The Girl with the Wrong Songs: A Short Story

When Terry first started dating Elizabeth the entire relationship seemed to be in the car. They were both relatively broke, and each living with their parents. Terry didn’t want to bring Elizabeth home because he had almost no free space in his house, and Elizabeth didn’t want to bring him home too soon. She worried it would scare him off. Instead of going to either home, they drove around.

The night of their first kiss, they had driven around for nearly two hours before Terry slid his hand across the emergency brake and took hers. From that moment, until they returned to the parking lot where they had left her car, they looked forward at the road the entire time. When they finally parked, they kissed.

As the relationship progressed, so did the time in the car. They went on a road trip to Vermont and Montreal.

While driving up they listened to Elizabeth’s iPhone. Terry was impressed by all of the eclectic music that she had. He was into Rap, but enjoyed Top 40 and country too. Elizabeth had Indie and Alt music that he had never paid attention to.

About four hours into the ride—nearing Burlington Vermont, passing two statues of whale tails sticking out of a field— a song came on that Terry didn’t recognize. “What is this?” he asked, grabbing her phone to look. “Drip, Drip, Drip by Chumbawamba?”

“Yeah, it’s like their best song,” she said with complete sincerity.

Out of curiosity, Terry looked and saw that it was the only song by Chumbawamba she had. “What about Tubthumping?”

“Huh?” she asked, not sure what he was talking about.

“Chumbawamba had one hit, it was called Tubthumping,” he said in a playfully condescending tone.

“Yeah. I know that song, but it’s annoying and overdone.”

Terry nodded in agreement. “Well that’s true. I kind of assumed since it was their one—singular— hit, that everything else sucked.”

The road trip to Montreal was fun for both of them. They were falling in love, and each new thing they did together bonded them further.

Elizabeth hadn’t been to a casino, and wanted to. As they entered the city they found one quickly. Elizabeth spoke French, but had no idea about gambling. Terry didn’t speak a word of French, but had a little knowledge of gambling. 

After wasting a few dollars on slot machines, Terry watched As Elizabeth played. She had no idea what she was looking for, but that didn’t stop her from winning back her money and his.