Cross Country Trucker

"So what Benny went missing?"

"Wouldn't call it missing so much as got hitched. Unless you want to say getting married is like getting kidnapped."

"You're gonna get slapped one day Paul and I hope I'm there to record it."

"I know I will. Martha has a heck of a hook, hahaha." Paul laughed as he took a sip of his beer before turning away and looking at the other nearby fellow at counter, "Whatta you think about this Cupid thing Zak?"

Zak Tanner looked up from his late night breakfast and fought to swallow what he had in his mouth. The twenty seven year old didn't know what to think about it. Some sort of perfect match site that really did find your soul mate? "Nom nom.. glup, Sounds bunk to me Paul. Besides doesn't Benny have like..., three girls anyway? The hell he was doing going after another girl?

"I think his support payments would get him tossed in jail if he married a fourth one." Zak said, wagging a fork before stabbing it into a pile of hotcakes. The others sitting along the counter laughed or snickered as Zak kept chewing.

He really should lay back on food like this; his jeans were already pretty big, and his belly... well he wasn't at Mall Santa levels but he'd only need a throw pillow to mimic the shape. Still even with his heftier body Zak had plenty of muscle to him; kinda happens when you work as a trucker. With a dark grey shirt and tan jacket, and green baseball cap, he looked the stereotype of a trucker, he just needed maybe plaid colors to really pull it off. That said the others at the bar counter with him weren't much better, if not worse in their looks or figures. Zac at least TRIED to get some laps around his rig each stop.

"You're one to talk, don't you have a kid?!?" Paul grumbled. Only to get a few dirty looks from the guys around him, and the counter woman.

Zak blew out some air in a frustrated sigh. It was a pretty sore spot for him but most the regulars knew about it by this point; either by his own words or gossip. He got married pretty early on to his high school sweet heart, Elizabeth Blevins. Sweet gal at first but married life didn't really suit her or at least, not to him. She'd grown up in a richer family than he did, only falling into hard times during her high school years. So they'd meet up and fell in love; Zak head over heels with everything about her, and Eliza just falling for the first guy who gave her legit attention. It was a romance you'd hear about in stories, lower class guy getting with a down on her luck rich gal. The kind Hallmark or other tv films just love to show off.

Too bad they never really showed after the 'happily ever after. Zak couldn't keep up with all the expensive desires she had, especially when her family's business started to improve. With her family back in the green again, this fueled her greed and fame seeking ways, something Zak had tried to work hard at curbing given his own more laid back nature. It was around this time they had a child, Layla Tanner, but it didn't hold the marriage together. If anything it worsened it, with Eliza wanting to use her baby girl for status or cute pictures but always giving her over to whatever nanny service she'd hire that month which further strained their own finances. Well Zak's finances, Eliza had enough from family to cover what she wanted which further bothered Zak's own more frugal nature.

Zak tried to put his foot down several times, but his wife was extremely good at fake stories and tears. It didn't help that he was on the road often, his first job being management in construction, and thus had to go from site to site quite often. Which lead to several rumors about what he'd get up to all alone and seperated from his wife, having to live in some cheap seedy hotels for a couple weeks. It was all fabricated and lies but Eliza was very good at twisting words. Eventually, the pair had divorced with the court easily siding with Eliza for parental rights. Didn't help that she quickly married the CEO of the company he worked at which then saw him strangely let go for 'new opportunities'. There was at least one good bit about it, that he still got to see his daughter who actually liked him. Whatever his ex wife and her new boy toy were doing, the young Layla wasn't buying it and found more fun with the freedom that came with Zak's visits.

"Say what you want Paul. I'd rather have one problem to deal with and a golden lining around it than deal with Benny's 'sleep with anything that moves' way. Sounds to me he just fired up some sort of quick lay site and is running cause he doesn't want to pay for another kid." Zak muttered as he dug back into his food. No reason to cause a commotion right now, but Paul was on thin ice. Only reason he wasn't on the ground was due to someone else being around.

"Don't be so sure d'arling." the counter woman said as she refilled Zak's drink, after she had glared Paul into shutting up, "Rumor says Zoey used it too and well she's off enjoying her honeymoon now."

"Wondered where she got to...," Zak said after he swallowed more food, before reaching for his cup, stopping to point weakly point a finger up, "But really Alicia you can't believe this can you?" He said looking at the diner matron. Large woman probably could have kicked his, and everyone else's, butt if they got uppity which is why he hadn't laid out Paul.

She just held out a hand, motioning for something to be put in. The trucker sighed and dug out an hold beat up mobile device from his jacket pocket. Alicia put her plates down and tapped away, filling out the address bar before handing it back. Zak was greeted with very pink site that had all sorts of claims of true love and posts about good service and blah blah blah. It was listed as free though. Zak raised an eyebrow as he looked back at Alicia.

"Look just give it a try. You're too sweet of a guy to end up like these bozo's." the heavyset woman said nodding towards the others at the bar.

This set off the usual argument between the lot of them. Zak just chuckled as he finished off the last of his food, put a decent tip down, and headed out. 'Maddies' always had good food and the clashes between the truckers and staff was pretty good entertainment. Still it was late, and his run was ahead of schedule so he could afford to take a nap. He headed up to 'Junkyard', his big rig; a rather beat up and old dark blue truck. Friend from construction let him have it for a good deal and while it was a bit of scrap heap, it kept running regardless of what happened. He walked around, double checking it to make sure everything was set before climbing in.

Junkyard wasn't made for comfort so his sleeping cab was a tight fit. Still it had enough room for most his belongings, not that he had many of them. Few pictures of family and his daughter. His mom was pretty torn up about how his marriage had ended, and still sent a few nudges of trying again. Rest of the family had backed him on the divorce and his brother had offered him a job at some new start up company. Zak turned it down, just needing space more than anything right now. Life on the road was..., soothing to his mind though he really wished he could share it with his daughter.

After setting the alarm, both on his timer and his mobile, Zak's mind went back to the website for just a second. While it was short, the honeymoon part of the marriage had been fun but he wasn't sure he believed in magic or soulmates. But he didn't believe that much in hard work either after all he'd gone through. Felt like the little guys got ran over more often.

"Last thing I wanna do is have that happen again." He thought as he flicked open the web browser to exit the site.

Weird. He hadn't clicked on anything but the screen was asking for info. Did Alicia set this up or was he just mistaken? Grumbling, Zak's eyes glazed over the questions and found they were..., unexpected. Things like Openness, Values, Agreeableness, etc etc. It sounded all very put together than than some sort of star sign or 'if you wanted dinner, where would you go'.

Zak absentmindedly started to answer the listed questions and empty text boxes, as a way of passing time. Each one made his eyes start to droop more and more until he just put the device in a small nook and rolled over, falling asleep. He was pretty sure he exited out rather than 'agree to terms' but in his tired state, who knew. For a moment, the screen went dark as Zak drifted off to sleep, wondering when the scam would actually kick in.

His device buzzed to life as Cupid's Wish started to run it's process it's match making system, the progress bar slowly building.