Page 449 of Hell Hath No Fury
“There’s a place we can get a room right there,” I said, motioning to the Peach Tree Motel.
“You expect me to share a motel room with a man I hardly know? Are you trying to ruin my reputation?”
“If you would marry me, there’d be nothing scandalous about it,” I replied.
“Are you actually proposing to me… again? At a gas station?”
“I’m going to keep asking until you say yes.”
“Let’s just stick to the subject at hand, shall we?”
“Fine. I say it’s a night at Dublin’s finest gas station adjacent motel, and then on to Savannah in the morning.”
“Who said anything about going to Savannah?”
“You got your degree in Animal Husbandry, right?” I asked.
“How on Earth did you know that?”
“I told you. The donut shop guy was very friendly, especially after I bought two dozen jelly-filled from him.”
“You ate all of those?”
I laughed. “For the guys at the firehouse next to the Y.”
“You were a busy bee this morning.”
“I was a soldier on a mission, but in the end, the universe delivered you right to me in front of that bookstore.”
“Youarea hippie,” Pearl said with a laugh. “Do you honestly believe the universe is trying to bring us together?”
“Absolutely.”
“But why, and what does that even mean?”
“You believe in God, right?” I asked.
“Of course,” she replied.
“And you believe he has a plan for your life?”
“I suppose so, yes.”
“Well, I don’t know what I believe, but I swear to you that the moment I saw you on those steps, I knew we were meant to be together.”
“Even if I believed you, what’s that got to do with Savannah?”
“There’s a place I want to show you. A place, given your degree, I think will interest you quite a bit. Stay with me here tonight, and I’ll take you there tomorrow.”
“But, my father…the station.”
“Play hooky,” I said.
Pearl was drinking a strawberry soda from a glass bottle through a straw and I’ll never forget the look in her eyes as she mulled over my suggestion. Her tongue flicking the end of the straw as she thought.
She finally broke her silence with something I didn’t quite expect. “I won’t have sex with a man before I’m married.”
“What about a woman?” I teased.
