Undefiled Queen

He quickly made his way towards the exit when a rush of air passed him by and he was hit in the face by a flutter of brown hair before the woman in question stumbled.

She crashed into a flight attendant, almost knocking her over. The clumsy woman muttered a pathetic apology before she tore out of the runway exit.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

He shook at her in regret and got his CFO on the phone and told him about his predicament, letting him know he would send him his last-minute notes when he could hook up to the internet. He reassured him he would make it to the charity ball no matter what, but  didn’t want him to assume he would make it to the meeting.

Getting to the rental kiosk, there was a familiarwoman standing in front of him talking quite loudly with the man at the desk. She kept asking him question after question, interrupting him before he could answer. Apparently, manners were not this woman’s forte.

‘I can help whoever’s next.” The other attendant at the kiosk announced.

‘Ah, yes, I will need a car.” Stephen announced with his hand tucked inside his pants pocket.

‘Any particular kind?” Her voice was smooth and soft, as gentle that it could be.

‘The best that I could get. I’ll be traveling all the way to Minneapolis.” There was an undeniable command and domination in his tone for a billionaire businessman that he was.

While he dug out his license for the clerk’s perusal, the woman’s voice beside him continued, now with an increase in volume. ‘Please, I just need the cheapest car you have.”

‘Ma’am, this card’s been declined. Do you have another?” The male clerk politely asked.

‘Sir, do you have proof of insurance?” The woman asked him.

‘Ah, yes, I do. Just give me a second.”

‘This is some crazy weather, very unlike Kansas. This place always had the best climate. Unfortunately now…” The attendant at the kiosk said to him with a twist of her lips.

‘I wouldn’t know. This is my first time in this state.” He said as a matter of fact hastily waiting for the four lines to be seen on his phone.

‘Oh, are you staying for a spell?” she asked. Was she kidding? He was renting a car and headed to Minneapolis. He wasn’t up there for some crazy bullshit. All he wanted was to get on the road, reach to a place that had reliable internet access, and get his CFO online.

“Ma’am, this card’s been declined, too,” the male attendant said to the pathetic woman.

‘Are you joking with me?” she asked him rudely though he was very polite to her.

He looked over at the frazzled woman with the head of brown hair and shook his head. Maybe if she stopped spending all her money on those expensive hair treatments and that beautiful coat she had on, she’d be able to afford her own emergencies. It was people like that who made his skin crawl. People who recklessly spent their money, wasted their time and then complained about not having things when they needed them the most.

‘Well, Mr. Collomen you have the best luck.” The woman at the desk said with a full blown smile.

‘I thought I recognized you, by the way.” She winked at him and it took all he had not to groan in her face.

‘There is one luxury car left,” she said with joy as if she was the one who was going to travel in it.

‘It’s a 2022 Gordon Murray T. 50. Fully loaded with heated seats to get you through this chilly weather. Does that sound acceptable?” She asked enthusiastically, clapping her hands.

‘Sounds just fine, I’ll need it for a week.” He added.

‘Let me just enter all this information into the computer and-” She began to type on the system.

‘What do you mean there aren’t any cars left?!” The woman beside him yelled. She looked like she was just two ticks away from crying, and it took all of his patience that he would not speak up and say something to her that would make her tear up. Did she not realize the bother she was being?

The absolute least she could do was own up to her monetary mistakes that got her there and take her hysterics somewhere where no one would be bothered. She had no right to subject the rest of the travelers to her antics.

‘I’m very sorry, ma’am,” the man said as he handed her back her card. Stephen felt sorry for him, in all honesty.

He signed a few signatures before the women, who handed him the keys. And just as they hit the palm of his hand, the woman at his side burst into tears.

‘Where are you headed, sweetheart?” The man who earlier told her the card didn’t work, asked.

Stephen was glad his work finished soon. He picked up his things and started to head away from the desk. He needed to get out of this situation and away from that hysterical woman as soon as possible.

She was grating on his nerves, with her tears and her cards and her hair that whipped around in everyone’s face.

His nose was still burning from where she thwacked him with it earlier, and all he wanted was for his ass to hit those heated seats before he settled into the ten-hour drive ahead of him.

But her answer to the man at the desk stopped him in his tracks. Fuck! ‘Burnsville, Minnesota,”

He looked over at the woman behind the desk, and she shot him a smile. ‘Oh, no, not that one’.

He knew very well what she was thinking. All that idiotic Christmas cheer was filling her cheeks. He hated this time of year and hated festivals. He hated how people were guilted into doing nice things for complete strangers for the sake of a holiday. He was brought up in a boarding school, where there were no visitors, no emotions, no relatives and thankfully no holidays. Initially he hated it but slowly as he learnt things in life, he felt that it was the best that could have happened to him where he wouldn’t have to bubble up to meaningless relationships and people.

‘Well, with it being Christmas and all, maybe there’s someone here that wouldn’t mind sharing his vehicle.” The woman said, eyeing him requestingly.

He wanted to burn a hole in each of her eyes for the bashful situation she was subjecting him to.

And then the most unacceptable thing happened. He could feel the hysterical woman’s eyes on him. Those big, icy blue eyes that matched Barbie’s eyes.

Something quipped in him against his interest. There was something in the woman and he hated it.

The man behind the counter was looking at him, his lips curled up into a cheerful grin.

It could easily be deciphered that he recognized him because of the way his eyes began to sparkle, and he realized he had been cornered. Fucking hell!

If he refused to help this woman, it would reflect badly on his company. The next day he would be everywhere in the newspapers.

Holy shit! He hated the holidays.

‘Hi” The woman said sniffing but with a grin as bright as it would light the complete world.

“I am…..” There was a pause “Selina” this time it was a plastic smile.

‘What? Didn’t she trust him?’ The way she was looking, it said she did not recognize him and he was happy to note that.

Let her fuck off, not trusting him. He would be more than happy to create such questions for her regarding him.

But, he wasn’t in the best of his luck for the day. “Are you going in the direction of Minnesota, by any chance?”

Her voice was light and breathy, and he wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not. Yet it sounded innocent.

The last thing he needed was having someone with him throughout the trip.  He hated company and abhorred people who couldn’t financially keep themselves afloat and depended upon others to satisfy their whims and fancies in the name of festivals and holidays.

“I am,” He said, sighing, praying for nature the final time for a chance to get rid of the woman.

But Alas! There comes the words that he hated the most. ‘Would it be possible for me to catch a ride with you?”

Everything inside of him screamed negative but could he? The kiosk clerks’ eyes were on him, and the woman was staring at him in expectation with her massive blue eyes.

All he wanted to do was turn around and get in his car. Being unnecessarily polite to   incompetent strangers was taking away all his patience but to blow out and get ahead of the storm. However, if he denied to help this woman, his grinch-like nature would be front page news, and the meeting wouldn’t mean a damn thing. No one wants to do business with a cold hearted, insensitive man who hated to help people in need because that was exactly how the media would spin it for him.

‘Where in Minnesota are you headed?” He asked her stoically.

‘Burnsville,” the woman shouted with cheer, her eyes sparkling like a 1000 watt candle. But when he was insensitive to her emotions, her smile slightly lessened and she replied keeping her feelings in check. “You can drop me off anywhere. Even if I could just get to the border of the state, I could catch a taxi or something.”

Burnsville. Of course, she’d be heading to a town that was practically on the way to Minneapolis. The place where he has got both good and bad memories, the place in which she once resided, the place in which his parents resided for more than five decades, the place to which his ancestral home still stays and his mom always calls to come home for Christmas.

A part of him told to visit his mom. He had not seen his parents for the last five years. If he arrives home his mom would be very happy. But relationships come with commitments and responsibilities and he hated them. He hadn’t informed his mom that he would be traveling to Minneapolis on business work.

His dad knows. Being in mafia, both of them together deal with certain things but he knows his preferences and keeps his lips sealed before his mom unless it is of utmost importance.

It would be nothing for him to drop the lady off in the area to which she was going, but that meant he had to put up with her attitude and her presence for the next ten hours. Was that something he could do? And for that matter, did he even have a choice?

‘Please?” she asked.

And something triggered in him looking into those unsullied puppy blues. He better not watch them from next time. They reminded him of someone, he shouldn’t.

‘I won’t be a bother. I promise.” He very well knew that was a lie, but he could see the face of the clerks changing.

The man was already on his phone and typing out something, and alarm bells started going off in his head. He had no escape but to embrace the unwanted situation before it gets worse.

‘I’ll give you a ride,” He said, faking a smile.

“Oh, my gosh. Are you serious? Thank you!”

‘No need to overreact, woman. I know you cornered me here with no escape.’ – He cursed under his breath.

She ran at him and threw her arms around him holding him close. He stiffened. He didn’t do physical contact. Except the direct thing. Nope, nope, nope.

He stood there and tried to back away from her, clutching the car keys as well as his carry-on bag. But somewhere weirdly he loved her hug. It felt like…. home.

With his laptop slung to his body in a bag he smiled at the two clerks while the woman gathered her things. She kept dropping her never ending stuff into the trunk and all he could do was only groan inside. She was loud, she was clumsy, and she was a hugger but weirdly there was something in him for her that he surely did not like. This was going to be a long trip.