When paths collide
1089 Words
Chapter Four
She finally slept.
A few hours, dreamless and still, without a single dash to the bathroom. When Nicky woke, her body still felt hollowed out, but the nausea had dulled to something manageable. Progress.
She forced herself upright. Today was not a day she could afford to be weak. Tomorrow's presentation was too important. Her boss had been watching her closely for weeks now, tracking every missed deadline, every distracted morning, every moment she'd shown up only halfway.
Jason. Always Jason.
The wedding. The waiting. The 3 a.m. arguments that went nowhere. The excuses she'd memorised by heart. The constant push and pull that had been draining her dry for ten years.
And then Lisa, choosing her peace and leaving Nicky alone in the wreckage.
Her phone buzzed.
Lisa: Are you ignoring me? I just want to know if you're okay.
Nicky's jaw tightened.
She could still hear it. I have to choose my peace.
Right. Her peace.
Nicky: Stop texting me. You wanted peace, so have it.
She tossed the phone, pulled on a tracksuit, yanked a cap over her hair, and walked out the door. No makeup. No energy left for pretending.
***
The sky outside was the same dull grey it had been all week.
The rain had stopped, but the roads were still wet, traffic thick and crawling. Windshield wipers squeaked across glass. Nicky drummed her fingers against the steering wheel and tried to get her head into tomorrow.
The slides. The data. The market analysis.
"Marketability should be our main priority," she murmured, then hit record on her phone to save the thought. "Marketability should be our--"
"Oh, come on! Why is this person so slow?"
She flicked the indicator and swung into the next lane without looking properly.
That was the mistake.
A flash of red to her right. Too close. Moving too fast.
"Oh no--"
She jerked the wheel left but there was nowhere to go. The slow driver was boxed in beside her. Tires screamed against wet tar. Her hand slammed the brake.
Time did something strange. It stretched.
Then the world collapsed into sound.
The c***k of impact. Crunching metal. Shattering glass. The sharp smell of burnt rubber. Her head snapped forward and everything became light and noise and rain.
Then silence.
Just her own ragged breathing.
And somewhere far away, car horns.
***
Luke was in a rare good mood.
The meeting had wrapped up earlier than expected, which meant he could actually make it to the bar. He'd been certain he'd be stuck in that boardroom until the evening was half gone.
He rolled down his window and let the cool air hit his face, switching lanes with one hand, humming along to something on the radio.
He almost didn't see it coming.
A silver hatchback swung right into his lane without warning.
"What the--!"
He slammed the brakes and yanked the wheel but traffic boxed him in on every side. There was nowhere to go.
The bang threw him forward.
His forehead connected with the steering wheel. He sat for a moment, dazed, temple throbbing, the world still ringing. Then he pushed the door open and got out.
The other car was smoking faintly from the hood. He crossed to it fast and knocked on the window.
"Hey! Are you okay in there?"
Nothing.
He tried the handle. Unlocked. He eased the door open.
The driver was slumped against the seatbelt, head tilted to the side, completely still.
He crouched down. Heart hammering.
"Can you hear me?"
A faint groan. He exhaled.
He pulled out his phone and called emergency services. And then, as he straightened up and looked at her properly for the first time, he went very still.
Something about her face.
He knew that face.
"Wait..." he whispered. "It's you."
The woman from the move. Lisa's friend. The one who'd snapped at him like he had no business asking if she was okay, then turned back to the mirror with tears still drying on her cheeks.
He'd had no business being there that day. Josh had called in a favour, his new girlfriend needed furniture moved, and Luke had been free. Simple as that. He'd shown up expecting an hour's work and a cold beer.
Instead, he'd spent the whole drive home thinking about a woman he didn't know.
He'd planned to ask Lisa about her tonight at the bar. He hadn't worked out how exactly, since he barely knew Lisa, but he'd made up his mind. No woman had ever stuck in his head the way she had, and he wasn't the type to ignore that.
And now here she was.
Crumpled against a seatbelt, still and pale, in the middle of a crash he was involved in.
He looked at the twisted metal. Looked back at her.
What were the odds.
He reached in, without really thinking, and gently moved a strand of hair from her face. She stirred slightly at his touch, a soft sound escaping her lips.
Easy, he told himself. Keep your head.
This woman had been sobbing over another man the last time he saw her. Whatever he was feeling right now was not his business.
Sirens cut through the noise of the traffic. He stepped back as the paramedics arrived, gave them a quick account of what happened, and watched them work.
She looked even smaller on the stretcher. Somehow more fragile than she had standing in that apartment doorway with her chin up and her eyes red.
He almost followed the ambulance.
He caught himself. He didn't know her. He didn't even know her name. And the last thing he needed was to walk into a hospital and run into whoever had made her cry like that.
Get a grip, he muttered.
He turned to look at his car. Front bumper crumpled, hood steaming gently. He could already picture the insurance paperwork.
He pulled out his phone and called Josh.
"Hey. I can't make it tonight. Just had an accident. No, I'm fine, don't worry about it. I'm going to head home."
A pause.
"Actually, tell Lisa something for me. Her friend, the one she used to live with, she was in the accident too. They took her to Liberty Hospital."
He ended the call and stood for a moment in the middle of the road, rain beginning again, soft and cold against his face.
Then he got back in his car.
And drove.
But her face stayed with him the whole way home.
- Writer
