Kate Hoffmann - A Fare To Remember

“He might be at lunch.” Zach didn’t want her calling Ed just yet. He had some things to explain first.

“Even better!” She wiggled out of his arms and dug in her purse for her cell phone. “This is why I took his number while I was there, so I could let him know what happened.” She found a pad of paper and flipped it open to where she’d written Ed’s cell number.

“Listen, before you call, there’s something-”

“It’ll only take a minute. Then we can go celebrate! Where can you go? I know you don’t have much time, and I don’t want to make you late for work again, so we could put it off until-” She paused and stuck her finger in her ear. “Hello? Ed? I can barely hear you.”

“Reception’s bad,” Zach said. “You can call him back later.”

Instead she stepped up on the sidewalk. “There, that’s better. Ed, this is Hannah. I got the job!” Then she smiled. “Yeah, it is wonderful. Thanks for recommending me to your client. We really got along. What?” She glanced at Zach. “Just a sec.” She put her finger over the speaker.

Zach would have liked more time. He’d wanted to give her a chance to bask in her glory before hearing his announcement. “Hannah, listen, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“I’m guessing so.” She looked worried. “Ed says he forgot he has a Little League practice and wonders if he can drop your boxes off tomorrow morning at your apartment. What’s that all about, Zach?”

“I quit.”

“You what?”

“It just isn’t the place for me, so I quit.”

Hannah groaned. “This is my fault. I should never have said that! Is it final? Maybe you could go back this afternoon and say you’d reconsidered.”

“No, I can’t do that.”

“Oh, Zach.” Still gazing at him in concern, she brought the phone back to her ear. “Ed, are you still there? Listen, we’ll call you back about the boxes. And thanks again for the recommendation. Bye.” Then she snapped her phone shut and tucked it in her purse.

“First of all,” Zach said, “it’s not your fault that I quit. I’m grateful to you for showing me that I didn’t have to accept what Medford had laid out. I told him I didn’t want the corner office, and he should give it back to Ed.”

She sighed. “Not a good move.”

“It was a perfect move. Medford got all purple in the face. You would have loved it. He totally lost his cool.”

“Really? He turned purple?”

“Like an eggplant.”

Hannah put both hands to her mouth. “I shouldn’t laugh. This is serious. You just threw away a perfectly good job.”

“It wasn’t a perfectly good job. Not with Medford in charge.”

She lowered her hands and cleared her voice. “Okay, maybe this isn’t so terrible. But I still feel responsible. You wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t come up with the idea.”

“As I’ve told you, I want to thank you for that. I’ll sleep much better tonight knowing I don’t have to go back there.”

She gazed up at him with a tiny smile. “Do you think you’ll get to sleep tonight?”

Here came the hard part. “Yes. Because…because…I’ve decided we should stop seeing each other.”

She looked as if she’d been slapped. “Why?”

“I’m out of a job, Hannah. You just got a really good one. You said yourself that this wasn’t the time for you to make a commitment. That’s doubly true, now. I refuse to be a stone around your neck right when you’re ready to enjoy this great city.”

“But-”

“Trust me, this is the right thing. For both of us. Goodbye, Hannah.” Taking a deep breath, he turned and walked down the street. He wasn’t sure where he was headed, but he wasn’t going to stand around waiting for a bus or take the time to hail a taxi. He just needed…out of there.

As he was striding down the sidewalk, dodging everyone who got in his way, he heard a strange sound. It wasn’t exactly like a whistle. It was more like somebody blowing a very loud raspberry. He paused to listen. And then he heard a whistle. An actual, taxi-worthy whistle. She’d done it.

Only a man with no heart would keep walking. He turned. Hannah was running toward him, her skirt caught up in both hands. It wasn’t graceful, but it certainly was enthusiastic.

She plowed to a stop right in front of him. “You…can’t!” She gasped for breath. “I want to be there for you! You helped me get a job, and now I’ll help you!”

“That’s a nice thought, but-”

“Don’t you but me, Zachary Evans! I will be employed in a huge building with dozens of contacts. I’ll be networking out the ying-yang. You want clients to start up your own investment counseling business, I’ll get you clients.”

She was magnificent. And irresistible. “What if I want to drive a taxi?”

“Then I’ll get you fares! Publishing people need a lot of taxi rides. I will get you so much business you won’t be able to handle it all. If you leave me, you’re giving all that up!”

“What if I’m in love with you?” The words came out before he could stop them.

“That works.” Her voice softened. “Because I’m in love with you, too.”

His heart warmed with the first rays of hope. “It’s too soon.”

“Says who? Everything moves fast in New York. Everyone knows that.”

“Look, I have no problem with making a commitment, but you-you just got here.”

She stepped closer. “And I was lucky enough to meet the sexiest man in the whole city first time out of the box.”

“You have no basis of comparison.”

She made a face. “Zach, I’m offering myself to you on a silver platter. Are you going to be stupid enough to argue with me about it?”

That did it. “No.” He gathered her close. “I’m going to be smart enough to ask you to marry me, contribute to the ninety-percent ratio and get our picture taped to Mario’s dash.”

She looked into his eyes. “The blue picture.”

“Absolutely the blue picture.” Then he kissed her, taking his own sweet time. He ignored the harried pedestrians eddying around them, treating them like an obstacle in the middle of a fast-moving stream. Some things, even in New York, were too wonderful to rush.

“MARIO, YOU REMEMBER WE’RE supposed to go slow, right?” Hannah climbed into the backseat of the taxi while clutching the skirt of her floor-length dress with one hand and holding a bridal bouquet of yellow roses and daisies in the other.

Meanwhile Zach was trying to deal with the dress’s long train. “I think it’s either me or the dress,” he said. “There’s not room enough in this taxi for both of us.”

“Then maybe I should ditch the dress.” Hannah grinned at him.

“There will be no disrobing in my taxi!” Mario hollered from the driver’s seat. “Especially not when we have a man of the cloth riding shotgun.”

Hannah laughed. “Okay, okay. I’ll keep my clothes on. Zach, hand me the end of the train. I’ll fold it over my lap.”

“Tell me again why we have this train.” Zach managed to find the end of it and pass it over to her. “We’re getting married in the taxi. The guests are all following in their cars. It’s not like you’ll be walking down the aisle.”

“But it will look fantastic when we make our entrance at the reception.” She accordion-folded the train as she pulled it into the taxi.

“It’s Central Park. We’ll be on grass, so you’ll get grass stains on it. Maybe you should just take it off. Mario can put it in the trunk.”

She blew out a breath. As gorgeous as he looked in his dove-gray tux, a color that matched his eyes perfectly, he was getting on her nerves. “Zach, a wedding dress train is a must-have for me. I love the idea of getting married in Mario’s taxi, but I’m not giving up the train, and that’s final.”

“But-”

“Get in, Zach. It’s time to start. Our guests are growing impatient. Everybody’s honking their horns, plus we’re causing a traffic jam.”

“Okay, but I think you’d be a lot happier without that train.” He scooted in next to her.

“That’s how much you know.” She glared at him.

He glared back for about a second. Then he started to laugh. “It’s about time!”

“For what?”

“Our first fight! Now we have to kiss and make up.” He reached for her.

“You can kiss later!” Mario put the taxi in gear. “After the minister says so!”

But it was too late. Zach had already settled his mouth over Hannah’s, and she was lost to the world. Vaguely she realized the taxi had started to move.

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today… The minister’s words spilled out of the speaker mounted on the roof of the taxi, but Hannah didn’t want to stop kissing Zach, the man she loved more than life itself. That didn’t mean she’d let him win all the arguments, but making up was turning out to be excellent.

Zach was right about the fighting. There hadn’t been any. They’d been too busy loving each other and settling into their new lives and new jobs-Hannah with her new position as assistant editor and Zach with the investment counseling business he’d started on his own.

Suddenly Mario swerved, throwing Hannah off balance and ending the kiss.

“Hey, Mario, watch it!” Zach said. “We could break a tooth!”

“Had to do something,” Mario said. “We’re getting to the part where you have to say stuff. Now, pay attention, kids. This is important.”

And so they did pay attention. Holding hands, they repeated the vows into the microphone the minister handed back to them, vows that floated out over the streets of New York. Traffic was light this early on a Sunday morning, but the few drivers and pedestrians they encountered shouted and whistled their approval of the ceremony.

You may kiss the bride, the minister said into the microphone. Again.

As horns blared from the procession of cars following the taxi, Zach gazed into Hannah’s eyes. “I love you so much.”

Her throat felt tight as her heart filled with enough joy to make her cry. “I love you, too.”

As they kissed, Mario pulled over to the curb beside the grassy area set up for the reception. Zach and Hannah seemed in no hurry to stop kissing, but Mario didn’t mind. He had a little chore to take care of before he locked up the cab, anyway.

He turned to the minister. “Could you open the glove compartment for me? I need to get something out of there.”

“Sure.” The minister popped it open.

“If you’ll hand me that picture right on top and the tape next to it, I’d be much obliged.”

“Ah.” The minister looked at the picture. “It’s them. The picture’s really blue, though.”

“I thought so, too, but this is the one they want, so I’m going with it.” Mario pulled off some tape and positioned the picture in a prime location on his dash.

“So you brought all these couples together?” the minister asked.

“Yep.” Mario finished taping Zach and Hannah to the dash. “And I’m proud to say that my percentage just went up!”

ORDINARILY, RACHEL MARLOWE wouldn’t have minded a little vibrating action while naked in her bed, luxuriating beneath her silk sheets, sated from the second explosive orgasm of the night. Ordinarily, she would have snuggled deeper beneath her comforter and allowed sweet exhaustion to lure her into dreamless sleep.

Ordinarily.

But damn it, over the past four months, making love to Roman Brach had elevated her ordinary, everyday, work-for-a-living existence into an intriguing, captivating adventure. To achieve this level of excitement, she usually had to stuff her duffel with a week’s worth of whatever and catch the next cheap flight to another continent. Her whirlwind, spontaneous one-woman excursions had, not too long ago, been her only means of finding balance in her life-excitement to offset the boring; magnificence to alleviate the mundane.

Until Roman, who thanks to his vibrating pager, was now rolling out of bed. He opened his mouth to speak, but Rachel silenced him with a soft palm over his generous lips.

“If you say ‘duty calls’ I might have to kill you,” she jokingly warned.

His grin, warm beneath her touch, pooled her insides into melted goo. She yanked her hand away. Despite her threat, the only lethal one in the room was Roman.

“If you kill me,” he warned, “I won’t be able to return to you tonight.”

She rolled her eyes, determined not to show her emotional hand. What fun would that be? “I’ll live.”

“Yes,” he agreed, running a strong, callused finger from her lips, down her neck, to the slightly moist crevice between her breasts. “But without me, what quality of life would you enjoy?”

Despite her ire, she laughed at his unstoppable ego and swatted his hand away. He chuckled and started rummaging through the clothes scattered about the room for his pants, shirt, tie and jacket. He’d find them all. And they’d be impeccably unwrinkled when he did. She wasn’t sure how he managed that feat, but it annoyed the hell out of her.