“Things with Angela? They are going pretty well. The ol’ Bernard charm is working its magic. Just like at Cornell. What happened at Cornell? Huh! I haven’t mentioned that before? Oh, well there was this girl who sat next to me in American history. Total babe. Like a 38 out of 10. Anyway, she was Asian, so after class one day when we were all alone, I sang her “Mr. Roboto” Szechwan style. Suffice to say, she….you know, said that I was nice, but that she was just coming out of a breakup. I….totally understood, of course. So yeah, things with Angela are going good. I totally rescued her yesterday. Has she mentioned that?

As Andy walked out of the office building, singing “Behind These Hazel Eyes,” he noticed that it had begun to snow, and wrapped his jacket tighter around himself.

“Arrrrggggh!”

He looked over and saw Angela, next to her car, whose hood was propped open. She stood on her tiptoes, body pressed up against the grill, trying to reach something near the engine.

He briskly walked over, a grin on his face. “Whoa, Angela…the handy man is here, what seems to be the problem?”

She turned in surprise at his words, and looked at him with a face that was flushed with anger, and the sting of the cold wind that whipped through the parking lot.

“It’s…my car…” she stuttered angrily, “my car won’t work…and I don’t know how…” She looked to be on the verge of tears.

“Let me help m’lady. May I have the keys?”

She handed them to him wordlessly.

“Alrighty, let me have a look.” He opened her driver door and slid the seat back so he could fit in. When he put the key into the ignition and turned it, nothing happened. No sounds, no lights, it was absolutely dead.

“See what I mean?!” Angela exclaimed loudly from in front of the car. Her voice crackled with emotion, and the words brought a swirl of steam from her mouth, which framed her desperate features. Andy nodded back, and got out.

“I think your battery is dead, Angela. But! I’ve got jumper cables, so let me just bring the Xterra around, and I’ll fix you up, okay?”

She smiled a little. “Okay, thank you Andy,”

“My pleasure, madam.” He doffed an invisible cap and jogged to his car.

He parked the Xterra next to her car, and popped the hood. As he was coming around his car, with the jumper cables in hand, he noticed that she was hugging herself and shivering.

“Angela, I turned on the heat, why don’t you climb in the ‘terra and warm yourself up?”

She looked at him, and then at his car nervously. “Oh, I…I don’t that would be proper of me to get into your car.”

Andy smiled warmly, and dropped his eyes to the snowy pavement. “It’s just you’re petite and small. So…you’re probably cold, and I don’t want to see you freeze, or anything.”

Angela took one more look at the Xterra, rubbed her arms with her hands, and nodded. She walked the few paces over to the passenger side door, and climbed in. Andy smiled, and unspoiled the cables.

He wasn’t sure if you were supposed to attach the clamps to a car that was already running, but as he leaned to the left, so that he could see past the hood and to where Angela was warming her hands in the car, he figured it was worth the risk. He squinted and braced himself as he attached the clamps, but nothing happened. His shoulders slumped in relief.

Angela looked over as he climbed into the driver’s seat, and scooted closer to the door, but kept her hands over the heater. A silence hung between them for several seconds.

“I-I like your car.” She looked over quickly, but when he met her gaze, her eyes went to her hands.

“Oh, thanks, yeah…it’s Japanese.”

“I like that it’s not a two-seater.” She said quietly.

Andy looked behind him at the empty seats. “Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I bought it. Uh, especially this time of year, you know, um, toy drives for children.”

Angela nodded and let out a little sigh as her hands continued to warm over the heater. As Andy watched her, he suddenly thought of an idea.

“You know what might help you warm up, if I held your hand, you know? Um, ninety-eight point six.” He offered his hand gingerly over the center console.

Angela looked at it and swallowed a mouthful of air. Her hand slowly drifted away from the heater and towards him, but just as her fingertips began to graze the soft skin of his palm, she pulled back.

“Maybe you should check my car….please.” The words came out quickly, and she pushed open the passenger door, and got out of the Xterra even quicker.

Andy followed, and grinned happily when her car roared to life as he turned the key this time. With a squeak of a ‘thank you’ Angela got in.

As he watched her drive away through the ever-thickening flurry of snowflakes, colored orange by the streetlight, Andy smiled to himself, and began to hum “The Rose.”