An unlikely romance sprouts from a chance encounter between Cliff and Hannah after she spurns his good deed. ----------
Cliff tries doing a good deed for financially distressed Hannah by paying for her expensive car repairs. He expects nothing in...
When Hannah's father walked through the door after his shift, she could sense from his posture something was wrong. She and her parents sat at the kitchen table as her father broke the news.
"Today, management announced the plant where I work is closing. The candy line I work on is moving out of state."
A great weight settled in Hannah's stomach. "No, Dad, when?"
"Labor Day weekend."
"That's a little over two months from now," her mother uttered.
During Hannah's childhood, both her mom and dad worked for the company. Those were happier times. They were able to pay for day-to-day expenses with her father's salary and use her mother's salary for savings and larger purchases. When Hannah was thirteen, her mother was diagnosed with early onset arthritis and had to quit her job. Ever since, money had grown tight resulting in lean times for the family.
While Hannah was employed and making a better salary, she helped out financially. Now, that was no longer the case.
Feeling a sting of tears, she folded her hands together in her lap and looked at them. "I'll get a second part time job I can work at during the day."
Her father spoke in a gentle tone. "It's not all that bad, Hannah banana. The company promises a healthy severance and then there's unemployment compensation. That should give me plenty of time to find something else."
Too distressed to speak barely above a whisper, she asked, "What if you can't?" Her world was falling apart. Her life and her parents' lives were crashing.
Her mother spoke next. "It's not for you to worry about. We own our house free and clear and have no car payments. I'm sure other families are worse off."
Unable to handle sitting there any longer, Hannah excused herself. "I have to get ready for work." She walked into her bedroom, closed the door, and sat on her bed. After such a devastating blow, she would have a difficult time concentrating.
The past two days she had been in a happy mood. Cliff had surprised her at their breakfast date. He wasn't the jerk she had first thought him to be. He had been considerate and not pushy. Plus, he was so easy to look at. A quick online search confirmed he hadn't misrepresented himself, and he really was who he said he was. She looked forward to seeing him again on Sunday.
Now that the rug had been pulled out from beneath her family, Hannah would feel guilty doing something enjoyable. Her mood would bring Cliff down, something he didn't deserve.
She pulled her phone to call him and cancel their date. Just as she was ready to pull up his number, the phone vibrated in her hand. The caller ID displayed the name of the dealership where she had purchased her car.
She took the call. "Hello?"
The man at the other end spoke in an obsequious tone. "Is this Ms. Blessing?"
"Yeah, this is Hannah."
"Please excuse me for intruding upon your day. I've been asked to give you a call."
"Who is this?"
"Oh, pardon me. This is Hank from the dealership. I spoke with you about your vehicle not passing inspection."
As if she could forget. "What do you want?"
He cleared his throat. "Every week Mr. Langston reviews all the service orders—"
"—Mr. Langston? Who is he?" Hannah interrupted. She neither had the time nor the inclination to deal with whatever the dealer wanted. Her head wasn't in the right place.
"Russell Langston, the owner of the dealership."
She wondered where this was going and told Hank to get to the point.
He continued. "He reviewed your service order and asked why it hadn't been completed. I told him how you had purchased the car from our pre-owned lot and explained to him about all the repairs required to pass the state inspection."
"Look, Hank, I need to go—"
"—Please, Ms. Blessing, wait. Mr. Langston wants you to bring in your car. He was upset with the salesperson for selling it to you in its unsafe condition. He ordered me to fix everything free of charge. He told me it made the dealership look bad and would be damaging to our reputation."
That bit of good news hardly offset the bad news about her father, but it did make her feel a little better. "Thank you. When can I bring it in?"
"It's Friday afternoon and we're about to close. Mr. Langston ordered me to prioritize your vehicle, so can you come first thing Monday morning?"
Since she didn't work until later that afternoon, it would be perfect. "Yes."
Hank finalized the arrangements with her and Hannah ended the call.
Hannah breathed a sigh of relief. One huge burden now lifted from her. When she opened the calendar app on her phone to enter the appointment, she noticed how Monday would be July the second. That meant Sunday was July first. "Aw, crap." Her car would be illegal to drive, and Cliff's training center was over twenty miles away. She couldn't risk driving that far with an expired inspection sticker.
Why hadn't she thought of that earlier when agreeing to the date? Although she now trusted him, it felt too soon for him to come to her house to pick her up. The Striker was only two miles away. She could risk driving that far without her expired sticker being seen by the police.
She found Cliff's number in her address book and punched it up.
He picked up on the second ring. "Hannah? This is a pleasant surprise."
"I'm hoping you'll agree to a change in plan."
"Please, don't tell me you want to cancel." His response sounded genuinely pained.
Is that what she wanted to do, cancel? Hearing in Cliff's tone how much he looked forward to seeing her again removed all doubt. "Instead of meeting you at the training center, can you pick me up from The Striker parking lot?"
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Hannah's run of bad luck continues with her father's impending job loss. Can things get any worse for her?
