Mary stood outside the gate of the pool in the rapidly cooling air as the sun went down. She wrapped her arms around herself for warmth, as she looked around for her ride, which was, of course, nowhere to be seen. Her friend, Jennifer was supposed to pick her up after her shift working as a lifeguard this evening but apparently forgot all about it. It looked like Mary was going to have to walk home.
As she moved to pick up her bag a car drove into the parking lot and parked right up front.
Finally! What took her so long?
Mary thought as she moved toward the car only to realize that it was in fact not Jennifer like she had thought but some guy. The driver's side window rolled down and he stuck his head out and yelled "Are you guys still open? I wanted to swim laps!"
"No, we closed half an hour ago..."
"Then what are you still doing here?" the man inquired.
"Oh... Um, my ride is late," she replied.
"How far is your house from here?"
"Like three miles..."
"Let me give you a ride!" He said, "I don't want you to have to walk that far at night."
Mary paused. She had no idea who this guy was and it was kind of sketchy to get in a car with a total stranger, but how else was she going to get home? "Are you sure?" She asked, "I don't want you to have to go out of your way for me."
"Of course I'm sure," the man said, "It's not that far anyways."
"Ok," Mary replied and entered the car through the passenger side.
Mary gave the man her address and it turned out that he lived right across the street from her. On the drive they got into a rather in depth discussion about each other's lives. Mary told him all about how she got her first job as a lifeguard that summer at 18 which is why she couldn't drive herself home because she wasn't old enough to even have her own license yet. The man turned out to be a 28-year-old software developer named James. Before long they were idling in front of her house.
Mary looked in the driveway and there was no one home. She sighed heavily, "I think I'm locked out. What else could go wrong today?"