Caught in the rush
Chapter Three
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Penny was beginning to feel uncomfortable with all this press she was getting. Not that she wasn't flattered by it, but on the other hand, there were probably about one hundred other people in jam, surrounding her, and no one else seemed to care about them at all.
Penny put in a call to her mother, who wasn't home, and left her a message that she was fine, her limo wasn't being tipped over by irate commuters, she wasn't dehydrated or starving, and hung up the phone. She rolled down the window, and right next to her, saw an exasperated mother trying desperately to calm her baby down. Memories suddenly surfaced from when she was a small child and her mother having to deal with her during long road trips. She saw the same look of aggravation on the mother's face that her own mother had, and felt bad for her. Penny leaned over and tapped on the window.
"Yes ma'am?" the lady asked, rolling down her window. "You need any help?" Penny asked, feeling completely sorry for the woman. "I could use a nap," the lady sighed, almost on the verge of tears, "my husband is probably worried sick and I ran out of food for my baby."
"How old is she?"
"She'll be two next month."
"Poor thing, she's probably sleepy and hungry. Do you know who I am?"
"You're that lady singer."
"Penny Breslin."
"Marjorie Summers, nice to meet you."
"Same. Tell you what, I got some food here, crackers and some orange juice, maybe I can get her calmed down, and you get some rest, it doesn't look like we're getting out of here any time soon. You can call your husband from my cell, I'll get the baby, what's her name?"
"Silvia."
Penny opened the car door as far as it could go, and stepped out, handing Marjorie her cell phone. She opened the back door and started to unbuckle Silvia from her car seat. "Hi honey," she smiled at the fussy baby, "I'm Auntie Penny, I got some cookies, you want some cookies?"
"Cookies," the toddler blurted out, reaching out for Penny. Penny grinned as she lifted Silvia out of her seat and out of the car. Marjorie, handed the phone back to Penny as she shut the back door. "My husband would like to speak to you."
"Yes sir?" Penny greeted, taking the phone from Marjorie and placing the toddler in the back of the limo.
"Are you really Penny?" an excited male asked, as Penny slid into the back seat next to Silvia and shut the door. "When I looked in the mirror this morning I was," she replied, searching the wet bar for some cookies for Silvia.
"I wanna thank you so much for helping my wife out like this, considering you're in the same position and all."
"It's the least I can do, she looked like she was having a harder time than I was, besides, I'm equipped, maybe I can get the baby to get some sleep until we get out of this."
"You're beautiful, now I don't have to worry, thank you so much."
"No sweat, errr…"
"Aaron."
"Aaron. If anything happens, I'll let Marjorie call you again."
After a few minutes, baby Silvia was happily munching on some cookies and orange juice, while Penny turned down the television and was trying to find some news on the radio about Dirk and where he was. Suddenly, she heard a tap on the window, when she rolled it down, it was Silvia's mom. "She's doing okay, I found her some cookies, " she said, as she rolled down the window. Marjorie smiled at her baby. "That's not it," she replied, "I just heard on the radio that they want you to call one of the t.v. stations, they're all curious about what's happening with you and why you're here."
Shawn Lawson sat in his pick-up truck and sighed. He had just put in a call to his boss at the hardware store, and even though Pete assured him everything would be okay, Shawn just knew that they would find some excuse as to why it was his own fault he was stuck on the freeway, then fire him.
And such as it was in Shawn's life. He always got the bad end of everything as far as he was concerned. He felt outclassed by everyone he met. Shawn was fully aware that he wasn't the only one trapped in this gridlock, but he knew things like this never happened to anyone else he knew. He took his Trouble CD out of his glove compartment, put it in the player, and leaned back.
"Some small things can screw the whole world up; you can't believe what you hear, you can't trust what you see; if you can't look for deeper meaning in the world around, some small things can bring a good man down."
"Yeah," Shawn thought bitterly, "like the assbite that was driving that tanker."
He looked in his rearview mirror to make sure his short, dark blonde hair wasn't too mussed up, then decided to take Dirk Monahan's advice and take a look at what he was surrounded by. In front of him, was the over turned tanker, but he already knew that. To his right, was the shoulder of the freeway.
To his left, was a limousine. He sat back down in his seat and pondered this. It was nice knowing that some poor celebrity was stuck in this mess with him. Then, his curiosity got the better of him, so he looked back out the window and strained to see if he could get a look inside the open window of the limo. As he did, the limo's occupant stuck his head out the window and his eyes locked with Shawn's for a brief second.
Shawn fell back into his seat, stunned. He picked up his cell phone, and put in a call to one of his co-workers. "Man, you are never going to believe who's in the limo next to me," he blurted out, as he got an answer at the other end, "Dirk Monahan, I'm stuck in traffic next to Dirk Monahan, isn't that wild?"
Dirk heard the conversation and instantly slumped even further in the seat. "Great," he mumbled, wishing to God he could just hide.
* * *
Several weeks had passed since Penny and Dirk first met at David's party, and they had been seeing each other exclusively, though not very often. Dirk and his band were busy recording their first major U.S. record, and Penny had just finished putting the touches on her second album, and filming her first video from that album, which Dirk appeared in briefly. They did little more than light kissing, either because they were both too tired, or Dirk got a little scared and backed off.
During an extremely frustrating day at the studio, Dirk put in a call to his mother over in Edinburgh. "I'm so glad you called my boy," Elizabeth Monahan gushed, as she waved her daughter Bethany over, "how's the United States treating my son?"
"Pretty good mum, really," Dirk replied, smiling, "I miss home, but its not so bad here, whatever I need, Derick gets it for us, in fact, he's made it a rule now that the entire studio takes afternoon tea at 2:30.."
"What a nice man. How's the album going?"
"It's going really well. We did have to come up with some new material because that wanker that owned the studio in London apparently owns the rights to the recordings we did over there.."
"How could he do that, what did you sign?"
"As far as I know, I didn't sign the rights to my songs to him, I read it, I thought I was just signing some waiver, you know "we're not responsible for this and that", you know.."
"Well, that's not fair.."
"It's all right mum, Derick is sending some lawyers over to dispute the contract, he's pretty sure they added some stipulations to what I signed, after I signed it."
"Oh good, Bethany wants to talk to you, she's visiting with her fiancée, you called on a good day.."
"So, I saw you in one of the newspapers with that Penny girl," Bethany stated, taking the phone from her mother, "you shagging her or what?"
"Don't be crass Beth," he replied, smiling, "we're dating."
"Is she nice?"
"Aye, she is. Very nice."
"I heard that she was. What's she doing with you?"
"Your fiancée, eh? So, what's the story with him, is he blind or has he lowered his standards?"
"Score one for you little brother. So, what's the story with Penny? You haven't slept with her yet?"
"No, she's been used for that before. I don't want her to think I'm using her, I want her to be comfortable with me before I make that move."
"Is she the one, Dirk?"
"She is."
"Then let her make the move. I'm sure when the time is right, she will."
"I'm not worried about it, sex isn't the staple of our relationship, if I have to wait a year, I don't mind, I just like being with her."
"Aye, it's nice to see some things haven't changed. Still the romantic at heart, aren't you?"
"That's me. What's dad doing?"
"Mainly, a lot of shouting and swearing."
"Watching the football game eh?"
"Coventry House is losing. You know how he feels about that."
Late that afternoon, Dirk walked into Penny's studio apartment and looked in shock to see her packing a suitcase. "You're leaving?" he asked, quietly. Penny turned around as she zipped up her suitcase. "I'm going to New York for a week, I thought I told you last week," she replied. Dirk rubbed his eyes. "That's right," he recalled, as she placed the suitcase on the floor next to the bed and sat down, "Kilborn, Letterman and MTV, I must have forgot, I'm sorry."
"Don't sweat it," she replied, motioning him to come to her, "come here."
He approached her, leaning over and kissing her very deeply on the mouth. She leaned back, grabbing his shirt and pulling him with her as she collapsed back onto the bed. "Are you sure this is what you want?" he whispered, brushing the hair back from her face. She just grinned as she removed her shirt, and pulled him closer to her, and kissing him again. "I'm going to be gone a week," she whispered, as he began kissing her neck, "I'm going to miss you, and I want something to remember while I'm gone."
"That was quick," Dirk thought to himself as he took off his own shirt. And so, he gave her something to remember. For two hours, until the limo called to take her to the airport.