Pedro Pascal One-Shots

Bad Day

Today is awful. Dreadful, even. Car is in the shop. Bombed an important job interview. Spilled coffee down the front of me, but at least on the bright side it was after the job interview, not before. The white blouse I'm wearing would say otherwise.

I drag myself down the sidewalk, ready to give up. I shouldn't have gotten out of bed to begin with. I thought today would be a perfect day because the sun is out, it's warm, and although I didn't have a car, it was good enough to weather to walk to my interview. None of it went as planned. Even the sun was giving up on me when it hid behind a dark, storm cloud. The world around me dimmed until it was grim and dreary. What's the worst thing that could happen to me? The sky open up?

A downpour of rain cascaded down and drenched me like a bucket of water was poured over the top of my head. All I could do was stand there on the sidewalk while the water soaked through my clothes and filled my heels. There's literally nothing worse that could happen right now.

A car passing by ran through a puddle and a fan of water sloshed me. It would have been more exciting if I was at a water park...

I continued to just stand there, pitifully, looking much like a drowned rat. If only there was a piece of wood around me that I could knock on.

Another car was approaching. I tense up and squeeze my eyes shut, waiting to be drenched again. I hear the car but it doesn't pass. I peak one eye open to see that the car has pulled up to the curb. It's a sporty, sleek black Audi. The tinted window rolls down to reveal a man wearing a pair of sunglasses that covered his eyes. He looks familiar. Short wispy hair covered his head, a band of patchy facial hair covering his chin and a groomed mustache above his upper lip. Older man, probably somewhere in his forties.

"Bad day?" He calls out from the drivers seat.

I hold my arms out to the side. "You can tell?"

He gives out a chuckle. "You look pitiful."

I stand there just taking the hits. Any other time I'd take offense to that kind of comment, but today it's true, and very difficult to deny.

"I'd like to offer you a ride if that's comfortable with you," he says.

The rain continues to pour down on me. At this point my clothes are completely soaked.

I reach down to the hem of my blouse and twist it up tight until water is forced out of the fibers and splattering onto the concrete to join the rain. "I'm drenched. I wouldn't want to ruin your leather seats."

He shakes his head. "I could care less."

I sigh and step off of the sidewalk and grip the door handle. A wave of warmth exited the car and enveloped me. I carefully sit down in the seat, steadily pull the heels off my feet and dump the water out of them before putting them back on and shutting the door.

The man carefully reaches across and aims the vents towards me. I know my manners but for some reason my throat closes up and I couldn't get a word out to even say 'thanks'. It was such a sweet gesture that I guess it took me aback.

Out of my peripheral I see him slide his sunglasses off and slip them into an above compartment specifically for glasses. "You let me know if you need me to turn the heat up," he says.

I wanted to see him without his sunglasses, so I took this as a good opportunity to turn my head towards him. Nearly at the same time he turns his head too, revealing a pair of chocolate brown eyes. They look kind and warm. I suddenly feel safe. A man with those kind of eyes couldn't harm a fly.

"You look awfully cold." He pulls his black sweatshirt off to reveal a purple Lakers t-shirt underneath and then hands me the sweatshirt. "You can put it on or lay it on your lap like a blanket, whatever-whatever you want, really." His slight stutter led me to assume he was feeling nervous, especially when he shifts in his seat after.