Page 26 of Freedom Ride

“They trip his trigger, babe. He’s a hot biker, and you’re a hot lite goth chic. You two were made for each other.”

“Well, what if–.”

“Nope, no what-ifs,” Melody interrupted. “Mindy being a thundercunt today was a blessing. You don’t have to wait a week to see Jonas now. You can call him up and tell him you’re free for the next month so he can ride here on his bike, sweep you off of your feet, and take you back to Wisconsin with him.”

“I’m not moving,” I gasped.

Melody again rolled her eyes. “Why the hell can’t you move? What is keeping you here? Me?” She shook her head. “I will come to visit you while you live your biker Barbie dream life. Hell, I will even drive Doc and Marty up to you. Any reason why you and Jonas won’t work, I am prepared to shoot down Lennox. Try me.” She folded her arms over her chest and tapped her toe on the cement.

“I don’t have anywhere to live up there.”

She flattened her lips. “Jonas has a bed to sleep in. What’s his is yours.”

“The dogs are–.”

She didn’t even let me finish. “As long as those dogs have you, they will be fine. I know for a fact you would live in a cardboard box if that meant those two have a place to lay. And you already told me Jonas is a dog lover.”

“I won’t know anyone there.” I would know Jonas, but I wouldn’t have anyone else.

“I’ve watched biker shows. They’re all family, and you would be welcomed like a bird to the flock. Into the flock? Birds of a feather stick together?” She waved her hand in the air. “Something with birds. You’d be in like a bird with its flock.”

I tipped my head to the side. “That reasoning wasn’t as strong as the others.”

Melody shrugged. “I’m not a poet, honey. I just know you are in a better spot right now than you were ten minutes ago. You were miserable working under Mindy, and you were stressed as hell waiting to meet Jonas face-to-face. Now, you don’t have thundercunt Mindy in your life, and you’ll be in the arms of your biker by tomorrow. Hell,” she sighed, “if he’s dying to meet you that bad, he’ll be here by suppertime.”

“No.” I was not at all ready for that. I was happy with it being at least seven days until I saw him. Now we were down to possible hours until we could meet. Nope. “I’m not telling Jonas until I know what my next step is.”

“Your next step is to call your man and have him come get you, Lennox.” She held out her hand to me. “Give me your phone.”

I shook my head. “Nope. Not going to happen. I will call Jonas when I’m ready.”

“You’re never going to call him then.”

“Then I will wait for him to call me. He said he would call when I got off work.” No reason to rush to call him. I’m sure he was busy doing something.

Melody propped her hands on her hips. “So you have less than eight hours to figure out your shit then, and you better tell that man to come and get you when you talk to him.”

“Why are you making this sound so easy?” This is nowhere near easy. Everything was happening so fast, and I was struggling not to have a panic attack. “My whole life is pretty much imploding on me, Melody. I’m going to need you to be a little panicked with me.”

“Do you know how many times I have rolled my eyes?” she laughed. “You are thinking way too hard about this, Lennox. Why don’t we focus on one thing right now?”

“Because I have fifteen things I need to focus on right now, Melody, and they are all connected to each other.”

“Then focus on biker boy.”

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “He’s a man, Melody.”

“Biker man doesn’t have the same ring to it that biker boy does.” She pointed her keys at her car and beeped the locks. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“We’re going to have a self-care day since suddenly our afternoon cleared up.”

“You mean since we both just got fired slash quit our jobs?”

Melody booped my nose. “Ding, ding, honey. You need to look at this as an opportunity for something good rather than freaking out that you don’t have a job.”

“Jobs are pretty important for people who don’t have hella inheritances that can support them for the rest of their lives, Melody. I am not that person.”

“My god,” Melody groaned. “I will pay you to stop freaking out, okay?”

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