Cornered by Ariana Gael Page A

night he thought he could still smell the fumes from the garage.
    When he finally emerged from the bathroom and into the single main room of his apartment, it wasn’t even a full step to reach the table just inside his door where he kept his cell phone. He could see that he’d missed a call while he cleaned up and he grabbed at the phone, hoping it was Michelle who’d finally called.
    She’d been possibly the most confusing date he’d ever met. First, she reluctantly agreed to go, and then she’d insisted on getting herself to the restaurant, like she hadn’t already been driven around by him before. Maybe getting in cars with men she didn’t know that well only applied to emergencies.
    At lunch, she’d talked pleasantly enough, but Lars never got the feeling that she’d warmed up to him. She almost seemed to be tolerating him, as if she’d lost a bet. But the weird thing was he never got the impression that she didn’t want to be there. He’d been out before with girls who made it clear that they were only there to get a free dinner and had no intention of calling again.
    But Michelle had acted differently. Maybe she was just reserved, or on the shy side. Either way, he’d had a great time talking to her and was excited that she said she would call him again. Only, it hadn’t happened yet.
    Lars scrolled the screen of his phone with his blackened index finger, frustrated for the millionth time by how hard it was to do anything with that tiny little device. It would have been funny if it hadn’t looked so stupid in his gigantic hand. He finally pressed the voicemail button to listen to the first of his missed messages and his heart sank when he heard the screechy voice of his ex-girlfriend playing through the tiny speaker, her message so loud he didn’t even need to hold the phone to his ear.
    “Lars, it’s Vicki. We need to talk about some stuff, so I’m on my way over. ‘Bye.”
    He looked frantically around the tiny screen to see when it was that she’d left that message, heart-broken when he glanced at the clock on the microwave and figured out that he didn’t have enough time to get dressed and get out of there before she’d be standing in his doorway. Just like an ominous sound in a bad slasher movie, a loud knock on his door scared him into dropping the phone, leaving the case snapped in half..
    Lars held perfectly still, wondering what the chances were that Vicki hadn’t heard that crashing sound.
    “I know you’re in there, Lars, I can see your shadow under your door,” Vicki called in that horribly grating voice of hers. “Don’t be a coward and pretend you’re not home.” Lars rolled his eyes and let out a long breath before walking over to the door and throwing it open. Vicki eyed him up and down, stopping to stare at the small towel around his waist. “I’m glad I called first, it gave you time to get ready for me.”
    “Don’t start with me, Vicki,” Lars growled.
    “Who’s starting? You’re the one who answered the door practically naked,” she droned, sliding past Lars’ body where he mostly blocked the doorway.
    “I guess that means you’re coming in,” he said, shutting the door loudly behind her. “So, you’re here. Now what do you want?”
    “That’s no way to greet me, baby,” she began, batting her eyelashes at him playfully.
    “Don’t call me baby,” he shot back. “I never did like it, even back when you weren’t a cheating whorehound. Tell me why you’re here so you can leave.” Lars planted himself by the door; ready to open it and shove Vicki through the moment she finished talking.
    “I can’t believe you’re going to stand there and call me names,” Vicki began, her locally famous temper starting to flare. “You were the one getting some tail on the side all those nights you pretended to be at work.”
    “No, that was how it played out when you discussed it with the voices in your head,” Lars said sarcastically. “I was actually at