Did I mention my car broke down? Because it did. I was driving home from work one week ago today when it coasted to a stop only 3 or four blocks from my apartment. I called the boyfriend who drove down and took a peek under the hood with a big green flashlight. He could see nothing immediately wrong with anything he could see and prepared himself to push.

I steered while the boyfriend got behind my car and made it move uphill. I had my window and was yelling to him for inspiration, "You’re doing good, baby!" Someone on their porch asked the boyfriend if he needed help. I suppose they couldn’t hear my screams about how great he was doing. He declined their offer. Then in the last stretch when the hill became higher and my car had slowed considerably, an old man in a truck parked, jumped out and helped the boyfriend push my car into a legal spot. We exchanged thank yous and had a quick discussion about what could be the problem with my car. When people asked me how it happened I wanted to tell them it seemed my car just gave up the will to go.

I called my dad to see if he could recommend a mechanic and before I knew it he’d arranged to have it towed in a few hours to the repair shop of his friend, to be fixed and ready, if possible, on Monday morning. And it was.

And it only cost me $700. Turns out it wasn’t the timing belt like everyone suspected since I have a timing chain. The boyfriend kept telling me that, but I didn’t believe him for some reason, even though he is always right about everything. Perhaps it’s spite. Anyway, the problem was the distributor and it’s cap. Now, I don’t know if the distributor cap I got was Gucci or Prada, but I know it better make my distributor look skinny even on bloated days and transition well from day to evening for $700.