NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS
11
Jack : Can you wait at the Precinct?
Prudence : Where else am I supposed to wait?
Jack : You don’t have to be snappy.
Prudence : I’m waiting in front of the Precinct. Outside.
Jack : You should really wait inside.
Jack : I don’t want you to be sick because of the rain.
Prudence : I won’t. It’s covered.
Jack : Fine.
Prudence : Fine.
Jack : FINE.
Jack : …
Jack : Please, don’t be mad at me I’m sorry.
Prudence : What is the model of the car?
Jack : I don’t know.
Prudence : It’s supposed to be written on the app.
Prudence : Jack?
Prudence : ??
PRUDENCE
I’m regretting the color of the buttoned-down I chose. Cream . In the rain. What an absolute idiot.
I’ve been waiting about forty-five minutes now, and I’m soaked . Not to forget that this damn shirt is now completely see-through, no matter how hard against my chest I’m clutching my little shopping bag, it’s not hiding much.
And I’m losing hope of getting back to the house before nightfall. Am I exaggerating since it’s not even noon? Maybe. But no one’s here to contradict my anxious brain.
The person who told me that in L.A, the rain never poured long, obviously lied. It’s been raining for at least two hours. And it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop anytime soon.
Footsteps sound behind me and I tense.
“Come on, Prue. Your Uber is obviously not coming, just let me—”
“No,” I grumble, squeezing my arms tighter around myself to try to cover the black laced-bra peeking through.
I hear him sigh just behind me and he starts pacing.
“Just go back inside and leave me alone,” I add, rolling my eyes in annoyance.
“What if I ask another officer or detective to drive you home?”
“No. I’m fine, a car will be here any minute.”
“Stop fooling yourself!” He snaps, stopping just behind me. “No one’s coming! I’ve checked the Uber app, there’s no one with less than a two hours waiting time!”
Jack said a car is coming. He wouldn’t lie. Not about that.
“Please, Ortega. Just leave me alone. Go back inside, I’m sure you have work to do, I wouldn’t want to distract you.”
“How can I focus knowing you’re outside in the rain waiting for a car that may never show up?” he asks, crouching just behind me.
I close my eyes and release a heavy sigh. After what he told me, why does he care?
A beautiful, tall redhead in fancy clothes nestling in his arms, their twin red wristbands, the look of horror on his face as he’s spotting me.
“I don’t care,” I whisper. “Just go back inside. Focus or not, it’s not my problem, as I’m not your problem.”
I hear him standing up abruptly, swearing under his breath.
“I’m getting my car. I don’t care that—”
A car parks just at the bottom of the steps where I’m sitting and honks a couple of times.
Is it my car?
I frown, trying to see the person inside, and my phone pings in my hand.
Unknown : Get in the car, Prudence.
Prudence : Who is this?
“It can’t be the car you ordered,” Raph says with an annoyed voice.
I don’t answer, focused on the car and my phone.
Unknown : Nate. Jack asked me to pick you up.
“For fuck sake,” I mutter, standing up from the step I was sitting on.
“What is it?” Raph asks, taking a step to stand next to me, his eyes narrowed on the dark SUV.
The only reason I’m actually taking the steps towards it is that, after a—really—quick deliberation, I’m absolutely certain that being stuck in a car with Raph would be worse than being stuck with Nate.
Raph, a guy I’ve slept with the day we met and never saw again before that awkward encounter at the bar yesterday and the meeting at work today.
Nate, my brother’s ex-best friend who posed for me a few times before my brother snapped, and whom I haven’t really talked to in 9 years.
The one who did not try to make me quit my job because he’s afraid his actions have consequences wins.
“Prue, I’m telling you, it’s not your—” he insists as I reach the bottom of the stairs.
“It is. See you next week,” I say through gritted teeth.
Raph doesn’t move though, as I make my way towards the passenger side of Nate’s SUV.
I peer through the window before opening the door—I’m not crazy, thank you—and my gaze meets Nate’s inscrutable azur eyes.
And now, I can’t say whether I’m relieved or even more anxious.
Relieved. Definitely relieved that it’s actually someone here to pick me up and take me back to the house and not someone here to abduct me.
Not at all anxious about spending the next twenty to thirty minutes in a car with Nate. Alone .
Why would I be anxious about that? We’ve been alone together before. The few times he stepped in to pose for me after my models stood me up, for example. Well, the couple of times. One and a half times… Whatever.
Why can’t I remember any other time? Was it the only two times we were ever alone together?
Oh god, it was… All the other times, Jack or Nuri were here, or it was in the Anatomy class I crashed—his teacher was the only one kind enough to allow me to join in on occasion, after I bribed her with a portrait of her and her husband.
But still, I don’t have any reason to be anxious, right? We’ve never been friends but we got along just fine during the one year I shared with them—minus that comment I’ve overheard—and Jack and him were still buddies . And it’s not like…
“Will you get in the damn car, Prudence?”
I jolt, and realize that I’ve been standing frozen next to the passenger door, under the pouring rain, my hand on the handle. Didn’t even notice that Nate had opened the window a bit at some point.
Must be that stupid brain tumor acting up.
I clear my throat and climb inside, wincing at the feel of the leather under the back of my thighs. I mutter an apology for potentially ruining his seat with my wet clothes and buckle my seatbelt, sliding my shopping bag in the leg room between my feet.
A minute passes, and the silence stretches. The car doesn’t move.
Nate’s narrowed eyes are focused on the stairs of the precinct, where I was previously sitting, and where Raph is still standing, his phone in his hand and gaze locked on the car.
“Nate?” I ask warily.
“Is that suit-wearing clown Raph?”
I frown in confusion and look towards Raph. Why is he not back inside? My ride’s here, he saw me get inside the car, why is he… Wait…
“What?” My brows crease in confusion.
“I’m not going to repeat a question as simple as that one.”
“How do you know his name?”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“ Nate, ” I groan, crossing my arms over my chest.
His azur eyes finally turn to my annoyed ones and I force myself to hold his gaze.
“Jack put you on speaker when you called so he could keep putting his clothes back on. I was clearing my stuff and I heard you talk.”
His eyes dip down before they abruptly turn away and he starts the car with a ticking jaw as I grit my teeth. Jack could have told me I was on speaker and he wasn’t alone… I wouldn’t have said anything if I knew Nate was in the room and could hear me.
“So, is he married or not?” He asks, just as we leave our spot and he stares at Raph one last time before turning on another street. “You didn’t seem sure on the phone.”
“None of your damn business,” I mutter, turning my face to look out the window, to the rain hitting us relentlessly.
He chuckles, but there is no trace of amusement in it.
“I’ve always made it my business whether you knew it or not, and I don’t see why things should be different now.”
I turn my face to glare or yell at him—not quite sure yet—but I freeze when I see the stormy expression on his face. His brows are drawn together, eyes darker than their usual azur, hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles are turning white.
“What’s wrong with you?” I ask with a confused frown.
“What?”
“Why the hell are you so… angry? Is it because Jack asked you to come and pick me up? I’m sorry, if I knew he would have asked you of all people, I never would have called him for help. I would have walked home, no matter the hours that it’d take. Or maybe I would even have agreed to let fucking Raph drive me, but—”
“Like hell you would,” he cuts me off in the middle of my monologue. “And you’re one to talk, why are you so upset with me ?”
“What? I’m not,” I grumble.
“And yet, you’re the one who’s been fucking glaring at me for a whole week,” he says through his teeth as he indicates before taking a turn left.
“I have not!”
Have I? I did get mad at him because of Jack’s “joke”… And then yesterday, but that was definitely called for. Who wouldn’t have gotten mad learning about what he and Jack did back then? Unbelievable .
“And besides, you’re avoiding my question!” I add quickly before he can answer anything. “I’ve asked why you were angry, before you tried to deflect!”
His hands are flexing on the wheel and his jaw twitches slightly. So he is mad.
“I’m not mad about picking you up,” he admits begrudgingly. “I actually offered, even though I think… Well, it doesn’t matter. I’m not mad about that.”
“Then why?” I groan in frustration.
“Because your brother has completely lost his damn mind!” he finally snaps.
What ?
“I mean, he went from insulting and threatening me for assumptions 9 years ago, and now he basically gives me the go ahead to fuck you in my car, and I—”
“Wait, what?” I yell, eyes widening. “What do you mean, fuck me in—”
“Not the point, Prudence!”
“Yes, the point, Nathaniel ! What the hell are you talking about?”
He releases a heavy sigh, shaking his head slightly, and frowning at the barely visible road ahead. The rain is pouring harder than five minutes ago and we can barely see in front of us.
“Fuck— we have to stop, it’s not safe driving like this.”
“Oh no, no, no, you won’t get out of this weird conversation like this! What did you—”
The car stops abruptly, pulling a surprised gasp out of me—effectively shutting me up—and the engine shuts down. Nate unbuckle his seat belt, saying “I’m not trying to get out of any conversation, but if we keep driving under this rain we’re going to fucking die.” He presses the button to free my own seat belt then keeps talking. “Also, I’m starving. So I’m going to get out of the car, get a jacket from the trunk to cover your head and your damned see-through shirt, open your door, and we’ll run towards the door of the restaurant just a few feet away.”
I’m staring at him with a dumbfounded look on my face and he stares right back for what seems to be ages.
“Do you understand, Prudence?”
After a few more seconds, I nod reluctantly.
I guess I’m stuck with him a little longer, and I guess we’re going to talk about how my brother came to give him his blessing to fuck me in his car.
Whatever that means.