2

“What are we doing here?” Christian asked as he glanced around the dingy shop that he and his father had entered.

His father ignored his question and continued to survey the room until he caught a movement outside the window. “Ah, here’s the man we’re here to meet.”

Christian followed the direction of his father’s gaze and saw a portly man in his fifties walking towards them.

“George, good to see you again,” his father said, shaking the man’s hand.

“Mr. Laurent, it’s always a pleasure.” George glanced at Christian. “Is this him?”

Christian raised his brow at the man’s curious gaze.

“Yes. This is my son Christian," his father said with a nod. “Christian, this is George Cabot. He’s your new partner.”

Christian’s brow rose even further. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you running this place with George.” His father’s tone was hard and unyielding. “This is a personal investment of mine – completely separate from the company – and I’ve asked George to help you manage it. He’s worked in the restaurant business for years and he’ll be of great help to you.”

Christian held up both hands and shook his head. “Hold on. I came back to help grandma and the company…I didn’t come back to play with one of your toys," he said derisively.

“You didn’t think I was just going to allow a novice to march into LGI and handle multi-million dollar investments, did you?” his father scoffed. “You want to help the company? Prove to me that you have the capability to do so by making this place a success. I’ll give you three months.” His father moved away from him and walked to the center of the room before turning to face him again. “Of course if you’re afraid of the hard work, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Christian’s eyes narrowed. Clearly his father thought that if he hurt his pride, he would jump at the chance to prove him wrong but he didn’t have anything to prove to the man and there was no reason he had to play this little game with him.

No reason, but one.

At any another time he probably would have walked out and said to hell with the whole thing but he’d made a promise to his grandmother to get involved in the company and if this was the condition to do it, Christian had no choice but to comply.

He glanced at George briefly, noticing that the man was watching them silently, before looking back at his father. “I’ll do it but it’s not for you. I made a promise to grandma and I plan to keep it. ”

His father shrugged. “This is for your benefit Christian not mine. George,” his father called the man over. “I leave my son in your capable hands. Please advise him to the best of your ability.”

“Don’t worry,” George said with a grin. “You won’t recognize the boy when I’m done with him.”

Christian sent his eyes heavenward. It was going to be a very long three months.

…

Taylor was sick. Throat scratchy, nose running, eyes watering sick and she would have happily stayed home, drinking orange juice and coughing the day away, had it not been for the “turn it in on time or fail” term paper that was due that day.

To make matters even worse, she was running late which meant she was driving to school in the family hatchback in hopes that she’d get there faster than taking the bus. The problem was that she hated driving the hatchback which had seen better days … fifteen years ago. She just hoped to make it to class on time without the car breaking down or her hacking up a lung.

Suddenly a fit of sneezes took her making her eyes water. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and reached for the tissue box on the passenger seat but was met with air. She quickly glanced down, noticing with some annoyance that she was completely out of tissue.

Sniffling, she lifted her arm to wipe her nose but then thought better of it. She couldn’t very well spend the whole day wiping her nose with her sleeve. Glancing out her window, she noticed that a convenient store was just up ahead. It would only take a few minutes to get what she needed and then she could be back on her way. That decision made, she eased into the parking lot, grabbed her wallet and ran into the building.

A pack of strawberry cough drops and a bottle of water joined the box of Kleenex in her bag when she left the store a few minutes later. Getting back into the driver’s seat, she tossed the contents into the seat beside her and started the car. Now she’d really have to book it if she was going to make it to class on time.

Backing out of the parking spot, she put one hand on the wheel while the other fiddled with the heat. As usual, it was taking forever to kick in. She was so fixated on getting the heat to work that by the time she looked up again it was too late. Taylor heard the bang before she saw the evidence of what she had done.

No.

No, no, no, no, no… She looked into the rear view mirror and her mouth fell open.

Oh God.

She was so screwed.

…

Christian stared at the piece of junk attached to the side of his car in disbelief. Like today wasn’t going badly enough. He unbuckled his seat belt, opened the car door and slammed it closed. He walked over to the damaged area and grimaced. Shit, the car was embedded right in there.

He looked up as the driver of the vehicle opened the car door tentatively and stepped out of the car. He could feel his anger rising when he saw that the driver was just a kid. With the baggy jacket and the hoodie covering the boy’s head, Christian deduced that he could be no older than seventeen. This really was the last thing he needed right now.

The boy noticed Christian staring at him and rushed over. He looked down at the damage and Christian saw his eyes widen in alarm. “I-I … oh god,” he stuttered, looking up at Christian. “This is terrible.”

Christian closed his eyes briefly and sighed. “Look kid,” he said directly, “just go and get your insurance information and we can both be on our way.”

Taylor’s heart dropped. Could this week get any worse? Her mother had come home from her weekend auditions, dropping the bomb that she’d used most of the rent money on accommodation and train fare to Vale. Instead of crying, yelling and throwing things across the room like she’d wanted to, Taylor had hauled herself to the bank for the rest of the rent money.

Maybe she’d done something terrible in her past life and was paying for it now. She didn’t know how it was possible for someone to have so much bad luck. Of course, when she had barely two pennies to rub together something like this had to happen. She had no idea how she was going to pay for the repairs. Insurance certainly wasn’t an option.

Because they rarely used the crappy old car, they’d stopped insuring it thinking it was a waste of money to pay for something they were barely using. It was another reason Taylor didn’t like driving the car.

She stared at the damage willing it to fix itself and wondered what to do. It was all so embarrassing, she thought. She didn’t want to look like one of those people. Those criminally irresponsible people like her mother, who drove without insurance and got into accidents because they weren’t paying any attention to what was happening around them.

She looked at the man surreptitiously. He didn’t exactly look forgiving. What if he wanted her charged because she didn’t have insurance? What if she was arrested?

Wait, could she go to prison for this?

Oh God, who would bail her out? How would they find the money? She’d be stuck in jail… Forget about her dreams, her goals … she’d spend her life in imprisonment! No that couldn’t happen. She didn’t want to die in a cell only to be mourned by her cellmate Bertha!

Taylor took a deep breath and mentally slapped herself. She was letting her imagination run wild and needed to calm down. There had to be a way out of this.

“Look, I know this is my fault and I’ll pay for it. I’ll definitely pay for it,” she rambled. “I’ll do anything to make this right but we can’t go through my insurance. It’s – it’s impossible.”

She could feel her heart racing in trepidation as she watched him fold his arms in front of him, frustration clearly written on his face. “And how do you intend to pay for this?”

She saw the opening and took it. “I don’t have a lot of money right now but I do have a steady job and if given some time, I could definitely pay for it in monthly installments,” she said and waited uneasily for his reaction.

If the exasperation on his face and the shaking of his head was any indication, he wasn’t exactly impressed by her suggestion.

And Christian really wasn’t impressed. He was pretty incredulous actually. Monthly installments? Who was this person? “You want to pay for the damages in installments,” he said scornfully, thinking that the boy was trying to pull one over on him. “And what do I do about my car while I’m waiting for you to save money?” he asked.

“Well…” the kid cleared his throat awkwardly, “…if you just went ahead and paid for the repairs now, I would definitely pay you back eventually…” his voice drifted off when a steely look entered Christian’s eyes.

“So, you want me to pay for the damages that you caused my car and trust that you’ll pay me back one day? Is that the gist of what you’re saying?” he asked sarcastically. Did the kid really think that he was going to fall for this? What a little scammer he was.

The boy shook his head and rubbed the back of his eyes with his hand. “I know it sounds crazy and in any other circumstance I wouldn’t even consider making this kind of suggestion but my situation at the moment is … difficult. I don’t want to beg but if I have to … Look, I’ll do anything if you give me this cha—” The sentence was abruptly cut off when a sudden fit of coughs came over the boy.

Christian eyed him warily. Either this was a ploy for sympathy or he really was sick. He soon realized it was the latter when the kid paused, hunched over miserably and continued with the hacking.

He edged closer, finding himself unwillingly concerned, and was just about to ask if everything was okay when the boy finally stopped coughing and looked up at him with an apologetic expression on his face. Something about that expression made Christian feel like he was being a complete ass.

Maybe he was jumping to conclusions. The kid looked pretty upset about the whole thing and judging from the state of his vehicle, he probably didn’t have extra money lying around. Not that that particularly fact eliminated the possibility that he was trying to scam him.

So what to do? One call to the police and the boy would have no choice but to pay up but that option was becoming less and less desirable. It would take too much time and be too much of a hassle for one but also, god help him, he was actually starting to buy this kid’s act.

“Hand me your phone,” he finally said with a sigh, hoping that he wouldn’t regret this leap of faith.

Taylor still feeling slightly horrified by her coughing fit, hesitantly reached into her coat pocket and handed him the phone. He punched a number into it and when his phone rang in response, she realized that he was logging her phone number.

“What’s your name?” he asked, handing her back the phone.

“Taye…” she said, “Taylor Mooreland. Actually, one sec...” She hurried over to her car and grabbed her backpack. After rummaging through it for a moment, she took out a card. It was her Findley U student card, a replacement one actually, if she was being technical. She’d recently lost her old one and had to get a new one to replace it.

She was glad to have it out of her sight for the moment. The new picture was just horrific. Something about her recently cut short hair, the tilt of her head, and the expression on her face had compiled together to make her look like a twelve year old boy. It was truly an embarrassing photograph.

“This is my id,” she said handing him the card and brushing aside her feminine vanity. “Take it as proof that I am who I say I am. I won’t need it for a couple of weeks anyway.”

He barely looked at the card and nodded. “Look, you’re not completely off the hook yet. I’ll head over to my mechanic soon to see what has to be done, so you should expect a call from me sometime this week.”

“You won’t regret it,” she said with relief. “I really appreciate this.”

The man nodded and turned away, punching a number on his phone as he went. “Hello? Yeah, hey. I’m going to need a tow…”

Watching him walk away, she let out a relieved sigh and sent a quick thank you out to the universe. He’d gone for it, she thought with surprise. He’d really gone for it. Twenty-something year old guys who drove expensive cars weren’t generally known for their charitability but it seemed that she had really lucked out.

She looked down at her cell phone and her stomach dropped when she saw the time. “Crap,” she muttered to herself. If she didn’t want to fail her class, she had to get out of there.

“Uh.” She walked over to him as he hung up his phone. “I hate to leave like this but I have this paper due and, umm, I’m going to fail if I don’t get it to school on time, so…” She glanced awkwardly at his car which was blocking her own.

For a second, Christian was back to feeling suspicious but he quickly brushed it aside. The kid – Taylor – did look pretty sheepish about having to leave.

He glanced over at the beat-up vehicle and wondered aloud, “Is it even fit for the road?”

“It’ll have to be,” Taylor said. “Again, I’m sorry to cut and run but I really have to go.”

Christian didn’t bother replying. Instead he nodded and headed towards his car.

“Thanks!” he heard Taylor call from behind him.

When they’d both carefully moved their cars and were in the clear, Taylor sent a brief nod his way and drove away.

Christian shook his head as he watched him go and looked down at the identification card. With surprise he realized that it was from Findley University, his alma mater. He looked at the date on the card and his eyes narrowed. It was about to expire in a few months which meant that the kid, unless he was some kind of whiz, was actually somewhere in his twenties. 

He thought of the undersized frame, the small face and the refined features and had a hard time reconciling the image with the age. Taylor Mooreland didn’t look like an adult male. At all.

Christian wondered if he’d been pandered to and babied all his life because of his looks – hadn’t he just fallen for the innocent face and given Taylor a break because of it? But if Taylor was an adult, that more than changed things.

Money was nothing to him, he could easily afford to pay for the damages himself, but the opportunity to have someone in his debt was too good to pass up. Taylor Mooreland had said he'd do anything.

And Christian was going to find out if he meant it.