L Akers - Fight Like a Man

Later, the girls had seen lots of classic cars cruising the main strip, and heard that there was a show going on. Probably a hundred or more were at the beach right now.

The man’s hands were full and he had his keys in his mouth as he rolled past them. He looked fifty—trying to be forty—exhausted, sweaty, red-faced and breathing hard. He gave them a brisk nod and kept walking.

“Wait!” yelled Gabby.

The man turned around.

“Where are you going? Do you have gas?”

“ Shhh !” The man looked around to see who had heard her and then dropped his suitcase to give the ladies his full attention. After looking them over from head to toe, he smiled, patting his thinning-hair in place and tugging the wrinkles out of his Tommy Bahama tropical orange with green palm trees shirt. A tacky gold chain lay nestled on a bed of too-much-too-gray-chest-hair. He gave them a million-dollar smile—or at least a few grand, seeing as how his fake teeth looked like a pack of perfect bleached-chiclets against his leathery-dark tan. “Yeah, I do now. I’m not leaving my girl here. I’m driving her home. She’s a classic 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner . Top of the line. She won some awards at the show here. Want to walk out and look at her before I take off?” He beamed, waiting for their oohs and awws .

Gabby rolled her eyes. Looks like they had a real ladies man on their hands. “I don’t really care what kind of car it is. We need a ride home. Where you headed?”

Ladies-Man grabbed his things and started walking backward. “Nope. I can’t be giving everyone a ride. I’ve spent the last eight hours buying gas one can at a time. Didn’t find enough so I had to crawl under a few cars and siphon it out with a screwdriver and an oil pan. Had to funnel it into cans, and had to walk and carry it back myself. Spent the last of my cash and nearly broke my back, too. But I’ve got plenty now to get me home and I’m not making any detours. I’m outta here.”

“Wait!” Olivia said. She hurried to him, throwing a mean look at Gabby from over her shoulder. “I’m sorry, my sister is snappy. She’s dehydrated and hungry. The thing is, I’ve been hurt.” She rubbed her head to show him, not aware that her injury was painfully obvious already. “We really need to get home. You said you used the last of your cash? We’ve got cash. We can pay.”

“I don’t want cash. I was glad to get rid of most of my own.” He laughed. “Those suckers don’t know in a few days, cash will be worthless. That gas was worth a hundred times what I paid for it, and I paid out the ass.”

“What will you take in exchange for a ride then? How can we pay?”

Ladies-Man gave her another reptilian smile, his eyes wandering down. “Well, if you need a ride that bad—”

“—we don’t. Forget it!” Gabby snapped and pushed her way in front of Olivia.

He shrugged and turned to walk away again, the leer sliding from his face.

“No, wait,” Olivia said. “My watch. It’s a Rolex. It’s got to be worth a fortune in gold and silver alone. And it has diamonds on the face. You can use it to trade.”

Ladies-Man held out his hand. Olivia hurried to take it off. She held it up to him. He reached for it but Gabby reached in and snatched it away. “You can have it when you get us home.”

Ladies-Man thought a moment while he looked over the girls one by one, moving his eyes quickly away from Gabby’s venomous stare and back to Olivia and Emma, who were both staring at him in desperate hope. “Alright. I’m going as far as McBee, South Carolina. Don’t know where you’re going, but I’ll drop you off there. That’s about a hundred miles. That’s the only deal I’m making—and it’s in exchange for the watch.”

Gabby walked the other way. “No, thanks. That’s only halfway home. Not worth it. We’ll find someone else who’ll give us a ride, and won’t make us pay for it with a fifteen-thousand-dollar watch—or anything else,” she snapped.

“ Fifteen-thousand-dollar watch?” Ladies-Man asked. “Look, we got off on the wrong foot. I’m Larry.” He gestured stupidly to himself. Like who the hell else would be Larry? “I’ll take you ladies all the way home in exchange for the watch but I’ll need enough gas to get back home myself. Do you think you can do that? It might mean siphoning any gas you have in any of your husbands or family or friends’ cars, deal?” he asked as he looked at their ring fingers, all which were adorned with wedding rings.

“Yes,” Emma and Olivia both happily said in unison.

Gabby rolled her eyes.

Olivia was overjoyed. “Of course! My husband keeps a lot of gas stored. He’s a prep—”

“—a puppy groomer, she meant to say. She fumbles her words sometimes,” Gabby interrupted. “Olivia’s husband does mobile dog grooming so he probably has a tank full of gas and I doubt he’s working. He’s probably too worried about us.”

Olivia gave Gabby a what-the-tarnation-are-you-talking-about-look, until suddenly her eyebrows raised and her eyes widened. “Yes, puppy groomer is what I meant to say. I’m sure the van is topped off. My husband always fills it up before coming home. When are we leaving?”

“Twenty minutes. And no suitcases. My trunk is full of gas. You can hold a bag in your lap. I’ll meet you in the parking deck. Look for a—”

“—we know what your car looks like. We passed you on the way here,” Gabby interrupted.

“Oh. Well then. Twenty minutes.” He hurried away.

“We’ve got to take our suitcases. Gabby, you think you can make him change his mind?” Olivia asked.

“No. And we don’t want to be stuck out on the road with no gas. We’ll just grab your bug-out bags from your car after we grab a few things from the room.” She pushed the door open to their room. “Anyone got some sort of bag we can put some things in here?”

Olivia groaned. “My beach bag! I left it out on the beach. And it’s got my phone in it.”

Gabby shook her head. “Too late. No time.”

The ladies ran around grabbing essentials. Emma and Gabby grabbed their cell phones—even though they were useless for anything other than looking at their photo galleries.

Olivia grabbed the extra water and the few snacks they had left. They all snatched up their make-up bags, and grabbed clothes from their open suitcases, throwing everything into a pile on the bed as they worked. Gabby spun around, looking for anything else they needed. Emma had her sneakers in her hand, Olivia had her flip-flops— “Wait. Don’t take your flip-flops, Olivia. What if we have to walk?” Gabby asked.

“I don’t have anything any more comfortable. These are Rainbows; they’ll be fine.”

Gabby sighed. “Just hurry. We don’t want him to leave without us. Where’s a bag?”

Emma threw up her hands and shrugged. Olivia shook her head.

“Geez. Give me your biggest T-shirts. I’ll make us a bag just to carry this to the parking deck, and we can grab your BOB’s and transfer some things into those, if they’ll fit. I hope they’re bigger than mine. But we’re not taking anything out of them; especially not the guns and ammo. If there was ever a time we needed those survival bags, it’s now. Thank God Grayson made us each get one.”

Olivia shuffled back a step. “Did I mention I needed to talk to you guys about those bags? I… er… didn’t bring them,” she stammered.

JAKE TIED the last bungee cord around his small bag, fastening it just in front of the seat to his mountain bike. It contained an extra tube and a small patch and tool kit. He also had a backpack that he’d wear. He’d packed light. First, he’d run his errands, then head to Grayson’s. The homestead was nearly an hour by vehicle, and while he had no experience with walking it, he assumed it wouldn’t take more than a day to ride there on a bicycle. He just hoped the tires held up.