Brand New Key

Story Sent in by Beth:

I love biking, so when Marty asked me to go with him on a local bike trail for our date, I jumped at the chance. He said that he repaired bikes as a hobby. The fact that he was also tall, well-built, and had a great smile certainly didn't hurt!

We met up in the morning for a quick breakfast, and then we drove seperately to a parking lot next to a trail. Right before we started, he asked to take a look at my bike.

He knelt beside it and said, "Your gears are all out of sorts."

"They haven't given me trouble," I said.

He asked, "Do you mind if I tinker with them a bit? I'll have it running better for you in minutes. Promise."

I didn't see why not, and so he took a small toolkit out of his trunk and went to work on my rear wheel. After a few minutes, he was done, and he said, "Give that a try."

I rode it around in a few circles. It felt the same as before, but I told him, "Thanks."

He said, "It'll be more efficient. You'll see out on the trail."

Out on the trail, he whizzed ahead of me. I could've caught up, but wasn't in the mood for a race. Suddenly, my rear wheel wobbled as if it was about to pop off, and I slowed the bike down to inspect it.

I called for Marty, and he biked back toward me and stepped off his bike with a big grin. "Anything wrong?" he asked.

I pointed to my bike. "It's the wheel you just worked on. I don't know what you did to it, but I'm going to fix it, myself."

"You know how?" he asked, "Impressive. I'm not going to lie, I'm amazed that you're not more banged up. I only loosened it a little."

That stopped me cold. "You loosened it?" I asked, "Why?"

He knelt down at my bike and said, "Just let me take care of it. An old guy's trick, and it didn't go exactly as planned."

"You loosened it?" I asked again, "I could've gotten hurt!"

He said, "Relax, your highness. You're fine, aren't you? Now let me fix this."

He turned back to my bike and went to work on the rear tire. I was about to protest, but I noticed that he had hung his fanny pack around his own bicycle seat.

Before I could stop myself, I reached for it, unzipped it, pulled out his keys, pocketed them, and zipped his pack back up.

"There," he said, standing up, "Test it out." I looked at him as if I didn't trust him. He said, "Want me to ride it for you, your highness? It's fine, now."

I smiled at him. "Thanks!"

He returned to his bike and said, "Let's go," and he took off, down the path, before I could even hop on my bike again.

I checked his handiwork. It looked all right, and so I mounted my bike, pedaled as quickly as I could in the other direction, back towards the parking lot. On my way, I tossed his keys into to woods.

Very shortly after I drove away, he called me to ask where I was. I told him that I didn't think that things would work out. He hung up on me.

Her highness wonders how he made it back into his car, much less back into his house.