Caught in the rush
Chapter Two
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Damn women.
Dirk Monahan peered out the window of his limousine, looked left, looked right and slumped back into his seat.
Damn bloody California traffic.
With his luck, he thought, if he made it to the airport at all, his plane would probably crash, which would be a miserable end to his miserable day. Then Penny Breslin would regret not marrying him.
The whole thing must have been a publicity stunt. It had to be. The way she played off their relationship in front of the media. She probably even faked her orgasms.
She had tried to call his cell phone so many times, but he just ignored her. He recognized her cell phone number; he knew it better than he knew his own mothers.
He dedicated songs to her. He even wrote a few for her. But did she ever return the favor? No. Not once did she ever declare her love for him to the world. She just pranced around with him in front of the cameras and the public because they loved the idea that their own sweetheart was being romanced by a dashing, guitar playing foreigner.
The more he thought about it, the madder he became. Once again, his cell phone beeped. He pulled it out of his sweater pocket and a text message from Penny flashed out at him.
"I luv u, u big jerk, don't walk out on the tour or me. Answer your phone."
He ignored the message, set the phone into silent mode, and stuffed the cell phone in the cushions. He then leaned over to turn the radio up to listen for any news of when this bloody gridlock was going to lighten up.
"... traffic on the 405 is backed up for five miles still, due to an overturned tanker truck in the middle of the freeway. Authorities are now saying that because of the overturn, the main tanker itself was badly damaged, and trying to move it would quite possibly cause an explosion. Efforts are being made at this moment to get another tanker out there to try and pump the flammable contents from the tanker so it can be moved safely. All attempts to clear the gridlock have failed, including having the cars back off one by one off the freeway, but that caused an accident involving three cars, and that has made everything worse. This has been the worst gridlock in the 405 freeways history."
"No kidding," Dirk mumbled, opening another beer and leaning back into the seat.
"Also, previous reports of singer Penny's limo being directly in the middle of this gridlock were confirmed, but it wasn't until recently that it was confirmed that the singer herself is in fact in the limo. All attempts to reach her by cell phone and the car phone have failed, so if she hears this, she is being asked to please call any local television or radio station to report what its like out there and indeed what she's even doing out there to begin with."
"Penny?" Dirk called out, sitting up in obvious shock, "what the hell?"
* * *
As it turned out, Dirk didn't get laid that night. He could have, but not with Penny.
He bowled, or rather attempted to bowl a few games against Penny, where they shared a conversation about the contributions of Scottish singers in the United States. The conversation didn't last long. Penny only knew of four bands, Simple Minds, Big Country, Average White Band and The Proclaimers, the latter of which she did not like.
They talked about his inspirations, which were Elvis Presley, INXS and Motley Crue; her inspirations which were The Go-Go's, The Beatles (everything after the White Album, she didn't care too much for anything they did before that) and INXS (which they then launched into an impromptu performance of Listen Like Thieves); whether or not Britney Spears could be the anti-christ (she was for, he was against) and then whether or not they could find anything nice to say about Marilyn Manson, and when they couldn't, decided he was probably the anti-christ and not Britney Spears.
The label's owner, Derick, then requested their presence, so he could make a toast in honor of his new act. While Derick had him arms around Dirk and much of the rest of the band, making his speech, Dirk saw a very pretty blonde out of the corner of his eye. As he turned and looked at her, the blonde dipped her finger into her drink, seductively put it in her mouth and slowly pulled it out again. He gulped nervously and turned back to the rest of the crowd, lifting his nearly empty bottle of beer to them as they cheered at the end of Derick's speech. As the band dispersed itself back into the crowd, and Dirk started looking around for Penny, Dave the drummer walked up and put his arm around Dirk. "Hey, you gonna go after that blonde?" he asked, taking a drink of his beer and looking over at her. Dirk continued searching for Penny. "You can have her," Dirk mumbled, "did you see where the redhead went, the one I walked out with?"
"Penny? I saw her walk outside into the garden," he replied, pointing to a set of doors on the far end of the room to the left. Dirk excitedly patted Dave on the chest and took off after Penny as Dave made his way to the blonde.
"She was a sure thing, you know," Penny stated, as Dirk approached her from behind, "you don't have any guarantee from me that we're going to have sex tonight."
She had actually considered the possibility of going to bed with Dirk that night. Something in her head told her that this wouldn't be one of those kinds of relationships, so she put it off. That and she wanted to test Dirk to see if he really liked her, or was more interested in his libido. She was actually rather surprised when he proceeded to sit down next to her anyway.
"That's all right," Dirk replied, sitting down on the bench next to her, "I like talking to you, I like intelligent woman far more than I like easy ones. She didn't seem very intelligent, trying to seduce someone she knew nothing about, I could have beat her up and raped her."
"I doubt you would have had to rape her. She could probably scream later that you did, that might get her some money."
"I could have beat her up."
"Then she could have screamed that you beat her up, and she would still get some money. Or, if you knocked her up, she could scream that too, and get money from you for the rest of her life."
"Or, I could have killed her, cut her up and buried her so deep in the Angeles National Forest that she would never be found again."
"True. She couldn't do much to you then, if anything."
"So, that doesn't make her very intelligent. Just a tart. Besides, how intelligent would I be to sleep with some girl I don't even know. She could give me a disease."
"Or knock you up."
"But then, I could quit show business and still make a lot of money for the rest of my life."
Dirk put his arm around Penny's waist and pulled her closer to him; she then laid her head on his shoulder and gripped his free hand. After a few minutes of silence, he whispered, "If you're not careful, I could fall in love with you."
"I could think of worse things that could happen," she whispered back.
"Like what?"
"I could be killed, cut up, and buried so deep in the Angeles National Forest that no one would ever find me again."
With a chuckle, he picked up her hand and kissed it.