Ashley's Deal

Chapter Two

Two years passed, and Ashley didn’t sleep with anyone else.

She was busy with work. She had a full life. She had her deal, and that meant she didn’t need to prove anything to herself, and she suspected sometimes that was what David intended all along. That the deal was an outlet, like a safety valve that would never actually be used.

She did look at women sometimes, and wonder, but she never did anything. She never met the right person, the one she wanted enough to make confronting the consequences worthwhile. Because there might be consequences, even now. She wasn’t sure David would react as calmly as he thought he would, if she ever put him to the test.

When she did think about their deal, she didn’t know what to think. Sometimes it made her seem selfish, and quite a horrible person. Someone who wanted her own way even if it hurt other people. Sometimes she thought it was a good thing. That she and David were both pragmatic, and this was a sensible solution to a problem that could have wrecked them, but instead had made their relationship stronger. She didn’t know what to think, so usually she didn’t think about it at all. They were still together, and she didn’t think many other couples like them still would be, and that made it worthwhile.

Two years passed, and then Ashley was in a car accident, and suddenly everything was different.

*

Ashley was in her car, driving to work, and there was a truck in the lane next to her. She had been watching the truck because it was wobbling a bit, not staying on its side of the white line. It was rusty and dented, and had chipped paint, like it had hit a lot of things before. She could see the driver, up in the cab. He was on the phone, and seemed to be looking down at something inside the truck. He wasn’t watching the road.

Ashley stopped for a red light, and the truck didn’t.

Ashley had no time to think what to do.

She stopped, and the truck kept going. It hit a car coming the other way, spun that car into Ashley’s, and braked then, far too late. Ashley noticed the brake lights come on just as she felt the thud of the other car hitting hers. She didn’t hear anything, which was odd, just silence. She spun around, spun sideways, and wondered what was going to happen now.

She was calm. She was faintly surprised. She looked straight ahead, out her windscreen, and into the other car. There was a woman there looking back at her. A woman with short messy hair, short polished nails, and lots and lots of dark eye makeup. Stunning eyes. Eyes you noticed, even from the next car over, during an accident.

It was an odd thing to notice, Ashley thought, someone else’s makeup and eyes, since they might both be about to die.

The woman in the other car was looking at Ashley too. She saw Ashley looking, and smiled. She seemed as surprised as Ashley was, as unhurt as Ashley was. She raised one hand in a slight wave.

They must both be in shock, Ashley decided. They were grinning at each other and waving as their cars spun around and around.

They spun several times, and Ashley stopped with a sudden crunch. That hurt, although the rest hadn’t. She had hit a traffic light pole. She saw it coming towards her slowly, like it was slow motion, saw the door beside her elbow bulging inwards, saw the plastic lining buckle and crack. The window starred, then shattered into diamond flecks. The windscreen shattered too.

The airbags in her car went off and hid the view of the other car. She was still quite calm. She didn’t think she’d made a sound through the whole thing.