November Falls - 5. Chapter 5 - Ember

“Hey Troy,” I said approaching him, he had his head under the bonnet of a 2007 Commodore Ute.

“Yeah Boss?”

“Give it up for the day mate, come grab a beer. The customer doesn’t want it back until Monday.”

“I don’t mind.” He smiled.

“Nah, don’t worry about it mate. Aaron just got here, it’s been a hard week; we’ve earned a beer.”

I slapped Troy on the shoulder, then directed him to where everyone had gathered. As we approached Aaron tossed both me and Troy a beer.

“Mate, what have I told you about throwing glass around in the workshop?” I asked tersely.

Aaron chuckled and pointed to the corner where we kept our cleaning equipment.

“You told me the broom’s over there.”

“Smartarse,” I grumbled.

The Basher laughed and cuffed Aaron on the back of the head, “Dickhead!”

“Basher!” Mags shouted from the office, “You better not be drinking out there, you’re driving me to see Nanna tonight.”

“No Ma!”

He downed the rest of his beer in three gulps, putting the bottle on the bench behind Aaron so Mags wouldn’t see it. His Mum came into the workshop from the office.

“Have a good weekend gentleman,” she saluted us, “Tell AJ I wish him luck for tomorrow Aaron.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Aaron answered, “will do. Thanks Mags.”

Basher walked off to follow his Mum, then turned around lifting his chin looking at Aaron.

“Ask Justin who came in for an interview today,” Basher said laughing raucously and winked before he ran to catch up with Mags.

Aaron looked at Justin, then Troy, followed by Jim, finally setting his sights on me since no one was forth coming and all looked uncomfortable.

“Who?” he asked energetically, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

Troy looked between all of us looking confused.

“Who came in?” he asked quizzically.

“Brady Douglass,” I said through clenched teeth.

“What? Wait… seriously?” Aaron said wincing.

His beer bottle slipped from his hands, Aaron went to catch it and knocked it further from his body. The bottle smashed on the floor of the workshop. We all pointed toward the broom. Aaron hung his head, sliding his feet along the floor to get the broom.

“Nobody move,” Aaron said sullenly returning with the broom, dragging the dustbin behind him.

<>-<>-<>

Justin broke up with his boyfriend Dean – finally and had been staying with me in the interim. Since it was Friday and the week had been all around shit, neither of us wanted to cook so we decided to go to “The Yard”, a local pub, to get dinner. We were sitting side by side at the bar having a well-earned beer while we waited for our order to arrive.

“What are you going to do about your house?” I asked Justin.

He’d moved out because his boyfriend wouldn’t leave. The house was Justin's, but he hadn’t wanted to stay while his boyfriend was still there. If it had been me, I would have thrown the guy out the door with his belongings following him. But Justin is nicer than I am, they’d been in an on again off again relationship for a long time, so I guess it was hard to let go.

He shrugged his shoulder, “Sell it probably.”

“It’s your house, Justin, have him removed… I’ll do it if you like,” I said chuckling into my beer.

Justin smirked, “Too much drama, I’ve come to hate the place anyway. Too many bad memories now, it will never feel like just my place. It’s not like I owe that much to the mortgage.” He tipped his beer in appreciation to the heavens, “thanks to the inheritance from my Grandad. I could probably use a little bit of an upgrade. Something with space for me to build a workshop or maybe I’ll find a place with one. I used to love tinkering with stuff; Dean was too clingy, always whining I didn’t put in enough effort…” Justin trailed off watching the cricket on the television behind the bar.

“Sounds fair, but while you have the opportunity why don’t you rent the place out and use the equity to buy a house you want to get the upgrade. Then you’ll also have an investment property, maybe wait until the market goes up a little,” I shrugged.

Justin's eyes shifted to me while he nodded his head like he was considering it, “What do I do about Dean?”

“Simple, he won’t move right?”

“Nope,” Justin said popping the ‘p’ like he was bursting a balloon, “he thinks I’m coming back.”

“He’s a dick,” I scoffed, “Anyway talk to him about renting the place, put it through a real estate. You won’t have to deal with him. I mean the guys an ass, but he’s not that much of an ass that he’d do any damage to your place. He’d have to move anyway, this way he can stay put.”

“I can always help him move out if that doesn’t work.” I added – in my head. Justin nodded again. I could see the wheels turning.

Our food was laid in front of us at the bar, the bartender replaced our beers, we thanked him and ate quietly while we watched the cricket. Until Justin brought up the subject, I’d been avoiding – the interview with Brady Douglass.

Justin cleared his throat, “So about Brady,”

“What about him, I’m eating my dinner, you’ll spoil my beer.” My eyes turned to daggers on Justin, “there’s no way in hell I’m employing that asshole…”

“Just hear me out for a second,” he put his hand up to stop me, “look I’m with you about the Douglass family, but our only dealings with them were twenty-years ago. His interview was a disaster,” Justin chuckled, “but he was nervous as hell, but geez Ember, you’ve got to admit it would have looked funny as on YouTube, maybe interview fails of the year.”

That at least made me grin.

“Good, then I won’t have to worry about any backlash for not hiring him,” I grumbled, then shoving food in my mouth.

Justin gave me that look, the one that says you’re being a Jackass.

“What?” I asked disgruntled.

“Come on mate, that’s not fair. I really felt bad for him. No sooner had you stormed out, he’d knocked the water all over the table and into poor Mags’ lap. We didn’t even get to interview him, I swear if you’d have seen his face… poor guy. Nothing seems to be going right for him.” Justin said sympathetically.

“Yeah well, it’s not really my problem is it.”

I tried to concentrate on my dinner and the cricket on the television behind the bar.

“But–” Justin said.

I rolled my eyes. “There’s always a but…”

“–Short of getting another auto-electrician or mechanic, he’s going to be the best we can get. Brady is an electrical engineer, he’ll be able to keep up with me, and he’ll be a fast learner with the mechanical crap. My guess is he’s desperate for work, he knows the history you two have, that shows some balls or utter stupidity to interview with us; he and his son are living at his parent's place. You could see in his face, he’s in a bind; it’s not likely he’ll get a job doing anything with his degree around here. All I’m asking is we give him a shot, maybe a four-week probation or something. If it doesn’t work, we cut him loose.”

“You can’t be serious Justin?” I asked incredulously, pointing my fork at him.

“The way I see it, if we don’t, we are just as bad as he and his cronies were in high school. A bunch of bullies throwing our weight around because we can.” Justin sighed. “I’m not wild about this either Ember, but I need help. Brady will be able to hit the ground running, and I won’t have to turn away work.”

He went back to eating his dinner. Well it’s hard to argue with that logic, isn’t it? But seriously Brady freakin’ Douglass…

“Also, if I turn away work, it’s money out of your pocket, and one less potential customer in the future,” Justin said with half a mouth full.

Ugh! Damn logic.

Justin swallowed then continued, “Brady’s grown up Ember, he was humble and almost begging for the job. He’s guaranteed Mags and me he’s not here to cause any trouble…”

“And what if it was Cameron Douglass, would you be asking me to do it then?” I knew I was snarky and being a royal pain.

Justin paused and really thought about it. “Yes, if it were Cameron, and he was in this situation, and his demeanour was the same as Brady’s today. I’d say definitely considerate it, and do you know why?” he asked pointing his fork at me to emphasize his point this time.

I snorted, “So you could lore it over him, get your thrills bossing him around?”

Justin chortled, cutting his steak, “No…Yes, What? No, I wouldn’t do that.”

I raised my eyebrow at him.

“Okay maybe a bit of that, but mostly because we are friendly people and we give others a chance Boss.” Justin gave me a confident nod and shoveled in another mouthful of food to his wide open logical trap.

“I hate you right now Justin,” I sighed, “fine have it your way, you can give him a go. But the second he’s out of line, says, does, breathes, even sweats one homophobic asshole thing his ass is out of there. With a black eye and broken nose from yours truly. You can have your four-week paid trial.”

Justin smiled, “Thanks, Boss.”

“I still hate you, keep him away from me, or I’m going to be bitching all over your ass the whole time,” I grumbled moving the food around on my plate.

I really do hate him right now. I was looking forward to my steak. Jackass and his logic.

“Uncle Ember?” I heard my nephew say from behind me. I swiveled on my bar stool, so I could see AJ, donning a smile by the time he could see my face. Justin did the same. “Oh, hi Justin.” He gave him a small wave.

“Hey Bud, where are your folks?” I asked looking past him to see if I could see my sister April or his Dad.

“Oh, um, I’m here with a friend from school,” AJ waved his friend over, and he quickly moved and stood next to my nephew smiling. “Uncle Ember this is my friend Novy; Novy this is my Uncle Ember,” he pointed to Justin, “this is Justin, he works with my Uncle, Justin this is my friend Novy.”

The kid looked a little familiar, but I couldn’t place him, “Nice to meet you.” I shook his hand. He gave a good solid handshake. Novy did the same with Justin, he politely greeted us both shaking our hands. “You guys here by yourself? We can move to a table if you want.”

“Oh no, it’s okay we are with Novy’s Dad for dinner.” My nephew pointed toward the door.

“Cool, so Novy, are you in year twelve like AJ?” I asked curiously.

They looked the same age, you can never tell these days. I sized up the kid a little, he was dressed well in designer clothes and very polite, not too polite it was sickly or fake, but like he was naturally a nice kid, good manners, he wasn’t stand-offish, he seemed relaxed around adults, his parents should be proud.

“Yes, we just moved here from the city. It’s my first week at school. AJ has been kind enough to show me around and stuff.”

He put his hand on AJ’s shoulder and pushed it gently, my nephew smiled. It would be just like him to take the new kid under his wing. The kid is liked and likes everyone, he is friendly and laid back, there’s not a malicious bone in that boy’s body. I smiled fondly at my nephew, AJ gave me a bashful smile, and I winked at him, so he knew I was proud of him.

“Are you guys coming to watch AJ and me tomorrow? We are entered in the Moto over at The Oaks.’”

“Uncle Ember and Dad are my mechanics.” AJ grinned proudly.

“Yep, I’ll be there. Otherwise, this knucklehead would never get to race, he’s not really mechanically inclined are ya?” I ruffled AJ’s hair laughing.

“I’m alright, I’m just… slow is all. I like to take my time, so I know it’s right,” my nephew whined while shooting daggers at me with his eyes and trying to fix his hair.

“Oh Princess, your hair is fine.” I laughed and messed with it again.

AJ swatted my hands away and tried to fix his hair. “Stop it.” his friend Novy by his side laughing.

“Since you just moved here, do you have a mechanic for tomorrow, Novy?” Justin asked.

“Ah, no. I have my Dad. He’s okay, but he’s better with electrical stuff than mechanical.” The kid shrugged his shoulder, he looked a little dejected for a second and recovered quickly. I looked at Justin, and I saw everything click into place, I had an awful feeling I knew who this kid’s Dad was. He just moved here, and his Dad is good at electrical stuff, I wonder who that could be? I internally rolled my eyes, oh for the love of god no way...

“Well I’ll be there tomorrow if you need a mechanic so just yell, I’ll give you a hand. I’ll go over your bike in the morning before you race too if you like?” Justin offered, I could see he was trying to hold back a smirk. Asshole! He’d pieced together who his Dad was too.

“You wouldn’t mind?” Novy asked excitedly, pumping his fist, the kids face lit up like a Christmas tree.

Justin chuckled shaking his head, “No problem, any friend of AJ’s…” Justin smirked and tilted his head at the kid, “So Novy,” Justin cleared his throat, trying to compose himself, “that’s an unusual name, is it a nickname?”

The kid shrugged his shoulder, “Kind of, it’s short for November. I found out recently, I’m apparently named after someone my Dad was in love with in high school, my dad’s gay and my mom doesn’t live with us now…” the boy prattled on with his story.

I didn’t hear a word he said, it took every piece of energy I had to stay seated on the stool after being hit right between the eyes with a piece of four by two. What the fuck? Fuck I feel dizzy, my head was spinning, like one of those bad 80’s movie effects.

At that moment, Brady Douglass walked through the door with Ricky Cummings deep in conversation; Ricky had a smile on his face, while Brady looked - intense. They’d been friends in high school, and Ricky was the quiet but friendly one of their crowd, never a dick like his buddy next to him. Ricky waved to us and turned toward the tabled area, and Novy called out, “Dad, come here a sec.”

Brady stopped and looked at the boy and then saw us and the colour drained from his face and he froze, like a deer in the headlights.

I could hear Justin bust out laughing and reached over to squeeze my shoulder.

AJ shook my shoulder gently. “You okay Uncle E?”

“Huh?” I looked up at AJ dazed, “What?” My nephew's eyes were as big as saucers.

Brady ‘fucking’ Douglass was in love with me in high school.

WHAT. THE. FUCK?