Charlie

inhabiting her own space

A woman inhabits her own space fully but doesn't seek to conquer others space, any more than she allows others to impose on her.

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Friday
June 1,1990

"I swear I had to beat the girl off with a stick." Jay laughs out loud, Steven only shakes his head at Jays reaction to his latest conquest. I decided to bring him down a notch.

"You know, one of these days you are going to come across the wrong girl, and find yourself looking down at her daddy's shot gun." Jay face goes red. He quickly moves back to the car he is working on. I chuckle as I move back into the customer area. We are all in our t.g.i.f. mode.

Cindy smiles happily ad she hands over the next work oder. I noticed a older lady sitting on one of the chairs by the window. "Morring Ms. Mills how are you?" I greet her. She is one of the many people who now call on Steven to work on her car.

Steven has filled the bill of a good mechanic quickly. He has quite a following now and there are quite a few who insist that he is the only one who touches their cars. This means we are insured of a good repeat business.

"Oh, I just fine. Came in to get that old tire fixed. I tired of putting air in it whenever I want to go somewhere. Steven said it had slow leak. He said he'd get it fixed in a jiffy. He is such a good boy" I could almost see the pride shining in her face. She had worked for Steven's mother as a house keeper, and had practically raised him.

"Yes ma'am he is." I replied. I made my way back to my bay door just as Big Jim pulled up in the lot. He was driving in the big white Ford work truck. He had driven the is same old truck for the last 15 years. Most of the time he treated it more like bulldozer than a truck.

Instead of walking into the customers area and wait. He comes into the shop like he owns the place. "I need a oil change Steven." He bellows.

I can't stand the way he treats this place like his personal repair shop. "Go and have Cindy make out a work order. As soon as he gets done with Mrs Mills car he will get to work on yours." I told him. I did not give him a chance to say anything more. "You need to wait in the customer area. Because of our insurance we can't allow customers in shop area." I point to the sign that I had put up not long after I took over.

I smile as his face turns red. He huff and walks away and does what I tell him to like a good boy. I happily go to get my next job, a Crown Vic, it is one of the city cars. The cop who brought it in has walked over to the cafe to take his break as I change the oil.

Big Jim gets his oil change, pays and leaves. We are in the process of deciding on who will go to lunch at what time when ten members of the bike crew pull into the shop lot. I watch Marc hop of his bike and rush into the customers door and talks to Cindy. She is all smiles at his attention to her. I know she is falling for him, and I just wondered how long it would take her to figure it out.

She sticks her head around the shop door. "Is it ok if I take lunch now? Marc wants to take me out." She is practically bouncing with excitement.

"Sure go ahead" I tell her.

At that moment Big Jim pulls into the shop. He gets out of his truck and slams the door. He marches over to where Jay , Steven and I are standing. Without any warning he starts shouting at Steven. Saying he messed up the oil change. I step in to defend my worker.

"If you have a problem with your truck then you need to bring it back like someone with some sense. You just don't come in here and yell at my employee." I know all the biker's are watching us. I can almost feel their eyes on me. I try to keep my voice strong but professional.

"I should have known better than to trust some girl with my work truck. To think the city trusted you to handle their cars. My damn truck is blowing oil! I am losing money just standing here!" He yells at me. I am just about to tell him that I will fix the problem when Griffin steps up.

"Why don't you take it down a bit. I sure it not that bad. You drove the piece of shit here." he moves to stand between me and Jim as if to protect me from Jim. I am a little shocked he would do this. He must still be trying to make up for the party. For some reason that made me feel strange. I have to peek over his shoulder to see Jim's reaction. Jim looks like he is about to explode. I step around Griffin to take back the control of the situation.

"Jim give your truck keys to me, I will look at it now. There will be no charge for the repairs." I hated to lose money on the repair but if the problem was Steven fault there nothing else to do but eat the cost.

"Well, that goes without saying. Your man cause the problem you should fix it." He boasts before he hands over his keys. "I am having lunch at the cafe. I expect it to be ready when I get done." He quickly walks out and across the street to the cafe.

"Jackass" I hear John mutter a few of the bikers chuckle at him.

"Cha-cha, I don't know what I did wrong but I work through lunch to fix it." Steven said nervously. I shake my head at him. I know this has upset him. He is still new, and doesn't want to lose his job.

"No, you go to lunch. Don't worry about it. Jim is a dick. I will fix his truck. You and Jay go to lunch. I got this." I patted him on the shoulder. I looked over at Jay. He nodded at me. I am sure Jay could talk to him during their lunch. Maybe he would feel better when they got back.

Instead driving the truck and causing more damage. I decided to just look under the hood to see if tell by looking at the motor where the oil is coming from. From the way he was acting the whole motor was about to fall out. Behine me heard several motorcycles crank up. I did not turn and watch them leave. I was just about to put my foot on the bumper to get a better look under the hood when a deep voice stoped me.

"What time are you taking lunch?" I look back to see Griffin is the only one remaining in the lot. He long dark hair is tied back. He is dressed in a black tee shrit and faded jeans. Even though he is definitely not my type he still looks good.

"As soon as the guys get back. In about a hour." I tell him. Then take a look at the engine of the truck. I see no leaks around the head. I soon find that Steven forgot the oil cap. That's was the problem with the truck all along.

"Are all your customers like that jerk? It's obvious he doesn't know how to treat a woman." He asked as I jumped down from the truck. He walked me back over to Steven's work bench.

"Well he been a dick for awhile. It comes naturally to him. I can handle it. It's not big deal." I look around on the table until I find the oil cap behind the empty oil bottles. I will have to remind Steven to throw away bottles and check to make sure he doesn't miss this again.

"I just couldn't stand there and let him talk to you like that. I hope you don't mind." He takes off his dark sun glasses and looks at me with his soft moss green eyes. He does have really nice eyes I think to myself. I mentally shake myself from thinking about him that way. He was not the type of guy I wanted.

"There was no need for you to do that. I have been dealing with him for years. He bark is worst than bite." I say, and grab a bottle of oil before we walk back to Jim's truck.

I put the cap back on and check the oil level. Then refill what oil was lost. Then take the rag out of my back pocket to clean up the wasted oil off the engine. Then shut the hood, and trun back to Griffin. "Thank you for standing up for me. That was nice of you."

"It's not a problem. I just couldn't stand by and let him run all over you. I like you. I would like to get to know you better. Maybe we could have lunch together when the guys get back?" He hopefully asked.

I guess I could do lunch with him for what he did for me today. It's not like we were going out. "Sure, to thank you for your help with the Jim problem. I'll pay." I walk away not giving him the chance to argue the point.

"Hey! I got you!" He shouted at me. I trun and give him a sly smile.

"No. I got you!" I shout back. He only laughs at me.

He may not be the jerk I thought he was at the party. We even become friends. Who knows...