achel idled near a fire hydrant a few doors down from her next passenger’s pick up spot. She let him know through the app that she was there, put the car in park, and flipped down her visor to check her makeup in the mirror. She knew a lot of other women didn’t like to drive for the ride sharing apps at night. During the day, it was a lot of out of towners in Old City. People going to appointments. Families. But at night it was a different crowd. Sometimes literally a crowd, heading out to bars. Sometimes coming back from bars. Sometimes a single person moving alone at odd hours of the night.
It wasn’t great, but she counted on being able to attract a lot of business at night. No sitting around waiting for the next pickup. She could maximize her time at night, really make it worth her while. The rates were better anyway. She could deal with the occasional jerk.
“Rachel?”
“Adam?”
He slid in without answering but she knew it was him. From the rearview mirror she could see the same haircut (shaved sides) from his profile picture.
“How are you tonight?”
“Turn up the AC.”
Rachel started driving, cranking the dial and ignoring his disregard for her attempt at polite small talk.
“Any preferred route to your destination?”
She glanced in the rearview. He was scrolling.
“Do you have a preferred route to your destination?”
He threw his head back against the seat and rolled his eyes.
“I enjoy a nice quiet ride. That’s what I put in my profile.”
Rachel waited.
He leaned forward, putting his head between the two front seats, closer to Rachel.
“If you put that in your profile, it means the driver isn’t supposed to talk. It’s a Tik Tok hack.”
“Sorry, I must have missed that.”
“What did I – I ENJOY A NICE QUIET RIDE.”
He sighed and hit the car door with his hand before slumping back down into his seat and scrolling.
Rachel had picked him up from a bar along Columbus and would have to take him to West Philly. She debated taking the highway – a faster route that would get him out of her car sooner – but instead decided to cut across town. Go the long way. Extend his nice quiet ride.
When there was nothing left to scroll past, Adam started flipping the switch to the window, moving it down and back up and down then back up again. He reached between Rachel and the passenger seat and took the phone charger to plug in. He touched his face absent mindedly.
“Turn on the radio.”
Rachel said nothing.
“I said, turn on the radio.”
She made a left turn.
“Hello. Driver. Can you not hear me? Turn on the fucking radio.”
“I enjoy a nice quiet ride,” Rachel said, fully stopping at a stop sign before proceeding through the intersection.
“Jesus. Are you kidding me? That’s the thing that I said.”
Rachel stared straight ahead.
“God, I’m giving you a one star review.”
Adam scoffed and reached to turn it on himself.
“Did you start it after you broke up with Tiffany?”
Adam froze. Rachel stared straight ahead. She waited for the light to turn green.
“What did you say?”
“The website. Did you start it after you broke up with Tiffany? Was she the inspiration? Or was it something you already had in the works?”
Adam’s hand hovered over the console between the seats. His mouth hung open.
“I know you’re making good money on the site now. The traffic is pretty decent so the ad revenue must be something but I think the real money comes from people paying to take their pictures down. Is that considered extortion? I’m never sure the exact term for it, legally speaking.”
“Fuck off.”
“Did you plan on just posting pictures of your own exes? Or was the vision always bigger than that?”
“Who are you?”
“I just never pegged the kind of guy who runs a revenge porn site to also be the type to enjoy a ‘nice, quiet ride.’ I guess it goes to show that people can surprise you.”
Something changed in Adam’s face. His fear turned to false confidence as he leaned back in his seat. Still angry but doing his best to be nonchalant.
This was always a favorite moment for Rachel.
“Fuck you. I don’t know who you are or why you’re stalking me – probably just some bitch who can’t figure out how to get her own fat ass off the site but you don’t have shit on me. It’s not illegal to know how to buy a domain and write some code.”
Confident his speech had put Rachel back in her place, he leaned forward and turned on the radio.
“Adam, man stop it – “
“It’s for the site! It’s hashtag content –“
“You don’t even know that girl – “
Rachel did him a favor and turned it off. She didn’t have to look in the rearview mirror to know what Adam was doing. He was in shock. He was immobile. He was wondering how she got that recording. Who was even recording. Was she the girl? Who else knew about this?
He would ask all of that and then ask what she wanted. He’d get pissed and tell her to fuck off, that he wouldn’t give her a cent. Then he’d panic and back pedal. He’d offer her even more. He’d start to get scared. This is where there was always some variation. He might cry. Might admit his own traumas, hoping they justify what he’s done. He might try to leave the car. That hadn’t happened yet, but Rachel always thought it could be an option. She was waiting for someone to try it. Most of them just froze. He might start to ask questions about her. What was she? His conscience? The devil? Some righteous vigilante? She had decided if they ever asked and seemed like they really wanted to know she would describe herself as Buffy but for assholes and perverts.
After that, the next part would be taken over by Rachel. She’d explain more – how she found them, all the research she did. How she poured over their pathetic lives to find out how scummy they really were. How disgusted she was by everything they had done. And she genuinely was disgusted. She didn’t know how a single one of these men has lived with themselves after the pain they’d caused.
The speech used to be her favorite part but she recognized it was more for her than for them. She weighed her options. The quick way home, give herself the rest of the night off? Or the long, scenic way – really drag it out for her rider?
Maybe a nice quiet ride would do her some good.
Before the light could change, Rachel moved her foot to the accelerator. Her timing at this part had become impeccable. She stared at Adam in the rearview mirror and told him –
“For the girls.”
She pushed her foot down and moved the car quickly to the center of the intersection, directly in the path of the oncoming truck.
After impact, with smoke still billowing out from under the hood, the back passenger side mangled, Adam’s shaved head barely visible as it slumped in the backseat, Rachel hopped out of her side. She had discovered that if you took advantage of the initial shock of the collision, a lot of people would chalk the whole thing up to delirium. Maybe there was no blonde girl driving! Maybe they dreamt it! At the very least, they wouldn’t come looking for her. Why should they? If she could walk away from a wreck like this unscathed, maybe it was in their best interest not to get involved with that kind of person.
She shook the dust from her clothes and started walking back east, taking her phone from her pocket and opening the app. She deleted her old profile and started setting up a new one. This time, she decided, her name would be Tiffany.
