Hisquestion had turned into us going out rather than get a takeaway. Itwas a lovely Cuban restaurant with small tables and the rooms werecandlelit. It was called Cha Cha Cha. There weren't just candles onthe walls but also on the tables, which were surrounded by bright,fake flowers. The cushioned wooden chairs were comfy and the food wasamazing. I had some spicy chicken dish with black beans in rice. Thearomas of spice delicately filled the air. The Cubans loved theirmeat so I had a good half a plate of chicken. Jack had pork stew withstrange vegetables I couldn't name just by looking. We both hadHavana Coolers to drink though I think mine had been given an extrashot of Rum.

Itseemed neither of us really knew what to talk about for awhile untilwe'd been sat down for about fifteen minutes. It felt like a longfifteen minutes too. I started our current conversation off bysaying, 'So how is it you don't work? Ya know I'm justcurious.'

Hetook a sip and put down his glass with a smile. 'I don't needto.' I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. 'Going to college awayfrom home was my idea.' I thought he had changed the subject but helinked it back to his previous answer. 'I just wanted to get awayfrom my family. Live my own life without them muzzling in all thetime.'

Ithought about how much his mum looked out for him whenever they werein the same room. And then I remembered how much my mum tried to carefor me whilst at the same time avoiding pissing off my dad. 'It'sonly because they love you.'

Hegave a short huff of disbelieving laughter. 'Not exactly. I knowmost of what they did when they were a bit older than I am now. Youdo know they were on the wanted list?'

Notwanting to say too much on that, I kept my answer short. 'Somethingalong those lines I guess.'

'Yehand they risked so much just to live back here again. Their lives,their family and even their way of life. In some ways that's moreimportant to them. I just wanted a normal life, even if it was forlike three years, I could do whatever I wanted and no one around totell me otherwise.'

Itwas just then that I realised he hadn't actually answered myquestion. 'And that stops you getting a job... how?'

'Itdoesn't, I suppose but I don't really need money. I have way toomuch of it.'

Ibecame a little intrigued; not selfishly, just at how someone soyoung could say he had too much money. I mean, he was twenty-five,near enough. 'Is that the reason for the flashy car and theexpensive parts?' I asked, trying not to sound too imposing.

'Eh,I guess. Like I said, I've been around cars my entire life. It'sthe one thing I know better than anything else.'

'Isthat so bad?'

Hemet my gaze for the first time since I asked him my question. Therewas a slight tilt to his head and his face was expressionless apartfrom his eyes. It was like he was trying to tell me something and yethe probably wouldn't so openly. I leant back casually thoughfeeling uncomfortable inside. 'Not really. It's a lifestyle Ithrive on but it's meant I've missed out on a few things.'

Mylips began to open to ask the next obvious question but my headsnapped it shut. My heart wanted to know but my head knew it was abad idea; I listened to my head this time. That was when our foodarrived and we fell silent again though for a shorter time.

'Didyou go to college?'

Iate a bit more then answered him. 'I did one year. Then droppedout.'

'MayI ask why?'

AsI spoke, I drew my fork through my chicken. 'I don't really knowto be honest. I think I just didn't feel like I fitted in. Ofcourse I kept the friends I made at college. It never really crossesmy mind to go back. I have my own flat, two cars, a good paying job,close friends...'

'Oneof them now being me,' he interrupted. His voice told me he wasjust trying to make me feel better than I probably looked.

Witha simple smile, I continued. 'Yes and my life just makes sense,most of the time.' I thought back to when mum left and it was justme and dad; I hated what happened, I only wish mum had took me withher even when I knew why she had to leave me behind.

'Butis it all that you want it to be?'

'Whatdo you mean?'

Heimmediately decided what he asked was a bad idea. 'Oh, nothing. Itdoesn't matter. I can see that you're happy. And knowing aboutwhen you were a kid, it makes me happy for you too.'

Notknowing what he meant by that and my head still deciding I didn'tneed to know too much, I sat there in silence pondering on what hemight have said and finished eating my dinner.

Neitherof us felt like dessert so we paid the bill (I insisted on paying myhalf) and quietly left. Jack had only had one drink whereas he hadordered me a second without really asking me if I wanted another. Hehelped me into his car, which made me feel a lot more ladylike than Ihad in a long time, and walked around to get behind the wheel.

'Whereto now?' he asked, buckling himself in.

'Idunno.' Then I had an idea. 'How about that drive you wanted totake me on?'

Wemirrored the other's smile as we glanced at each other. 'Fine byme. Did you think of anywhere in particular?'

'Notreally, I thought you might just drive wherever you felt like so Inever gave it any thought as to where.' With that he started thecar and we made our way onto the Santa Monica Freeway. That was theonly road he drove on after getting onto it. We were headed westwhich meant he had decided on ending up in Santa Monica itself. Iknew I had been there a few times but I didn't remember much aboutthe place. At the end of the freeway was the pier and aquarium. Therewere a few nice eateries and hotels around that small area as wellbut that was all I remembered, everything else was a distant blurfrom the past.

Possiblythe most exciting thing about this particular freeway around LA wasthat it formed part of Route 66. I had always wanted to drive thefull length of that famous and historic route, from start to finish(or finish to start depending on how you looked at it and where youwere from). However, I had never actually planned it in my headenough to make a final decision and do it. It was just short of twothousand, five hundred miles (or just short of four thousandkilometres) which meant a lot of money, water, fuel, pit stops (forother reasons) and motels. It was impossible to do the route in asingle day although there have been many that have tried.

AsI thought about this, I paid less attention to Jack's driving andspent my time staring out of the window into the passing sceneryoutside. Now and again I would look up at the sky but there wasnothing to see tonight as it was overcast by clouds. They didn'tappear to be very thick, since I could still make out the moon'soutline, yet the stars were not visible from the cover. I did notethat Jack hadn't put on any music, nor even had he switched theradio on at all. I didn't mind; the rumble of the engine and hisgear changes was a calming sound and I felt the thunder of them racethrough my blood like oil round an engine.

'You'revery quiet,' he pointed out as we pulled up in a huge parking lotright on the beach front.

'Iwas just chilling.'

'Chilling?'

'Yeh.You weren't driving like an idiot so I could just relax.'

Hislips pressed together and he looked at me with the definite hint ofannoyance. I simply smiled as I unclipped my belt. We were both soonout of the car and walking towards the sand. There were a few othercars in the lot and you could just about see the silhouettes of smallgroups of people off in the distance on the shoreline. Some were alsocouples and it made me feel a bit queasy and uncomfortable but Iwasn't going to let it show. We didn't wander too far from thecar park and the patch of beach we were on was rather narrow comparedto the rest to the north. This meant we were now on the edge of theshoreline. It was odd to think that the sea we could see was actuallythe North Pacific Ocean. It was fairly calm tonight so the sound ofwaves was calming and tranquil. To our right was a lifeguard standand to our left were the pier and the small boardwalk which led ontothe pier from this side.

Thegiggling of girls somewhere off to the right reminded me of whatAlison and Jasmine had asked me. 'Is there a race this weekend?'I asked.

Jackseemed to be heading towards the lifeguard stand so I followedbehind. 'Not that I know of. Why? Do you want to try and beat me?'

'Pfft.That will be settled on our own. No, my friends were complaining thatI never bring them along.'

'Ah.'He sat down on the bottom few steps to the stand. 'Have youbefore.'

Ileant against the banister. 'A couple of times. They aren'tinterested in cars at all. They like the lads and the atmosphere morethan anything. Plus they don't really believe that I'm not theonly female driver.'

'Don'tthey have boyfriends?'

'Haha,no. And neither do I but it's not a big deal for me. Anyway, I wasasking because the next time there is one, I need to remember tobring them along. Just to shut them up. They will more than likelyget lost among the amount of people that turn up at the races.'

'Istill don't see how you got into cars in the first place. Yourfriends seemed more the girly girl kind than tomboys.'

'Iam not a tomboy. I sort of got into cars through my job rather thanthe other way around which is the case for my co-workers. I don'texactly do my cars up myself.' I rested my arms on the handrail andleant my chin on my arms, looking down at him as he lounged backwardsagainst the other banister.

Scuffinghis foot through the sand, he seemed to remember something himself.'Have you ever done Race Wars?'

Ihad never heard of that. 'No, what is it?'

Hislaughter was so genuine that it made me feel humiliated. 'Seriously?You street race but you've never heard of Race Wars?' I merelystared at him. 'Hmm. It's up in San Bernardino, on the airbase.There's a couple every year. It's meant to stop kids from streetracing and gives them a chance to race the cops outright in a quartermile drag race.'

'Ha,its main purpose doesn't seem to work then.'

'Nobut it gives us something to aim for every three months or so. Itused to be every half year but the cops realised it wasn't oftenenough. Anyway, there's one in a couple of months. They might enjoythat a bit better. The next street race is a couple of weeks. Gottakeep off the radar, so Ed says.'

'Youknow Ed?'

'Allthe serious racers know Ed. They just don't necessarily now eachother. I usually park a distance from the race line so you should beable to find me next time you're out.' It was obvious why he wastelling me this.

'Cool.Depending on my mood, I turn up early or late. If I'm early, I parkup in the middle and if I'm late I park up where my race friendsare. They always save me a spot.'

Hesuddenly got his phone out and quickly sent a text. 'Think you'llhave enough cash for a race in two weeks then?'

Ithought about it. 'Hmm, thanks to you, I might possibly haveenough. Why?'I asked suspiciously.

'Oh,nothing.' Rolling my eyes, I looked over to the salt water and leftit at that. It was clear that the whole of today and tonight was notgoing to be normal or easy-going whatsoever.

Inmy head, I was very confused. On the one hand, I really Jack; he wasfunny and we understood each other even if not a hundred per cent. Wehad a lot in common and he made me feel more than just a girl workingin a car parts store. However, on the other hand, I felt like hanginground with him could make things overly complicated and, perhaps,everything could go wrong over night. That's how my more cautiousside felt when were got close to each other. It wasn't because itwas him but of his family and what I knew they had been through inthe past. It might have been about twenty years ago yet I didn'tknow how they went from being on the run to back where they belonged.I wasn't even sure I was attracted to him in any sort of way otherthan us being friends, and close friends by the rate the last fewweeks had gone.

'Ishould probably head home soon,' he said just as we heard his phonego off. He ignored it.

'Family?'

'Yeh.'

'Youknow it's only because they care about you. From the little you'vetold me, they just don't want to see you get into the trouble theydid.'

'ButI do keep out of trouble. It just seems like trouble just follows myfamily.'

Ididn't mean to smile but it wasn't at what he said but rather athis reaction to what he was saying; as though he didn't believe hewas blabbing off to me and we hardly knew each other personally. Thelaughter that had been in the distance sounded a lot closer now and Iwas scared our privacy would soon disappear. I was even surprisedthat I was thinking about it; about how much I really liked beingaround him on my own.

Jackstood up, brushed off some sand from his jeans and walked around meto head back to his car. 'You coming?'

Slippingmy hand into his (he was only a couple of feet away), I looked himgently in the eyes and gave him a thin smile. We walked closely sideby side all the way to his car where he let my hand go and went roundto the driver's side. 'Jack?'

'Hmm.'

Iknew I was asking this, it wasn't out of spontaneity. 'Do youwanna stay over tonight?' I was asking because I felt a littlesorry for him; sorry that he had such a locally famous family andreputation to live up to and there a little physical sign that it wasa burden on his shoulders.

'Letme think about it on the way back.' That was fine by me and, as Ithought about it myself, the next thing I knew was that we were onceagain roaring along the freeway back to LA.

*****