Page 95 of Dick

TWENTY-NINE

Jess

“WHERE are we going?” I asked.

“I already told you. Lunch,” Dick responded.

“Why are we driving the family car? And where for lunch?”

“It’s not a family car, it’s a performance sedan. And I don’t know yet.”

“It has four doors. That’s two too many,” I said. “And, I want that noodle soup.”

He changed lanes, passed a slow-moving truck, and glared at me. “I like this car.”

“It’s a sedan. I don’t like sedans.”

He pulled against the paddle shifter three times and mashed the gas.

The car took off like a rocket. In a few seconds we were going twice the speed of the traffic. “Holy shit!” I shouted.

“See?”

“Okay,” I admitted. “It’s a performance sedan. But it’s still a sedan.”

He exited the highway and pulled up to the stop light beside the BMW dealership.

I pointed toward the display of cars. “See? They have a ton of BMWs that are coupes.”

“Let’s have a look,” he said.

He turned into the lot and parked. A salesman came running up to the car and asked if he wanted to trade it in on a new M5.

“It is new,” Dick said.

We laughed and eventually walked in to the showroom. A white car sat on the showroom floor with a big red bow tied around the top of it.

“Awwe. That’s so cute,” I said.

“What?” he asked.

“The car with the bow.”

“What?” he asked. “You like the bow?”

“Yeah, but look at the car. It’s different than the rest of the coupes. See how it sits lower, and has the performance wheels? It’s got a mean look to it. It looks fast.”

I liked that I knew a little bit about cars, and I wasn’t a typical girl when it came to vehicles. If I was rich, I would have a car like the white car and I would drive it fast everywhere I went.

My car, on the other hand, was a piece of shit. It wasn’t even paid for, and I had a payday loan against it in addition to the bank loan.

Dick walked around to the back of the car and looked at the trunk. “It’s an M4,” he said. “It is the performance model.”

“Told ya,” I said.

“Look at the top. It’s a convertible.”

I laughed. “It is not, it’s a hardtop.”