This is a short little story that just popped in my head one day. It is not your typical Valentine's Day tale. Don't forget to vote and let me know what you think.
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James Halloway swore as he squirmed through the window of his now upside-down car. Icy slush coated his belly and legs as he pulled himself the rest of the way out. A careful driver, he had hit a patch of ice just off the bridge, rolled and ended upside-down in the snowy ditch. Luckily, or unluckily depending on your point of view, the new car that he had only had for three months was totaled.
James groaned as he surveyed the damage and tried to steady his hands that were still shaking from the adrenaline rush. His father had insisted on a newer model that had safety features like the air-bag that had kept him from smashing his face into the steering wheel. James knew he couldn't afford it but his dad had insisted and even co-signed the loan and chipped in for the down payment. 'Safety first' his father had insisted. 'You'll be doing a lot of driving back and forth and I'd rather you made it alive' he had boomed in his deep voice as he had ruffled his sons fine blonde hair affectionately.
'Thank god for overprotective fathers,' thought James.
The snow continued to swirl around and he was glad that he had kept his coat on for the drive. Hoping that he could beat the storm, he had taken his usual route of back roads for the three hour drive home. He was still at least an hour drive from home and he hadn't seen another vehicle for at least a half an hour. He pulled up his hood and zipped his coat and started walking. He did have winter survival gear in the car. It was in the trunk however and he would never be able to get it out, being that it was buried in the icy slush and mud. He also hated clutter in his vehicle and all of his cloths were in the trunk as well.
His friends like to tease him that he was way to smart and anal to be at school on a football scholarship. 'You should be an accounting nerd with glasses and no pecs' his girlfriend had teased him. He had carried her to bed and proceeded to tickle her till she screamed, and then had her screaming for entirely different reasons.
The snow was the heavy wet variety that was already four inches deep and rapidly getting deeper. The wind was picking up too and he tried to suppress the worry that he would have to walk the next fifteen miles to the next small town. It was already dark for 2 in the afternoon and only getting darker. Most of the land between here and there was State Forest, not a house to be seen.
'What a shitty Valentine's Day weekend' he thought; ignoring the jeans that were freezing to his legs he concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. He had been planning on spending it with Valerie, his girlfriend of three months. She had gotten roped into watching her younger sister while her parents had gone on a quick trip. She had had her parent's permission to bring him along. Considering that her younger sister was two years old, he had anticipated being able to seduce Valerie at every opportunity.
Instead his mother had called him four days ago and told him that his dad had decided to retire from the police force. The retirement party would be on Saturday, Valentine's Day. The 'invitation' from his mother may has well have been a mandate from God. So, Valerie would get flowers at her parent's house instead of a weekend of seduction, and he would get to spend Saturday surrounded by his road in front of him, he didn't hear the truck until it was almost on top of him. It was a black 250 of some kind and he ran gratefully up to where it had stopped.
"Hi," said the young woman driving when he opened the door. "Was that your car in the ditch back there?"
"Yeah," he replied.
"Well get in and get warmed up!"
"Thanks," he said, climbing into the warm cab. The heat hit his legs and he started shivering. "I'm so glad that you came along."
"Me too," she smiled at him and he smiled back.
She was really pretty, with short, curly brown hair and bright hazel eyes. She was layered in a white turtleneck, cardigan and coat but she was fairly slim. Sure he had a girlfriend, but it was still ok to look and admire.
"So where are you headed?" she asked as she shifted the truck back into gear and eased it up to a comfortable 40 mph.
"Springfield, home for the weekend," he replied, opening his jacket a little bit. "My dad is having his retirement party this Saturday and I promised that I would be there."
"You look a little young to have a dad at retirement age already," she teased.
James laughed. "Yeah, dad is only 55. He's a cop, or was I guess. He has put in enough time to retire early. It was kind of a surprise though. I had thought it would be a few more years." He stretched out his legs and sighed, finally feeling warm. "They weren't real happy with him retiring but he just said that he had had enough. I guess he had a couple really bad cases this last year that really shook him."
"I'm James, by the way, James Halloway."
"I'm Anna Sams," she replied with a sideways glance and another smile. "You wouldn't happen to be related to Donald Halloway would you?"
"Yeah, that's my dad," he exclaimed, "How did you know?"
Anna laughed, tossing her curls, "it is a very small world! He was the police officer that helped me out last year about this time."
"That's so cool," replied James, "do you live around here?"
"No, I lived down in Jacksonville at the time. I was up here though and your dad helped me out of a really tight spot."
"Cool," James said again. "I want to be a cop too but dad insisted that I get a college degree first. I think that he is hoping I will get interested in something else and drop the idea."
"What are you studying?"
"Psychology actually, I think I may go for my masters in criminal psychology. I would love to be a profiler."
"That's great," Anna replied. "God knows we could use more good guys to catch the bad guys. I wanted to go into social work myself."
"You are not going to college then?"
