The crowd dispersed slowly, talking quietly but animatedly about what had just transpired. The evening has certainly been far from dull.
In silence Jared and Douglas reached for their trench coats. Both had a lot to think about.
It was Douglas who broke the silence after a few long seconds. "I think your concept of ice queen and mine are different." Douglas slid his arms into his coat sleeves. "Never thought I'd ever say this to you, but you've made one hell of a mistake tonight." Jared poked his tongue in his cheek and tried not to dwell for too long on his friend's comment. But Douglas was not done. "You seriously turned down a date with her?" Douglas murmured, as he revisited the conversation and the way she had managed the old guys and handled Jared, "You're an idiot."
"I don't think she was after a date." Murmured Jared, but he too was starting to wonder whether going out with Caitlin might have been worth the experience.
She was wholly unexpected. The way she behaved was unexpected. Her fair play ethos was unexpected. He'd never had any woman go in to bat for him the way she'd just done. He'd made her the centre of gossip, tarnished her reputation, and still she hadn't let people accuse him unjustly. Being on the receiving end fair play where women were concerned was a new concept for Jared. Most were only too happy to find a reason to try to ensure he was indebted to them in some way or form.
Douglas quirked a brow, looked over at his friend and pointed out what he considered to be obvious, "She's got class." Jared threw him a warning look. The last thing he needed was a lecture right now. Douglas ignored Jared's glare and continued to list Caitlin's good points as if Jared had noticed them. "She's gorgeous, has spirit and plays fair." He told his friend as if those virtues were what interested both men.
"She's a conservative prig. To spare her blushes she probably only gets undressed in the dark." Jared snapped, his mind still on the fact that she had defended him. Jared figured he ought to stop revising his view of her. The last thing he wanted was to feel guilty. It was bad enough that hearing her defend him made him seriously reassess her.
After all that had happened this evening, she had still gone in to defend him. In public. Everyone knew he'd distanced himself from her and his opinion of her had circulated like wild fire. Despite that, here she was, standing up for him.
Douglas glanced at his friend with more than a hint of speculation in his eyes as he considered Jared's unfair comments. His friend seemed to be over-reacting.
"Even my grandmother wouldn't be caught wearing what she was wearing." Jared grumbled loudly. Caitlin was dressed conservatively, but then, given most of the women in Jared's circle tended to dress to flaunt their assets, anyone who covered more than strategic elements would be conservative! Jared knew he was being hypercritical.
"She's pretty damn beautiful, so what she wears is immaterial." Douglas told Jared with a snort of derision for his friend's obstinacy, "And your grandmother was..."
"Doug." Jared warned as he shrugged on his coat hoping to put an end to the conversation.
"Just calling it as it is." Douglas shrugged as he stated baldly.
The two men had known each other for years, so being honest was not an issue. But what was starting to register with Douglas was the fact that he and Jared appeared to be seeing the woman differently. That was unusual. For they were both usually good when it came to understanding characters and they usually saw the same thing.
They walked out to the car park and as luck would have it they had to pass by Caitlin's car to get to theirs. The four old guys were making heavy work of getting the spare tyre out of the boot Caitlin was standing by watching them. It was obvious she could have managed a lot better and a lot quicker without them, but it was equally obvious that she wanted them to feel they had helped her this evening. Once again Jared found himself wondering what made this woman tick. She was clearly very kind hearted. That just made him feel even worse. For his harsh treatment must have come as quite a shock to her.
"Need a hand?" Called Douglas before Jared could think to stop him.
"We're fine." Replied Neil, who was more that a little disgruntled to see who had offered help. But the reality was that it would take them ten times as long to get that tyre off. They'd only just managed to remove the hubcap. The problem was none of them wanted to loose face.
Without saying a word Jared reached for the jack. Now that Douglas had offered, they could hardly leave the geriatrics to do the job, especially given how long they were taking to just lift the tyre out of the boot!
"Now..."
"Uncle Neil." Warned Caitlin quietly. Her father's friends had insisted on changing the wheel. So she had stood and watched, allowing them their pride, when she knew she would have managed to change it in half the time. But it had been a long ten minutes as they had struggled to manhandle the spare tyre out of the boot of her car.
"I was..."
"I know...." Caitlin interrupted and gestured vaguely toward the two men who had just appeared. "But if they want to help, we should let them. Just to show there are no hard feelings." She added, hoping neither Jared nor his friend would object to being guilted into helping out.
The four old men grumbled. Then her pager went off. Now what, she wondered. Tonight really was turning out to be a bit of a nightmare. One thing after another. It wasn't as if she wanted to leave this particular group of men together. The four older ones might start on the two younger ones, again! She was pretty sure the two younger ones could take care of themselves, but she would rather not stand by and allow yet another scene to be created. She didn't want to head back into the hall and leave these men together. She imagined they'd start where they had left off. The last thing she needed was another argument between them.
"Any of you have a mobile I could borrow?" She asked the four elderly men.
Without a word, Jared handed her his mobile.
Reluctantly she reached for the phone he held out to her. She'd rather he hadn't reacted so quickly to her request. But now that he had it would be churlish to ignore the gesture of help. So she nodded and said, "Thanks." She took a couple of steps away from the group and with her back to them she dialed.
A few feet away, Jared loosened the bolts on the wheel before jacking the car up, but he could hear her conversation clearly. Something was wrong. He levered the wheel off. Tom and Neil rolled the spare toward him. But it was Douglas who crouched down to help Jared. Together they began to fit the spare.
A few seconds later Jared stood while Douglas tightened the bolts. Jared propped the deflated wheel against his leg and waited for her to step closer so that he could retrieve his phone.
"Everything ok?" He asked as she returned his phone.
"Thanks for the phone." Much to his annoyance and surprise Caitlin shrugged but didn't say anything more to him. Instead Caitlin then headed for her uncle, "Uncle Neil," She began quietly when she was within a couple of feet, "Can I ask a favour?" He nodded. "Could you wait for the roadside assist guys and then take my car home?" Her uncle had come with his friends in the one car and she knew they would be leaving late because they helped clear up at the end. "I need to get to the office, then the airport." She explained when she saw the question in his eyes. She handed him her car keys.
"What's happened?" He knew what she did for a living, knew that if she was in a rush, which clearly it appeared to be, then in all likelihood it was an emergency she was dealing with. And that meant something traumatic had happened.
Caitlin took a breath, then she explained quietly, "I'm meeting some families, arranging for them to get out there." The evening had just taken another poor turn. She was starting to think the day really was jinxed.
"Who?" He asked gently and draped an arm along her shoulder to give her a comforting hug.
"Not sure at the moment." She said somewhat sadly. Given the message she had just received, she was sure it would be people she knew. That had her thinking about what needed to be done, and the ridiculous nature of her earlier evening paled into insignificance. It was moments like this that put life into perspective. So people had gossiped about her this evening. It was hardly a life or death situation.
"How are you getting to the airport?" Her uncle frowned and glanced around as he tried to figure out what might be the best situation for his niece. "I could ask..."
"I'll get a taxi." Caitlin was a couple of steps ahead of her uncle's thinking. With her car out of action, she would have to find another way to get to the airport. Taxi would be expensive, but it looked like her only real option. Unless one of her father's friends volunteered to drive her.
"I'll take you." Came the voice from her right.
"No, thanks." She couldn't help the surprise, he was the last person she'd expect to volunteer. But neither was she willing to put up with his company, not after all that had happened this evening and not when she felt vulnerable given what she was going to be dealing with. She figured the best option would be to steer clear. Fewer complications.
"He heads the airport way." Douglas added for good measure, with a half-truth as he too was surprised to hear Jared offer to give her a lift to the airport. Looked like his friend had finally realized he'd made a big mistake earlier this evening.
"By the time a taxi gets here..." Jared trailed off deliberately.
Douglas listened to the exchange and smiled wryly. Jared waited for her response. He wasn't quite sure why he had volunteered, partly, he assumed, it was guilt. And it gave him an opportunity to apologise, in private. But even so, he was not sure why he was waiting with a fair amount of trepidation to see if she took him up on his offer. It wasn't as if he wanted to spend any more time with her. But he felt he should make amends or at the very least explain. Here was an opportunity to do just that. Still she said nothing. "I was leaving." Jared explained, still not sure why he was offering in the first place.
"If he's offering..." Her uncle added, even though he was baffled by this turn of events. He was even more baffled to find himself siding with Jared.
Caitlin hesitated for another second before she conceded. "Ok. Thanks."
She gave her uncle her roadside assist membership card. Then she followed Jared to his car. The three of them, Caitlin, Douglas and Jared walked the short distance to Jared's car, in silence. Douglas wished them a good night and then walked toward his car parked further along.
Jared opened the car door and held it ajar to allow her to climb in. As he closed the door he smiled, if anyone had told him that he'd be leaving this evening with this particular woman in his car, he'd have told them they were insane.