Trouble in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 1) Read Free Page B

please,” Silver said, reaching to buckle in to her safety belt. After a few more beeps, the engine in the hovercar started revving louder, and the small vehicle rose several inches above the ground.
    “Heading home,” the computer said, and then sped toward the entrance of the parking garage as Silver leaned back into the seat and closed her eyes. Silver’s dad, who had worked as a pilot his entire life, hated the widespread use of self-driving hovercars. It made him nervous to have his daughter trusting a computer to shuffle her around. But Silver loved not having to worry about paying attention to the road. Besides, bigger cities like Chicago had long ago outlawed any kind of manually-driven vehicles. Despite protests from the older generation, self-driving vehicles were safer overall. Taking the element of human emotion and judgment out of driving had been an extraordinarily effective way to reduce accidents.
    Silver felt a pang of guilt as Joe put his hand on her forehead again to check her temperature. Her head was spinning, but it wasn’t from a fever. She was still trying to process the fact that her boyfriend’s dad was apparently her sworn enemy. How was she going to broach this subject with Joe? Silver opened her eyes and glanced over at him. He looked back at her with so much love and concern that Silver felt like her heart might break.
    The lights of the city flashed across his face as her hovercar zoomed into the Lakeshore Drive Corridor, speeding north with Lake Michigan on the right and the glittering, high-rise condo buildings on the left. Below them, self-driving cars zoomed down the roads which had once been cluttered with manual vehicles. Even the self-driving cars were becoming scarcer as hovercars became more affordable. Pretty soon, anyone who didn’t own a hovercar would be the odd one out. Glancing at the display from the rear camera, Silver could see the lights of Joe’s hovercar following closely behind them. It hadn’t quite managed to beat Silver’s hovercar out of the garage. Silver was actually surprised that Joe was bringing his vehicle along to go home in later. She had half-expected him to insist on just spending the night with her to make sure she was okay. More than likely, he was going to try to make an appearance for after-dinner cocktails to appease his mother. Normally, Silver got angry when he rushed back home because of his parents. But tonight, she was looking forward to being alone. Besides, who could fault him for being a dedicated son? That was a good quality in a man, right?
    Silver sighed and closed her eyes again. Some days, she really just wanted to grab Joe by the shoulders, shake him, and ask, “Why did you have to be so wonderful?” His family was so difficult to deal with, and she felt so out of place in their world. If Joe hadn’t turned out to be such a great guy—kind, fun, smart, and funny—Silver would have moved on long ago. But she hadn’t been able to bring herself to let him go solely based on the frustrations caused by his parents. As her hovercar zoomed into the parking garage of her own condo building and settled into its assigned parking spot, Silver forced herself to open her eyes and give Joe a weak smile. She had to act somewhat okay, or he might still insist on staying here tonight.
    Joe hopped out of the hovercar and ran around to offer his hand to Silver as she eased out of the vehicle. Silver winced as her knee hit the ground, and then wordlessly made her way toward the elevators, still holding Joe’s hand. It only took the elevators a few seconds to whoosh up to the eleventh floor, and Silver stepped out into the hallway to hobble toward the front door of her condo. This building, while nice enough, was much less fancy than the building where Joe’s parents lived, or even the building where Joe himself lived. Joe had hinted at having Silver move in with him, but she wasn’t ready to take that step yet. And now, she was even more