Chapter 7

Late on Wednesday morning Holly walked back to the University, slightly on edge in case she saw Rob but to her relief he didn’t materialise and she was able to enjoy the sunshine and peace of the campus which was now deserted after the end of exams. She handed a postcard-sized advert to the Student’s Union clerk announcing a vacancy for a tenant at her house in anticipation of Addie moving out in two weeks. It stated female only, gave the rate and her email address and phone number along with the address of the house. She had also advertised on the university website that morning and thought that the online advert was likely to generate the most interest.

She had her backpack with her containing analysis and printouts of cars, financing and helpful questions to ask dealers. She spent an hour online in the library, enjoying the change of scenery from her bedroom and the silent company of the one or two people who were also using the facility, then headed to a café close to the Student’s Union building for a quick, cheap lunch. Just before two she saw Sam’s car pull up and she downed the remainder of her coffee, checked her hair in the window then skipped out to meet him.

He jumped out of the car, kissed her cheek then opened the door for her, closing it carefully once she was seated.

“You want to head to the Rolls Royce dealer first?” he asked, grinning at her.

“No, I need something reliable,” she answered, pleased with the quick response even though she was still a little awed by his presence. She turned and looked at him again, his smile, the perfect colour of his smooth skin, his confidence as he pulled out into the traffic. He was smiling at her with kindness and warmth, a genuine happiness to see her in his eyes and she felt dazzled.

“Holly?”

“What?” asked Holly, wrenched out of her dream.

“I said, have you thought about how much you want to spend?”

“Well, if I stay at my house where I am now then I don’t want to spend more than three hundred a month,” she said. His shirt filled out nicely and probably tucked way down into his jeans, no doubt covering his underwear in places. His legs looked muscular but not heavy. She breathed in deeply, forcing herself to look at the road ahead rather than the scenery.

“OK, can I give those details to my Dad for you?”

“Sure,” she said as he pushed a button on the center console. She heard a phone ringing and smiled. “Cool!”

“Nice eh? Bluetooth to my iPhone,” he said.

“Right,” responded Holly, unable to add much to that.

“Dad? I’ve got Holly here in the car, we’re heading up towards Forge Drive.”

“Hi Holly, how are you?” asked Sam’s father.

“Fine!” shouted Holly. Sam grinned at her and made a calming hand gesture. “Thanks for helping out” she said in a normal voice, smiling at Sam.

“So did you decide how much you can afford each month?”

“Yeah, nor more than three hundred.”

“Great, hang on a minute and I’ll give you some numbers,” he said, drifting away from the phone. Holly grabbed a notebook from her backpack and waited for the details. “Ok, Holly, what deposit do you want to put down?”

“No more than five thousand I think,” she replied, wondering if that was too small.

“That’s a good number, should give you some decent equity in the vehicle and cut down those payments to within your range. So hang on a min.” They took a left turn and joined traffic which crawled along.

“Motoring is great, right?” said Sam. Holly laughed, nodding at the four lanes of bumper-to-bumper cars.

“Holly?” said the voice in the speaker phone. “With five thousand down and three hundred a month, look for a vehicle that is under fifteen thousand total sale value and make sure that the interest rate charged on the loan is no more than 3.11 percent, OK?”

“OK, thanks, got it!”

“Also, don’t test drive any car until you are sure you want to buy it. Once you’re in the car you will think it’s everything you want, it’s a human reaction.” She scribbled it down and underlined it, understanding the urge to drive away immediately when someone was in control of a new car that could be theirs. “Once the dealer confirms all the pricing, tell him the sale is contingent on a professional inspection, mention our garage if you wish. If they won’t agree to the pricing or inspection then you walk away, OK? There are thousands of cars out there to choose from.”

“OK, got it.”

“Oh and don’t take extended warranty, don’t pay delivery fees or anything else they try to tack on after you’ve agreed the sale numbers. Also ask for a full tank but don’t be surprised if they don’t give it to you. If there are any scratches or little dents ask for them to be taken care of, and say the deal depends on the car having that work done.”

Holly thanked Sam’s father and after they rang off it was only about five minutes to the first dealer. The used car area had about fifty vehicles and, based on pricing, they reduced the sample to two, made notes and left after a very short conversation with the dealer who had followed them around while trying to look casual. The second dealer, almost next door to the first, had less of a selection and they didn’t bother to even walk around once they had noticed that most cars started around the twenty thousand mark. They drove on, Holly increasingly appreciative of Sam’s time but feeling as though she was imposing on him.

“Hey, Holly. If you’re staying at your house then where are you going to work?”

“Ah ha, I’m not sure yet. Just that there’s no point in moving anywhere until I find a job.”

“What do you want to do?”

“Something with people, marketing, events, conferences and shows. Something that will get me some travel and meet different industry professionals and speakers.”

“Oh, I know. A company like Millsum?”

“Who are they?” she asked, curious since she had never heard of them.

“You got electricity at that house of yours?” he asked, laughing with good humour. She slapped his hand, realising too late that she had actually touched him. He laughed again and shook his head. “Millsum Cavendish, they’re huge, around five thousand employees worldwide. I interned for them two summers ago in their Finance department, worked directly with their CFO.”

“Really? My internships weren’t as grand as that.”

“Yeah, he was a really good guy, still there. Want me to hook you up with their CEO?”

“What?” she shrieked, “You could do that? For me?”

“Definitely for you, course! Send me your resume and I’ll forward it to him. He likes students from this University, his son went here, graduated last year.”

“Yeah, yeah, I would really like that, that’s so kind,” she said, thinking about how major life-changing events in the past two weeks had simply piled up against each other when compared to the steady hum of term time or even the past few years. “Thanks Sam” she said quietly, wanting to touch his arm but simply gripping her backpack tighter instead.

The third dealer was far more helpful, trustworthy and had a larger selection than the first two combined. He listened to Holly’s criteria, nodded, made a couple of suggestions then left them to it. In twenty minutes they had identified four candidates and Holly really liked the light blue colour of one of them but told Sam that it seemed to be the best fit for the criteria she was using.

Half an hour later, and after a very sedate test drive, Holly presented the sales rep with a check for five thousand dollars and obtained a receipt from the garage showing that she had placed the deposit against the car of her choice. She would have to arrange insurance, while the garage would deal with registration for a small fee which she agreed to despite the previous warning. The garage agreed to touch up the paintwork but only after her mechanic had appraised it. They scheduled the collection tentatively for 5 days later, Monday morning.

Holly and Sam chatted animatedly on the way back to town, and she was delighted when he offered to take her all the way back to Foley Road. He pulled up outside her door and switched off the engine but kept his hands on the wheel.

“Thanks again Sam, this has been so kind of you!” she said, daring at last to briefly touch his arm.

He nodded, smiling at her, and she once again felt that genuine warmth, radiating at her. She exhaled slowly, knowing now that he wasn’t going to ask to come inside and while she would have agreed just to share a cup of coffee it would have been an awkward end to a great afternoon and she knew that Sam sensed it too.

“It’s been fun, you’re great company Holly. It’s good to be able to talk about things other than beer, or last week’s parties.”

“Oh, I would no idea about either, sorry!”

“I know. After a while it’s very dull but you really brightened my week up!” he said, leaning over to her. He kissed her cheek and smiled again. “Let me know if you need anything else, won’t you? Any time.”

Holly grabbed the door handle, smiled, nodded then made her way to her front door. They waved to each other as he turned the car round and she went inside. Leaning on the wall by the door she replayed his words, feeling her confidence build with each sentence they had exchanged. She hadn’t become lost for words, or said anything stupid, giggled at the wrong time. He hadn’t made smutty innuendos, or talked about subjects that made her uncomfortable, or driven like a lunatic to impress her. She bounded up the stairs, convinced she had grown up - but not aged - two years that afternoon.

On Thursday, Holly worked all day at the restaurant and managed to earn herself almost two hundred dollars, of which three-quarters went into her savings account while the remainder stocked up the food cupboards. She received an email from John Millsum, the CEO of Millsum’s who thanked her for resume and said that someone from the firm would be in touch to discuss. There was no contact from Rob and she was thankful that, in Addie’s words, he had gone quietly. But it was Saturday morning as she was lying in bed with her coffee that the wheels of fortune turned once again with a phone call. She had crept back to bed and was smiling to herself, her hand wrapped around her pussy as she squeezed with delight and ran through thoughts of Mike the dominating bartender when it trilled in her ear. The caller ID said ‘unknown’ and she was about to let it go to voice mail when she decided to pick it up and complain to whoever was on the end about the fact that she was on the ‘Do Not Call’ list – or at least she thought she was.

“Hello?” she said, expecting the lady who would inform her that there was nothing wrong with her credit.

“Holly Craig?” asked a man, his voice deep, firm yet warm.

“Yes?”

“Holly, good morning, I hope I’m not waking you?”

“Uh, no, I just got up” she replied, taking her hand from between her legs. Her fingers smelled of her arousal and she regretted answering the call. She felt certain that the guy was going to turn out to be the credit card lady’s stupid husband and that would put a damper on her thoughts of being tied across the bar by Mike.

“Good. My name is Jeff Tanner”

“Uh, OK?”

“You looked after my daughter, Jane, last week when she was ill.”

“Oh wow, how is she?” asked Holly, sitting up and very pleased to hear from him. She had wanted some closure on the episode and was pleased in an unfulfilled way that there had been no reports of any deaths or emergencies from her dormitory on the University website.

“She’s fine. She remembers nothing about that Monday evening when you found her, but told us that you cleaned her up and put her to bed, plus you washed her clothes,” he said, pausing for a deep breath.

“I’m so glad that she’s fine Mr. Tanner, really, it was awful what they did to her! Those brambles were very thick and she was jammed very deep inside”

“Holly, there’s a good chance that if you hadn’t stepped in to help her she might have died, or at the very least injured herself even more in those bushes.”

“It’s fine, sir, anyone would have done the same.”

“Ah, now that’s where you’re wrong, Holly. Many people would have either left her, crossed to the other side of the path, robbed her or even worse. Jane, my wife and I will be eternally grateful that you came along.”