One Wild Night

For the first time in the twelve years since Tom started driving, he drove recklessly and managed to arrive at Lucy's apartment exactly thirty minutes after her phone call to him. How he had managed to brush, bathe, and dress up in that short time frame, was probably going to be one of the top wonders of the world.

Not sure of what to expect, Tom took in a deep breath as he raised his hand to knock on her door, but before his knuckles could connect with the door, the doorknob turned, and then the door was pulled open from the inside. The first thing he noticed about Lucy was that she had tied her hair in a ponytail and her glasses were back on.

They both stared at each other without saying a word as they both thought about the previous evening and how they had been so happy to see each other and had even embraced in the open. Who would have thought that things would become awkward between them less than twenty-four hours later?

"Sorry I'm late," Tom said, breaking the silence.

Without saying a word to him, Lucy stepped out of her house and locked the door before walking past him and heading for the car. Tom watched her in confusion and followed her without knowing what to do. She didn't want to talk to him? Why then had she called him? What was her plan? He had thought that she wasn't going to want to show her face at the office or set eyes on him, so what was she planning to do? He wondered as he followed her to the car.

Lucy ignored Tom who was directly behind her as she got into the backseat of the car. She sat down directly behind the driver's seat and buckled her seatbelt while waiting for him to get into the car. Although she could sense his confusion, she wasn't bothered by it. After having a restful night's sleep, she had woken up early that morning and had spent the early hours of dawn plotting and planning his punishment. This was all she could come up with.

Tom took in a deep breath as he got into the driver's seat, and then turned in his seat to look at her, "Lu..."

"We are going to be late," Lucy said, cutting off whatever he wanted to say.

She was right, they were going to be late, Tom thought when he checked the time on the car's dashboard and saw that it was almost 8 AM. He still needed to get to the office and go through the email which Harry had sent him, before attending the series of meetings that were already lined up for him.

Regardless of the constraint of time, he wanted to talk to her, but seeing that she wasn't willing to talk to him yet, he gave her a nod and turned on the car's ignition before driving off.

Lucy reached for her cellphone in her handbag when she heard it beep with a message notification. She eyed the text warily when she clicked on it and saw that it was a text message from Anita reminding her to let her know when she would be free for them to hang out later in the day.

For a moment there, she had almost forgotten about Anita, and now that she was reminded, she became worried. Getting involved with Tom now that she knew that he was the CEO who Anita wanted, was going to be trouble for her. Anita wasn't the type of person that she wanted to go against.

She had always thought that what she wanted was to be single and not get involved with men. She couldn't believe that just when she had finally met someone she was interested in and had realized that she liked him enough to want to get involved with him, it was going to be a very complicated relationship.

Lucy glanced at Tom's reflection in the rearview mirror and she sighed inwardly. Why couldn't he just be a driver? Why did he have to be a wealthy CEO? She didn't know what she was going to do about any of this, especially about Anita. This was going to be a very stressful relationship for her.

Once Tom drove the car into the company's parking lot and turned off the ignition after parking the car he turned to look at Lucy, "Can we at least talk about it?" He pleaded even though he knew he was going to be late for his meeting.

"What do you want us to talk about?" Lucy asked innocently without looking directly into his face. She feared that if she did, her resolve to stay mad at him might weaken, and she didn't want to give in so easily.

"Maybe you could tell me how you feel? What you are thinking?" Tom asked hopefully.

"Which is your true personality? The cold Thomas Hank? Or the easygoing Tom Handy?" Lucy asked curiously.

"Both. I am both depending on who and what I'm dealing with. I didn't get to where I am by being easygoing," Tom explained, and Lucy gave him a nod.

She took in a deep breath, "I can't say I'm not mad at you. I'm very mad at you, but I'm even more disappointed and hurt that you lied to me and broke my trust..." Lucy started, and Tom nodded in understanding.

"Although trusting you might not come easy to me again. However, you're the only friend I have here, and I don't think I want to lose our friendship over this."

"I want you to trust me, Lu. I know I might have lied to you in the past, but you shouldn't also forget that I told you the truth myself, didn't I?"

"And that singular act of honesty is the only reason I'm still willing to be friends with you, trust me," Lucy said, and Tom's brows pulled together in a frown.

What did she mean by friends? "I don't want to be just friends with you, Lu. I didn't do all of this just to end up becoming friends with you," Tom said with a mildly annoyed expression, and Lucy had to hold back her smile.

"Well, I guess we will have to see how it goes from here," Lucy said with a shrug, and Tom looked at her with a confused frown.

"What do you mean?"

"Seeing all the stress you must have gone through just to deceive me, I guess this must be very important to you. So the only condition in which I can forgive you is that you have to remain my driver and neighbor," Lucy said and waited for it to sink in.

"You want me to keep being your driver?" Tom asked in confusion.

"Yes. I'm in a temporary relationship with Tom, my driver. Not the CEO. I want it to remain that way. You can maintain your two personalities. You haven't told Mr. Harry about this, have you?" Lucy asked curiously.

"Not yet..."

"Good. You can't tell him I know the truth now. I have to pay him back for toying with me," Lucy said, and Tom shrugged. Harry deserved that.

"So? Am I to assume that you have forgiven me?" Tom asked hopefully.

"We will see about that. See you in the office," Lucy said with a wave as she opened the door and quickly got out of the car before Tom could ask her any other question.

Lucy had a small smile on her face as she headed for her office. With Tom still pretending to be her driver, she could date him comfortably while also buying herself enough time to find out exactly what it was Anita wanted from her this time. She would use this opportunity to also find out the best way to make sure Anita doesn't become a problem for her.. If she was going to date someone like Tom, then she needed to be a step ahead of people like Anita.