AFTER THE RAIN (Bonus edition)

19. Roses are sometimes red and sometimes not

Stormy sat on the side of the road, intrigued as she watched Marcus open the bonnet and peer inside as if he knew what he was doing. She wasn't going to say anything just yet, but she would be willing to bet (if she believed in betting or had any money to do so) that he knew nothing about cars! This was clearly just a male mucho thing. But he did look rather good doing it –even if she couldn't touch, she could still watch, right? She felt a little saddened by the conversation they'd just had, but a small part of her had been slightly relieved. This thing with him was starting to wig her out, and putting an end to it was probably the right thing to do.

"Do you really know what you're doing?" she finally asked, after he climbed under the car and emerged covered in grease and sand.

Marcus nodded confidently and rubbed his hands together. "I'm pretty sure I can get her up and running again." He said it was so much confidence that she wanted to believe it, but when he went back to the engine and continued doing the same thing he'd been doing to it for the past ten minutes, with a slight look of confusion on his face that he couldn't hide, she wasn't so sure.

But after about an hour of watching Marcus fiddling with the car, she was bored. And she also had to rehearse Lilly and Damien's wedding gift, so she got her guitar out of the backseat and sat back down in the sand on the side of the road. She'd written them a wedding song as a gift, which she intended to play it at the reception. She started strumming.

***

Marcus immediately looked up from what he was doing when he heard it. It was ridiculous. Her playing wasn't bad at all, but the guitar sounded old and off-key. Some of the strings had snapped, which gave it a tinny sound. And the lyrics!

Roses are sometimes red and sometimes not,
And violets are definitely purple or a darker shade of blue,
And Lilly and Damien, I just want to say that I love you.
Both. Not just one, but two-oooh-oooh.
But still not as much as you love each other, ooooohhhh...

Was that the verse? She started strumming even more enthusiastically as she began belting out the chorus, which stunned him. It was beautiful and completely haunting, unlike the verse with its terrible rhyming and clumsy phrasing. He leaned against the car and watched, and when she was finished, he couldn't help a little clap.

"That was great." And he meant it. The next few verses had been just as silly, but he couldn't quite imagine her writing anything else. "What's it for?"

"It's Damien and Lilly's wedding present," Stormy smiled up at him. "Do you really like it?"

Marcus nodded. "They'll love it." Because he knew they would. He'd bought them an expensive weekend away at a luxury resort, and she'd written them a song. This was a perfect example of just how different they were.

"So how's Sammy looking?" she asked, putting her guitar down and stretching out her legs. She looked like one of those traveling hippies from the sixties – all she needed was to be pulling a peace sign and the picture would be complete. Marcus wiped his greasy hands on his shirt, and although he hated being wrong, he had to admit defeat.

"Okay, so I don't really know what's going on with Sammy." He looked down at his watch and couldn't quite believe how late it was. The day way almost over and they would be stuck on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere at night. Their hotel room was booked for tonight and their flight to Dubai was booked for tomorrow morning, and at this rate, there was no way they would be making any of those, unless... He dug his phone out of his pocket and started scrolling for the number he was looking for. He would just call the hotel and they could organize someone to come and fetch them. Why hadn't he thought of this earlier? Mind you, his brain hadn't exactly been its usual analytical, solution-finding self lately. Marcus found the hotel's number and hit the dial button. But as soon as he did, the 'No service' icon popped up.