Long Haul- The Complete Series Bundle
Page 19
They dropped April off at her daycare center before heading out to the garage. When they arrived, Douglas was already there, opening up the shop and puffing on a cigarette. He turned as they pulled up into the lot and gave them a brisk wave. They also saw that there were already a few customers waiting with their cars, too.
“Morning, fellas,” Douglas said. “Let the winter rush begin. Exactly one week till Christmas.”
“Don’t remind me,” Adrian and Chandler muttered at the same time before exchanging a look.
Lexie pulled into the lot shortly after. “Hi, guys!” she said, walking over from her car. “Wow, so much snow this morning, huh? One week until Christmas, aren’t y’all excited?”
“Lots of work gotta be done,” Chandler mumbled.
Adrian’s mind was elsewhere and he didn’t even hear what Lexie had said. “Hey, you know what? Since we got a full crew on today, I’m gonna go and pick us up some coffee.”
“Oh, you should’ve let me know,” said Lexie. “I could’ve grabbed some on the way over.”
“We got a lot of cars coming in,” Chandler said. “Why don’t you just have Lexie go?”
“She’s gotta take care of the paperwork,” said Adrian. “I’ll go. It’s okay.”
Chandler frowned and rubbed his chin before shrugging and turning away. “Alright.”
Adrian felt bad—he knew that he shouldn’t be stepping away from the shop on a busy day like this, but he had to get some alone time to make a phone call, and he wanted to do it as soon as possible. It’d been on his mind all through Sunday, and even just waiting a full day for the adoption office to open was torture. It was obvious that Chandler had noticed the stress was back, but Adrian offered no explanation about it and Chandler wasn’t one to keep pressing. He also seemed to be in a bad mood about it today, and that made Adrian feel worse about making an excuse to step out, but it had to be done. No other choice.
On the drive over to the coffee shop, he pulled out the packet of papers from his jacket and punched the contact number into his cell phone. He was connected to an automated machine, and after entering in the extension number, the phone buzzed and was connected to a line.
“Hello, Sean Golden speaking.” The man had a clip to his voice that said ex-military to Adrian.
“Yes, hi, Sean. My name’s Adrian Stokes, I’m calling in regards to Koko’s adoption.”
“Mr. Stokes! Good to speak to you. I gotta say, we’re very pleased to have your application pushed to us. We did everything we could to get it all expedited, on account of your relationship with Koko.”
“Thank you so much for doing that, sir,” Adrian said. “It’s beyond what I expected, to be honest with you.”
“Of course. Koko has been an unusually difficult case on account of her hearing condition, so hearing from you was a huge relief. So now, the only thing left to do is for you and your family to meet her again, and for us to go over everything, to make sure you understand her needs and the responsibility.”
“Right,” said Adrian. “That’s the thing—wait, did you say the family needs to meet her?”
“Yes, sir. The whole family needs to be present. Especially since you have a young child in the household.”
Adrian had stopped at the light, and stared blankly ahead. “Okay, um. Is there any possible way to have this changed?”
“Sir?”
“Look, my husband had a close friendship with Koko. She gave him emotional support during our time in Iraq, and I was arranging this adoption as a surprise Christmas present for him. Is there any way that we can organize this so that only I go to meet her? West Point is a long drive from here. I could find a way to get out there myself, but I need to keep this a secret from him.”
“Mr. Stokes, we need your husband and your daughter to be present. Regardless of how well you know Koko, she is a retired military working dog. You served with her how long ago?”
“Six years, give or take.”
“Koko has been on active duty for four and half years past when you were deployed with her. She’s been through a lot. She may not even be the dog you and your husband remember.”
Adrian racked his brain, trying to think of some excuse, some compromise, but he understood that what he wanted was an impossibility. Not only that, it was irresponsible.
“Shit,” he muttered under his breath. “Yeah, I understand.”
“I do hope you still want to adopt her.”
“Yes! Yes, without a doubt. I just need to figure this out.”
“Well, you contact me once you have.”
“I will. Thank you for your time.” He hung up the phone. “Fuck. Dammit!” He was so set on this being a surprise for Chandler. He didn’t want to give up on the idea, not yet. Maybe there was some way to do it. There was still time.
A car honked behind him. The light had turned green. He cursed again and roared off from the stop light, the tires squealing on the asphalt.
7
Despite all outward appearances, Chandler was struggling to maintain a level of calm. It was Thursday, and there’d been no response, no phone call, nothing. Had he really believed that sending a fucking letter would do anything? That some Chinese businessman, who might not even know how to speak English, would even acknowledge it? And he’d included Adrian’s photograph.
Chandler didn’t often get scared, but when he did, anger became a defense mechanism. He could feel the fear rising in him now, as the reality of the situation began to become bolder in his mind. He wasn’t going to get the car, and he’d have to explain to Adrian why he’d lost yet another memento of his dad.
He felt like an idiot. A fool who got in over his head, jumping in before thinking, fucking everything up, yet again. It wasn’t the first time in his life.
In fact, sometimes it felt like his whole life was a series of spectacular missteps and fuck-ups, with Adrian and April being the silver lining. Sometimes, he was afraid that one day he’d fuck that up too. Right now was one of those times.
The atmosphere in the shop was tense. He’d been right about it getting busy because of the weather, and the lot had filled up with cars waiting to be repaired. They were all stressed. The heaters they used kept breaking down, so they were working in the cold. Also, Adrian still seemed bothered about something, but was being unusually opaque about it. Douglas sensed the tension too and just kept to himself, puffing away on a cigarette as he worked silently. The garage was unusually quiet, filled only with the sounds of their tools. They’d shut the radio off, too. No one wanted to listen to Christmas music. The only person who stayed upbeat was Lexie, occasionally popping in from the office to bring them hot coffee. Every time the office phone rang, Chandler rushed to pick it up before anyone else could, and every time he was disappointed.
“Why don’t you postpone it?” Lexie asked him privately. “It doesn’t have to be a Christmas present, right?”
“I can’t postpone it if I don’t even think I’ll be getting the car.”
“But you’ll have more time to look into this guy. Hell, if you told Adrian about it, you both could work together to contact this man, right?”
“I told you, Lexie. It’s gotta be a surprise.”
She sighed. “You’ve gotta be the most stubborn man I’ve met in my life.”
“The worst part is that I can’t do shit about this,” he said. “All I can do is sit around and wait.”
“Do you have to?”
“Can’t just fuckin’ up and go there.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Well, to start, what would I tell Adrian? I’m just going up to Wolfeboro for some reason that I can’t tell you, ‘cause it’s a secret?”
She shrugged. “Sure.”
“That wouldn’t work.”
She gave him a look. “Or you could come up with something better than that. Like…” She snapped a finger. “I know. I could create a fake order. Say that you need to pick up a special part up there, or something.”
“Okay, then… Maybe someone contacted you because they heard how good you guys are at fixing old cars, and they’ve got some classic rare car they want you to look at.”
“He’d know, too.”
“God dammit, Chandler. Maybe you just gotta take that risk, ‘cause like you said, what the hell else are you gonna do?”
Chandler exhaled and rubbed his forehead. “Alright, alright. Yeah, you’re right. Waiting around is driving me insane.”
“Yes! Okay. I’ll put in a fake order, just to keep your story solid. You just need to tell him.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Thanks, Lexie.”
Later on in the day, Lexie acted as if a call had come in for Chandler. He went inside the office, got the order sheet, and then went outside to tell Adrian.
“Got an unusual work order,” he said, waving the paper in the air.
Adrian rolled himself out from underneath a car. “Hm?”
“Some guy out in Wolfeboro wants work done on an old RV. I guess he found out about us through the internet, or something. He’s paying for someone to drive out there and take a look.”
“We don’t have time for that.”
“Yeah, I figured I’d go off hours. This Saturday.”
“You’re gonna go?”
“Yeah.”
Adrian nodded distractedly and looked away. “Okay.”
Chandler frowned. He couldn’t ignore it any longer. “Hey. You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m good. Just a lot of shit going on.” He gripped the car’s undercarriage and rolled himself back underneath.
“Now hold on just a minute,” Chandler said. He grabbed Adrian’s ankle and pulled him back out.
“Hey, what the fuck are you doing? Let go of me.”
“Woah, now. Something’s the matter, you’ve been acting all weird this entire week.”
“Like I said, just a lot going on. Don’t pretend like you haven’t been off, too. Now let go of my ankle.”
Douglas puffed on his cigarette, watching them out of the corner of his eye. Chandler noticed and straightened. If they were going to argue, he didn’t want to do it at work. He let go of Adrian and walked away. He needed a moment to collect his thoughts, to calm down. What the hell was Adrian’s problem? He walked out of the garage and around the corner, where their lot ended and met with an open, snow covered field. He trudged through the snow, his hands in his pockets. His breath curled up into white puffs. In the middle of the field was a large tree stump, flat on the top from being cut with a chainsaw. He walked over to it, brushed the snow off, and sat down.
He was pissed off at Adrian, but it didn’t at all change his resolve for what he was trying to do for him. He loved him. Nothing could change that. Even if Adrian was a fucking grouch up until Christmas day, he didn't care. All that mattered was the car.
And if he didn’t get it?
Chandler hated even thinking about it, but if he didn’t get it, then he’d at least have to hope Adrian would appreciate him trying.
No. He wouldn’t give up. He’d come too damn close to give up.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. Probably Adrian asking where the hell he’d gone. He pulled it out and looked at the screen. UNKNOWN.
“Yeah?” he said, not in the mood for pleasantries.
“Mr. Longman?” It was a man’s voice, accented. He sounded… British? Indian? Chandler couldn't tell. The first thing he thought was that it was a telemarketer.
“Speaking. Whatever it is you’re selling, I’m not interested.”
“My name is Lingtian Pang,” he replied in an even tone. “I believe you sent me a letter.”
Chandler shot to his feet, his heart racing with the sudden surge of adrenaline. “Yes, sir,” he said. “My apologies, your number was blocked, and—”
“No apologies necessary, Mr. Longman. Now, it’s my understanding that you believe I possess a 1972 Plymouth Duster which once belonged to your husband. Is that correct?”
“Yes, sir. I’ve been tracking this car down for months, and managed to dig up your name.”
“I’m impressed, Mr. Longman. That must not have been easy.”
“No, sir, it wasn’t.”
“I would’ve been inclined to believe you were some sort of scam artist if it hadn’t been for the photograph you included. Well, Mr. Longman, I can tell you that, yes, I do indeed own this car. Perhaps you would be interested in seeing it?”
“Mr. Pang, I’d be interested in purchasing it from you. My husband, his father’s no longer with us. I want to be able to give him this car as a Christmas present.”
“Yes, I’m aware of the story behind the car. I’m asking if you would like to see it.”
Chandler knew from the man’s tone that he wasn’t looking for negotiation. Chandler had only two possible answers—yes or no.
“Yes, sir.”
“Wonderful. I get on a plane for Shanghai tonight. Given you were able to get a letter to me, I don’t believe I need to provide you with an address.”
“Tonight?” Chandler repeated.
“That’s right. I apologize for the short notice, but I only just got around to reading your letter. If you leave now, you can make it here with plenty of time to spare, given the traffic is cooperative. So, should I expect you?”
“Yes, sir,” he said.
“Excellent. Then I’ll see you in a few hours, Mr. Longman. Please drive safely.”
The line clicked, and Chandler stood there, staring dumbstruck at the phone. He slowly dropped it back into his pocket and broke into a run.
Holy shit. That was the only thing repeating in his head. Holy shit holy shit holy shit. He nearly slipped on the icy pavement outside the office door. He yanked it open, and Lexie looked up from her computer.
“Lexie,” he said, his eyes wide. “I need you to do me a huge favor. Give Adrian and April a ride home for me today?”
“What? What’s going on?”
He lowered his voice. “The man who owns the car? He just fucking called. He wants me to meet him in Wolfeboro, today.”
“Holy shit,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Yeah, of course, I will.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Lexie,” he said, hurrying towards the door leading out to the garage.
“What are you going to tell Adrian?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “He’ll know everything on Monday.”
“What should I say to him?”
“I don’t know. Come up with something convincing.”
Adrian was still working beneath the car. Chandler grabbed his ankle and pulled him out.
“The fuck! Chandler!”
“Listen, I gotta run. Lexie’s gonna give you and April a ride home.”
“Where the hell are you going? We got a full lot to work on.”
“Wolfeboro, that repair. Rush job.”
“Wolfeboro! Right now?”
“Yeah, right now. It’s urgent, Adrian. I gotta go. I love you.” He leaned down and stole a kiss from him, leaving Adrian laying there looking confused. Chandler didn’t wait for him to respond. He ran off and jumped into the truck, firing up the engine. It was already getting to be late afternoon, and with the weather, who knew how bad the traffic could be.
Despite all odds, the door had re-opened and a chance had materialized. Surely Mr. Pang meant to negotiate with him. Why else would he have him rush over to meet him like this? The question was what would he ask for?
The garage had brought in a lot of money over that year, and Adrian’s mom had given them a significant financial gift by offering to pay the down payment on their house, but he and Adrian were by no means well off. But Chandler had a bit of money squirreled away, the remainder of his army savings. He just prayed that it would be enough to buy the car.
He pulled onto the freeway, and right into the glare of brake lights. Shit.
Adrian stewed as he worked, angry mos
tly at himself. He hated that he’d snapped at Chandler. He wished he hadn’t done that; after all, this whole situation wasn’t his fault. He was annoyed that he’d just up and left, though. Plus, it just felt weird. It wasn’t like they didn’t ever get special work orders like that, but neither of them ever prioritized them. They were always put at the bottom of the work pile. And they always discussed a big job like that before taking it.