Yes, I'd Fancy Your Company But You Know I'm Rubbish

“Thanks mate!” He said with a heavy British accent.

And with that, he just got out of the car and walked back to his driveway.

Whoa.
What happened to his normal way of speaking?! Not that British accents aren’t normal, but whoa.
I drove home to my apartment confused. No, very confused.

I got out one of my plenty t.v. meals and put it in the microwave. As I waited for the food to defrost, I looked at my mail. Bill, bill, advertisement, bill, and lastly, bill. I never got letters, that was so depressing. Just then I heard the ‘ding’ from the microwave and went to fetch my food.

I spent the whole night watching ‘My Wife and Kids’ reruns and laughing my ass off. I just loved the ways Michael was so creative with his ways of saying no.

I slowly slipped off to a dreamless sleep, until I was woken up by the morning news. I sighed and checked my clock. It read 7.30 a.m. 'Shit!' I though. I had to be at work in 15 minutes! I quickly jumped in the shower and beat the all time record; my shower lasted 4 minutes and 29 seconds. I put on the closest jeans to me and took a random red shirt. I didn’t even bother to look at my shoes; I just put on the easiest ones to put on. When I got there, I had two minutes to get ready. I swiftly put on my waitress uniform and adjusted my hair into a tight bun. Just then Cedric came in. We both froze.

Last night, after a multiple of tosses on my sofa, I had decided to ignore Cedric’s accent. He wasn’t worth getting curious over, and I didn’t care enough. So I ended up flashing him a quick, speed of light quick, smile and hurry to start my shift. Our breaks were at the same time, but I still didn’t feel like starting a conversation with him.
Just as I was about to leave, he spoke up. Figures he started a conversation when there was one minute left in our break. Real smart.

“Does my breath stink?” He asked randomly.

I looked at him and felt like saying ‘Say what?’ but just kept quiet.

“Really,” he continued, “does it smell?”

“Why are you asking me this?” I said getting impatient, “And no it doesn’t smell. Are you happy?”

He kept quiet for another 10 seconds before continuing. He was just trying to phrase his next words.

“Then why won’t you talk to me?” He asked simply.

“Does it really matter? I mean will it affect you whether I talk to you or not?” I said looking up the sky, it was getting cloudy. Great.

And with that I went back in and took a pencil to write the orders down.

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The next day, I decided to smoke a cigarette in the smoker area. I was sure he wouldn’t come to bother me, not with smoke coming out of my mouth. I wasn’t proud of smoking but ever since my father did what he did, I started smoking. I turned on my iPod and listened to “Newborn” by Muse to a full blast.
I closed my eyes.
This was heaven.
Just then someone took one of my earphones and put it in their ear. I opened my eyes to find Cedric nodding his head to the beat. ‘Well, at least he has good taste in music’, I thought.
Just as the song ended I pulled the ear phone out of his ear very hastily, so that it hurt. Yes, I know, I’m mean.

“Ouch!” he exclaimed.

I ignored him and took a drag at my cigarette.

“You know that’s bad for you,” he said, “anyways, I wanted to ask you if you could drop me home again tonight.”

He looked at me hopefully, as if I was going to accept. Right. And then I looked back at him. And his eyes were literally begging me, as if his life depended on me giving him a ride. How could I say no?

“Fine,” I mumbled as I rolled my eyes.

This had to change. I was not going to be his personal driver.

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So this is how I ended up getting stuck in the middle of nowhere with Cedric, my annoying yet mysterious colleague. Great. We stood out there in the middle of the road, with no cars passing, staring at my car.

“You’ve got a flat tire,” Cedric pointed out.

“No shit,” I said in a sarcastic tone.

For the first time since I met him, he rolled his eyes. So, he wasn’t a happy-go-lucky idiot all of the time. This strangely reassured me. Weird. We both pulled out our cell phones to call for help, but there was no service.

“You know, this is your fault,” I declared.

“Hey, I’m not the one that doesn’t go around with a spare tire in my trunk,” he replied with his voice full of sarcasm.

“No. If it weren’t for you, I’d have a flat tire in a busy street,” I hissed, “how many cars pass by here per hour? No, let me correct myself, how many cars pass by here per day?”

“I-I don’t know,” he mumbled, “five…?”

That was it! I got into the car and locked myself in. He was starting to piss me off very badly. I turned on the radio and put it to a full blast. I didn’t care what song was playing, as long as it could drown my thoughts and his voice. Stupid Cedric.

Just then he started tapping on my window loudly. I turned up the volume, well I tried since it was already very high. His incessant tapping didn’t stop, so I sighed and gave up. I rolled the passenger window down and he smiled at me apologetically.

“Please let me in,” he begged.

“Die!” I said looking ahead of me.

I had to avoid his eyes; they made me do anything for him. They led me into this mess. I heard him laugh softly.

“Live!” He said rolling his eyes.

I took a deep breath in, exhaling all of my frustration and reluctantly unlocked the car. He swiftly got into the passenger’s seat before I changed my mind. I lowered the volume of the radio and still looked ahead of me. The sky was empty tonight. No starts, no moon, nothing. It was clear.

“You know, you never answered me yesterday,” he said looking up the sky.

I looked at the other side and pretended to sleep. I didn’t need his deep philosophical questions right now. Okay, it wasn’t philosophical but I was tired. I then felt an icy cold finger poke me in the rib and I jumped and hit my head on the roof.

“Ow! What was that for?!” I whispered harshly.

“Nothing,” he smiled and put his head on my shoulder.

Now, what was *this* for?! I turned off the radio and everything went dead. It was completely silent. The silence was so dense that I could’ve cut through it with a knife.

When I opened my eyes, it was still very dark, but it must have been 2 or 3 a.m. Cedric’s head was no longer on my shoulder. In fact, his body was no longer in my car. My first thought was ‘Good riddance’, but then I got an afterthought. Maybe a car did come by here and he woke up and left with the car. I would have definitely kicked his ass.
I was wrong.
He was standing out side in the cold smoking a cigarette.
What a hypocrite.

“I thought those were bad for me,” I said pointing at the cigarette he had in his hand.

He just shrugged and continued his peaceful smoking.

“Look,” I continued, “to survive this we’ll have to cooperate.”

He looked at me and started to get suspicious. I normally wasn’t this nice. I normally wasn’t *nice*. He turned his head to look at me in the eyes. He stared and stared. After what seemed like forever, he just nodded.

“What do you want?” He asked suspiciously.

“I want one of those,” I said nodding at one of his cigarettes.

It was getting quite chilly, and those could warm me up very well.

“Oh, you want a fag--cigarette?”

I just nodded and he handed me one. I then decided to do something that the me of three days ago would have never bothered to do; to ask him about his accent.

I looked at him thoughtfully, trying to find the best way to phrase my question so that it sounded casual, as if I were trying to make small talk. I just looked at him, and that’s when I noticed that his hair and his eyes were making a nice combination. He had straight jet black hair that came up to his shoulder. It was really black, if there was a moon, I could’ve seen its reflection. His eyes were a shocking blue. They just popped out of his eyes, and could be seen from miles away. His jaw line was sharp and he had high cheek bones. His skin was very fair, making the contrast between his hair and his eyes stronger. He caught me looking at him, or in his mind he probably thought I was gazing at him. Yeah, right.

“Want a picture of me?” He asked smirking.

I decided that instead of insulting him with a comeback, and beating the crap out of him, a nicer approach was better.

“Nah, that’s okay,” I said casually, “but what happened to you British accent?”

His facial expression changed, and he looked like if he was taken off guard. Touché.

“What British accent?” He asked innocently.

So, he opted out for the ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ answer. I was going to prove him wrong.

“The one you had two nights ago. Remember?” I said.

He looked at the ground and acted as if he had seen something very interesting.

“You noticed,” he said quietly.

I sighed, “how could I have not noticed Cedric?”

“Are you trying to hide something?” I continued.

“No! I mean...umm...it’s just that...well...” he said in hesitation.

“Don’t beat around the bush,” I said getting impatient.

“It sounds so out of place,” he finally declared.

His face became a hot shade of red and he looked away, as if he was embarrassed of what he’d just told me. I raised my hand and smacked him on the head. He looked taken aback.

“Bloody hell! What was that for, you dimwit!” He said with a heavy British accent.

I smiled. I had to admit that it sounded as sexy as hell.

“See, you shouldn’t be ashamed of your accent Cedric,” I said with an apologetic smile.

He grinned and said, “Call me Ced.”

We were leaning against my car as we watched the sun rise. It was beautiful. It went from orangish pink to a deeper red, and it finally settled into a light blue. I have to admit that I was breathless. Right then, we saw a car arrive in the horizon.