Free Nerd Girl by Jemma Bell

distance, because she’s not sure of my intentions yet. I plan on making those intentions clear to her before the day is over. Damn Mitzi for fucking things up last night. When I could finally speak again, I told Mitzi that I couldn’t deal with her shit right now and that we would talk tomorrow after the shoot. She stomped her high heeled shoes and shrieked at me, but I gave Riven the nod, and we rolled out of there. Once the shoot was over, Mitzi pounced, spouting some bullshit about Amy having nothing on her and that I’d be crawling back to her as soon as my “little crush” was over. While explaining to Mitzi that going forward, our relationship would be purely professional, she, of course, threw another temper tantrum and started shrieking that nobody treats her this way. I walked away after that, tired of her shit. I think a phone call to her boss is in order come Monday morning. If this is the crap I’m going to have to put up with, I’d rather be assigned a new handler. A harsh lesson learned…never assume it’s a no strings attached thing…there are always strings. Somebody, somehow, always gets hurt.
    Happy to be away from Mitzi’s drama, I made a little pit stop to get something special for Amy. It’s something we can add to as our relationship develops. I wanted her to know that she’s special and that I’m all hers if she’ll have me. It’s pushing about 2:30 pm when we get on the road and I did promise to feed my girl. My girl. Man, I like the sound of that and it’s what I consider her. I’m just waiting for her to catch on. We drive in silence, just listening to the music on the radio. She keeps wringing her hands together in her lap. Soon she’ll realize she has no reason to be nervous.
    New Jersey is famous for its old-fashioned diners. They have anything and everything you can think of on the menu. I take her to my favorite one because it’s 50’s themed and makes you feel like you’re in an episode of
Happy Days.
    “Wow, this place is incredible and I’m starving.”
    “Yeah, it is pretty cool. Wait until you see the inside. The food is good too.” I skip around the front of the car, open the door and give her my hand. We walk hand in hand with our fingers laced together into the diner where a friendly hostess greets us. The sound of glasses being clunked together and the jingle of silverware being sorted follow us to our corner booth. Seating us at a small booth with our personal jukebox attached to the table, she hands us menus.
    “I love the atmosphere here, feels like you’ve stepped out of time for a bit. I feel as if I should be wearing saddle shoes and a poodle skirt.”
    “I think you’d look hot wearing a poodle skirt!” We both have a laugh about that and the fact Amy thinks I would have made a great, bad boy greaser if we were living in the 1950’s.
    “The only thing missing is the music,” she says, so I reach over and drop four quarters into our jukebox. We flip the pages, perusing the songs available. We make our selection and the first song to play is Buddy Holly’s song ‘Peggy Sue.’ Eventually, our waitress comes to take our orders. Amy goes with a french dip, fries and a vanilla shake. I order tuna on whole wheat, side salad and water with lemon. I’m still in training and can only cheat at meals occasionally. The conversation flows smoothly and we share more and more about ourselves.
    Amy was raised by her grandparents, GG and Pops, who sound like a great couple. Hearing about how her mother passed away and her father abandoned her just about broke my heart. I shared my family situation as well; Mom was a single parent who raised me and my sister while working two jobs to keep a roof over our heads. Things are better now that my career is so successful and I can send money back to them in West Virginia to help out.
    “So, what do you feel like doing now?” I ask her after we’ve finished eating.
    “Hmm, well, how do you feel about bowling? I