Page 2 of Excitable Boy
She worked forSunshine Attitudesmagazine as a senior reporter and writer. Her current main project was a long-term series of in-depth investigative articles about environmental issues in Florida. Covering meetings like today’s was an integral part of her research. Especially talking to the meeting’s participants after the fact to clarify points covered during the meeting. It meant a lot of dull, boring reading and listening to even drier testimony and lectures and turning it into plain English that was both informative and engaging for the public.
But officials all over the state, at local and state levels, had been praising her work thus far, and she took great pride in it.
Fortunately, a car was pulling out of a space in the coffeeshop’s parking lot just as she pulled into it, so she didn’t have to wait for a spot or park on a side street. She grabbed her laptop case and purse and headed for the front door.
Tony still hadn’t called her yet, so she wondered if he’d managed to sleep a little late this morning. He’d been having trouble trying to adjust to Colorado time, even a couple of months into this, and frequently woke up early.
Their wedding anniversary three weeks ago had been…
Well, a fiasco of her own making. Thinking she was going to surprise him, she bought a plane ticket and flew out to Denver.
Just to learn upon arrival that he’d surprised her by flying home to Florida for the weekend.
Surprise.
So they’d spent that Saturday night at two different steakhouses in the same chain, but halfway across the country from each other, eating dinner with their laptops in front of them and using Skype to chat.
A creative solution, although not exactly how she’d hoped to spend their anniversary.
Now, she’d been tasked by him with shopping around for a new car. Specifically, an SUV. He wanted her to have something picked out by the time he returned to Florida, one at least as large as his, if not larger.
Which she was subtly rebelling against. Her little Civic was the first car she’d bought for herself, it was paid for, and it still ran great.
Tony wanted her in an SUV and had ordered her to start looking for a new vehicle. He wanted to take a couple of weeks off once he’d finished the data center setup, go on vacation with her, and wanted it to be a road trip in their new SUV.
Which was another project on her plate—deciding where to go on vacation.
Tony didn’t care, even though she wanted to leave the final decision to him.
Shayla held the door open for an elderly couple toddling their way outside, smiling at them and nodding at their thank yous before she ducked inside.
Caffeeeeeine…
Yay, there wasn’t a very long line this morning, the worst of the early morning rush crowd having already departed. She glanced at her phone as she stood in line and tried not to think about maybe texting Tony again. If he hadn’t texted her back yet, he wasn’t awake.
Shayla was about to step up to the counter to order a latte and a scone when she heard a loud crash that made her and everyone else in the store jump.
Turning, she spotted a car, a large, older Lincoln Town Car, that had been parked directly in front of the coffeeshop, which had backed out straight across the aisle…
“Ohhhh, no!”
Into the back of her little Civic.
She hustled outside to find the elderly couple she’d passed going inside were the occupants of the Town Car, both of them looking dazed, and the wife grousing at the husband, who’d been driving.
The first thing Shayla did was reach in through the open driver’s window, shift the car into park, and shut it off. “Are you okay?”
The airbags had gone off. And as others poured out of the coffeeshop, some of them on the phone to 911, the woman smacked her husband on the shoulder. “I told you you should’ve let me drive, Harold!”
That set off a very lively exchange between the elderly couple, sniping back and forth at each other in a way that meant neither could be seriously injured if they were that…animated.
Shayla turned to survey her car, which had been a little four-door coupe and now looked like an accordion. The much larger Town Car had shoved her Civic forward into a light pole with a heavy concrete base, also caving in the front end of her car.
Also, the trunk had been relocated to the back seat.
Shit.
She started snapping pictures, since it was obvious others had fire rescue coming for the couple in the car.
