Page 15 of Prime Time Romance

I try to pull myself into a seated position, but as my abs contract, a sharp pain shoots through my rib cage, and I have to lie back down to catch my breath.

“Oh, thank god you’re alive.” Brynn’s arms squeeze my shoulders as she pins me down in a half hug, her dark hair falling onto my face.

“I didn’t think I hit you that hard, but you crumpled like a leaf, and I did take that CPR class once, but the only part I remember is ‘tongue, jaw lift, finger sweep,’ but I’m pretty sure that’s only for choking victims and—”

“Brynn!”

She pulls away, giving me enough space to take in my surroundings. The sky. The street. The giant hunk of bright-red metal pumping hot engine air out its front grille.

Any peace I may have been feeling a moment ago vanishes.

I’m not at home, passed out on the couch, and Brynn isn’t trying to wake me up because I’m sleeping on top of the TV remote.

I’m still in the strange town, with no idea how I got here, and I’ve just been hit by a car.

“What the fudge is going on?”

Wait. What?

“What the fudge is going on?” I try again.

“Why the fudge do I keep saying fudge?”

Brynn throws up her arms. “You can’t swear either. It’s not just me. That’s totally weird, right?”

It is weird.

Everything is weird.

“When did you get here?” I move my head tentatively, still unsure if I’ve actually injured anything.

“Just now. You jumped right out in front of my car,” she says, almost accusatory. “What were you doing just walking into the street without looking, and more importantly, what are you doing here?”

I have no idea.

I remember getting home from the bar last night, then that weird guy at the door, and after that, everything becomes fuzzy.

“I woke up in this strange bedroom,” I attempt to explain. “At first, I thought I might be dreaming, but it all seemed so real. It was in this old warehouse building. I walked down these steps, and there was a big room that looked like a bar underneath.”

What I don’t tell her is that, at that point, I was pretty sure I was in a nightmare.

I had them for months after my dad died. Panicked dreams where I was in his bar and I couldn’t get the taps to pour beer, and people kept demanding more and more, but I couldn’t make anything work.

This bar was different though.

“The place was empty. I actually wondered if maybe it was closed down. I was able to find the front door, and I started walking down the street. I was trying everything to wake myself up and…” I turn my head to the red Mini Cooper that hit me, its engine still running in the middle of the road. “Well, I guess I haven’t succeeded yet.”

Brynn reaches down her hand to help me up. I’m able to get to my feet this time. Nothing feels broken. I’m just a little dazed and bruised.

“I think I’ve figured out what’s going on.” She inclines her head toward the Mini’s passenger-side door. “It might be easier to show you rather than tell you.”

It takes a moment for my brain to catch up to what she’s proposing. She waits patiently until I finally process that we’re getting in the car, and I move to get in the passenger side. We both buckle up. I’m still uncertain of exactly what we’re doing as Brynn pulls a U-turn and then slows the car to a crawl as we drive back down the main street.

“There.” She points at a white brick building that reads Pharmacy in etched gold letters on the front window. “That’s Doc Martin’s pharmacy. It’s where Fletcher Scott bought his first pack of condoms when he decided it was time to lose his virginity, but then got caught by Spencer’s dad. And that…” She points at what looks like a beauty parlor. “That’s the salon where Poppy Bensen went from a homely nobody to a gorgeous redheaded bombshell and then won the role of captain of the cheer squad over her nemesis, Luce Cho. And that”—she points at a painted banner hanging above us—“is announcing the seventy-fifth Ms. Lobsterfest pageant. There is only one place that I have ever heard of that has an annual beauty pageant called the Ms. Lobsterfest.”

I have so many questions, but Brynn doesn’t allow me to ask them.

“Finally, there.” She stops the car this time and rolls down her window so I have an unobstructed view of a white gazebo on a large patch of grass. “That’s the spot where Spencer said goodbye to Sloan because he was leaving for LA. It’s all here, Josh.”