Cupcake Explosion (Cupcakes 4)

“I’ll text you if I find anything,” she replied, holding up the note, then slipping it in her pocket.

I looked up at the clock, saw I was in danger of keeping Carmen, who was perpetually early, waiting, and said my goodbyes.

When I got home, Carmen was waiting as expected, but when I pulled out the box of cupcakes, she quickly forgave me.

“Oh, cupcakes,” she said as she followed me into the house. “Can I have one?”

I gave an exaggerated sigh and said, “I guess so . . .”

We took our cupcakes to go and headed out toward the gas station.

Carmen chose the German chocolate cupcake, and I went with the chai latte cupcake, one of my old favorites. Of course, I’d eaten the custard filled on the way home, but Carmen didn’t need to know that.

“Shoot,” Carmen said as we got closer to the station.

“What is it?” I asked, glancing at her.

“It’s gone.”

“What?”

“The car isn’t there.”

I looked up, passed the gas station, and although we weren’t close enough to see a lot of detail, I could definitely tell that there was no longer a burnt car sitting in the field next to the station.

“What the hell?”

I sped up and pulled into the gas station, tires squealing, and jumped out of the van before it was even fully stopped.

Carmen was on my heels as I whipped open the door and stormed inside.

“Where is it?” I asked Junior, who was behind the counter drinking a cup of coffee and reading a magazine.

“Told you to be here at dusk,” he said with a half shrug.

“The hell you did,” I countered. “You said after dark.”

“Pretty sure I said dusk.”

“Who the hell says dusk, no one, that’s who . . . certainly not you. You said, and I quote, they’ll be here after dark so they can’t be seen and cops aren’t around, or something like that.”

“Mmmmm, I don’t think so.”

Carmen walked up and slammed her hand on the counter. Both Junior and I jumped at the loud clap.

“Quit lying. You know you said dark, not dusk, so stop avoiding the question and tell us what happened,” she seethed.

Wow, she’s really good at this.

Junior looked up at her with admiration, and what looked like lust.

Ewwww . . . I gagged but managed not to throw up in my mouth.

He let out a sigh.

“Look, they showed up early, okay? What was I supposed to do, run out there and say, hey, can you wait for this crazy red-haired chick to get here so she can follow you home? No, I don’t think so. There was nothing I could do about it. They came, they towed, and they left.”

I will not cry, I will not cry.