November Falls - 3. Chapter 3 - Ember

“Morning,” I yawned, flicking the coffee maker on in the breakroom.

“Yeah, morning,” Justin grumbled, ever the morning person, putting his lunch in the fridge.

“Good weekend, huh?” I smiled.

“Do you reckon I can crash in your spare room or the couch for a couple of nights?”

Shit! “Yeah, sure, why? What’s up?” I asked leaning against the bench, my arms folded across my chest.

“I broke up with Dean. It’s done, last time I fall for his shit,” he snapped at me.

Thank God, Dean is a first-class douche bag, “Oh, speaking of assholes. How did the reunion go?”

Rolling my eyes, I turned around to pour us both a coffee. I sat down at the lunch table with Justin, sliding his mug in front of him.

“It started with Paul, do you remember him? Brady’s best friend.”

“God, do I ever. He was an equal opportunity asshole, nobody was safe. At least Brady only tortured you, no offense,” Justin took a sip of his coffee, then cocked his head, frowning, “I wonder why that is?”

“Dunno, anyway, Paul said something about a ‘Fag’ right when I walked past him. He made sure I could hear. I got in his face, and then Brenda Small came along and gave him what for and Aaron dragged me away,” I shrugged my shoulder. “Brady and Ricky were at the table, I’m not sure what happened, but that asshole Brady stood up, put his hand smack bang in Pauls' chest, said something to him, and Paul fell back almost with shock. Anyway, they left the reunion right after that and didn’t come back. Thank God,”

Justin smirked, “Uh… that might be because Ricky is living with the guy that owns ‘The Yard,’ the pub next to the golf course. I don’t know if Ricky is gay, but I do know the other guy definitely is.”

“Really? Well, there you go. Maybe Brady has grown up after all,” I answered curiously.

“Um… Boss, while I’ve got you. Is there any chance you have enough in the budget for me to get an apprentice or at least some labour? I’m starting to have to turn jobs away, the caravans and motorhomes are rolling in now. I did a job for one of them putting solar panels on their van, now I’m getting enquiries from the whole grey nomad club as well as people they know. The panels are time-consuming on my own, and I can’t get the little jobs done. Most of the time I have to steal Troy once you’re finished with him or between your jobs to give me a hand.”

I chuckled, “I wondered where he kept sneaking off to? Sure, I’ll talk to Mags, we’ll look at the books and see what we can do. Are you happy with just labour, for now? I don’t want to have Jim doing that kind of work. If he slipped or fell, I dread to think what he’d break. Plus, he’s great dealing with our suppliers; they all love him, he gets us discounts and freebies when he picks up our parts.”

“Who wouldn’t love the guy?” Justin smiled warmly, “but yeah labour’s fine for now, and someone that shows up, not a dumbass.”

“Leave it with me,” I said yawning again.

The morning flew by we were so busy, I had given Troy a hard time for disappearing. Poor kid couldn’t stop saying sorry, I regret it now. If Troy says sorry again, I think I’m going to be tempted to throw a spanner at him.

“TROY!” I called out. He came jogging from the back of the workshop with an alternator in one hand and a screwdriver.

“S’up Boss?” He looked at me hoping he wasn’t in trouble.

I chuckled, “Troy, can you please relax, you aren’t in trouble, I was just having a lend. Justin explained that he’s been borrowing you. It’s fine, but you should have told me.” I could see the relief sweep through his body, “Where are you up to with the SUV? Can I do anything to help?”

“Uh… it will be ready by three, I just have to give it a test drive.”

“Good work mate. When you’re done, we’ll give it the once over together, yeah?”

Troy smiled, “Thanks, Boss,” he returned to the workbench.

“How’s it going Mag’s?” I asked as I entered the office.

“Too busy today, you have three more cars this afternoon, a service, pink slip and a clutch repair, I also have to ring these five jobs to come pick up their cars. And that’s only if we don’t get any walk-ins for a pink slip inspection.” Mags sighed.

“Give me those, I’m going to have lunch, I’ll ring them at the same time. The SUV should be ready by three. Shall I call him with this lot?” I asked taking the paperwork from Mags.

“If you can that would be great, I also have the job ad ready to go to the classifieds. I didn’t go through the agency. It’s a lot of money for someone to do just labour for the next three months. If we’re not happy with the response, I’ll go to the agency.” Mags told me.

“You’re awesome lady,” I kissed her cheek, and Mags guffawed, “What would I do without you Mags?”

“S’far as I can tell you’d be at home drinking beer watching tv with this mob, waiting for the delivery guy,” she laughed.

“You’re prolly right,” I grumbled moving through the office to the break room.

I cleaned myself up, then sat down with my sandwich after grabbing the cordless phone from my office. I ran through the list of pickups, they were mostly voicemail which is excellent. It makes it quick and easy without them being able to ask questions. I reached the SUV and saw the name of the owner for the first time, oh for the love of, damn it! Brady ‘fucking’ Douglass. I had a local landline number which was odd. I thought he was living in the city somewhere. A lady answered the phone and assured me she would pass the message onto her son. Fan-fucking-tastic, at least I didn’t have to speak to the asshole!

“Hey Boss, what’s going on?”

“Hey Jus, you’ll never guess who the SUV belongs to?” I sighed wiping my hand over my face.

“You’re kidding?” He laughed, “Brady Douglass,”

I grunted in confirmation. Brady hadn’t given me a hard time at the reunion, but I still hate that guy. I know it’s not fair, nobody is the same person they were at eighteen. It probably wouldn’t feel this way if he had not made my life a living hell in high school, even if it was twenty years ago. I am not even the person I was back then. I need to find a way to let it go somehow. I wonder if Brady will turn around and go straight back to where he came from now that his car is back on the road. I hope so, maybe I should check how Troy went with that, I don’t want Brady ‘fucking’ Douglass coming back. Nah, I’m sure Troy has done a fantastic job, I can’t do it to the kid; it would break his heart. Please almighty just make sure Brady doesn’t come back.

“How’s your afternoon looking, Troy and I are flat out. If you need any help we might have to pull Jim, just don’t have him up on ladders and stuff. I know he’s capable and blah, blah, blah, but if he hurts himself, I’ll never forgive myself,” I told Justin.

“I could actually use some help, I can handle all of the ladder crap for now, but I’ve got two stereo installs this afternoon. He’s better than me at soldering so win-win,” Justin shrugged his shoulder.

“Great,” I stood and put my rubbish in the bin, “See ya Jus, let me know if you get stuck, I’m sure we’ll manage somehow. Oh, see Mags before you go home, she has the ad ready for your labour hire to put in the classified’s.”

Justin’s grin nearly took up half his face, “Thanks, Boss, will do.”

I went back to work, I had the pink slip done in record time, a piece of cake. I had Troy working on the clutch repair, while I did the service. Troy can do a service with his eyes closed. There’s no point getting him to do that kind of work if there are other jobs he can learn from. I always keep an eye on him, most of the time he asks questions if he’s unsure. The kid is cluey though, I’ll give him that. Last time I had to go to the city for a product conference, he had to replace a radiator. He’d never done anything like it before. Not by himself anyway. He got on the internet and found some information then rang my old boss Mike for advice, and had it ready and waiting for me to check when I got back.

I like that people in this town trust us with their classic cars. We usually get three or four a week, the motors are easy, it is only sourcing the parts that can sometimes cause us a delay. That is the fun part though, going to the wreckers yard and climbing through the cars like a teenager, trying to find a part in the best condition you can find. It’s like a treasure hunt.

Once the service was done, Troy had the car ready for the new clutch to go in. We managed to finish everything by three o’clock. “Boss, I need to test drive the SUV quickly then you said you would look it over,” Troy frowned.

“Shit! The owners not here yet, hop to it. Maybe we can get it done by the time he gets here.”

Troy grabbed the keys and made a hasty retreat, and Jim was out back washing the finished vehicles, Justin had caught up and sent him back over. It’s incredible how much people appreciated their cars being clean when they collected them. Jim loves to do it when we’re busy, I think his wife likes it too, quieter at home. Now that there were no cars in the workshop except the one upon the hoist. I took the opportunity to quickly sweep the floor and move any tools back to their rightful home. We are pretty good about putting them back after we use them but on busy days we get distracted and forget. Troy drove the SUV into the back entrance, cut the engine and popped the hood. He had a grin like a kid on Christmas morning when he climbed out of the car. “Purrs like a kitten, Boss, I even managed to fix the air-conditioner,” Troy chortled.

“What was wrong with it?” I frowned.

“The plug came out of the back,” he laughed, “there was nothing wrong with it, I plugged it back in and wah-la!” Should charge Brady two hundred bucks just for being a douche bag his entire life. I shook my head; I’d never do that. We’ve always been prided ourselves on how we charge our customers, we’re fair and never do any work that will cost the owner without their permission.

“Great work, maybe it’s a good thing you’ve been hanging around Justin’s workshop,” I smiled at young Troy. He blushed, nodding his head, I could tell he was excited on the inside but trying to act cool. He’s like a puppy, you give him praise, and he laps it up. Sometimes I half expect him to drop to his back with his arms and legs in the air so I’ll pat his belly. I laughed at the thought, he looked at me quizzically, and I waved him off. Grabbing the clipboard holding the paperwork, I moved toward the SUV to inspect Troy's work. I had him start her up, the engine did indeed purr like a kitten.

I heard the door to the office slide open, “Boss, I need the paperwork for the SUV. Mr. Douglass is here to pick it up,” Mags called out.

“Alright coming,” I grunted back.

“I’ll quickly clean her up if you can stall for five minutes, then take her round the front,” Troy offered excitedly. I don’t blame him, it was his first repair that I’d assigned him. He’d done others, but they were because I wasn’t around or they were nothing special. This I had let him do it all, diagnose, order the parts and do the repair. If he knew how big of a deal it was that this repair is perfect, he’d shit a brick. I wanted it done right, I do not want any reason for Brady to complain or ruin the reputation we’ve built for the past eight years.

I swiftly took the paperwork and gave it to Mags in the office, I tried my best to ignore Brady standing in the reception area. Luckily he had his back to me. Let’s just say my traitorous body liked the view of Brady from behind, if I had been at a bar and I hadn’t known it was him, I’d have approached him without a second thought. I didn’t really take much notice of Brady at the reunion, I was actually too focused on trying to rip that dickhead Paul’s head off. I was aware that Brady was sitting at the table when I double-backed after that wanker Paul opened his obnoxious foot-rest. The next thing I knew Aaron was pulling me away as his wife approached. I’m almost certain she had been Brady’s girlfriend in high school. The next thing I knew Paul was on his arse and Brady was walking out the door with Rick Cummings.

Well, fuck me if the guy didn’t go and get all hot on me. Although he’s wearing a suit and I can only see him from behind – a very hot view. He’s tall about my height maybe a couple of inches taller, his shoulders are broad tapering down to a smaller waist. His jacket hung over his arm, and his white collared shirt, tucked neatly into his pants shows off his back nicely. Oh, my God, he turned around, his face no longer had the baby-faced good looks he had in high school. Brady had filled out beautifully, he was now all man and had that nerdy, intelligent look down pat. The stylish glasses adorning his face made it worse for me. If I didn’t know him, I’d be weak in the knees. His look is everything I’d always been attracted to. Damn Brady Douglass, I hate you.

Busted!

He looked up at me at that moment, his hand went up to get my attention.

“Your car will be around in a minute, Mags will give you your invoice,” I grumbled harshly.

“November…” He tried to say something, but I hastily made my retreat back to the workshop.