Page 33 of Love in Tandem
Sophia ended the call. Some questions were better left unanswered.
Close to forty-eight hours later, Charlotte sighed, not sure which was more ridiculous—the fact she’d driven thirty miles to stand inside a dressing room at Buddy Boy’s Bike Shop so she could prepare for a challenge she didn’t want to complete, or the goofy names people were coming up with for the challenge when they decided calling it ‘the challenge’ wasn’t exciting enough.
Charlotte crouched as if sitting on a bike seat, her right elbow banging against the dressing room wall, and shook her head. Nope nope nope.
There was a reason she’d never gone out for the volleyball team in high school. Okay, two reasons. The first was that she stunk at volleyball. But the other reason, the main reason, was she refused to participate in any athletic endeavor that required wearing tiny spandex shorts. Especially an athletic endeavor some were now referring to as the Beloved Biking Bonanza.
Who cared if these biking shorts reached down to her knees? They did not flatter her figure. And if she was expected to ride a tandem bicycle with a man who could make tube socks and a cardboard box look flattering, she’d need something better than this.
Standing, she twisted to look over her shoulder. Good grief, what was with all the rear end padding? As if Charlotte had ever needed additional padding in that department.
“Think those will work?” the bike store clerk, a thin man who probably did benefit from additional padding, asked through the locked door. “We have a couple of other options if you haven’t found what you’re looking for.”
“Oh, I’ve seen plenty for one day,” Charlotte assured him, struggling to get the spandex shorts down her hips.
“What about the bike? Still interested?”
Not for two thousand dollars. Who knew tandem bicycles were so expensive? This one was even marked fifty percent off. Didn’t help that it was a top-of-the-line model and, of course, the only one the store had.
“I should probably sleep on it. You know what they say. Don’t make big decisions without sleeping on it first.”
“Sure. You can take the shorts home to sleep in if that helps.”
“No, that’s not . . .” Whatever. Fine. “Thanks.” Any excuse to get out of this store.
Too bad she hadn’t had an excuse to get out of the canoe trip the other day. Or rather, the river, where she’d spent the majority of the canoe trip. Considering the number of times the giddy foursome of teen girls had tipped the canoe trying to ogle Zach, they’d be better off not even bringing a canoe next time.
Not that there’d be a next time for Charlotte. The likelihood of her stepping near a canoe the remainder of her lifetime ranked up there with the chances of her getting these shorts down her thighs without swearing.
“Ugh!” She kicked the black shorts against the door. This was supposed to have been her best summer in ages. Why wasn’t anything working out like it was supposed to?
Charlotte reached for her skirt. Okay, maybe some things were working out, considering her parents should be landing in North Carolina any moment. That little detail had turned out better than planned. Almost made the past few days of craziness worth it to hear them so excited about getting away. Especially since she hadn’t actually had to go camping two extra nights with Zach.
She slipped back into her skirt—made with breathable cotton, thank you very much—and inhaled a calming breath. All hope was not lost. If things had worked out for her parents, maybe things could still work out for her.
“Faith, girl. Faith,” Charlotte whispered to herself as she opened the dressing room door.
The clerk had stepped to the other side of the store and was educating a child about the importance of helmets. He held up one that was cracked and shattered. “See this?” he said. “This would have been the guy’s head if he hadn’t been wearing his helmet.”
“Did he die?” the child asked.
“No. I mean, well yes, technically the person who wore this helmet did die, but not because of the bicycle accident. He had an abdominal aortic aneurysm that ruptured a few years later and—you know what? Don’t worry about that. The important part is he didn’t die from a head injury.”
“What’s an abdominal whatever you said?”
“Nothing. Just wear your helmet.” The clerk pointed at the shorts in Charlotte’s hand. “Ready to take those home for a good snooze?”
She shrugged and handed over her credit card. “Why not?” Made about as much sense as anything else lately.
Her phone pinged with a text message as she slid into her car a few minutes later with her purchase. It was from Sophia.
We did it! Mom & Dad just landed!
Sure enough, another text message pinged through from Mom, saying the same thing. Charlotte texted her mom back with a thumbs-up emoji just as Sophia texted again.
Let’s meet at Mucho Mucho to celebrate!
Charlotte clicked her seatbelt in place. She’d worry about finding a bike and squeezing into ridiculously tight shorts later. Right now a giant burrito filled with mucho mucho everything was calling her name. She texted Sophia back.
