Word Count: 60,059
Summary of Events:
Axel paid a visit to the injured truck driver, who was alert and able to talk but, unfortunately, had no memory of the collision whatsoever. Madeleine was called by Nellie, who confirmed she could delay up to November, but Madeleine felt troubled when she realised that it would take eight hours driving for Erik to deliver her to the nearest international airport. Axel ended up meeting Cheryl's only daughter on Thanksgiving; he was surprised at how pretty she was, but wasn't really interested in her, even when she followed him outside to chat privately . . .
Excerpt of the Day:
“Mom says you don’t have a girlfriend,” she said.
Axel said nothing. He felt indignant, even if unsurprised. He was sure Cheryl wanted to see the two of them come together as a couple, but he certainly didn’t like Cheryl’s fingers being in it, he wanted it to be natural.
“She’s surprised,” she added. “And now that I’ve seen you, so am I.”
“Really,” Axel said, flinging the end of his cigarette into the fire pit.
“When I first heard you didn’t have a girlfriend I expected it was because you looked a lot more like your uncle, a nice guy, but lacking in looks,” she replied. “It’s probably because he’s so fat, and old. It’s kind of interesting how all of those people are so nice, though, I guess it’s easy to be nice when you don’t care what people think about your looks anymore.”
Axel gave a subtle shrug to his shoulders, but he doubted Jordyn had any idea he’d moved.
“I must’ve seemed disinterested to her, because she started to build you up, especially in advance of my coming here, talking about how you were kind of Thor-like,” she continued. “But, you’re not.”
Startled, Axel felt slightly insulted; more by the tone of what she’d said than the fact that she had just told him she didn’t think he looked like Thor.
“Because Thor would be blonde, with blue eyes, and a beard,” she went on. “In that way, based on the movies particularly, you look more like Loki, honestly, but you’re not him either.”
The explanation made Axel feel better. He was going to have questioned all the appearances of affection Jordyn had put on all afternoon — and the fact that she’d just said she was surprised that he didn’t have a girlfriend — if she’d gone on to suggest that he was ugly.
“To liken you to a superhero, you’re more like Batman,” she said. “To liken you to a movie character, you’re kind of almost like Thorin Oakenshield. You’re a dark and brooding type, and absolutely drop-dead handsome.”
Axel yielded to her feather-light finger on his jaw and turned to look at her eyes, dark like smouldering embers despite the moist air; she had all her seductive powers on overdrive, he could tell, and it was all he could do not to give in to them.
“So why don’t you have a girlfriend?” she whispered.
Tilting his head, Axel got free of her touch and turned his gaze back to the fire pit.
“Where exactly are the attractive young women around here?” he asked after a lingering silence. “I know of one young woman and no attractive ones.”
Jordyn gasped in an insulted way. Axel turned to see her looking quite upset.
“I’m not talking about you,” Axel said. “I said around here. You don’t live around here, you’re just visiting around here.”
“Well then who were you talking about?” she demanded, the insult clear in her voice.
“The woman who helps milk our cows,” Axel replied.
“Oh,” she said, although she sounded disbelieving.
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