Chapter 2

I hear our receptionist Janet come in the front door, she is laughing and talking to someone about the weekend. Janet spots me and we exchange good mornings, I see she is with Alexis our supervisor. I work on getting signed into my computer and check for messages on my phone. Everyday it's pretty much the same routine, never any messages on the phone and just a stack of invoices to pay and the billing to complete. I am the company's accounts payable and accounts receivable guru. At one time they had two people one to cover each department but then they had hired me for the account payable department. It was about one year later when they made the announcement that they would downsize the accounting department. So, they moved Jodie from the accounts receivables position to the purchasing department. I'm just glad that they moved Jodie and didn't fire her, I really would have felt pretty shitty if that happened. I just wonder how Jodie do in the purchasing department, that department hussles, and Jodie never seemed to be that kind of an employee.

At the end of the day I punch out and walk outside into the almost picture perfect October evening. I absolutely love this time of the year the temperature is perfect, and it's such a fun time with Halloween and pumpkin flavored everything. That's the one thing I always loved about living in eastern Pennsylvania, the seasons. But the seasons definetly are not what they where when I was younger, just another thing that has changed over the years. I get in my car and on the way home I am running ideas for what I want to do for dinner through my mind, along with all the other dumb worries that are so typical for my mind. I had to stop for the red light on Main Street when all of a sudden I am immediately brought out of the rambling thoughts in my mind. Someone decides they aren't going to use their brakes to stop for the red light but instead use my car. I look around still trying to gather what the hell just happend, that is when I hear a voice. I turn to look out my side window and see that there is this man and he is screaming at me, "Are you ok?". He must say the same thing two or three times and I just look at him, I am sure to him I look like a deer caught in the headlights as I am looking at him.

This yelling man looks about my age, and I notice right away he is very handsome, I mean come on I stared at him long enough to process that much. He is also huge, I'm not sure if it is the muscular kind of huge or the chubby kind because of the outfit he is wearing it really doesn't show much definition. I start to shake my head to bring myself back to the fact that there is still a man yelling and looking at me. He must have been waiting for me to respond back to him, I would say patiently but I'd be lying, for probably the past 5 minutes. He is on his cellphone I am figuring and hoping he has called for help. I mean why else would you be on your phone after you just hit a car stopped at a red light.

Trying to open my door I realize it doesn't budge and seems to be jammed, so I am not able to open it and get out. I start to thank God in my mind that the airbags didn't deploy, I have heard that sometimes those can cause more damage to a person than if they don't deploy. Mr yelling stranger looks me straight in the eyes and slowly, very slowly and moving his mouth as to enunciate the words "are you ok?" . As I realize that I have yet to answer this poor man I say "yes, I am fine." Feeling a bit ashamed, I'm now wondering if he enunciated the question so slowly thinking maybe I was deaf, and that is why I never answered his question.

After finally getting his answer he stops yelling at me and holds up his finger, the one to tell me to hold on for a minute. Like seriously dude where do you think I am going to go, I'm apparently not getting out of the car I think, as I roll my eyes. I lean my head back against the seat and now I all of a sudden realize wow things hurt. Nothing serious just like the stiff kind of pain from the impact. My neck and shoulders hurt just enough to be bothersome, but I also taste blood. Wondering why or how I taste blood, I pull down the visor to look into the little vanity mirror that is hidden there. Shocked I see my lip is bleeding, there is a pretty steady flow running down my chin. I'm thinking that I must have somehow bitten it when the impact happened, it's just odd that it doesn't really hurt. Looking in the mirror I look over the rest of my reflection to make sure there are no other mysterious injuries. Seeing nothing and being satisfied I close the mirror and push the visor back up.

There is a knock on my window and I practically jump out of my seat. Oh great, the yelling guy is back again. What do you know he is yelling at me again and this time, telling me to open the door. As I look at him he continues to direct me on what to do. As he says, "when you push on your door to open it, I am going to stick my hand in between the door and the frame and pull it open." I just shake my head to let him know I understand, but in my mind I'm thinking yeah ok mister tough guy I'm sure your just going to open the door just like that. So following his steps that I was given, I reach down grab the door handle and push. This man grabs the door and pulls, as this door flies open and I swear it almost gets pulled right off of the car. My mouth agape and I now know that the guy is definitely muscle huge, because I am telling you that door was no way opening when I tried to push on it. I mean I might not be the strongest but I sure the hell am not that weak that I couldn't have opened a car door that was a just little jammed.

My purse flew onto the floor upon impact so I reach over to grab it and get a tissue out to dab the blood from my lip. As I sit back up into my seat I get a bit light headed, dizzy and nauseous. My stomach does a flip, what the hell is going on, this accident wasn't that bad. I mean I have a bloody lip but there are no other issues so why these feelings. Apparently this dude is standing next to the open car door facing me and looking at me. He must notice something in my face because all at once he is hunched down right next to me his face close enough that I can feel his breath. He grabs my hand and says, "maybe you shouldn't move and just sit there, you don't look too good." I look at him in bewilderment as I am thinking, thanks asshole but this is how I look everyday After an eye roll and an annoyed look at him I find the words to say, "I think I'm ok just a bit shaken up." There were also other things running through my mind about what I could say to him, but I don't think telling him to go play in traffic and leave me alone would be nice. But then again, him deciding to plow into the back of my car on my way home wasn't very nice either.

Then all of a sudden I look and see it, I look at his face and into his eyes. He has jet black hair and his eyes are absolutely the most gorgeous baby blue eyes I have ever seen. Meanwhile my mind is yelling at the fact that here I am checking out this guy, the same guy that has hit me from behind and who has also been yelling at me ever since then. My response back to my thoughts is screw you, I don't give a rat's ass I'm still going to look this handsome man up and down, how often does this shit happen. I mean damn is this dude a model or something, Lord knows he could easily fit that role. Then my mind wonders off to envisioning this man on the runway wearing clothing that would reveal what exactly he is hidding under the clothing he is currently wearing, a girl can daydream if she wants to.

He leans over and all of a sudden gets this look on his face like he has seen a ghost and says “oh my God you’re bleeding”. I just look at him and like a schoolgirl looking at her crush smile back at him. Even though I can feel the trickle of fresh blood run off my lower lip, I say “it's ok I think I may have bit it on impact, I'll survive”. As I dab the blood from my lip and chin with my tissue he says, “ok but we don't know if you have any other injuries that we don't see so I don't want you to move”. Not really hearing the words he is saying, I am hypnotized by those blue eyes. So, I just sit back and lean my head on the headrest and check out the hunk that I was so lucky to have run into me. Kind of wishing somehow I could pretend to need CPR, this would for sure be a man I wouldn't mind preforming it for me. Hearing the sirens in the distance I realize that they are probably on the way to finally get us out of the way from blocking the one lane of the road.

We have so much traffic backed up and the rubberneckers of course are driving by so slowly as they are looking to
see what they can see. I always wondered why people insist on doing that, what are they looking for anyways, a dead body. It's at that moment I realize this guy is holding my hand and caressing the top of it with his thumb. Being so shocked at the realization that this complete stranger has my hand and has been holding it for who knows how long and I didn't even realize it, kind of freaks me the hell out. I mean seriously how did I not even recognize that he took my hand, and even more disturbing is that him holding it feels normal. Ok, now I am starting to wonder if maybe I bumped my head in the accident and possibly do have some kind of damage to my brain.