Unscathed

by Tim O'Rourke

  "Aw, you're such a sweetie, Mina," she beamed, turning back to the mirror where she continued to preen herself.

  I stood and watched her empty half a can of hairspray into her white-blonde hair. She backcombed her wild mane with a brush. Sensing that I was watching her, Heather turned to look at me again.

  "Are you okay, Mina?" she asked with another bright red smile.

  "I was wondering if you could do me a favour, Heather?" I asked.

  "If you want to copy my English paper then you're out of luck, I'm six papers behind already this year," she started to explain. "I should be asking to copy yours."

  "No, it's nothing like that," I said, then explained how I had met this guy who I was kinda hung up on. At the mention of a guy, I had Heather’s full attention. I explained how I had been told by my own friends that Jax would use me like he had so many other girls. I told her how I hoped it would be different between me and Jax but I needed to know for sure. I confided in her how I was scared of making a fool of myself and getting hurt.

  "So how can I help?" she asked, plucking a bottle of nail polish from her bag and working on the tips of her fingers.

  "Jax works in that little auto repair shop on the other side of campus," I explained. I fished the picture I had taken of him from my pocket and handed it to her.

  Heather eyed it briefly, then handed it back to me.

  "I was wondering if you would go to the auto shop, make out you have a problem with your car. Flirt with him a bit... offer him your phone number... see if he takes it... if he calls..."

  "Set a honey trap you mean?" she said, glancing up from her fingernails at me.

  "Yes," I said flatly. There was no point in denying it.

  Heather looked at me, then said, "Why me? Why not ask one of your other friends?"

  "He knows them, or at least he has seen me with them in the coffee bar," I said. "If he was to recognise one of them, he might suspect a trap."

  "And what if I do flirt with this guy, give him my number, and he takes it... he calls me?" Heather asked, sounding more serious than I had ever heard her sound before.

  "Then you would have saved me from a world of pain," I said.

  Heather just stood and looked at me, hands on hips.

  "I just need to know that I can trust him," I almost pleaded with her, and hated the desperation in my voice.

  "What did you say this dude’s name was?" she sighed, throwing the bottle of nail polish back into her bag.

  "Jax," I whispered.

  "What kind of name is that?" she smirked, heading for the door.

  "Hey, Heather," I called after her.

  "Huh?" she said, looking back.

  "Thank you," I said.

  "I should be thanking you," she smiled.

  "What for?" I asked.

  "For letting me copy your English papers," she said. "I’ll call you." Then she was gone.

  Alone in the restroom, I went into one of the cubicles. Swinging the door shut, I sat down. Had I done the right thing setting a honey trap for Jax? I guessed I wouldn't know until Heather called me.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Jax

  I thought about Mina all week at work. I could hardly keep things straight as I repaired car after car. Thankfully the work week was easy and I had just a bunch of tune-ups and general maintenance to do to these pain-in-the-ass Swedish cars. My dad would shake his head at me if he knew I was working on foreign cars and not good ol’ American cars without computers for engines, I thought to myself and smiled.

  My father.

  Where in the hell was he? The thought that he was dead somewhere was one I didn’t want to entertain. But what was the alternative? That he had abandoned me and took off to Canada or something and started a new life? James “Trick” McElvoy, despite his catchy nickname – earned in the boxing ring in high school by fighting dirty – was not that crafty. No, he worked, he came home, he drank ‘til he passed out, and then got up the next day and did the same thing. I don’t think he even knew how to log in to a computer or use the Internet. He eked out a meager, simple existence and me and that bottle of Jack Daniels were at the center of it.

  So where in the hell was he?

  “Jax, customer up front,” I heard Jennifer’s voice announce through the garage’s loudspeaker.

  I banged my head on the hood of the SUV I was working on and swore. I released the latch and let the hood fall down hard with a satisfying slam.

  I rubbed the top of my head and turned the greasy doorknob. I looked at Jennifer in her skin-tight frayed jean shorts and orange Harley Davidson tank top and smiled.

  “Customer,” she smiled through her gum and pointed. She flicked her long dark hair behind her and went back to playing on her phone.

  I looked over to see a very pretty blonde standing in the lobby. Her hair was so blonde, it was almost white, like one of those Playboy chicks from that TV show. She looked tall in a miniscule white skirt and her tanned legs were poured into a pair of very high-heeled silver sandals. She was showing more cleavage than should be legal, and she was smiling at me with perfect, white teeth.

  “Are you Jax?” she asked, flicking her eyes to the stupid nametag patch on my greasy-ass uniform shirt.

  “Yeah?” I answered, trying to play it cool.

  She pointed behind her. “My car is making a noise, and I was told to ask for you.”

  “Really? By who?” I asked.

  “This guy Trent in my History class,” she replied.

  I looked behind her to see a small gold Lexus sports car. We normally only work on Volvos here, but hey, I wasn’t going to be judgmental. The girl seemed like she really needed help.

  I laughed to myself. “Pull it around to the bay and let’s take a look.”

  She nodded and gave me the once-over, her eyes lingering a little too long on the tattoos on my arms, then turned on her heel and walked out.

  I quickly grabbed a rag and scrubbed it over my dirty face and knew there was nothing I could do about the ripe smell I’m sure I was emitting.

  She got out of the car and walked to where I was waiting. “So I’m Heather, by the way,” she said.

  I nodded and swallowed. “Well, let’s take a look at your car, Heather. Pop the hood.”

  It took longer than it should have for her to locate the hood switch, but she eventually did as ordered, then stepped out of the car.

  I lifted the hood and looked into her lime-green colored eyes and asked, “What kind of noise is it making?”

  She shrugged and looked at her nails. “I don’t know, it sounds like a clunk-grind-screech.”

  “When the car is on or off?” I asked.

  She looked up at the ceiling as if the answer was there somewhere. “On. When I press on the brake.”

  “Every time?”

  “Yes.”

  I closed the hood and slid on my back under the car and laughed at what I saw. After sliding back out, I stood up. I looked at her and tried not to smile. “Sweetie, you need new brakes. You’re metal on metal there.” I pointed at her tires.

  “Oh.” She didn’t seem the least bit embarrassed. What an airhead. I was gonna kill Trent. He probably thought I needed to get laid or something.

  As if, I scoffed to myself.

  She stared at me a couple more minutes. “Well, do you do that here?”

  “No,” I said curtly. “I’ll be right back.”

  I pulled a business card from the stack on the desk in the office and handed it to her. “This place does great brakes, especially on luxury cars.” I dipped my head toward the gold Lexus.

  “I see.”

  She pinched the card between her thumb and forefinger as if it might get her dirty and dropped it into her tiny purse.

  Then she pulled out a card of her own. “Well, after I get my brakes done, maybe you could call me to see how it went?”

  I looked down at the card, which read: Heather Findley and a local phone number. On it was also a small photo of her
in a hot pink bikini wearing high heels and I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes.

  I ignored her comment and said, “Gus over at that brakes place will take good care of you.”

  She smiled and got into her car and left. I looked at her stupid business card and shoved it into the pocket of my jeans, glad the work day was over and desperate for a shower.

  Chapter Twenty

  Mina

  I hadn’t heard back from Heather. I’d tried calling her and sent several texts to her phone – but nothing. I’d even tried hunting her down at college. Eventually, I heard she had come down with a bad case of flu. I considered driving by her house just to make sure she was okay, but in my heart I knew I was only going to pay her a visit to find out if my honey trap had been set. That would have been selfish of me, and Heather would have thought the same, too. So, I decided to leave her in peace.

  My uncle and aunt left for their lakeside cabin early on Saturday morning as they had planned. I wished them both a happy anniversary and they set off, leaving me alone in the house. Knowing that I had the place to myself, and hoping that I was going to throw some kinda party, both Evelyn and Mandy called me up to see if they could come over.

  Whispering in the best croaky voice I could muster, I said into the phone, “I don’t feel great. Got myself a bad case of the flu.”

  “You looked fine at school yesterday,” Evelyn sighed.

  “I know,” I coughed and spluttered. “Apparently it’s going around. I heard that Heather Findley has it real bad and I was only chatting to her the other day.”

  “She probably passed you her germs,” Evelyn said.

  “I guess,” I wheezed.

  “Well go straight to bed and take some vitamin C,” she said, sounding concerned.

  I felt bad for lying to my friends, but they would’ve never been able to understand why I was blowing them off so I could spend time with Jax instead of partying with them. Evelyn would’ve never been able to get her mind around that.

  I hung up the phone and flounced from my bedroom, excited at the thought of seeing Jax that night. After I’d showered, and with a towel wrapped around my damp hair, I went to the wardrobes in my room and thumbed through the dresses hanging from the rails. I wanted to look nice for him, but not cheap – like I was giving myself away. Pulling dresses from the wardrobe, I held them against me, screwed up my nose and tossed them aside and onto my bed. I couldn’t find anything that I really liked and I was just about to give up when I saw the red little dress that I had brought over from England with me. It had been my favourite, but I hadn’t worn it since arriving in the U.S. and it had gradually been pushed to the back of my wardrobe. I held it up against me and looked into the mirror. It was sexy but didn’t make me look desperate or cheap. It hung just above my knees, just enough to give Jax a teasing glimpse of my tanned thighs. That was enough, I smiled to myself.

  I slipped in my earphones and set about doing my hair while I listened to some Coldplay. I whacked the volume up. After drying my hair, I fixed it into two loose pigtails, which hung from either side of my head. Snatching up my iPod, I re-hung the clothes I had earlier discarded, and headed out of my room. In the kitchen, I set about fixing dinner for myself and Jax. I wasn’t a great cook, but then again, I wasn’t a bad one either. My mother hadn’t often been around when I was younger, so I was left to sort out my own meals on my arrival home from school. Microwave meals tasted of plastic, so I had soon learnt to search out recipes and download them from the Internet. I didn’t mind cooking; it was eating alone that bothered me. Most nights of the week I would sit in the kitchen back home looking at the four walls as I ate the meals I had cooked for myself. My phone was often my only source of company – but sometimes my phone could scare me. I would have to switch it off and tuck it under one of the sofa cushions.

  Sometimes I still did that, even though I was older and no longer lived in the UK. Uncle Rob once caught me hiding my phone under the sofa. He asked what I had been doing.

  “I’ve found it,” I had lied, gripping it in my fist.

  “It looked more like you were trying to hide it,” he said with a quirky smile.

  “Why would I want to hide it?” I’d frowned back at him.

  He just looked back at me and shrugged his broad shoulders.

  “Well, I’ve found it now,” I said, breaking his stare and heading out of the living room.

  At the door, he stopped me by placing a hand gently on my arm. “You know, if you ever need to talk about anything, I’m here. It can’t be easy coming to live in another country and being so far away from your friends and mother…”

  “I’m okay,” I lied again. “Thanks anyway, Uncle Rob.” I left him alone in the room and he never caught me trying to hide my phone again. But sometimes my phone could be my friend, too – it helped me a lot. I’d also come to discover more recently that laptops and cameras of any kind could be of help to me.

  After covering the fish cakes I had made with breadcrumbs, I looked up at the wall, and could see that Jax would soon be knocking on the door and there was other stuff I needed to do before he arrived. Brushing breadcrumbs from my fingers, I went into my uncle’s study and picked up his laptop. I took it back to the kitchen. Standing by the table where I knew Jax and I would be eating dinner, I looked up across the kitchen. Perfect, I thought, heading back across the room with the laptop in my hands. I lifted the lid and switched on the video web camera and hit record. I went back and sat at the table where Jax would be eating. Sitting down, I glanced over at the laptop. I sat there for a few short minutes, then got back up and viewed what I had just recorded. I could clearly see myself sitting at the kitchen table where Jax would be seated in half an hour or so. I dimmed the screen so the laptop looked to be switched off.

  Heading out of the kitchen, I went to the living room. My aunt kept a small digital video camera in one of the drawers there. I took it out and switched it on. The camera was easily concealed in my hand, but I couldn’t get away with holding a camera all night long in front of Jax. He’d already grown suspicious of my phone. I knelt down in front of the TV where the Blu-ray player sat. The camera had a little light on the front, which glowed red when it was in record mode. I tucked the camera down beside the Blu-ray player. Should Jax notice the red light, he would think it was a standby light and not a camera secretly recording him. With the camera in place and aimed at the sofa where we might be sitting later, I left the room.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Jax

  I was halfway to Mina’s house for dinner, when Buck Cherry’s screaming ringtone broke me out of my thoughts. I looked for the phone on the seat and answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Dude. Meet us at Rowdy’s tonight,” said Trent.

  I shook my head. “No, can’t. Have a date.”

  He laughed. “With that hot blonde?”

  I went to respond when I realized something. “What blonde?” I asked, testing him.

  “Damn, dude, how many blondes you got? Hello… that British chick with the nice ass.”

  “You sure you don’t mean little miss platinum blonde Playboy bunny you sent into my shop?” There was silence on the other end so I continued, “I mean, you should have just kept her for yourself. She’s not my type.”

  Trent finally spoke. “What are you talking about, man? I didn’t send no chick to your shop.”

  “What? Yes you did, her name was Heather something or other. Blonde, drives a gold Lexus, total ditz. I kept expecting to see a little Chihuahua dog pop out of her purse.”

  “Seriously, bro. I didn’t send no girl to your shop. Girls like that don’t talk to me.”

  I huffed, still not sure I believed him. “She said you were in her History class or something.”

  He laughed. “Well there you go. I don’t take History. I’m done with all those undergraduate bullshit classes. My degree is gonna be in Sports and Wellness so all my classes are those types of things. Don’t you listen to a
word I tell you?” he joked.

  “Huh. All right then… anyway, got a date, yes, with the hot British girl. So have fun at Rowdy’s and tell Gabe I said hey.”

  “Catch ya later, man,” Trent said, then hung up.

  I realized I was now sitting in front of Mina’s house. I was trying to think of where I put that damned business card that bimbo gave me, because I was so going to call her and ask her again who the hell sent her to my shop. It was just weird. I remember at the time getting the odd feeling like the girl was setting me up for something, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. After she had drove off in her shiny little car, I had chalked it up to Trent playing a joke on me. Trent’s a practical joker, but he always owns up to his jokes, so I believed him when he said he didn’t send her over. Maybe there was another Trent or maybe I heard her wrong. Did I care enough? Not sure. I’d decide later if, and when, I found that damn card.

  I reached over and grabbed not only a bouquet of flowers, but a bottle of red wine, too. I liked to think I was becoming less of a Neanderthal.

  I rang her doorbell, balancing the flowers in the crook of my tattooed arm, the bottle of wine in the fist of the same hand. Mina answered the door almost immediately, her big blue eyes smiling up at me.

  She had on a short red dress and her straight blonde hair was in two low ponytails on either side of her head. She was barefoot and looked sexy as hell.

  “For you,” I said, handing her the flowers.

  She smiled wide and sniffed them. “Lovely, just lovely. Thank you, Jax.” She leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed me softly on the mouth and I almost dropped the wine. I wanted to kiss her back with everything I had, but that would be for later.

  I stepped inside, and following her through to the kitchen, I said, “I brought you some wine. I don’t drink the shit myself, but the woman in the store said it was a good vintage or something.”