by Amber Burns
She flushed and cupped one cheek as if she could cover it.
“I’m not pretty, and I’m definitely not the kind of girl to get on the back of a motorcycle,” she looked away, I hoped she was flattered. “As long as that’s not a deciding factor I don’t see why we couldn’t ‘hang out’ as you put it.”
“Not a deciding factor,” I assured her. “But, I gotta say, you don’t know what you’re missing. There’s something special about being on a bike.”
The waitress came back with our lunch, rudely interrupting my pitch. We both ordered wraps, which was something I wouldn’t usually go for, but I’m a man that’d eat just about anything you’d put in front of him. Something the Army teaches you, you don’t turn your nose up at unfamiliar food because it could always be worse.
“I’ll take it into consideration,” she said lightly before she began to eat.
I followed suit, and while our talking had cooled, we managed to get a little more small talk between bites. Madi was my opposite to an extreme; she was quiet and shy while I was a man that didn’t have a problem saying what was on his mind. She worked hard, but it was from behind a desk. The last time I sat at a desk was in boot camp and I was far from quiet and shy. But there was something about her that drew me to her like a moth to a flame.
“So, there’s not a lot of room for parking for your car in the lot. But I can do some arranging and fit you in enough so I can get a good look under the hood,” I wiped my hands off then went about making sure I didn’t make a mess on my face. “Just ride over after you get off.”
She nodded and set down the rest of her wrap, “How do I pay you for the work you’re doing for me?”
Normally, if someone out of the club was going to get me to do work on their car or shit, I’d ask for payment. Ask for money or get taken advantage of is my usual motto. However this girl didn’t really strike me as the type to take advantage, so I shrugged, “Cook me dinner. Lemme take you for a ride, give me a call or a text here and there.”
“You’re making it sound like you want to date me in exchange for fixing my car,” she raised an eyebrow.
I chuckled, “I said that before. Only instead of saying date, I said hang out.”
“Oh,” she faltered a little, looking confused. “I thought that meant you wanted to be friends.” I saw her swallow as she considered something, “Do you really think we’ll have enough in common to be able to actually date? Like a relationship would work between us?”
“Never heard the saying opposites attract?”
“So, you’re attracted to me. You’ve called me pretty and sweetcheeks,” she glared at me now. “But appearance isn’t everything. You can’t expect a relationship to work just because you find each other attractive.”
“Naw,” I waved a hand. “It’s more than that. It’s not the deciding factor, but if you’re not going to give me a chance simply because I find you attractive, it seems kind of unfair. Are you trying to brush me off because you have a boyfriend?”
“No,” her voice sounded small, and she looked down into her lap. “It’s been a long time since I actually dated someone.”
“Really?” I raised both my eyebrows. “Well, that aside. Don’t you want to see what it could be like between us? Have a little fun, maybe?”
“You look like the kind of guy that takes advantage of women and breaks their hearts,” she looked up at me now. I didn’t know if she was serious or not. “If I agree to date you, how do I know that you’re not just going to use me and then dump me when you’re done?”
“I don’t know if that’s a compliment,” I huffed. I folded my arms onto the table and leaned forward. “How about we make a deal here? I promise not to break your heart if you promise not to break mine?”
“How would that work?” she looked intrigued.
“I’m a one-woman kind of man,” I tilted my head a little. “You agree to be a one-man kind of woman, and I think it could work out.”
“That’s something that goes without saying,” she said with a frown. “How else does this work?”
I shrugged a shoulder, “How about you let me come over to your house this Saturday, and I show you?”
“We just met, and I’m not having sex with you,” she said with a sense of finality.
I chuckled. If I was going to arrange something like that it would take some work and effort to make sure I could get it up and ready for that. I knew it would take some planning. I shook my head, she didn’t know that though.
“Not what I was implying. We’re out here in the open for all to see. You’re not going to cuddle up to me in a restaurant. Let me come over, and we can watch a movie. Let me get close to you, and we’ll figure it out together. I’ll be a good boy and keep it in my pants,” I raised a hand like I was a boy scout. “I promise.”
“You mentioned earlier that you wanted me to cook you dinner.” She seemed to be caving, I had her interested. “I guess I could do that Saturday. Do … do you want anything in particular?”
“I spent a long time eating crap food provided by the military,” I smiled at her. “Cook whatever you want, I bet it’ll be delicious.”
“You’re easy to please?”
“Yep,” I shrugged. “Doesn’t take much to make me happy. What about you?”
She shrugged, too, pulling out her wallet after the check was brought to the table. “A good book and a cup of coffee, I’m happy.”
“I will remember that,” I plucked up the check the waitress had dropped and eyed it with a grimace. It wasn’t too bad, the food was alright, but I wouldn’t have guessed it would have been twenty-five dollars worth though.
“I thought I was buying lunch,” she protested as I got my wallet out.
“What the hell kind of boyfriend do I look like?” I put one of the hundreds that Jimmy gave me earlier into the little book. “Already said I wasn’t going to take advantage of you then dump you. That shit starts now, darlin’.”
She flushed, “Does that mean you're my boyfriend now?”
“I’d like to be if you’re offering and there’s no protests,” I couldn’t help but wink at her.
She floundered for a moment, mouth opening then closing without saying anything. That flush was pretty on her, and I found myself wondering just what else I could do to get her to that. Surprisingly, my pants became tight, and I even looked down at the fact that despite the pins and needles in my leg and the throb of my back I’d still managed to get it up. This chick was magic.
“I guess,” she stood, and I managed to get up to follow. We hadn’t gotten our change yet, so I was gonna hang. “I guess I could be okay with that. I’ve got to get back to work though, or I’ll be late.”
I nodded, “Sid, by the way. I dunno if I mentioned it before.” I shifted closer to her. “You need anything you got my number. You know what I mean by anything, right?”
I got a nod, and she suffered from a bout of bashfulness. I was pushing it, but I wanted to kiss her. I reigned it in and went with just brushing my lips against her cheek. I think I had the same effect on her that she had on me, because she looked up at me with those big green eyes and leaned forward to brush a kiss on my cheek in return.
“I’ll see you when I get off work,” her voice was soft, and uncertainty was there. I’m pretty sure she liked me.
“I’ll be looking forward to it,” I stayed standing as she walked to the little gate to the opened up the outdoor eating area.
Of course, there was a fucking gate. She gave me a few glances over her shoulder as she trekked back to work. I think I got her attention like she got mine. I sat back down to wait out getting change and watch her until she disappeared. She probably didn’t realize it, but she already had my undivided attention.
4
I got back to the club to see Jimmy and another guy unloading what looked like a piece of shit off of a trailer into the yard. I sat on my bike and watched them work, trying not to voice my disgust. I couldn’t tell the make of the
bike, but it looked like it had been more than dropped. Like someone had taken the damn thing through the ringer.
“You know I don’t do body work, right? I just do shit with the engines.”
“Yea, yea,” Jimmy and his friend stopped with the bike in the middle of the damn lot. “All you gotta do is fix the engine.”
“I got a friend that’ll help with the body work,” the unnamed man said in response. “I know it looks like a lot of work, but I think once it’s running at least it’ll be worth the effort.”
I carefully eased in around the truck and trailer, I was going to have to set my bike up somewhere else because my usual spot was occupied. I went to the side of the building before I got up and put my bike on its kickstand.
“Where did you find it?” I asked with a frown.
“In a rotted out shed,” he shrugged and offered me a hand. “Anthony. Jimmy said you were a wizard with engines and you were the man to see if I wanted to get it running again.” He patted the molded leather seat with a hand, and I could already see the guy had big dreams in mind for the bike. “You think you can handle it?”
I took his offered hand and gave it a shake.
“Sid. I can check out the engine, we’ll have to see if we can get it started to see how bad it is,” I looked at Jimmy. “Go get some gas, would ya?”
With that, we started work. The Anthony guy hung around as we tried to crank the thing up and failed. I wasn’t looking forward to doing a whole engine rebuild, but it looked like that was what I was going to do. The next few hours were spent with me sitting on a tarp and working on piecing out a fucked up engine. I lost track of time and the company I had as I worked, it was something I did. I would get wrist deep in oil and forget everybody else was there.
It was dark when the stuttering rumble of Madi’s car rolled into the lot. I had forgotten to clear her out a space with the work I was doing, and I immediately felt like an ass. I set down the part I was working on cleaning out, and I stood with some effort. The pins and needles having shifted to outright numbness; as bad as it sounds it was something of a relief. When she got out of the car, I couldn’t explain how or why I was happy to see her.
“Hey,” I started wiping my hands clean on my jeans and shirt, not caring about the fact that I was making a bigger mess, as I sauntered over to see her.
She got out of the car, though she kept it running, and looked around the loaded lot.
“So, there’s not a lot of room to park my car,” she looked at me. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”
“Second thoughts already?” I raised an eyebrow. “Are they about me or are they about me working on your car?”
“Both?” she threw her attention to the rest of the lot then back to me. “It’s also getting dark. How are you going to be able to see what the problem is?”
“Lights, baby, they have ‘em so you can work at night. Pop the hood, but don’t turn it off.”
I didn’t bother trying to get close to her. I was a mess. I had wanted to see if she’d let me steal some sugar, but if she was going to have second thoughts, I might not want to press my luck. She did as I asked and I hefted the hood up; there weren't any burning smells that I could detect it was just a noise.
“Turn it off,” I instructed, and I waited patiently for her to kill the engine. I gave it a beat to cool before I start checking fluid levels. “When was the last time you had the oil and filters changed?”
When she didn’t answer, I looked up to find her fidgeting next to me. She looked embarrassed, “Maybe a few years ago?”
“So,” since she was close to me I gave her a nudge, there was a temptation to throw my arm around her, but I was more than a little grubby. “That might create issues. Get me a couple of cartons of oil and an oil filter for Saturday. I’ll come over, you’ll need to text me your address, and take care of your problem. We can take a ride and see if that’s the issue.”
She nodded as she listened, looking at the engine with me. I watched her pull her phone out then and go the extra measure to text me. My phone vibrated in my pocket.
“You’re probably looking at about twenty bucks for all of that,” I informed her. “That okay?”
“You are busy,” she turned away to look at the mess of a bike I was fucking around with.
“This is what I do,” I nodded. I grimaced and looked at her, “You gonna tell me you got something against greasy hands?”
She smiled when she looked up at me, her face was flushed, and she took a step closer so when she spoke it was low. “I don’t. I guess I just didn’t know what you did, so I assumed you stayed here all day and drank beer.”
I put a hand to my stomach. Ya, it was flat; I worked out. The physical therapist emphasized the importance of remaining active as I recovered from my injuries.
“Do I look like I got a beer gut?”
She took the time to look me up and down, it was probably the first time she really looked at me. And I suddenly saw something other than fear or embarrassment on her face. She looked like she liked what she saw. I threw my arm around her, now, pulling her so she was against my side.
“No,” she blushed when she looked up at me. Her hand came to pat my stomach, and it paused as if she tried to assess just what I was packing. “I guess you don’t,” she admitted.
“Well, see you go say something like that now I gotta do something like this,” I tipped her face up with my free hand and leaned down to catch her lips with mine. I restrained myself enough to not overwhelm her, kissing her gently and holding back the desire to taste her, so I didn’t go shoving my tongue in her mouth.
She didn’t push me away, she didn’t pull back. She tensed, the hand that had been on my stomach fisted my shirt. I kept it brief and chaste, though even with just the brush of her lips against mine I knew I wanted more.
“Okay?” I had to make sure that I hadn’t crossed a line and made her uncomfortable.
She nodded, not at all looking embarrassed but like she might’ve liked the fact that I kissed her.
“I’ll see you Saturday?” She confirmed.
Yea, I had her attention now like she had mine. I nodded, considered kissing her again, but I pulled away. We had an audience, after all, and I wasn’t going to do anything dumb to wreck my chances with this girl.
“I’ll be there. Remember, oil and oil filter. I’ll come by early so I can get to work.”
She nodded and went to get into her car, I cleaned up the small mess I had made and closed the hood. I watched her pull out, not bothering with Jimmy and his friend until she was out of the lot. I had a day to wait, but already I was antsy for Saturday.
5
I spent all of Friday trying to work on that damn bike Jimmy brought me. It was a mess that held up my entire day. I shouldn’t bitch because it was money that I could use plus something to occupy my time, but it was a bigger pain in the ass than keeping Wilson’s bike running. I was in a hurry though, I wanted the damn thing running and out of my way, so it didn’t fuck with the rest of my weekend. But, it was damn near ten before we got the bike to successfully crank. Jimmy spent the majority of the time working on it with me. Though he mostly did running for parts and whenever my aches got too much, he’d bring me water and my pills.
“I got some good stuff,” his friend, Anthony, said to me when I was aching and pretty much stuck on my ass. “Percocets, they’re good for pain.”
“Can’t,” I didn’t even look at the idea. But I figured out then that this guy and Jimmy were probably running something more serious than the weed that Teddy and Wilson dealt.
“You’re helping me out man,” he said in response. “I’d cut you a good deal to help you out.”
“I get drugged tested once a month,” I looked up at him then. “I test positive for anything that I’m not prescribed, and I get in a shit ton of trouble.”
“Fucker’s on disability,” Jimmy said from behind me, he tossed me a bottle of water with my bottle of pills. “He can get a
way with smoking pot here and there, but anything else they’ll stop paying him for being a bump on a log.”
“This bump on a log did more than you did, Chair force,” I didn’t pause from working the bottle open and popping pills into my mouth. I chugged the bottle of water down then.
“It’s a pity you guys don’t let civilians in,” Anthony rolled a shoulder. “I could sure help you guys out with business. Get some serious income for guys like you,” he nodded at me. “I don’t imagine that disability pays much.”
