The seating assignments for the vans were called out. Peri waited patiently to see whose van she would be riding in for the business trip to Virginia. Everyone piled into vans as their names were called and Peri looked around worried, as her name had not been called. She saw her boss standing talking with a young man in his early 20's. She approached them.
"Excuse me, Mr. Walker?" she asked quietly. He stopped talking seemingly annoyed at first then realized it was her.
"Yes, Peri?" Both her boss and the younger man looked at her.
"I'm really sorry to interrupt you sir, but I'm not assigned to a van. Where am I supposed to ride?" He looked at both vans full of luggage and employees.
"Are you sure you can't squeeze in anywhere? You're a small girl," he joked, half serious.
"No sir. There is only one seat left and Howard said that was your seat." He sighed and looked at his watch.
"Peri, you're the secretary. Didn't you make the lists?"
"No Mr. Walker. Howard - the trips manager - made the lists," she said. He looked at his watch again then looked at the young man and back to Peri.
"Excuse us for a minute please Peri," he said guiding the young man by the back and walking away. She waited patiently as they talked. They kept glancing over to her. The more they talked, the more annoyed the young man seemed to get. She caught a small part of the conversation. Her boss was saying "--need her! She's my secretary! You just--" and the conversation was lost. She put her hands in her coat pocket and pulled out a note card that read "Thanks for the best lunch break ever. -- Dante." She smiled at the memory and stuck the note card back into her pocket as her boss and the young man - hands shoved in pockets, face frowning - walked back over to her.
"Peri, this is my son Jacob. I'm sure you've seen the family pictures around my office. He's agreed to ride down to Virginia with you. You won't have to use your own car, don't worry." He handed her a set of car keys. "These are the keys to my Ford Explorer. It's the blue one right there. There is a petty business credit card in the glove compartment you can use for gas and anything else you'll need. There is also a cellphone with the number written in the phonebook in the glove compartment. I sincerely apologize about this situation but Jacob has been there many times before. His uncle, my brother, lives down there and he's going to go see him again this weekend and he knows the way in case you get lost. If you're not comfortable driving, he can do that too. Everything all set?" he asked looking at her. She stared at him for a moment surprised.
"Sir I--"
"Peri, you're my secretary, I need you there. I would give you my seat on the van but you know the routine. You know how I need to go over some things with the group on the way." She sighed.
"Okay," she agreed.
"Great. Don't worry. You two are only a couple of years apart. Get to know each other. Have fun." He lowered his voice. "You don't have to ride down with a bunch of corporate stiffs." She laughed.
"Okay Mr. Walker. We better get going."
She glanced at Jacob who was almost glaring at her. She walked over, grabbed her bags and headed toward the truck. Jacob was already standing there, his hands in his vest pockets, staring waiting for her. She opened the back door to put her bags in and realized there were no back seats. She looked at Jacob, who wasn't looking at her, then shrugged and climbed into the front seat. She was careful not to look at him and started the car.
"I wasn't really supposed to be going you know," he said bitterly. "I was trying to talk my way out of it and I had him and then you came along."
"Well, sorry to hear that but it wasn't my fault."
"You could have said no. He would have made room for you in the vans or let you stay."
"I didn't want to stay. The only reason I took this job is for all the business trips," she said following the vans out of the parking lot.
"That's the only reason any of my dad's secretaries take the job."
"Well, I'm no exception," she said annoyed.
"How old are you? I mean, you seem to be young. That's not his usual thing."
She glanced at him.
"How old do you think I am? And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Just that most of his secs were mid-thirties, early forties. Then he says we're only a couple years apart. I'm 24 and you don't look older than that."
"I'm not," she said. "I'm 21."
"Wow. Go dad," he said surprised. She rolled her eyes at him.
"He knows my cousin. I got this job through him." "Ohh. One of those," he said looking out the window.
"One of what?" she said beginning to get angry.
"Nothing," he said smirking.
"Look. This is a long ride and I would appreciate it if you didn't patronize me the entire time."
"It won't be the entire time. I'm sure I'll fall asleep eventually," he smiled.
Peri looked at him. He was attractive, showing only small resemblance's to his father. She assumed most of the rest of his looks came from his mother. He had a head of loose light-brown curls and his face was softened by his wide grin. He was wearing baggy cargo pants, an obviously old gray T-shirt and a dark green vest with worn out sneakers and a black cord necklace with a silver shark pendant. He had a slim build but was muscular at the same time. A product of a white father and a Hawaiian mother, he had a light brown complexion which nicely complimented his blue-gray eyes.
"Very funny," she said irritated. He laughed.
"Look, I'm sorry. Let's start over. My name is Jacob." He held out his hand. She looked at him and held out her hand to shake his.
"Peri." Before she could shake his hand, he pulled it away and laughed. She frowned.
"Please go to sleep."
"I'm sorry. I couldn't resist," he continued laughing.
"Sure."
She turned the radio on and ignored him. After about 2 hours, he was asleep using his vest as a pillow and she was dozing off at the wheel and drifting to the shoulder of the road. They had lost the vans a while back due to an accident on the road. She swerved and hit a hole on the side of the road and jerked back into the lane. The truck pulled sharply to the right.
"Shit!" she cried out as the truck veered onto the shoulder of the road. Jacob was awake at the sudden jerking motion of the brakes being slammed on. He looked from her to outside. It was just beginning to get dark.
