Of course she would need to stop and get gas. She was in such a wicked rush to get to work that morning, it had slipped her mind that later, she would need to put gas in her car. The gas light that was blaring at her from her dashboard was letting her know that she would not make the twenty-minute drive back to her home.
“Okay,” she muttered, turning into the parking lot of a gas station, parking the car at the pump. She snatched her debit card from her wallet and hopped out of the car. She finished the process of sliding her card in, choosing which gas she wanted, and inserted the nozzle into her tank. She blew out a deep breath as she leaned back against her car. Her eyes were drawn to the building. There was no line, and the electronic sign that displayed the amount of the lotto called to her.
Nine hundred million dollars.
That was a lot of money to win.
But she would never win that.
One would have to play in order to have a chance, a voice whispered in the back of her mind.
She turned away from the sign and peered into her car, which was due for a cleaning. She would just ignore that sign because she didn’t have any cash on her anyway, and she doubted she could use her debit card. She glanced at the gas pump and saw she still had time to do an impromptu cleaning. She walked to the other side of the car and opened the back door. She may be top salesperson right now for her company, but she sucked at keeping her car clean.
She grabbed an empty bag she found on the back seat and began throwing all the loose papers and empty food and drink containers into the bag.
“I think I need a maid just for my car,” she groaned as she reached farther under the driver’s seat, trying to ensure she had grabbed everything that had fallen beneath it. Her fingers felt a small wad of paper, so she stretched and was finally able to grasp it.
“Ah-ha!” she exclaimed, sitting back.
A dollar bill.
She stared at it in awe as she unfolded it, finding three more dollar bills crumpled together with it. Her heart pounded in her chest as she glanced back at the attendant in the station who looked bored out of his mind. The click from the pump caught her attention. She slammed the door and made her way back to the other side of the car, tossing the trash into the garbage bin.
Her hand tingled, as if the money was going to burn a hole in it. She quickly returned the pump and closed her gas cap before looking back down at the cash.
“Oh, what the hell!” she exclaimed, and rushed into the gas station. It was now or never. She could gripe tomorrow about wasting money. Nine hundred millions dollars was worth blowing four dollars that she didn’t know she had until a few minutes ago. “Hello.”
The attendant jerked his head up from his cell phone in surprise.
“Hi, can I help you?” His greeting was drier than the Mojave Desert. Well, isn’t he just a breath of fresh air, she thought sarcastically.
“Yes, I’d like to put four dollars on the Mega Card Lotto please.” Penny put on a big smile as she passed the money over to him. She guessed she’d just kill him with kindness. He rolled his eyes as he took the money from her, holding back a retort as he punched in a few buttons on the computer.
“Do you have numbers picked out already, or do you want the machine to pick them for you?” He paused and stared at her.
“Just let the machine work its magic.” He was not going to bring her down off her high of being salesperson of the quarter with his grumpy attitude. She had a date with a bottle of wine, and maybe his friend, Mr. Vibrator.
“Here you go.” He handed her the ticket.
“Thanks, and have a good night!” She marched out of the station, not waiting for a response.
Ring, ring.
Ring, ring.
“Leave me alone,” Penny groaned, pulling a pillow over her head. It was too early to get up, and her alarm had yet to go off. Who would be calling her at some ungodly hour?
Ring, ring.
“Okay, I’m up!” she grumbled as she rolled over and reached for her phone on the nightstand. Her hand fumbled, knocking her alarm clock on the floor. Finally, her hand connected with her blaring phone. “Hello? Somebody better be dying for you to call me at this hour.”
“Penny, wake up!” Tori’s voice came onto the line, a little too chipper for Penny’s taste. “Somebody hit!”
“Your dry spell is over?” she chuckled, burying her head down into her plush pillows. She knew she had no right to talk. Both Penny and Tori were having a streak of bad luck in the men department. Their dating lives lately had been nonexistent. Her last relationship had been a joke, ending about six months ago. She had sworn off men for a while, figuring men were just asses. She just decided to live life day by day.
Penny and Tori had been best friends since high school. They had met on the first day of their tenth-grade year at Coral Springs High, and had been inseparable. College was no different. They were accepted into the same college and life had been good.
Penny didn’t know what she would have done without Tori. After her parents died, Tori had helped to keep Penny sane. She loved Tori as if she were her blood sister, but right now, she’d better have a good excuse for calling.
“Ha ha, bitch. If that were the case, I would have recorded myself screaming through my orgasm, just so you could remember what one sounds like.”
“Bitch,” Penny chuckled, flopping onto her back. “What do you want?”
“Someone hit the Mega Card. Someone is going to wake up a gazillionaire!”
“What? Was it you?” Penny screeched, flying out of the bed. She rushed out of her bedroom to find her purse.
“Hell no. I would have kicked your door down if I would have won close to a billion dollars.”
Penny reached her living room and turned on the lamp near her couch. Her purse lied just where she had left it last night when she had gotten home from work. She flopped down on the couch so that she could dig through her overstuffed bag.
“Any chance you have the numbers?”
“I memorized them, hoping that the numbers would miraculously appear on my tickets,” Tori groaned through the phone.
“What were they?” she asked, pulling her ticket out of her wallet.
“First number was nine.”
Penny’s first number was the same. She shook her head. No need for alarm.
“Thirty,” Tori said with a dramatic pause.
Okay, her next number was thirty. This had to be a coincidence. Her heart began to race as she cleared her throat and sat up on the couch.
“Stop being dramatic and tell me the rest of the numbers,” Penny demanded impatiently. Her breaths came hard, and she was trying to keep herself from hyperventilating.
“You’re no fun. Forty, sixteen, twenty, and the bonus ball was five.”
Penny stared down at her ticket, unable to move. That small piece of paper hung in her hand while she stared at it in disbelief.
“Tori,” she whispered, swallowing hard. “Read them to me again, please.”
“Penny, what is it?” Tori asked, excitement lining her voice.
“Just read them again.” The ticket became blurry as her hand began to shake. She feverishly wiped her eyes and blinked a few times to clear her vision.
“Nine, thirty, forty, sixteen, twenty, with the bonus ball being five.”
Holy mother of God.
Every single number was located in the exact same order that Tori read them off to her on her ticket.
A scream ripped from Penny as she jumped up on her couch and celebrated, not even caring that it was in the wee hours of the morning.
She was fucking rich!
Nine hundred million dollars richer.
“Penny!”
She paused and looked around, not having realized that she’d dropped her phone.
“Hello?” she gasped, snatching her phone up from the couch. She jumped down from the couch and began to pace the floor. Her hand shook as she put her phone up to her ear.
“What the hell are you screaming for?”
“It’s me. I hit the fucking lotto!”