Cowboy Ending - Overdrive: Book One by Adam Knight Page B

scary.
The whole thing is scary.”
     
    What do you say
to that?
     
    Silence.
     
    We stared at
each other. Then the floor. Back at each other.
     
    “So,” I
started, clapping my hands together in front of me and pointing at
her with my index fingers, the small smile in place. “Good to see
you.”
     
    “You too.
What’s it been, ten years?”
     
    “Almost twelve,
since college.” I turned to fuss with a bag that needed no more
fussing, hoping the small smile on my face wasn’t getting bitter.
“Save for seeing you at the club, yeah. Twelve years.”
     
    “That’s weird.
It’s only been ten since we graduated hasn’t it?”
     
    I stifled a
sigh, zipped up my gear back firmly and turned back to her.

    “So, to what do
I owe the pleasure of CTV’s Weather Specialist Cathy Greenburg?” My
small smile back in place as I crossed the room to where my light
coat was hanging on a hook. “Or do I already owe you for the sunny
weather and you’ve come to collect?”
     
    Cathy smiled,
the pink rising in her cheekbones again. “I take payment in cash
and coffee for nice weather.”
     
    “Duly noted.”
My scars pulled tight as I slid the jacket over one arm. Manfully I
managed not to wince. I think. “Docs’ say I should lay off the
coffee another few weeks so you’ll have to settle for whatever’s in
my wallet.”
     
    “Do I even want
to know what’s in there?”

“Driver’s license. Library card. A bank card that doesn’t work and
maybe thirty-five cents in loose change.”
     
    “No
condom?”
     
    My voice got
bitter quick. “Hah. Do I look like I get laid a lot?” I flushed.
Damn quick reflexes burning me again. “Sorry. Don’t answer
that.”
     
    Cathy walked
across the room, stopping in front of the flower arrangements.
“Don’t worry about it.” She looked over the bouquets, touching a
few of the more intricate ones.
     
    Flowers are
such a chick thing. Like jewelry. I’ll never get it the way they
do.
     
    “You want
one?”
     
    “One what?”
     
    “Of my flower …
things?”
     
    Cathy smiled
with a raised eyebrow back at me. “Why would I want your
flowers?”
     
    I shrugged
slightly, feeling the stitches pulls faintly. “Why would I want
them?”
     
    “They’re gifts,
Joe. You should keep them.”
     
    I grunted. It
might’ve been in agreement.
     
    “Seriously,
Cathy. What are you doing here?”
     
    She didn’t look
at me.
     
    More
silence.
     
    I nodded.
     
    “You want an
interview.”
     
    Cathy’s face
flushed again, though I could only see the fringes of it from this
angle. “Yes. Well, no actually. My boss wants an interview and he’s
quite perturbed that you won’t grant us one.”

“I ain’t a story. People get shot. Doctors fix people. Put the
doctors on the six o-clock news.”
     
    Cathy’s lips
pursed together firmly as she turned to face me. “We did put them
on. And this isn’t like anything else, Joe.”
     
    “Sure it is.” I
stepped up next to her, examining the bouquets again. “Doctors
helped me, so let them get the attention. I just got lucky. Well,
unlucky and then lucky I guess.”
     
    Cathy’s eyes
were on me intensely. I tried to ignore her gaze. “Joe you were
clinically dead for twenty minutes. No heartbeat. No breathing. You
were two minutes away from being declared DOA.”
     
    “Oh.” My mouth
twisted along with my stomach as a chill rank down my back. “I
hadn’t heard that.”
     
    “What have you
heard?”
     
    I shrugged
again, still examining my flower arrangements. “I got shot. CPR.
Several dudes swapped spit with me. I got the paddles.” The big
arrangement from Aaron and the boys plus the one from the church I
figured. “Should I be weirded out by guys giving me mouth to
mouth?”
     
    Cathy placed a
hand on my upper arm. I obliged her motion and turned to face her.
“There’s a lot you should be weirded out about. Everything about
this makes no…” She blinked a few times, taking a second look