Little Miss Babysitter

-- 10 --

"Aright, aright. I got one. --What did they call the polar bear who lived at the south pole, and then the north pole?" Perry flashed his award winning smile, momentarily blinding me.

I chewed my lip, searching my eyelids for any possible answer. A polar bear? Poles... Two poles.. Oh m-

"A bi-polar bear!" We shouted in unison, our wicked laughter sounding as mad as a group of witches on a frantic Halloween night.

"Damn, girl! You're good at those." He licked his muddy lips, and smiled again. He clawed out his signature pair of shades, and popped them on his nose.

We sat in a fairly thick silence for a while, every exhaled breath turning into puffs of smog in front of our very eyes. Screw this cold weather.

"Do you..." He says freely, swabbing over the awkwardness of the eerie quiet with his carefree, lax attitude. "D'ya want some food?"

"We got time?" I erected my spine, digging my elbows into my knees. I ignored the constant throbbing in my wrist, irritated to the maximum. It acted as a cruel reminder of the little stunt I pulled at my house that will cost us an $8,500 renovation fee. Cool.

" 'Bout 15 minutes. There's a Starbucks up here." He proposed, shaking his sunglasses lower so that I could look him in the eyes through the miniature mirror, just short of the windshield.

"Okay." I smiled warily, wondering myself where we could possibly park a car the size of a miniature Spanish country.

He grunted, sensing my thoughts, and I blushed a deep violet. "There's a parking garage somewhere up here. My buddy is the managing valet up there."

I nodded in response, scooting over to look out the window.

Crunchy looking leaves floated leisurely down onto the sidewalk, only to be trashed under someone's worn boot in the next moment. The shattered fragments picked up in the brisk wind, drifting away, never to be heard of again.

'Parking from 1 to 10' was advertised just above a sleek looking gate, perhaps freshly painted with an ebony gloss. Perry rolled his window down fully, chatting about nonsense with one of the workers. I paid absolutely no attention, my mind filtering through ideas to think about, one by one. None of them seemed worth while of my time, so I just sat there, entertaining myself by picking at my finger nails.

"Okay, baby cheeks. Hope on out." Perry mooed abruptly, shocking me back into the real world.

I slipped through the open door, and shrugged on my jacket. It was then that I noticed the intrigued, and somewhat aroused looks I was getting from the parking valets.

I swear; one of them howled.

"C'mon." Perry took no notice however, guiding me to the exit and into the street.

Hoards of bustling people rushed to and from their destinations, cursing me to get out of their way. I was tossed and turned from side to side, searching helplessly for that dark skinned chauffeur I so desperately needed to see.

Negatory.

A shadow of a hand appeared on my vision, and I reached for it, only to be throttled to the side of the sidewalk where I caught my breath.

"You crazy." Perry breathed heavily, slapping me on the shoulder. "You want a coffee?" 

"Whatever." I gnawed on my lip, sounding a bit more pissed off than I'd intended. He narrowed one of his eyebrows, before urging me onwards and into the coffee joint.

The captivating aroma of fresh coffee beans stirred my senses, and I was suddenly awake, just by the scent. We waited patiently in line, and by patiently, I mean tapping our feet disruptively, clacking our thumbs, and overall, whipping up random conversations to corrupt the ongoing peacefulness of the shop. A few dirty glares were cast our way, but we simply shooed them off.