by Liza Brown
Everyone finally arrived and Bonnie was teaching Elsu how to use the computer system that I had created for our inventory. She was keeping him busy with our customers so I was able to concentrate. Even having him distracted, I was distracted by looking at him repeatedly. I wasn’t the only one a bit preoccupied, I caught him looking my way a number of times, too. I was grateful that this wouldn’t be an everyday thing or I’d never get anything done. Once I had everything organized, letters ready to be mailed, and bills paid I dropped them in the ‘outgoing’ box near the front door and welcomed some more customers. Elsu was actually being a huge help getting people the information they needed from the computer and pointing them in the right direction toward the warehouse.
I helped Bonnie and Elsu clear out the front customer area and sent them on their way. “Ready to make the rounds?” I asked Elsu when the final customer was out of the room.
“Yes, nurse Mae.”
“What happened to Empress Doctor Mae?”
“Picturing you in a sexy nurse’s uniform is much more enjoyable than scrubs.”
I smacked him on the arm and we walked to the warehouse where customers were picking their parts from the shelves. “This is where it all happens. Once the cars are stripped and the parts are tagged, Joe and Bill put the items on the shelves and update the computer system. Which reminds me, I’m going to be adding two more warehouse employees hopefully by the end of the year. They claim they don’t need them, but it’s just too much work for two guys.”
A customer was nearby. “Can I use you?” I asked.
“Sure,” he smiled as he looked up at Elsu. “Big fan, by the way.”
Elsu smiled shyly and thanked the man. He then looked at the paper that had been filled out at the front desk. “See, you copied this information from the computer, it tells the customer which aisle, which bay, and which shelf.” I pointed out how each number guided the customer to the exact spot he needed to be. “He’s in the right aisle, this is the bay he needs, and the shelf is right here. All he has to do is find the item which is this number here.” I went to the shelf and pulled the item (a brake pedal) from the shelf and handed it to him.
“And you came up with this whole system?” asked Elsu.
“Yup. It was horrible when my grandpa had it. You couldn’t find anything. Getting it to look like this took a long time. I had to add on a huge section to the building, but once it was done it was totally worth it.” I smiled proudly.
“And you have this system protected so no one can steal it?”
“Oh yeah, totally. Max helped me with the legal end of it.”
“You could sell this system, make some serious money!”
“I’m not feeding my competition. There aren’t a lot of shops like this around, if I sold them my baby they’d be on even footing. Ain’t happening,” I said as I continued to walk through the warehouse, replacing things that had been misplaced by lazy customers, and straightening bins that were sitting crooked.
“I’m impressed, Mae. I had no idea what happened in here.” He looked around at all of the different shelves. “How big is this place?”
“This building all included is nearly the size of a football field without the end zones. That’s the warehouse, the garage, which is the chopping bays, and then there’s the other half of the garage where we deal more with the classic cars. Restoring and repair.”
“And you run this place?”
“Why does everyone find it so hard to believe that I could run this place?” I asked. “I’m not some dainty little princess.”
“Oh, believe me, I know you’re not. I’m just very impressed, that’s all.”
We continued the tour of the warehouse. I located Joe and Bill and officially introduced them to Elsu. From there we went to the classic side of the garage. It was currently empty. “This is the part we need to boost. We’ve been in a slump lately. We won’t have enough for next year’s calendars if we don’t get some business soon. I flipped on the lights and walked him to a wall of framed photos. “These are the cars we’ve done. This is where we make a lot of our money. Someone’s bringing a 66 Nova in tomorrow so hopefully we’ll get that job. It’s someone we’ve worked with before so I’m pretty confident.”
I walked him back to the door and went to turn off the lights when he placed his hand on mine. “So if I locked this door, no one would bother us?”
“Probably not,” I said as I watched him lock the door.
“And if I turned this switch, we’d be in the dark?”
“That’s how electricity works,” I smiled as I watched him flip the switch. The only light was late morning sun coming through the windows. Mental note, those need to be washed!
“Does this radio work?” he asked as he looked at our dusty old boom box and searched for the ‘on’ switch.
“Ummm…I think so.”
After a few seconds of trying to dial in some music, he switched to the CD and hit play. “What’s this?” he asked as a classical guitarist’s familiar skills filled the room.
“That’s a friend of mine. I wondered where I’d put that CD. Randall Avers is amazing!”
Elsu absorbed some of the Spanish-inspired licks then shrugged his shoulders. “He’s good…So if I turn this up a bit, it will be just you and I dancing alone in this great big empty room?”
“Dancing? I don’t dance…”
He placed a finger across my lips. “If I turn this up a bit, it will be just you and I dancing alone in this great big empty room?”
I conceded. “I guess you’d have to try and find out,” I said as I watched him rotate the volume knob.
For the next several minutes, Elsu led me around the floor as we danced. I don’t know how to dance, but in his arms I felt like I did. He spun me, and dipped me, making me giggle at my own clumsiness but never losing the beat and never once did he stop touching me. When the third song came to an unfortunate end, we stood in the middle of the garage just staring at each other. “You know you have me, right, Mae? I’m putty in your hands. You tell me to jump and not only will I ask how high, I’ll go higher. Just watching you in your office was mesmerizing. I wanted to sit and watch you work all day. The way your eyes scrunched together when something didn’t go right, or when your mouse wasn’t doing what you wanted it to do? You are the most beautiful creature I’ve ever met in my entire life, Mae.”
“You saw all that?” I blushed.
“I didn’t see enough. I can’t ever get enough, Mae.” He placed both hands on either side of my face and brought his lips to mine. A quick kiss was followed immediately by one where his tongue was making its way to mine. Our kiss couldn’t last long enough. I was wanting to stay there for the rest of my life, but reality reared its ugly head when I heard my name over the loudspeaker.
“Mae, you have a visitor in the front office. Mae.” If I had tried to find something negative to say about Bonnie, I couldn’t in a million years, but in that moment I wanted to throttle her.
“Damn,” I said as I finally pulled my lips from Elsu’s.
“Exactly,” he said as he hugged me close. “Can’t we just hide in here forever?”
“I’d love to but I think Millard would start to get a little nervous,” I said as I squeezed him back.
“Always the sensible one,” he said as he pulled away and guided me back to the door and we returned to the office.
“Mae!” A voice I hadn’t heard in weeks filled my heart. My dad and his wife were standing at the counter. I rushed to him and gave him a hug then turned to his wife, Margaret, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. She was a few years older than my dad, and while we were never overly friendly to each other, we had a mutual respect. She rescued him from the hell of being married to my mom and I stayed out of the way.
“Daddy!” I cried as I wrapped my arms around him one more time. I placed my hands on his arms and squeezed. They seemed thinner than I recalled.
“Pumpkin!” He hugged me tight again.
/> “What are you doing in town?” I asked.
“Ahh, I had to deliver a car to someone up here so Margaret and I made a day of it.”
“That’s sweet. How’s the shop?” I asked of his Grandpa’s Repair in Mansfield.
“Good, good. Getting ready to move on. I’m too old for this stuff anymore, Mae. Hope you’re ok with that,” he seemed worried about my answer.
“Move on? Who’s taking it over?” I asked. Yes, I was concerned. I kept the stores in the family for a reason. To see one go to a stranger made me nervous.
“One of the guys who works for me is seriously interested. You’ll have to come down and meet him.”
“I will, don’t do anything ‘til I do. When are you wanting to do this?”
“Before the new year,” he said as if it was no big deal.
“Dad, that’s like a month and a half away! I am so busy right now with everything going on up here. I’ll have to come down maybe this week while Elsu’s out of town,” I said as I finally remembered he was standing behind me. “I’m sorry, Elsu, this is my dad and his wife, Bob and Margaret,” I introduced them.
“Dad, Margaret, this is Elsu Benjamin.”
They shook hands and Elsu stood closer to me with his arm around my waist.
“You two…” said Margaret as she looked up to Elsu.
“We’re dating,” Elsu confirmed Margaret’s assumed suspicion.
“So the rumors are true.” She stepped back to take us in.
“Depends on which rumors you’re talking about,” I said as I wrapped my arm around Elsu’s waist.
“Just that you’re…” She seemed to be searching for the right words to use. “…dating. And that you broke him and that beautifully sweet Saraya up.” Her words ripped me. She’d never said much of anything to me and now I was the bad guy.
“Believe me, she had nothing to do with Saraya and I breaking up,” said Elsu. “That was completely my doing. I’d do it again a million times over if it meant I could be with Mae.”
“And don’t believe everything you hear. She’s not the saint she comes across as,” I said as I walked toward my office. “Dad, can I talk to you?”
My dad followed and I scooted stuff from in front of the door so I could close it. It had been closed more in the last week than it had ever been since it had been installed. Elsu stood behind the counter and I watched him start helping a customer while Margaret took a seat in the waiting area.
My dad and I sat down finally and I looked at him. “Dad, do you know Bart was released about two months ago?”
“What? How? He was supposed to be in there for twenty years! Why am I just hearing of this now?”
“I didn’t want to talk about it, plus I didn’t want to bother you. Apparently good behavior gets you out fifteen years early,” I said.
“Ok, so now what?” he asked.
“I’m not sure why, but his brother Jeremy may have killed Little José.” I showed him the pictures of my truck on my phone.
“Ffff…” I had never heard my father curse, but I knew what he was trying to keep himself from saying.
“It’s ok, swear. I know I did,” I said.
“Friggin’ Ass!”
“There you go, let it out,” I said with a smile.
“Ok, what else aren’t you telling me?”
“Someone rigged the elevator at the apartment to fall with me in it,” I said.
“How did they manage that?”
“A camera and some sort of remote controlled drill in the shaft,” I said like I was naming a grocery list.
“I’m sorry, Mae. This is horrible! Do you think Bart did it? Or Jeremy?”
“I have no idea, dad. But someone is mad at me.”
“That boy’s got balls…damn.” My dad sat forward and rested his elbows on his thighs.
“I’m telling you this because I know you’re going to worry. Also, now that I’m seeing Elsu there’s a chance that some of this will become news. But I want you to know that Elsu and his bodyguard-assistant have been taking care of me. Elsu’s living at the apartment building and he’s having security upped there. He’s even hired me a bodyguard. She starts tomorrow.”
“Why is he living at the apartment?” asked my dad.
“Did you see the news? His house burned down last week. He needed a place to stay and Max let him and three of the other players move into the empty units.”
“Does Max know you’re dating?”
“Yeah, and he’s not overly thrilled.”
“I’m not surprised. Are you ready to date? After everything you’ve been through?”
I shrugged my shoulders and sat back. I looked at Elsu as he checked out a customer for Bonnie. “I think I’m ready. There’s only one way to find out. I really like him, dad.”
“So he’s good to you?” there was the question I knew he wanted to ask.
“Yes, dad. He’s very good to me. It wasn’t what I was looking for at all, but it just seemed to happen.” I looked past my dad and saw Elsu looking my way. He winked at me and went back to work. “He seems to want to spoil me,” I smiled.
“That’s what he’s supposed to do. I’ve felt like a failure as a father, you know that, right?”
“How do you figure? You’re the parent who didn’t treat me like a second class citizen because I wasn’t a beauty pageant kid.” I knew he felt guilty. Between the attack on me by Uncle Larry when I was a young child and his original approval of Bart dating his daughter, his mental record was zero for two. But I never blamed him. There was no way he would have known and definitely no way he would have put me in those situations if he knew I was going to be hurt.
He smiled, “your mom was a little crazy.”
“Was?” he hadn’t been out of town that long.
“Still?”
“Let’s just say she tried to pawn Candice off on Elsu because I’m not woman enough for him,” I said.
He started laughing so hard he could apparently be heard at the counter. Elsu and Bonnie both turned to see what they were missing. “She’s a little nutty.”
“Understatement of the century,” I said. “But seriously, I don’t want you to worry. I’ve got more than enough people up here doing that for me.”
“I’m your dad, I worry about you kids all the time. They made us sign agreements in the hospital saying we would worry about you from the second you were born until the day we die. I’ll worry, but I’ll try not to hover. Ok? If you trust Elsu, I’ll trust him.”
I smiled. “I trust him with all my heart dad.”
“So this is serious?”
“I don’t have much to compare it to, but yeah, I’m in with both feet.”
He looked at his watch, then turned to look out the glass wall just in time to see Elsu winking at me. “Damn, he’s got it bad, doesn’t he?”
“I sure hope so,” I giggled. I watched as Elsu posed for another picture. He was loving working as much as the attention of the fans.
“Just be careful, ok? Don’t let your heart do all the thinking. Understand?”
I nodded and rose from my chair to give him another hug. We exited the office and my dad walked up to Elsu and shook his hand. “Mae is a very special girl, young man. You’re a big guy. You could probably bench press three of me but let me tell you something. If you ever, and I mean EVER harm even the smallest hair on her body I will be here and I will make sure it’s the last thing you ever do!”
“Believe me sir, I promise you, she is safe with me. She’s too important to me to ever harm. In the last week, my whole purpose in life has changed to making sure she is happy and safe. I take that role very seriously.”
I blushed and heard Bonnie next to me gasp at the romantic words. I turned to see her gripping her chest and nearly crying.
My dad and Margaret said their goodbyes and left the shop.
“Did I do ok?” asked Elsu. “I don’t want to piss your dad off.”
“You did wonderfully!” said Bonnie w
ho covered her mouth as if she was shocked she had replied to the question that wasn’t asked of her. “I’m sorry, Elsu. But seriously, Mae, I’ve worked here for thirty years, you know that. I’ve known you since the day you were born. When you were with that asshole Bart, every day I’d go home and pray that he wouldn’t hurt you. I don’t have to do that now. In the week you and this gloriously handsome man have been together, I’ve known you’re safe. I can pray for your continued happiness. It’s such a nicer thing to pray for, Mae.” She was crying now.
I took her hand in mine and gently squeezed. It was going to kill me to have to tell her what I said next. “Bonnie, I need those safety prayers back.”
“What? What’s wrong?”
“I need to have a meeting with you and Steve,” I said. I didn’t want to have to keep repeating my story to everyone. Once Steve knew, he could spread the word and Bonnie was my right-hand woman so she needed to hear it firsthand.
I went to my desk and pulled up the monitor that showed the garage where I assumed Steve would be. He was not. “Where is he?” I asked myself as I started flipping through the cameras. Elsu came around to my side of the desk and sat on the edge while he watched the images on the screen quickly change. I made it through all of the interior cameras and then switched to the exterior ones. I found him standing at the Camry. “He’s with my P.O.S., come on!” I got up like I was about to offer a stay of execution to a man in the electric chair.
I rushed out to the lot just as Steve got in the car. He started and then stopped the engine when he saw us approaching.
“Don’t scrap it yet, Steve. I think I’m going to keep it for the winter. Plus, there’s something weird about it. Something fishy.”
“Mae, you’re not driving a car that may have been in an accident,” said Elsu. “I’ve already told you, you can use my Escalade.”
“80% of what we deal with has been in accidents,” I said. Ok, maybe that was not the best choice of words when it comes to trying to convince someone it’s ok to drive a wreck.
“Yeah, but you don’t drive those!” said Elsu. “They’re here for a reason.”
“Just wait, please? For me?”
