Beth groaned in annoyance and kicked at her tire. It was the third time that month it'd gone flat, although there wasn't a hole to be found. She picked up her phone and dialed her sister. "Sorry Mags," she lamented. "I'm not going to be able to make it back to the farm for the weekend. I've got a flat. Yeah, again. I'm gonna air it up and limp it somewhere. Yeah, love you, bye." Beth hung up and felt her stomach drop when she saw the time on her phone: 5:03 PM.
"OH, you're open! Thank God! Can you help me?" Beth begged as she pushed open the front office door at a mechanic shop right around the corner from her house.
A man behind the counter scowled at her. "Just closed." He looked her up and down before turning back to what he was doing.
"Please, I just need a new tire. I moved to town last weekend for work and I don't know anyone." Beth leaned on the counter and tried to work her charms. "A southern gentleman like you will help a lady out, won't you?"
"Come back Monday. Closed."
Beth frowned and batted her eyes. "I bet it wouldn't take a strong man like you very long to get that tire off. I don't have a spare, and I wouldn't know how to put it on, anyway. My brothers up near Atlanta always did it for me. That's where I was going this weekend," she explained, pouring on the sadness. "Now I'm spending the weekend alone in a new town and I can't even get anywhere because of the tire."
The man gave her a hard stare, then sighed in annoyance when she didn't blink. "Fine," he grumbled.
"Thank you, really, thank you!" Beth cried. "I'm Beth. Mine's the-"
"Only car out front because I'm closed." The man stalked out to the parking lot and spotted the tire. "What, you hit a nail or somethin'?"
"Nope, it's just been doing that, and now I can't get it to keep air. I didn't catch your name, by the way."
"Didn't say it," the man continued in a surly tone. He laid on his back and crawled under the car. "Naw, you've got a gash in this tire. Didn't start out as deep, but got worse the more you drove on it. That's why it's losing air more now." He crawled back out. "Trashed. Gonna have to get a new one." He motioned at her to hand him something, and she stared at him blankly. "Keys," he growled.
"Oh," Beth exclaimed in embarrassment. She opened her purse and shuffled things around while she searched for them. "I just had them. Didn't I just have them?" She giggled nervously. Men usually did nice things for her, but she couldn't tell if the mechanic was falling for her damsel in distress act.
"C'mon, girl, ain' got all day." The man continued to scowl at her until she pulled out the keys and quickly pressed them into his hand.
"I'll go wait inside, then, I guess-" Beth began.
"No way," the man grunted as he pushed her seat back and got in the car. "Come in the garage. It's your lucky day. You're gonna learn how to change a tire."
"I, what?" Beth asked in surprise.
"Ain' always gonna be someone stayin' past hours to do it for you." He backed the car into the garage.
"What's your name?" Beth called as she followed him.
"Daryl."
"Daryl. It's nice to meet you, and thank you again. Really."
Daryl shrugged it off and reached for a jack. "Get down here so's you can see," he said gruffly. "Jack goes here. Handle goes in here," he explained, pointing at the tool. "Now you jack it up so you can get the tire off. Here, you do it."
Beth bit her lip. "But I just got this skirt for work-" One look from Daryl shut her up. "Um, okay. Sure." She got down on her knees and pressed down on the handle and grunted. "This is a lot harder than it looks." She stopped and massaged the palm of her hand. "Oh, ouch." She glanced at Daryl, hoping he'd take over.
"Don't give me them big blue eyes, girl. It's all you." Daryl got up and retrieved a tool.
Beth studied the mechanic and tried to determine whether he was being nice to her or not. Sure, he'd stayed, but he was also being rude. What was his end game?
"Don't look like it's jacked up any further. Can't change a tire like that," Daryl drawled when he returned.
"I don't do this every day," Beth replied. "Give me a minute." She continued to ratchet the jack up until Daryl nodded and said, "Good." He removed the old tire and rolled a new one over. "You saw how I took the old one off?"
Beth nodded.
"Good. Put the new one one."
Beth stared at Daryl like he was crazy. "I, what? You should have let me take the old one off. I don't want to be driving down the road and have it fall off!"
"Put it on," Daryl repeated. The look on his face clearly stated that he regretted staying late to help the girl.
Beth struggled with the tire, but eventually got it on and got the lugnuts tightened.
"That's all there is to it," Daryl said.
"Really? That's it? Wow," Beth giggled. "I changed a tire!" She beamed proudly. "You're a good teacher."
Daryl nodded and Beth swore she could see a grin tugging at his lips. "C'mon. I'll get you rung up," he said.
Beth smirked and followed him to the office. She hadn't gotten any grease on her work clothes, and she'd not only secured new sponsorships at work, but learned how to change her own tire. It had been a successful Friday.
In the office, Daryl slid the bill across to her. "Here you go."
Beth reached out to hand her card over, but frowned when she saw the total. "This can't be right."
"It's right. Let me run your card." Daryl reached out, then narrowed his eyes when she snatched her hand back.
"No, this can't be right," Beth said. "There's no labor on here, and I might be young, but I know a new tire's a lot more than that." She looked up at the man and raised an eyebrow.
"You did the labor."
"Well, what about the tire? Let me pay full price."
Daryl shrugged. "You're new in town."
"You stayed late," Beth argued. "Let me pay you!" She tapped her high heel on the ground and set her face in a steely stare.
"There's the bill," Daryl said. "I don't wanna stay here all night. Pay up."
Beth frowned, then reluctantly handed over her card. "All right. Are you sure? Won't your boss get mad?"
"I own this place with my brother," Daryl replied as he ran her card. "He ain't here, so he ain't got no say." He handed her a receipt to sign.
"Okay. Then," Beth thought for a moment. "Let me take you for a drink. You could show me the good spots in town."
Daryl studied the girl. She couldn't be older than 25, but she was easy on the eyes. He hadn't been out with anyone in a while, but maybe that's what he neeed to pull him out of his funk. Besides, Daryl could tell she wasn't going to take no for an answer. He sighed again and threw his rag on the counter. "All right. I'll get cleaned up. You know where McCarthy's is?"
Beth thought a moment. "A block down? The one with the big green door?"
"Yup."
"That's right by my house! Perfect." Beth bounced toward the door, then turned just in time to see Daryl's eyes snap back up to her face. "What time?"
"Seven."
Beth flashed a smile. "Perfect. I'll see you at seven at McCarthy's, Daryl."
