It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.

-- Unknown

"Grand slam… eggs over easy and can I get a side of toast with that?" Dom said, throwing some sort of charming smile at Agnes, the fifty something year old waitress.

"I'll have --"

"Oh, and a side order of fruit... and some hash browns." Dom added, still looking over the menu.

"I'll take a --" I tried again, only to be cut off short.

"Can you make sure the bacon is crisp, too? Oh, and --"

"Dom!" I said, raising my eyebrows. "You're killing me here, dawg." I sighed and looked at Agnes, who looked bored. "I'll take a cup of coffee, black; cream on the side, please."

"Is that it?" She asked, tapping her pencil against the notepad.

"Yeah," I said looking at Dom, giving him a look to remind him who exactly was paying for it. "Thanks."

"Sorry, man." Dom shrugged. "A guy's gotta eat, ya know?"

"Dude, it's Denny's not Home Town Buffet." I smirked.

I had met Dom a long time ago when my little cousin Letty would hang out with him and his sister Mia. We were never close or anything, but we were cordial. Letty used to idolize him; I think she even had a crush on him… I was never sure though. Dom was always considered the bad ass on the block, and 2 years ago, he cemented it by beating the shit out of the guy who killed his father. After Dom went to jail, I rarely saw Letty. She'd lived at home with her mom, who wasn't the greatest; she definitely wasn't up for mother of the year or anything. So when shit started getting bad at home for Letty, she started running the streets. She was hanging out with prostitutes and all kinds of shit. She never did nothin' though. Well, that's what she told me anyway, and I believed her. Social Services ended up intervening and my mom took Letty in. Letty still hung around those prostitutes and eventually one of their pimps took notice. I guess he wanted her to start workin' for him or something. He started harassing Letty and everyone she knew, including my mom. My mom couldn't take it anymore; not like she blamed Letty or anything, she'd tried to call the cops and nothing could be done and she'd ran out of options, until she got the idea that Letty should stay with me. I didn't have a problem with Letty living with me. We got along fine and she mostly stayed out of my way. She went to school and I was at the shop. The owner, Benny, ended up getting locked up for 10 years over some bullshit, so it was just me.

Sly, the pimp that was harassing Letty, eventually found out that she stayed with me. He started doing the crazy stalking bullshit and decided the best way to get his message across was to break into the shop and, well, break shit. He fucked all my customers' cars up and spread the message that anyone who brought their car into my shop might as well consider it damaged.

I couldn't take the shit anymore. Letty wasn't taking anything serious about Sly and I was just one person, so I sent Dom a letter and asked him to call me. He called, we talked about Letty and what was going on and he told me that when he got out, he'd help me get shit together.

Dom had three weeks left and I had even less time than that. I busted my ass for those three weeks, cleaning up the shop and calling all the customers whose car was damaged; well, all except one.

Dom finally got released and kept his word. He helped me whenever he got the chance. When I'd talked to him on the phone before, he'd seemed like a cool dude; when he got out, we hit it off even more. When it came to cars, Dom knew about 'em, and that was refreshing. He was a racer at heart though.

"So, what are you gonna do to get business back in the shop?" Dom asked.

I shrugged as Agnes set my coffee down in front of me, "I don't know. He fucked shit up bad."

"Well at least you got all the phone calls outta the way." Dom said, leaning back as she set his food in front of him.

I nodded, "Yeah, well," I amended, "all but one."

"Whatcha holding out for?" Dom asked, taking a bite of his bacon.

"Remember on the phone, I told you about that one chick? I dunno… I can't bring myself to call her and tell her about what happened. Most of the cars at the shop are people getting mods and shit, but this chick just moved here and it looks like she didn't have much to begin with…" I said, running my index finger around rim of my coffee cup.

"So what was her car in for?"

"Blown head gasket." I said.

"And she brought it in when?" Dom asked.

"Three and a half weeks ago." I mumbled.

Dom let out a loud laugh, "How are you even avoiding her right now? It doesn't take a month to fix a blown head gasket."

I rolled my eyes, "Well no shit; you know that and I know that, but she doesn't know that."

"What the fuck you been telling her?" Dom said, biting into another piece of bacon.

"That I can't find the parts needed for it yet. I've kept her updated… sorta."

"I dunno, man. I think you need to tell her. You can't keep dancing around it… she's gonna find out eventually." Dom said, pointing his bacon at me.

"Yeah, yeah." I said, reaching over and stealing a piece of his toast.

Dom looked down at his plate and looked at me. "If you wanted something to eat, why didn't you just order it?"

I looked right back at him, challenging him a little as I bit into the toast, "Wasn't hungry at the time, now I am."

I heard the bell ring over by the front door and a loud laugh. I looked over to see what the noise was about and almost choked on the piece of stolen toast.

"Oh, shit." I said, under my breath.

"What?" Dom asked, looking at me.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" I swore. "When the fuck does shit like this ever happen?"

"Leon," Dom said a little louder, "What the fuck are you talking about?"

I looked past his shoulder and then down at my coffee. "The girl." I said as if that were explanation enough.

Dom looked at me, confused look on his face. "I don't follow…"

"Dawg, the girl that we were just talking about? Just walked in." I said.

"No shit?" Dom said, looking behind him. "Well, don't worry… maybe she won't see you – never mind, she just saw you."

"Aw, fuck." I muttered. I looked down at my coffee, but out of the corner of my eye I saw her walking towards us. I reach over and grabbed a cup of cream and added it to my coffee.

"Hey, Leon."

I tried to look as nonchalant as possible as I looked up, "Oh, hey! Amber, whatcha doing here?"

She smiled and nodded towards the door, "Trying to get breakfast if the damn waitress would seat us already." She looked over at Dom and held out her hand, "Hi, I'm Amber."

Dom wiped off his hand with a napkin and shook it, "Dom." He nodded.

"Nice to meet you." She smiled. "So, how are things?" She asked, looking back at me.

"Good." I nodded. "I mean, they're great. Dom here is going to be helping me around the shop. Try to help ease the workload and stuff."

"Oh, well that's awesome. Listen, I really appreciate how you've kept me updated, I really do, but have you found anything yet? I really hate depending on other people for rides to work…" She nodded towards the door again.

I looked past her and saw two people standing there, laughing with each other. One was a girl, about 19 or 20, dark brown hair, body like a dancer. The other was some guy, chiseled face, All American looking kind of guy. I don't know why but I figured he was the one that picked her up from the shop that one time.

I made a mistake of taking a huge drink of my coffee; it burned my throat as it went down, "I should have it soon." I said, clearing my throat.

"Okay… well, awesome." She smiled at me again.

"Come on, biatch!" The dark hair girl yelled over to Amber as the waitress led them to the table.

"Well," Dom chuckled. "They certainly seem like a joy to be around."

"Yeah…" Amber said, looking a little embarrassed.

"Get over here already!" It was the guy this time, "I'm starving and ready to order."

"Well I guess that's my cue to leave. So, um… you guys enjoy your breakfast and I'll see you around?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "See ya around."

I looked down at my coffee until she was at her table.

"She's cute." Dom noted.

"I'm so fucked." I sighed.

"Just tell her."

"I… I can't." I shook my head.

"Why? You like her that much?"

"No, it's not that… it's just… fuck, I don't know."

I looked over at her table and saw her laughing with her friends. The guy reached over and brushed some of her hair away from her ear and whispered something in it. Amber threw back her head and laughed. Something about the situation just got me. I couldn't understand why I was letting this girl get to me. I liked Amber… a little. I mean, sure she was cute but damn, I'd seen cuter before… so why was this starting to bug me? Sure, she had a great personality from what I had seen but really, I didn't even know her. I kinda wanted to get to know her better… wanted to learn more about her.

"Looks like she's got a boyfriend." Dom noted.

"Yep. Look, whatever. I'll tell her when it's right."

"And that would be?" Dom raised his eyebrows.

"Anytime but right now." I said.

I stole another glance at the table and looked back at Dom. He quickly looked back down at his plate, but he had this huge fuckin' grin on his face.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothin'" Dom shrugged.

"Don't fuckin' start." I said, giving him a hard stare.

"I didn't say nothin'"

I sat there, thinking as Dom focused on finishing his breakfast. I thought about Sly and how much I wanted to beat his ass for all the problems he'd caused me. I thought about how much Amber would probably want to beat my ass when she found out. Then a stray thought entered my mind and I figured out a temporary solution for the mean time.

"You ready to go?" Dom asked, wiping his mouth with the napkin.

"Yeah," I said, leaning in, "listen… I got an idea…"