Anguna Cbbe checked her makeup in the rear view mirror. Her father griped at her whenever he caught her doing it, claiming that she’d kill herself, but he wasn’t here, and despite his protests of her impending doom by vanity, she only checked her makeup at red lights.

She moved the mirror back to see behind her, hung her hands over the steering wheel, and tilted her head back against the seat rest. It had been a very long day, and the evening didn’t look to be much better. She’d promised her best friend she’d go out for drinks with her new boyfriend, but she had an ugly feeling Betty was trying to set her up.

Again.

While she was musing about the last time Betty had tried this, the car behind her blared its horn. Despite her closed windows, she could hear the man in the car cursing her out. Sighing she put the car into gear and moved through the intersection. The car behind her jerked into the empty opposing lane, zoomed past her, and then cut sharply in front of her as traffic appeared around the corner.

“Jesus Christ,” she muttered to herself as he slammed on his brakes. “I don’t need this shit today.” As they arrived at the next intersection she kept slowing down, and as he went through the intersection she turned the wheel sharply to the right escaped down a cross street.

“What an asshole,” she muttered as she turned left to parallel her previous route.

She ended up at the bar without further incident but her already dark mood had soured further. When she stepped into the dark bar it took her a few moments to see Betty waving from a booth in the back. She sighed when she saw two men sitting with Betty. Anguna recognized Bozz, Betty’s latest dish right off, but although the man sitting with his back to the door looked strangely familiar, she didn’t think she knew who he was.

When Anguna got to the table Betty jumped up to give her a hug. “Bozz bought a friend along, I hope you don’t mind!” Betty said the same thing every time she did this, and it aways worked out very badly. At times she wonder if Betty was secretly punishing her for some past indiscretion.

Then Anguna looked at the man sitting at the table. It was the asshole who’d cut her off in traffic. He jumped out and sidled over to her. “The name’s Durian. You can call me Durian Smooth,” he said, pronouncing the word with about seven Os in the middle.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” said Anguna.

Without a further word she turned on her heel, marched out the door to her car, drove home, and went to bed with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.