Ruby held the phone tightly to her ear and frowned as a motorcycle rode by her office window, its motor revving loudly.
"Yes? Yes, Bill, I can hear you. What I'm saying is that the deal is already done."
The receptionist poked his head inside her office. She gestured at Seth to leave, but he shook the sheaf of papers in front of her. She sighed.
"No, I'm not going to go back there to talk to them. We already have someone onsite. I thought this discussion was over." Flipping through the sheaf of papers, she signed the bottom one and handed it back to Seth. He mouthed a silent thank you and closed the door behind him.
"Yes, Bill. But we can't justify the cost of flying someone else out to oversee this merger."
She looked at her watch. It was already two minutes past eleven and she was due to present the latest quarterly figures to the board of executives. Her mind shifted from the phone conversation to the past month's worth of figures, to the business deal in her division that was stalling badly. This merger was supposed to have gone smoothly, but apparently the person they had sent out to Omaha had fucked it up. Everybody always fucked things up. It seemed to be the rule of business in this company. If she was in charge—
"What do you mean, they want me to do it?" She stood up suddenly, her attention back to the phone. "I have things to do here!" Seth opened the door again and pointed at his watch. It was time to do the presentation. It was past time.
She nodded frantically and began to pack up her presentation materials to leave. "No, Bill, I—mmmhmm. Mmmhmm."
Seth handed her her coffee as she moved out into the hallway and took the papers that she held out to him. She glanced at the clock on the wall. Six minutes late. Pulling down at her skirt with one hand, she checked her folders one last time and tucked them under her elbow.
"Okay, Bill. Fly me out there. But if this takes me more than half a day to fix, I'm billing the overtime straight to your department Okay. Bye."
Putting her cell phone away, she looked up at Seth.
"Good?" she asked, baring her teeth in a wide smile so he could check for anything stuck in between her teeth. She had to look presentable for the board.
"Fabulous," Seth said. "Anything else you need?"He moved with her as she began to walk briskly down the hallway.
"Get Marie to cover my conference call tomorrow about the marketing review. And cancel my therapy session in the afternoon, I won't be able to make it. Oh, and Seth?"
"Yes?" he said, opening the door for her. She passed through still facing him and began to walk backwards in the hallway, her folders clasped tightly to her chest.
"Get me a plane ticket for tomorrow morning."
"A plane ticket?" Seth repeated.
"Yes," Ruby said, ducking into the elevator at the end of the hallway. She pressed the button with her elbow and tried not to drop her presentation materials. "A plane ticket. To Omaha."
***
Her heels clicked over the runway tarmac and she unbuttoned the top button of her dress shirt. It was unbearably hot and she could feel the sweat trickling down the back of her neck, the sun beating down on her head. As she walked through the glass doors and towards the rental car desk she felt the stare of every man in the airport lobby. She pulled at the hem of her tight skirt and tried to ignore their glances.
Nebraska. Jesus. Bill owed her big time for this one. She glanced at her phone. It was almost out of charge. Thirteen new emails, and one of them from her therapist. Probably berating her for cancelling yet another session. Well, she could check the messages later when her phone wasn't dying.
"I have a car waiting for me," Ruby said to the desk clerk. "For Ruby Thomas?"
The older clerk eyed her warily before rifling through a large stack of folders.
"Here ya go," he said, pulling out a set of keys. The key fob was a metal replica of an ear of corn, with a tagline printed along its side. Welcome to Omaha!, it said.
"Thanks," she muttered, grabbing the keys. She just wanted to get to the production building and get out of there are soon as possible. Hopefully it was a fast car.
"Third one from the end when you go outside," the man said. "Red 'un."
"Thanks," she said again, and tossed her hair over her shoulder. Stepping outside, she was blinded again by the sun. She brought her hand up to her eyes and looked down the row of cars. Third one from the end, third one from the end.
She stopped in front of the car and looked down. A red Mustang. It was by far the nicest car on the lot, and she gave a silent prayer of thanks for her receptionist who knew exactly what she wanted at all times, even if she didn't know herself. If Seth wasn't gay, she would have married him three times over for his organizational skills alone.
Sitting behind the wheel, she let her fingers slide appreciatively over the leather steering wheel before turning the key in the ignition. The motor roared to life, and she shifted the car into reverse. Pulling out of the lot, the car bounced over a pothole, tires squealing onto the hot tar. A cloud of dust rose up behind her, and she was off.
It had only been twenty minutes on the road before Ruby was bored out of her skull. There were cornfields stretching out—literally—in every direction, and nobody else seemed to be on the road; the only company she had were the crows perched on the electrical wires above. The radio stations alternated between country ditties and talk radio, and after trying in vain to find some kind of tolerable music she gave up and turned it off completely.
Corn.
More corn.
She tried to play the alphabet game, but the only signs around were mile markers, so she gave that up too.
"Nothing," she said to herself. "Nothing, nothing, nothing." The motor purred, and her foot pressed down more on the gas pedal. Corn whizzed by on either side of her. Another twenty minutes passed.
"Nothing happening, nothing happening," she said, the words coming out in a kind of sing-song. "Nothing, nothing, nothing—"
A loud POP from the engine interrupted her. The motor whined and made a horrible squealing noise. She lifted her foot from the gas pedal, but she could already smell smoke. As she slowed down, more smoke came from under the front of the hood. The car rolled to a stop on the side of the road.
"Shit." Ruby sat in the driver's seat for a second, collecting her bearings. She checked her phone. Dead. Of course. Why hadn't she plugged it in?
"Shit!" She punched the steering wheel and the horn sounded loudly, scaring a group of crows off of their perch. Ok. She could handle this. Deal with it, Ruby, she thought.
Smoke continued to billow from the car, so she popped the hood and got out, coming around to the front. She wasn't an expert on cars, but it looked like the smoke was coming from the engine, and it smelled like burnt rubber. That probably wasn't good.
She looked around, her hands on her hips. The sun beat down on her head. Her perfectly tailored skirt, tight around her curved waist, itched like crazy, and her white dress shirt was already turning damp with sweat. In front of her, the road stretched on, corn fields on either side. Behind her, the same. The sun burned down from overhead and a crow cawed at her, taunting her.
"Shit."
She couldn't remember the last time she had seen a call box, but it couldn't be too far, could it? She looked up and down the dusty highway. Well, she couldn't just wait for someone to come. There had only been one truck she had seen so far driving on this road, and she was supposed to be at the facility within the hour.
Turning in the direction she had been heading, she began to walk alongside the side of the road in the dust by the cornrows. After two minutes, her heels were bothering her too much, so she slipped them off. After five minutes of carrying her heels and walking barefoot, her legs were covered in dust and her pantyhose was beginning to tear at her soles. She was dripping with sweat and had decided that wearing a business suit to Nebraska was the worst idea she had ever had.
No, coming to Nebraska at all was the worst idea she had ever had.
The blue call box loomed on the horizon, and she forced herself to keep walking at the same brisk pace until she reached it. She was itching and sweaty and horrible, and things were about to get even worse. For when she picked up the phone, the line was dead. She banged the phone against the side of the pole. Nothing.
"Shit!" Somehow, just one swear wasn't enough. Not now. Not when she could die out here on the side of the road. Ruby tilted her head back and yelled at the top of her lungs to the clear blue sky. "SHIIIIIIIIT!"
The only answer was the cawing of crows in the distance. She was pretty sure they were laughing at her. Well, nothing to do but to keep going. Ten steps farther along the road her pantyhose tore straight up her leg, and she dropped her heels into the dust.
That's it, she thought, and began to tear off her pantyhose. She was balancing on one leg, her skirt hiked up and her stocking rolled down her thigh, when a motorcycle came roaring down the road. It screamed past her, churning up a cloud of dust in its wake. She tried to wave to the rider but the dust blew right into her face. She covered her eyes with her hands and was still coughing when the motorcycle slowed down in the distance and turned around back towards her.
As the bike drew closer, she realized that she must look like a wreck. Quickly she pulled up her torn stocking and rolled her skirt back down. Her hair was sticky with sweat and dusty with road dirt, but there was nothing she could do about that. She smoothed it down as best she could and smiled as the biker came to a stop in front of her.
He pulled the visor of his helmet up, and she squinted to see his face. Light gray eyes peered out from under the helmet, and a deep voice laughed.
"You look a little lost," the biker said, laughing all the while. She frowned deeply.
"My car broke down," she said. "I need a phone."
"Looks like you need a shower," the biker said. His eyes crinkled at the corners, and she could tell that he was teasing her. It was the last thing she needed right now. Hands on her hips, she raised one eyebrow and tried to look imposing.
"I need to borrow your cell phone," she said. "It's urgent."
"Sure it is, sure it is," the biker said, in a slow drawl that drove her crazy with every unhurried word. "Ain't got a phone though."
"You don't have a cell phone?" she asked, incredulous. He shrugged and looked down the road, then back to her. She stood in front of him, mouth agape. She really was having the worst run of bad luck.
"Could give you a lift to a phone," he said in his slow drawl.
"Is there another call box?" she asked.
"Sure there is," he said, and she sighed in relief before he continued. "Don't believe any of 'em work, though."
Her face crumpled in disappointment. Under his visor, his eyes crinkled again in laughter and she forced herself to keep from screaming into his face. How could he understand? He couldn't. She had a merger she needed to oversee.
"Where can I find a phone?" she asked, trying to keep her composure.
"Well, and I'm just down the road a ways," he said. "Got a phone there."
"Yes, please," she said, relieved.
"Alright then," he said, and motioned towards the back of his bike. "Hop on."