Max's Garage - 1. Chapter 1

“I’m very disappointed in you, Conners.”

Here we go again, thought Elliot. He put on his best poker face and braced himself for the upcoming verbal onslaught. His boss stopped pacing around the room and put both his hands on his desk, leaning toward Elliot.

“You settled for half of what we could have been awarded in the Szmansky case. I demand an explanation.” He settled into his chair and steepled his fingers, looking at Elliot expectantly.

Elliot took a deep breath. “Szmansky Brothers Hardware is a mom and pop operation. If they hadn’t settled they would have lost their business. They still might.”

“And why exactly is that our concern?”

Elliot sighed. Basic human decency, he thought. “Putting a hundred-year-old family store out of business isn’t exactly the best PR for the firm. We’re already getting slammed in the press. This will help take some of the heat off.”

“It’s not your job to worry about PR. We have a whole department for that. It is your job to get the most you can out of these lawsuits and not settle for half of what they’re worth!” His boss shouted. “Now get the hell out of here!”

“Yes, sir.” Elliot retreated to his office and sat at his desk with his head in his hands. His stomach hurt and it wasn’t the first time he wished he had the courage to quit.

*****

“How’d it go?”

“Ow!” Elliot hit his head on the hood of the old car he was working on. “Dammit Pete, don’t sneak up on me like that!”

Pete rolled his eyes. “Sorry, babe. So…what happened?”

Elliot sighed and leaned against the car. “I got chewed out for settling the Szmansky case.”

“I’m not surprised. You could have got double what you did. You’re a soft touch, Elliot. If you were anyone else Dad would have fired you by now.”

“Thanks, hun. You really know how to make a guy feel better.” Elliot turned back to the engine.

“C’mon… don’t be like that. You know I love you.”

Elliot turned back to Pete with a half-smile. “I know. I love you too.” He moved to give Pete a hug.

Pete made a face and stepped away. “Eew, you’re filthy! You can hug me after you shower. I don’t know why you bother working on these wrecks when you could just pay someone to do it.”

Elliot wordlessly turned back to the car and started working on the engine again. He’d been working for years to bring her back to her former glory and it bothered him that Pete didn’t support his avocation. Elliot loved working on cars. It was his escape from the drudgery of corporate law. He wished for the hundredth time that he could quit his job. He kept it out of loyalty to Pete and his father, even if his partner’s old man was an asshole.

*****

Elliot stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped loosely around his waist. Pete was already dressed and was working on tying his tie. Elliot looked at his handsome boyfriend and smiled. He walked over to Pete, stood in front of him, and dropped his towel. He smiled seductively and put his arms around Pete’s neck and leaned in for a kiss. Pete frowned and ducked away.

“You’re going to mess up my suit.”

“Who cares? You can always change.” Elliot palmed Pete’s dick through his slacks. Pete brushed his hand away.

“You’re going to make me late.”

Elliot frowned. “So be late.”

Pete handed Elliot his towel. “You know how well that would go over. Don’t forget we have that gala tonight. You are getting your hair cut, right?”

Elliot tossed the towel into the bathroom and started getting dressed. “Maybe, if I have time.” He shrugged.

“Make the time. You know I like your hair better short.” Pete walked over to Elliot and kissed him quickly on the cheek. “See you tonight, babe. Don’t be late!”

Elliot grunted in response.

*****

“I have a new case for you.” Elliot’s boss slammed a file down on his desk, causing him to jump. “We want to buy this property. Find some loophole so we can put this guy out of business.” He turned around and started to leave. “Oh, and Conners? If you fuck this one up I may not care that you’re my son’s partner,” he said derisively, and then turned on his heel and left.

Elliot flipped him off under his desk. He put the file in a drawer, deciding to look at it the next day. He smiled to himself as he started to return some emails. These were far too important to wait, so he wouldn’t have time for that haircut after all, Elliot snickered.

*****

Max was underneath a car when he heard the door buzzer go off. “I’ll be with you in a minute!” he yelled. He heard footsteps approach, then an appreciative whistle.

“Wow… you don’t see too many of these. She’s a beauty!”

Max slid out from underneath the car and gaped at the gorgeous man checking it out. He had slightly wavy auburn hair that curled around the nape of his neck. He was trim and wore a fitted tux. He looked like he stepped off the cover of GQ. The man looked down at Max with bright green eyes he found himself getting lost in. Max didn’t think he’d ever seen a better looking man in his life.

The man looked amused. “I called about the part for a ’52 Chevy. Is it still available?”

Max stood up. “Yeah, I’ve got it over here.” He looked the man over and smirked at him. “I think you’re the best-dressed customer I’ve ever had. Name’s Max.” He held out his hand.

“Elliot.” Elliot shook Max’s hand and then made a face when he realized it was covered in grease. “Ugh. Pete’s gonna kill me! Where do you keep your hand cleaner?”

“Over here. Sorry about that, man. I wasn’t thinking. I’m kind of distracted today. I just got a bit of bad news.”

Elliot grimaced as he washed his hands with grease cleaner. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Thanks.” Max handed Elliot a roll of paper towels. “These are the only non-greasy things here besides you.” He winked.

Elliot laughed. “A hundred, right?”

Max nodded.

Elliot dug out his wallet and handed the burly mechanic a hundred dollar bill. “Do you have any other parts for a ’52?”

“Yeah, I got all kinds of parts here.”

Elliot smiled at him. “Great. I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.”

Max watched Elliot’s ass as he left and grinned. Maybe the day wasn’t so bad after all.

*****

Pete frowned when he saw Elliot enter the country club. “I thought you were getting your hair cut.”

“I didn’t have time.” Elliot gave Pete a quick kiss on the cheek.

“More like you didn’t want to make time,” Pete muttered.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. C’mon, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.” Pete hooked his arm in Elliot’s and walked over to a graying couple talking to his father.

“Mr. and Mrs. Ashton, I’d like you to meet Elliot Conners, my partner and a lawyer at my father’s firm.”

“Your father was just talking about you, Peter. I have some business I’d like to discuss with you.” Mr. Ashton led Pete away without even acknowledging Elliot’s presence.

“Excuse me while I get something to drink.” Elliot stalked off to the bar. At least I have manners, he thought.

Pete found Elliot at the hors d’oeuvres table a short time later. He grinned and kissed Elliot quickly on the cheek. “You are not going to believe the account I just got. No arguing…I want to buy that summer house we looked at last month.”

Elliot looked at Pete dubiously. “That’s great about the account, hun, but we talked about a summer house. It’s a lot of work and money for just a couple months of the year.”

Pete sighed in exasperation. “I’m buying it whether you want me to or not. It will be perfect for summer parties.”

“Then you can hire the help to take care of it. I have enough to do here.”

Pete struggled to keep himself from rolling his eyes. “I don’t want to have this conversation here. Why don’t you buy one of those old cars you like so much, maybe a nice Rolls or a vintage Jag? We can drive up to the summer house in it.”

The conversation was put on hold as another of Pete’s clients came up to chat with him. Elliot spent the rest of the evening on Pete’s arm, smiling politely and making small talk with more of Pete’s vacuous business associates and colleagues. After a while, he managed to disengage himself from Pete with the pretense of refilling their drinks. He walked out to the veranda for a bit of fresh air and sighed deeply. He hated these functions. He had nothing in common with Pete’s financier coworkers and clients. Sometimes he felt like nothing more to Pete than a piece of arm candy. He sighed again, wishing he was at home working on his car.

*****

“Hey, Max.” Elliot smiled at the good-looking mechanic. Max wasn’t really his type, but there was something about the burly man he found appealing. He normally didn’t go for tattoos, but on Max they just looked right.

“Hey… Elliot, right?” Max was thrilled to see the gorgeous man again. “You look different without your tux.”

Elliot made a face. “I hate wearing that damn thing.”

Max laughed. “I can understand that. I hate wearing a suit.”

Elliot smirked imagining the rough-and-tumble mechanic in a suit. “Do you have an alternator I could use in a ’52 Chevy? I swear I should just buy a case of the damn things.”

“What voltage are you using?”

“Twelve.”

“That may be your problem.”

Max and Elliot spent the next hour discussing a variety of issues Elliot was having with restoring the old car.

“Would you mind stopping by so I can get your input while I’m working on her? It would really help for me to get a visual.”

Max unsuccessfully tried to hide the grin that spread across his face at the thought of spending more time with his gorgeous customer. “Sure, I’d be happy to.”

*****

Max whistled when he saw the house that matched the address in his hand. He figured his handsome customer was loaded, but he didn’t expect this level of loaded. The garage door was open and he saw a ’52 Chevy up on blocks. The hood was up with a rather spectacular ass sticking out of the engine. He stood there, staring.

“Can I help you?” The black-haired man looked at him with contempt.

Max jumped. “Ah…uh…I –“

“Ow! Dammit, Pete! You gotta stop doing that!” Elliot rubbed his head.

“If you don’t leave now I’m calling the police.”

“Pete! Max is here to help me with the car. Chill out and be polite, will ya?” Elliot was mortified.

“So this is why you didn’t want to go on the yacht today? I don’t understand why you don’t just pay people like him to do the work for you.” Pete shook his head.

“How many times do I have to tell you that I like doing the work?”

“Whatever.”

Elliot gave Pete a quick kiss. “Go enjoy the yacht, babe. I’ll see you tonight.”

Pete glanced disdainfully at Max before driving off in his Jaguar.

“Sorry about Pete. He was raised with several silver spoons in his mouth and up his ass, and no manners.”

Max snickered. Pete seemed an unlikely match for the grease-streaked man in front of him. Max took a look at the engine and spotted the problem with the alternator immediately.

“You need a converter kit for the twelve volt. I had a feeling that was the issue so I brought you one.” Max retrieved the kit from his truck and proceeded to show Elliot how to set up the converter. “Hand me that screwdriver, will ya?”

Their hands touched as Elliot handed the screwdriver to Max and he was shocked at the thrill that ran through him at the brief contact. He cleared his throat and looked away. Max smiled to himself, just as thrilled as Elliot, trying not to let it show and freak the poor guy out. After all, the gorgeous man already had a boyfriend, even if he was a pompous ass.

The two men worked on the car companionably the rest of the morning. Max helped Elliot sort through some issues he had been having and was a very patient teacher.

“Would you like some lunch?”

Max nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

Elliot and Max cleaned up at the garage sink before heading into the kitchen. Elliot took out a tray of sandwiches and brought it out to the back veranda. “Would you like a beer?”

“Nah. I don’t drink. Water’s fine.”

Elliot brought out an assortment of chips along with the waters.

“These are great,” Max said around a mouthful of sandwich. “Did your cook leave them for you?”

Elliot choked and starting laughing. “You’re looking at the cook right here.”

Max turned bright red. “Oh, sorry! I just assumed…”

Elliot looked at the house. “Yeah…I can see why you would think that. The house was Pete’s idea. So was the Jag, the yacht… you get the idea. I’m more of a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy.”

“How long have you and Pete been together?”

“About five years now. We met at a charity gala. I had just been hired by the firm I work for. It turned out that Pete’s father is the senior partner.”

“So you’re a lawyer.”

“Yeah. Corporate law.” Elliot made a face.

“You don’t like your job?”

“I like being a lawyer. I don’t like making fat cats even fatter off the back of the little guy.”

“Then why do you stay?”

Elliot sighed. “I work for Pete’s father. It makes quitting kind of awkward.”

“Pete would support your choice, though, wouldn’t he?”

“I’d like to think so. He thinks I’m a bit of a ‘soft touch’ though, and I suppose he’s right. I guess I just need to figure out if that’s a good or bad thing.”

Max looked at Elliot softly. “Trust me…it’s a good thing.”

Elliot smiled and briefly squeezed Max’s arm. “Thanks. I needed the reminder. So what about you? Married, single, kids…”

“Nah. Jeff and I broke up a few months ago. The garage took up so much of my time that he found someone else.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. How long were you guys together?”

“Seven years,” Max sighed.

“Ouch.”

Max smiled ruefully. “Yeah. Ouch. So how’d you get into cars? No offense, but you don’t exactly fit the definition of ‘grease monkey’”.

Elliot laughed. “My father owned a garage. I actually wanted to take it over when he retired, but he wouldn’t let me. He wanted something ‘better’ for me. I hated it when he talked like that. I guess he got sick of the attitudes of our higher-end customers. He didn’t want me treated that way. The ironic thing is that the people I work for now are so much worse. Even Pete… well, sometimes I just cringe at the way he talks to people.”

“You and Pete seem very different.”

“We have our rough patches, but we manage to get by. Are you ready to get back to work?”

“Yeah.”

*****

“I hear you’re back in Dad’s good graces.” Pete put his arms around Elliot and nuzzled into his neck. Elliot pulled him in close and kissed his temple.

“Mmmhmmm,” he nodded.

Elliot had found the loophole that Pete’s dad needed to purchase the property he wanted. Every time he thought about the upcoming meeting with the litigant and his lawyer he wanted to throw up. He pushed the thought out of his mind as he led Pete into their bedroom. He needed to take his mind off his job and Pete was the perfect distraction.

“Good.” Pete tilted his head up and kissed his taller boyfriend, running his hands through his hair. For tonight, he’d enjoy Elliot’s longer hair.

*****

“You’re late. The boss is not happy with you.” Alice clucked and shook her head.

“You can tell him he has his son to blame,” he winked at the old secretary.

She turned bright red. “Room 130.”

Elliot grabbed the file from his office and hurried into the meeting room. “Sorry I’m la—“ He stopped dead and stared at the litigant sitting on the opposite side of the table. He realized in horror that he never paid attention to the name on the file he held in his trembling hands.

“Nice of you to make it, Conners. I was just reviewing the implications of that loophole you found with Mr. Simmons.”

Elliot swallowed. He wanted to throw up after seeing the look on Max’s face.

“Sit down, Conners. What on earth has gotten into you?”

Elliot sat down numbly with a stricken look on his face.

“Why don’t you review the particulars since this is your brainchild?”

“Uh…well…” Elliot started to outline the plan he had formulated to strip Max of his business. He grew whiter with every word and felt the bile rising as he observed the stoic impassiveness on Max’s face. When he stopped talking he stared at the table, unable to look Max in the eye. Max stood up and wordlessly left the room.

His boss clapped him on the back with a big smile. “Well done, Conners. That property will be ours in no time.”

Elliot rose shakily. “I can’t do this anymore.”

His boss frowned. “What are you talking about?”

Elliot slid the file over. “I’m done screwing the little guy. I quit.” He stood up and left the room, loosening his tie.

*****

Three months later, Elliot stood in front of Max’s garage clutching an envelope. He was trying to summon the courage to go in. His heart ached when he saw the ‘Sold’ sign in the window. He sighed and pushed the door open.

“Just a minute! I’ll be right with you!” Max yelled. He slid out from underneath the car he was working on. He scowled when he saw Elliot. “I’ve already lost the business. Do you want my blood, too?” He stood up. “Why are you here, Elliot? Haven’t you done enough?”

“I’m so sorry, Max,” Elliot whispered. “I had no idea it was you.”

“It shouldn’t matter who it is, El.”

“You’re right, it shouldn’t.” He held out the envelope. “I hope this helps make it up to you.”

Max crossed his arms. “I don’t want a damn thing from you.” He turned back to the car. “I guess you decided that being a soft touch was a bad thing. Good-bye, Elliot.”

Elliot set the envelope down on the counter. “For what it’s worth, I quit right after you left.” He turned and walked out the door.

*****

The next day Elliot was loading boxes into his car when a weathered pickup parked in front of the house. He wiped the sweat off his brow as Max walked up to him with a frown on his face. He held out the envelope that Elliot had left on the counter.

“I can’t accept this.”

Elliot grabbed a water bottle from the top of his car and took a big swig. “It’s too late. Everything’s been filed. You’re stuck with it whether you want it or not.”

“Why?”

Elliot took a deep breath and looked Max in the eyes. “Because the little guy needed to win this time.”

Max smirked, in spite of himself. “Are you calling me little?”

Elliot grinned at him and looked him over. “Nope. Nothing little there.”

Max laughed, and then got a serious look on his face. “I need to know, El. Why?”

“I’ve always wanted to own a garage.” He smiled wistfully. “But like the note said; it’s mine in name only. I couldn’t see you put out of business, Max, especially not at my hand. This is the least I could do. Besides,” he smirked, “This really stuck it to the firm. You should have seen the look on Pete’s dad’s face when I told him. I would have paid double just to see that.”

“What does Pete think?”

Elliot shook his head and gestured to the pile of boxes. “He wasn’t too happy.” He sighed deeply and ran his hand through his hair. “Pete was furious when he found out that I quit the firm. Daddy must have called him as soon as I left because Pete was waiting for me when I got home. I had really been hoping that he’d support me in this, but I should have known better. We managed to work through it, though, even if things were a bit tenuous. Pete dumped me right after he found out that I bought your place.” Elliot looked Max in the eye. “I only wish I dumped his sorry ass first.”

Max started walking toward his truck, then stopped and strode back to Elliot. “Ok.”

Elliot looked at him, puzzled. “Ok?”

Max held up the envelope. “Ok. But you’re not a silent owner. And I’m buying out half. We’ll be equal partners in this.” He walked up to Elliot and entwined his fingers in his hair as he drew him close and kissed him.

Elliot looked at him in shock, and then smiled. “Equal partners.” Then he kissed him back.

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