She wanted to ask if he was absolutely sure that they couldn't just walk but the surly look on Caleb's face warned her that if she said anything, she was gonna be in trouble. Whew, it had to take a lot of energy to be so grouchy. Was he really still upset about her being here? It wasn't like she causing any trouble. If anything, she was actually helping! She bet Golden Burger never had such clean floors before. It wasn't like she was out in the dining room, drooling over everybody's food. So surely he couldn't stay upset with her for long as long as she worked hard and did as she was told. Except he had a lot of rules. Too many. How was she going to keep track of them all? And what in the world was a stick shift? How was she supposed to know what not to touch if she didn't even know what it was that she wasn't supposed to touch?
Not that she wanted to touch anything in the truck. Just thinking about having to get inside the metal box was giving her goosebumps. A real moving car. She was really, honestly, seriously, genuinely and actually going to have to get into a moving car. Oh, she was out of her mind with terror. But Rosemary was not going to let it keep her from doing her job. No, she couldn't. She had to do this. Even if now she was feeling nauseated about doing so.
Her fingers twitched, playing nervously with the bottom hem of her Golden Burger t-shirt, as Caleb finished his long spiel and went around the other side of his truck. No doubt he was expecting her to follow suit and jump in like he was but the jumping was slow in coming. For one, her stomach still felt like it was about to shoot up her throat. For two, she had to force her brain into forcing her feet to walking towards the truck and not away from it. Every part of her wanted to turn tail and run in the other direction. Why had she taken this stupid job again? For a smile? A smile that wasn't going to come? To prove herself? Prove to who? Why did she care what any of them thought? But she couldn't let those thoughts take root. At some point, she had to step up on her own.
A deep breath and a shaky few steps forward got her to the passenger door. She reached out for the metal handle, tucked her fingers into the dip and pulled. The door opened easy, swinging out all the way. There it was. The inside. As inviting as a coffin. Rosemary swallowed, took another deep breath and slowly climbed in.
As soon as she was in, she planted her face forward and stared out through the window as if her life depended on it. Her hand somehow found the inside handle of the door and pulled it shut. The click of the closed door seemed to echo in her brain. Like a far off sound in someone else's head that wasn't her own. Here she was. Inside of a car. It was the strangest thing. Even though she knew she had never actually been in one before, it was weirdly familiar. But maybe that was just because of the nightm-
No. Focus. Deliveries. Right, she had a job to do. And rules. There were rules. What were they again? No talking. No sniffing. No drooling? No poking? No touching. Yeah, just no touching. She could handle that. Rosemary heard a soft zip and instantly turned her attention to the sound. What was that Caleb was talking to her about? A seat belt?