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Chapter Nine: Bonnie and Clyde


Nick

It took a little better than an hour and a half to get to the gas station, taking intermittent breaks and Ashley walking a little bit of the time. Mostly I carried her, though, like I'd promised back at the house that morning before we'd left. And we made it only just in time, too; we were walking across the parking lot toward the convenience shop doors just as the last rays of sun were slipping below the horizon line.

The station looked every bit the same as it had last time we'd been there. A last-chance type of place, with neon runner lights in the window, way-too-high prices, and the short Indian man behind the counter. I walked up. "Hey," I said. I wondered if it was the same guy. "We had a blow out about four miles back south and I've seemed to have misplaced my nuts."

Ashley giggled.

I glanced at her. The fact that she'd giggle at that sentence was one of the many reasons I loved her so damn much. She was just as dirty-minded as me. Then looked back up to the attendant. "Do you have any car parts by chance?"

"Aisle two."

I turned around, following the careless wave he'd administered, and dodged around a display of chips. Ashley followed me. There was a small section of tiny car parts and tools laying on shelves below. Right next to the pregnancy tests. Ashley stared at the shelf. She'd taken one of those last time she'd been here.

I looked through the various objects and managed to come up with four nuts for the car tire. I turned to Ashley, "Do you wanna stay here while I walk back?"

"You're gonna walk back in the dark?" she demanded, "You can't walk back in the dark."

I snagged a flashlight from the shelf and held it up.

“That does not count as un-dark,” Ashley said.

"Well what else am I gonna do? We can't stay here all night," I pointed out.

Ashley looked at me with big, nervous eyes.

"I'll be fine."

"You'll get eaten by wild... wild... ostrich."

I snorted. "Ostrich? Babe, I don't think there's ostriches in the Mojave," I said, "But I appreciate the concern."

“What about Zoey?”

“What about her?”

“She needs a father.”

“Relax. She’ll have a father, even after the wild ostrich is done with me.”

"We could call a cab."

"I don't think there are cabs out here, anymore than there are ostriches," I laughed. I leaned over and kissed her cheek. "I'll be faster this time. I don't gotta carry nobody this time." I winked at her as I pulled away.

She looked around, then leaned closer and whispered, "We could shag in the bathroom before you go." She bit her lip. “Just in case the ostriches do get you. Then you got laid one last time… and… and I can get out of this mother-fluffin’ bra…” She gave me big ol’ doe eyes.

As tempting as it was to be like hell yes (I mean, what guy doesn’t want a quickie in the restroom with a super, super sexy lady?), I shook my head and just laughed, "Down girl."

"Jesus, Nick, when did you become the one that was capable of waiting for sex in this relationship?" she asked.

"I dunno," I replied. "The irony is that I'm the one that was willing to throw the plans out the window this morning if you hadn't insisted on being wooed."

Ashley shook her head, "I'm so stupid, I should've just spread 'em this morning."

I smirked. "Next time you'll know better." I kissed her forehead. "I'll be back."

Her voice squeaked, "Don't get eaten by the wild ---- whatever is out there!"

"I'll do my best," I answered, and I took the bag with the nuts and flashlight and headed out the door, back to the car.

I never would've admitted it to Ashley, but I really wasn't looking forward to going off hiking through the Mojave in the dark. And she was right, the flashlight really didn’t count as undarkness. Maybe there was wild ostrich out there, I had no idea where ostriches were from naturally, although I had a feeling it wasn’t anywhere in the US. Maybe Africa or Australia. But there was something wild in the Mojave, I was sure of that, and I could only hope that I didn't meet it on the way back to the car.

The only thing keeping me strong was the promise that Ashley had on a really uncomfortable bra... and in my past experience the less comfortable a bra was, the sexier she looked in it. And shit was she horny. If we could just get to Vegas, I was gonna get myself laid so hard.




Ashley

I watched Nick walk away, fading into the darkness, from the door of the convenience store until I couldn’t see him anymore. The flashlight had bobbled in the dark for quite some time over the rack of Pepperidge Farm cookies in front of the window, but finally he’d disappeared completely from view. I sighed and turned away, counting minutes in my mind, waiting until the moment the car pulled into the lot with it’s stupid donut wheel.

I wandered around the store. I could feel the little Indian guy’s eyes on me as I looked around. In my mind, I fancied he was thinking Nick and I were some kind of modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, like we were about to cause a world class shoot-out in his gas station, blowing bullet holes through the dairy coolers or like I was gonna hold him up and rush out the door into the sleek 1950s getaway car, manned by Nick in a low-slung fedora.

The way I moved around the store was in no way designed to reassure him that we weren’t. It was kind of exciting imagining that he thought I was something like Bonnie. I let my fingers linger over product shelves as I moved, humming as I walked through the teeny-tiny boring aisles, waiting for Nick to get his ass back. The fantasy at least kept me from thinking about Nick incessantly.

Then I came to the medicine aisle, where a row of condoms and pregnancy tests sat on one of the shelves. I lingered by these for an especially long time, smiling at the generic brand packaging of the pregnancy test I’d used that fateful night. I lifted it up and stared down at the information on the back of the box. I took a deep breath, remembering the panic that had seemed to slither through me like iced snakes in my veins that night. Every dream I’d ever had, leaving with the appearance of a plus sign on a stick coated in urine.

I looked up and saw the door of the bathroom I’d used to hide in during my discovery. I put the test box back on the shelf and quickly walked to the bathroom, realizing that like last time, when I’d sought refuge in the bathroom, I could seek refuge in there again. Not from panic that I might be pregnant this time (I was already quite aware that I was very, very pregnant this time), but from the bra of death.

I closed the door behind me and locked it and struggled to reach the zipper on the back of my dress. It was like trying to dance a mamba. I wiggled to the left, then to the right, then hopped backwards and forwards and leaned against the wall, arching my back. I finally managed to get the dress unzipped enough I could reach the strap of the bra. My fingers scrappled across the skin of my back, trying desperately to catch hold of the strap on my bra. Finally, they hooked it - just barely. I pulled, trying to make it so I could reach the snaps.

If only my arms were like an inch longer.

If only Nick hadn’t been a jackass earlier and had just unsnapped it.

I rolled the front of the dress down like I was a damn banana being peeled and fought with the bra to turn it to the front so I could reach the snaps. It was like liberation day. I could breathe. I chucked the bra to the floor, taking deeper breaths than I’d been able to achieve all afternoon. I leaned against the wall and sighed, closing my eyes, enjoying the feeling of sweet, luscious freedom.

I didn’t realize how long I’d been in the bathroom until there was a knock on the door. “You okay in there?” came a thickly accented voice. “You not die, right?”

“No I’m okay,” I called back.

“You need come out now,” he called. And walked away.

Damn.

I looked at the bra, and then at myself in the mirror. My boobs literally had dent-marks on them from the underwires. I shuddered at the thought of putting that thing back on. I picked the bra up and shoved it into my purse, then rolled the front of my dress back up and struggled to push the zipper. I stared at the reflection of myself. My breasts didn’t look too bad without the bra, right? Well, they flooped a little - that’s what happens when you have a baby, though, and plus they were heavy from Baby 2.0’s effects on my body - and I wasn’t sure if it was just in my head or not but I thought maybe you could see my nipples through the fabric.

Ehh fuck it, Nick probably wouldn’t even notice the mood he’d been in all day.

I fluffed my hair and zipped my bra-stuffed purse, and creeped out the door… back to my Bonnie and Clyde game, I thought to myself with a smirk as I moved through the aisles of the convenience store.