive in silence for a bit and I’m starting to hope that he falls asleep when he speaks again.

“Where are we stopping tonight?”he asks me.

“I was hoping we could make it to Cedar City, Utah.”

“How about Las Vegas instead?”

“Las Vegas?That’s only like four, maybe five hours away!”

“Yeah, but I can hit up a few open mics.Plus, it’s not like we don’t have the time.We can stay for cheap in Las Vegas and then get an early start tomorrow morning.As early as you want,” he says like he’s being charitable.

I chew on my bottom lip.If we started really early tomorrow, then we could get to Denver, Colorado tomorrow night.Or maybe he could drive tomorrow and we wouldn’t have to stop or get another hotel room.

I look over at him.Do I trust him to drive my car?He almost broke the visor when he first got in and he slammed the trunk so hard I was worried that he was going to break it.

“If we stop in Las Vegas tonight, then we leave at six in the morning tomorrow and drive to Denver.”

“Deal,” he says way too quickly and I realize that he probably has another open mic set up in Denver.

“Wake me up when we get to Las Vegas,” Anthony says, closing his eyes and pushing his seat back as he crosses his arms over his chest and promptly falls asleep.

I roll my eyes but I don’t mind really.This way I don’t have to worry about making small talk.

I need gas right outside of Las Vegas and pull off of the highway and into the first gas station that I see.Anthony wakes and stretches as I pull to a stop, sitting up in his seat.

“I’ll pay for gas,” he says through a yawn as he climbs out of the car and I start to feel better about having him with me.

Maybe he isn’t such a dick.

I let him pump the gas as I run inside to go to the bathroom.I finish quickly and am headed outside to the car when I see that there’s a McDonald’s attached to the gas station.My stomach rumbles and I turn, heading over there when Anthony walks inside.

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