Chapter 36
Sam groaned as she took the few steps from the plane and stood on the tarmac. It had been a bumpy flight. Though she hadn't vomited, she had heard plenty of retching in the plane.
She put her pink backpack more comfortably over her shoulder. Her hand grasped her laptop and she went towards the small terminal to pick up her suitcase and then get her rental car.
Sam grabbed her suitcase then made her way to the rental counter.
"Hi, I'm Samantha Forster," Sam introduced herself to the man behind the counter. "I have a car reserved."
"Spell your last name for me, please?" the man asked.
Sam did so.
"Nope, don't have anything under that name," the man told her.
"Check San Francisco Chronicle," Sam suggested.
The man looked up at her before tapping on the keys of his computer.
"Ah here it is," the man nodded. "There's a problem though."
Sam groaned.
"What problem?" she asked.
"The vehicle we were going to give you hasn't been returned yet," the man informed her.
"So I don't have a car?" Sam wondered.
"No," the man shook his head. "We can bump you up to the next class of vehicle. We have one left."
"At what cost?" Sam asked.
"No extra cost," the man said.
"Okay, as long as it has air conditioning," Sam responded.
The man laughed.
Sam tilted her head at him. She hadn't been joking.
The man tapped away at his keyboard, asking to see Sam's driver's license. She took it out and he put the information into the computer, then handed Sam back her license.
"Okay, you're all set," the man held out a set of keys. "Your vehicle is out in the lot in slot two A."
"Two A," Sam repeated, thanking the man and grabbing her things.
She blinked in the bright sunshine and tried to find slot two A. Sam spied her vehicle and her jaw dropped.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding," Sam yelped.
The vehicle in slot two A was a navy blue Avalanche.
Sam was standing in the parking lot, shaking her head violently. So violently her braid whipped back and forth over her shoulder.
"No, no, no," Sam shouted, turning back towards the building.
"I can't take that truck," Sam rushed up to the man behind the counter.
"Is something wrong with it?" the man asked.
"No, I…," Sam broke off.
How could she explain to someone that even looking at that truck brought back all the pain from the past few years? She couldn't.
"Do you have anything else I can drive?" Sam wondered.
"No, ma'am," the man shook his head. "That's the last vehicle we have. If you don't want it, then you'll have to walk."
Sam swore under her breath, then blushed as the man looked at her. She was just going to have to drive that Avalanche. Could she without thinking of Jake?
Ha! She knew the answer to that. No way in the world could she drive that truck and not think of Jake.
Just when she didn't want to be thinking about Jake, she'd be thinking of him and his darn wedding the whole time. Sam sighed.
"Okay, thanks," she told the man and went back outside. She stood in front of the truck and let her eyes roam over the lines of the truck. It was almost identical to the one Jake drove.
The next few days were going to suck for her.