Truck Me All Night Long-6
1298 Words
“You’re ten minutes early. What, you didn’t f**k anybody last night?” Adrian taunted me on Friday morning as he handed over the day’s orders, and the truck keys.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I said, but without my usual devil-may-care flair. He noticed, of course.
“What’s wrong?” Adrian stared like he was trying to see through me.
“Nothing.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t have to.” I walked to the trailer door and said, “Later,” as I left.
The day didn’t get much better from there. Traffic was a b***h on the way to my first delivery, and then on the second stop, I had to wait a f*****g hour for some dude with a power complex to turn up and forklift the damn order. I was close to losing it. Instead, I called Adrian to let him know I was delayed and why. He said he’d take care of it, then asked me if everything was okay.
“I’m fine, all right? Drop it already,” I replied and hung up on him.
I finally had breakfast at nine o’clock in the morning. It was Burger King this time, and my friend Shauna was the cashier.
“You look like you need a lot of coffee, sweetie. Havin’ a bad day already?” she queried while ringing up my order of an ultimate breakfast platter, two sausage burritos, and a coffee. I might be pissed at the world, but I was still plenty hungry.
“You don’t know the half of it,” I groused as I handed over the cash.
“Have a Minibon on me, okay? I’ll add it to your order.” Shauna handed me the change.
“You’re a sweetheart,” I told her, smiling for the first time that day.
“And don’t you forget it,” she replied with a wink.
Once my order was ready, I sat in the Freightliner and ate my meal as quickly as possible. I was already behind and didn’t want to make it any worse.
The third delivery was gravy, thankfully, which left me enough time to get to the last stop without mishap. It was Harry and Sons again, and since I’d gotten there in the middle of the afternoon, the place was really busy.
I made my way carefully to my usual spot, and parked. I needed to see a friendly face, but Grant was nowhere in sight, which was unusual, and slightly disappointing. I went inside to the shipping department to let them know they had a delivery. Ten minutes later, as I sat waiting in the truck, Grant came around the corner on the forklift.
“Hey, Grant,” I said, when I got out of the truck. I had already removed the tarp so he could get the order.
“Trev.” Without another word, he got to work, quickly unloading the remaining pallets on the flatbed. Once he was done, I folded up the tarp and strapped everything down.
When he approached me to exchange paperwork, I noted his disgruntled demeanor and asked, “You okay, man?”
“Nothing to worry about. Just some shit.” For whatever reason, it made me unhappy to see him in such a bad mood. I decided not to think about why that was.
“You sure? You seem…off, maybe.”
“Since when do you care?” he snapped. I was taken aback by his sudden anger.
“Chill, dude. Of course I care. I consider you a friend, you know?”
“Really? Because we screwed once? That’s not a friend, Trev. That’s just a one-time fuck.”
“Geez,” I said, completely floored. But, in retrospect, I probably deserved that. Grant sighed deeply and rubbed both hands up and down his face. He left behind streaks of dirt.
“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I’ve had a shitty day, and I just need it all to be over. I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”
“No, I’m sorry for…well, I’m just sorry.” I massaged the back of my neck, suddenly self-conscious. “You probably think I’m shallow and not capable of more than one-nighters, but I’d like to be a friend, if you’d let me. I don’t have that many and I’ve been thinking lately that I need a different outlook on life.” Hell, I’d beg, if I had to.
Grant pierced me with those gorgeous eyes of his. “Why?”
“Let’s just say I had an eye-opening experience recently that kinda shook me up. Friends?” I held out my hand to shake his. Please?
Without hesitation, Grant shook my hand and said, “Friends.” He gave me a small smile then turned and walked back to the forklift.
Before he could leave the lot, I asked, “Is it still okay to call you sometime, grab a beer?”
“Yup,” he said, then drove away. I felt lucky that he hadn’t turned me down.
The perfect cap to my day came in the form of a state trooper pulling me over for a missing mud flap. Then he asked to check my log book. Thank God I’d updated it this morning while I waited at the second delivery stop. The trooper let me go with a warning, after making me sweat for twenty minutes. The last thing I did before I went back to ConcreteXpress was top off the fuel tank.
I parked near the pit and took the time to clean out the rig, a weekly task to get rid of dust, mud, and trash. I preferred to have a decent-smelling ride come Monday morning.
When I went inside the office trailer, Adrian was on a phone call and focused on his computer screen. Sounded like he was about to get a new client. I hung up the keys myself, threw the delivery receipts and carbon copies of my log book for the week on his desk, and headed out to my pickup truck. I was happy that the day was over, and I wouldn’t have to drive a big rig for the next two days.
Before Herc and I could leave, however, someone knocked on the roof of my truck. It was Adrian.
“Something you need, boss man?” I asked, with an emphasis on the need since I was ready to call it a day. Plus, I really didn’t want to talk to him ‘cause I was still raw from the last twenty-four hours.
“You got a minute?”
“What for?”
“Come inside for a sec?”
“Why?”
“Look, just humor me, okay? Please?”
“Fine.” I opened the door without waiting for him to back away. Good thing Adrian was pretty nimble.
“Jesus, Trev. Warn a guy, would you?”
“Let’s get this done, okay? I’m hungry and tired. It’s been a f****d-up day.” I followed him back to the trailer. Adrian sat behind his desk and I stood in front of it, arms crossed.
“Okay, I’m here. What’s up?”
“Would you sit down, at least?”
“Is this gonna take long?”
“No.”
“I’ll stand.”
“f**k, you’re stubborn.”
“That all you wanted to say to me? It’s not news.”
“No, just…” Adrian ran his hands through his hair, which was usually a sign of stress, or an unpleasant task he was about to perform.
“I’m sorry.” Okay, that, I didn’t expect.
“Sorry for what?” I let my hands fall to the side.
“I’m sorry for being a condescending prick.” That’s a first.
I couldn’t help needling him, just a little. “It’s part of your charm.”
“Cut me some slack, would you? Last night, as I was lying in bed with Brandon, it occurred to me that I shouldn’t have said all that s**t to you yesterday. It’s no business of mine how you lead your life, and I should just butt out.” Of course, he had to mention Brandon. I let him sweat a little and said nothing.
“Will you accept my apology?” he pushed, after ten seconds of silence.
“That all you got?”
“What more do you want?”
“Maybe a little bit more honesty, like you mean it.”
“Of course I mean it.”
“Whatever. We done?”
“Guess so.”
I went over to the trailer door and opened it. I heard Adrian say, “Why can’t you just—” but I slammed the door closed behind me, cutting off the rest of whatever he said. My life was in an upheaval, and he wasn’t helping.
As I drove home, I realized that I needed to talk to someone. Not Adrian, who, frankly, I could do without seeing for a few days. I didn’t have anyone close, because I deliberately kept things casual. The only family I had still living was my dad, and he was in prison. I wanted nothing to do with him, no matter how many letters he wrote begging for forgiveness for deserting me and my mom when I was five. I would never, ever forgive him.
I wondered if it was too soon to call Grant. s**t.
- Writer
