tell he was in good shape. His eyes were
the bluest of blue, and his face was covered in a slight stubble of
someone who hadn’t shaved in a few days. She guessed he wasn’t much
older than her.
He looked a bit confused to have a guest, but
had a beaming smile on his face. With the music still deafeningly
loud, he began to speak but his words weren’t the least bit
audible. Nicole arched a brow and shook her head, indicating that
she had no idea what he was saying. The man held up one of his
grease and oil-covered gloves, signaling for her to wait a second.
And with that, he swiftly disappeared around the corner into the
garage. A few moments later, the sounds stopped, leaving a
deafening silence that almost bothered her as much as the music
had.
“Hey, sorry ‘bout that,” he said with a
sincere grin on his face as he came back into the office. Nicole
felt a little intimidated by the handsome man, but her distrust was
quickly settling in. His smug grin reminded her of a politician’s.
“What can I do for you?”
Nicole pointed to her car, which still had
trails of steam rising from the hood.
“Ah, well then! You’re in the right place,”
he sauntered to the car, stepping in front of the hood and gently
tapping against it in an idle fashion. “Mind clicking the switch
inside? I’d do it myself, but…” he trailed off and held up his
gloved hands to display the mess of oil, which he had already
tapped against her hood.
She glared for a moment, but sighed and
stepped around to the driver’s side to push the button to release
the hood. She didn’t have time to argue with this man about how he
had just dirtied her car. She needed to be on her way to her
interview. She wasn’t very impressed with his skills so far, but
she didn’t have much of an option given her predicament. It also
didn’t hurt that he was kind of cute, in a dopey sort of way. It
made his actions slightly more forgivable.
The hood was finally pulled up, releasing
more smoke, which the man fanned away while stepping back.
“It’s probably leaking from the head gasket,
more than likely. I’ll be able to check once it cools off a little.
It’s still too hot to work with right now.”
“What?!” Nicole cried out, “I have an
interview in two hours, though,” she spoke with a subtle calmness
in her voice that was only hinting at her desperation to get this
done. “Is there any way you can just fix it real quick to get me to
where I’m going?”
He chuckled and shrugged. “You seem like a
nice gal and all, but there’s other cars that people have left for
me to fix. First come, first serve and all.”
“Those people aren’t even here. You can make
an exception and help me out first, right?”
Nicole batted her eyes a bit, trying to lay
on the charm. After all, she was dressed quite nicely. She wore
black slacks that came down to a bell-bottom cuff, a white
button-up blouse with vertical flourishes that came down from the
just above her collar and continued to the hem of the fabric. Cute,
but modest hoop earrings adorned each ear. Her shoulder-length
blonde hair was worn down with the bangs slightly to the right. She
was dressed to impress.
“Is there anything I can do to influence your
decision?”
He looked her over for a moment with a gaze
of skepticism. It quickly changed a wolfish grin. She wasn’t
expecting that and immediately held up her hands, shaking them
along with her head.
“I didn’t mean anything perverted! I meant,
like…uh… ya know…” she was at a loss for words as she stood there,
completely tongue-tied.
“Then what did you mean?” he stepped
closer, tilting his head to the side curiously while that smirk
remained on his lips.
“Uhm…” she avoided eye contact as she stepped
backward while trying to come up with an excuse that made
sense.
“You were trying to seduce me to get your car
fixed quicker,” he chuckled.
Nicole’s eyes widened and her face turned a
bright shade of red.
Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Martin A. Lee, Bruce Shlain