Truck Amok

Story Sent in by William:

Violet and I were to meet in front of an art gallery that we had planned to explore together and then lunch, following that.

As I waited for her, a large black pickup truck pulled up and honked its horn three times. The window rolled down. It was Violet. "Hi, Will!" she called to me, "How's it going?"

I ran up to her and said, "Hi, Violet. Need a parking spot? I think there's a lot around the–"

"Check out my truck!"

"It's a nice truck. About parking, it's–"

She honked the horn again, making me jump. I went on, "Okay, yeah, so you can park–"

"I'll go park!" she barked. I stepped away from the truck and she floored it away and around the corner.

When she made it to the gallery, she said, "I just had new detail work put onto the truck. It was my ex-boyfriend's!"

"That's great. Ready to hit the gallery?"

Once we were inside the gallery, Violet's phone rang. She hit a button on it and it shut up. It rang again, then again, prompting the gallery attendant to ask her to silence the ring.

"Sorry," Violet said to me with a smile, "It's probably my ex-boyfriend, wondering where his truck is!"

"You stole it?"

She laughed. "No! He said I could take it whenever I wanted. He probably just needs it."

"Oh. You're still on good terms with him, then?"

She gave me a look and said, "Uh, no. We don't talk at all."

"So I'm confused. He still let you borrow his truck?"

Her phone rang again. She made no effort to silence it, but instead replied to me, "He said I could borrow it whenever I wanted and gave me a key. I don't have a car, and I needed to get here, didn't I? I mean, it was while we were dating that he said that, but he never asked for his key back."

The attendant said, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Ugh!" Violet cried and stormed out of the gallery. I followed her.

Her phone was still ringing when we made it outside. She picked it up.

"What, Brad?" she yelled into it, and held up a finger to me.

"You said I could borrow it!" she went on, "I don't see a problem!"

A pause. I said, "I'm going to go."

She held up her finger to me and said into the phone, "No, I'm not telling you where I am. What if I'm on another date? What if I've gotten over you so fast that I'm already out with other men, sleeping with them and going to art galleries with them?"

"Goodbye, Violet," I said.

"Wait!" she cried after me, but I was out of there. I heard her mutter, "Great, just great," as I strode out of earshot.

Although we didn't make it to the "sleeping with them" part, it was too much drama for me to deal with, and the fact that she essentially drove off with her ex's truck without his permission also convinced me that this was a loss I could afford to cut.