Page 38 of The Way I Hate Him
I pull up my phone and type the brand into Google.
Your electric adventure awaits.
Oh . . . an EV. I’ve never driven one of these.
I thumb through the website, locating his SUV, and then my eyes nearly bug out of my head.
“Oh my GOD!” I shout. “Over one hundred thousand dollars for a used one? Who spends that much money on a used vehicle? I thought when buying used, you’re trying to save money. Ridiculous,” I mutter and then set the phone down.
What I could do with one hundred thousand dollars.
Not take this job, that’s for sure.
Skip another semester of school.
Build an extension on the farmhouse so Ryland doesn’t have to sleep on a freaking couch!
But nope . . . I’m driving one hundred thousand dollars instead.
“Okay, how do we start this?” I look in the console for a key, but don’t see anything. So I look in the glove box. Nothing. I search the car, now becoming frantic as I see the time staring me in the face. Two minutes until he’s going to bitch about me being late again.
Well, how the hell am I supposed to be on time if he doesn’t leave me a key to drive the damn thing?
What an idiot.
I grab my phone again, but this time, I call him.
It rings twice, and then he answers.
“You’re going to be late.”
“Yeah, because you’re a moron,” I say. “You didn’t leave me a key to start this spaceship.”
“You don’t start it. And yes, I did leave a key.”
“What do you mean you don’t start it?”
“You just activate it.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Jesus, Hattie,” he groans. “Do you see the key card in the middle console?”
I look down and see a white key card with a yellow symbol in the middle. I pick it up and say, “This is what starts your car? Like you’re opening a hotel room?”
“Yes. Hold it against the driver’s side door and that will activate it, then put the car in drive and press down on the pedal.”
“So there’s like . . . no engine you have to start?”
“It doesn’t have an engine, it’s an electric vehicle.”
Huh . . . interesting.
“Leave it to you to have some nonsensical car.”
“It’s not nonsensical. It’s just not what you’re used to. Now stop jabbering and get here.”
With that, he hangs up.
