Mr. Appearance

Car: Brand new Mercedes SLR 500
Driver: Mr. Appearance with GF or wife
Conversation: Greetings/Goodbyes/drivers comments to his GF/Wife
Radio: Silence and then the worst kind of privileged suburban rap/reggae

I was alone waiting for a car today when I hear a guy over at the gas station say, "Hey buddy, going to the city? Get in!" As I walked up he was still pumping gas. His girlfriend/wife clad in designer gear stepped out of the small Mercedes holding her expensive cell phone. She pulled the seat forward, offering the cramped back seat to me, but also managed to hit the front visor with the headrest, knocking papers all over. I shoe-horned myself into the back seat ("Good morning!"), she cleaned up the mess, and away we went.

The driver was a man in his thirties, wearing fancy slacks, a black turtleneck and gold-rimmed Rayban sunglasses. His hair was coiffed perfectly with plenty of product. Spikey.

We pulled onto the road and clearly, the man liked his new Mercedes' get up and go. We power-accelerated up the road with no radio. He turned to me in the back seat at one point and asked, "So how is your morning going so far?" surprised at the conversation, I answered quickly, "Oh, good! Very good." When he turned back to the road in front of him he saw a car at a stop sign and hit the brakes hard. We drove in silence for a bit longer as he smashed down the accelerator getting onto the freeway. I thought to myself, this guy is going to kill us.

After some uncomfortable silence, he turned on his stereo. Suburban nightclub rap/reggae came on loud and he asked his girlfriend to turn it down. Now that it was just barely audible (I'm not complaining) he made conversation with his girlfriend/wife.

"What time do you get off?" he said.

"4 O'Clock."

"Do you still have those gift cards?"

"Yeah." She looked out the window at the cars.

"You should go buy shoes. Get whatever you like."

"Maybe I'll do it on Monday." She said and looked out the window.

"You really need shoes." He proceeded to fix her clothing in some way and when she undid his fix he said, "It looks better that way..."

She looked out the window.

There was very little traffic at all, so the trip to San Francisco was quick. He pulled over a little past the usual drop off point, the girlfriend/wife got out, and I pried myself free from the sporty Mercedes ("Have a great weekend you guys!"). I walked to work.