Road Rage Saved the Day

It was a four-way intersection. He honked at her as she sped up to turn right. In an unexpected move, he turned left and was then driving behind her. That’s when she rolled down her window, stuck out her hand and gave him the finger. She watched his face in her rear view mirror hoping to get some sort of reaction out of him, but his face was as serious as The Queen’s Guard’s. “Idiot,” she murmured.

After a couple of turns, his car was no longer in sight. But five minutes later, they both pulled up into the same parking lot of a convenience store. “Oh for crying out loud! Did this f–king guy follow me here?” she kept asking herself. She wasn’t sure if he saw her pull up, but, now ashamed of her road rage, she waited in the car until he walked away.

When she saw him come out of his car, she wished she hadn’t been such a bitch. He was an attractive tall man with a military haircut and aviator glasses to go with it. His fitness routine could be seen through his white button-down shirt. Oh well, she thought. She was on her way to work that Monday morning and his hesitation back at the stop sign was making her late.

Hiding under her black shades, she rushed into the store, confident that the man from the road wouldn’t recognize her if he saw her. In a hurry, she grabbed a cup and put it under the coffee dispenser, her head down at all times to avoid any potential contact with the man. As she got ready to go to the register, someone stood next to her. “Thanks for flipping me off.” It was him.

Mortified, she looked up at a pair of brown eyes looking straight back at her. He cornered her and she had no choice but to confront him.

“Hey, you honked at me,” she said, her face crimsoning with embarrassment.

“Because it was my turn.” He laughed at the fact that she now didn’t seem so brave. And she was relieved that, it seemed, he wasn’t there to attack her. “But it’s alright, I get it, everyone’s crabby on Mondays — even cute girls like you.”

“Sorry,” she said with a shy smile.

“No hard feelings. I’m Phillip, by the way.”

“Lena.”

“Nice to meet you, Lena. Can I get that coffee for you and maybe make your morning better?”

She was pleasantly surprised by his gentleness in spite of her grumpiness.

“Actually,” she said, “I should be the one buying, for being so rude.”

“How about you get me next time?” What were the odds; road rage leading to a moment like this. “Deal?” he asked.

She smiled and nodded. “Deal.”