Last July

Chapter twelve

I walked out into the door of the garage when I heard a car pull onto the pavement. I recognized the car right away as Brian and there was someone else with him too. The figure got out of the car seconds after he a-lighted and I realized it was a woman. What a coincidence. He walked in all smiles as if there was some joke on my face. I gave him my usual frown and continued to wipe my hand.

"Hey" he said enthusiastically. "how was your week without me?" he smiled as if hoping that I'd say something worthwhile.

"Coming to an end" I replied. "who's the woman?"

"Glad you asked" he said taking her hand and she smiled the same broad smile that the other idiot had. "this is Phillisa. I met her this morning. Her uh, car had some problems"

Again, where is the coincidence? Her car had, past tense problems, meaning no more. So why then was she here?

"Okay" I said walking back to the car I was currently fixing.

"This is the part where you ask what's wrong with it" he continued.

"I don't need to, you already saw it so there's no need for me to get involved"

He walked over and stooped to my level of the car.

"Yeah when I said her car had problems, I meant still have problems, I had to tow the van to get it her here"

"okay" I replied still working.

"That's all?" he asked in disbelief.

"That's all" I replied.

"shit" he mumbled.

I knew where this conversation was headed and there was no way I was going to volunteer myself in taking on another of our work if I didn't have to. Now that he was back he could share some of the jobs that he had been taking to us. My hands were already full and I didn't need another, I glanced over at her scanning her features before returning to my work, another crazy chick on my ass. She already looked annoying.

"Can't he fix it?" she asked sounding somewhat concerned by the turn of events.

By the sound of her voice and her question, I already knew what their conversation was like on their way over. He'd tell her that his friend would fix it and that she'll have it back in no time. What she didn't know however was that this friend already had enough work to keep him awake for days already and I was in no mood to accommodate anyone other than myself at the moment so, unless her rescuer was willing to help her out of this bind she was going to have to wait until everything else was out of the shop.

"Andy" said brian

"No"

"You haven't listened to a word I said yet"

"I don't need to" I mumbled back. "you told her I'd fix it. I can't do it yourself"

"I'll keep heather off your back until its fixed, so that's what maybe a week. One week without heather"

"No thanks I'll take my chances"

"Come on. I can't right now. I promised that I'd help with the July 4th festival set up and if I take this on, the governor will kill me for not having his car tuned and all that crap"

"Not my problem"

"Um, you don't need to fix it right this minute, its just that we'll need it to get around"

I glanced at her. I never agreed to do anything to it in the first place. I didn't even bother to look what type of car it was. That's their problem not mine.

"I'll take the two cars from you and that bike that's been in the corner for two months now"

"Fine" I replied. "Judith needs the car for the festival and there's a drag race that they need us for, you'll have to attend that as well"