I stared at her, the tone of her voice made it clear she was pissed off and I was about to say something smart but decided against it, instead I spoke quietly and slowly.
'He has gone on a breakdown, he tried to ring and he then sent you a text saying get Sam I think he said to drop you at home not the yard'
Maxine glared at me
'I have had no text and no missed calls'
She grabbed her phone an looked at it, I could see from the look on her face that she had an issue.
She swore
'fuck the battery is flat'
I reached in the desk and passed her a charger for the first time she smiled and said
'thanks, sorry for snapping but I was expecting a lift home, how long is he going to be'
I looked at her, dare I tell her or wait for him to call her, I decided the truth was the best plan.
'He said its a couple of hours to the port and a couple back so late afternoon is my guess'
She stared at her phone,
'yep seems that is his guess too, and now i have seen the messages'
I looked at her
'I know where you guys live I can run you home if you want, normally Alice my missus and I go out Saturday lunch, but she is away at a spa weekend with some mates so I am doing nothing anyway'
Maxine looked at me, the first genuine smile of the day crossed her lips
'Oh Paul that would be amazing, but do you know how far it is'
I laughed
'yeh I do, I dropped Mark off a few weeks ago so I know where you live,
let m just lock up and the charge for the lift will be one cup of coffee when I get you there'
She laughed now
'cheeky twat, but its a fair deal'
Ten minutes later we were walking across the car park.
She looked at me, then at the pink Fiat 500, then back at me and laughed
'surely not'
I grinned
'not normally, that is Alice's baby but she is taking three mates this weekend so my old bus is on duty there and I have perky here'
She looked at me
'perky'
I smiled
'old reference from before your time, pinky and perky were small cartoon pigs on telly'
no more said and she was folding her long jodhpur clad legs into the front seat of perky.
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