Fuelled by Forever

Ch. 9

Imogen

Day one without Jude at work is carnage. I spend the morning reshuffling his appointments among the other mechanics, and of course, his loyal clients are worried. Jude's absence isn't usual for Protech Auto, and his regulars aren't taking it well.

One of the worst is Mr Darmount, or Doomsday, as the other mechanics not-so-fondly call him. He's demanding to know why Jude isn't taking care of his car today, and isn't happy at all.

"I knew that girl would be trouble for him!" he shouts in the car park, and Nathan quickly comes to my defence.

Nathan blocks my view of the older guy. "This has nothing to do with Jude's fiancée."

Fiancée. The word hits me out of nowhere. I have to pause—fiancée? That's me now.

Mr Darmount, completely ignoring Nathan, keeps pushing. "You're telling me that it's just a coincidence that Jude leaves the minute she's in the picture?"

Nathan tries to keep things calm by offering him some paperwork to sign. "Why don't we head into reception? I'll be the one taking care of your car today."

"You'll be holding out the work?" Mr Darmount humphs.

Nathan nods. "Yes, I will."

Doomsday isn't thrilled, but he grumbles his approval and follows Nathan inside, still muttering under his breath about Jude letting everyone down. His eyes flick over to me at the reception desk, but I keep focused on my screen, trying not to engage. Clients like him just want to stir trouble, and I don't have time for it.

I keep my head down, always wanting to be professional. I sense his eyes still on me but I keep typing away. This isn't the first disappointed client today. In fact, the others were worse because they were fishing for gossip.

"How long will Jude be away for?" he asks.

Nathan keeps it professional. "Jude is away until further notice."

"I was asking her," Mr Darmount replies, and I look up then.

Her?

I eye Nathan, who's silently apologising to me. I look back to the tense client. "As Nathan says, Jude is away until further notice."

Mr Darmount lifts his eyebrows in that smarmy way you know he's about to say something rude.  "Well, this is unprofessional of Jude. People don't come here for the monkeys; they want the organ grinder. If he keeps letting people down, there won't be a business to come back to."

His words hit a nerve, but I stay composed. Inside, though, I'm boiling. How dare he talk about Jude and the team like that?

Everyone here is a professional and at the top of their profession.

What a knobhead.

Who speaks like this to people?

I return to my computer desk because nice words fail me. Nathan pushes the paperwork on him, and he signs the dotted line. The pen is loud as he harshly scrapes it across the page to toss it down.

"Great, thanks. I assume you have a car ride out of here while you leave your car with us?" Nathan says.

Mr Darmount shakes his head. "No, I'll be waiting here."

Of course he will.

Nathan holds back. "It'll be a good three hours."

"That's fine. I'll hook up to your wifi and do some work on my laptop," Mr Darmount replies, not giving Nathan another second when he grabs a seat and sets up.