21 - A Cold Simmer
You got this. You can do this. Yang shifted her weight while leaning down into a truck to disconnect a cracked hose. Sweat dripped down her brow and she reassured herself that she got it this time. Sure, she could have stuck the vehicle on a lift to get to it easier, but she was feeling overly stubborn since the job should have only taken her half an hour, start to finish. But the last part, switching the worn hose, somehow was the most difficult part. She slipped forward and scraped her arm, hitting her ribs against the edge of the truck.
"Shit!" Yang growled and stood up, muttering curses and threw the rag in her free hand to the floor. "Stupid damn… Ugh!"
Taiyang poked his head out of the office. "Everything alright?"
"It's fine!" Yang yelled. She finally looked at her arm and saw a tear in the coveralls she had on, but thankfully no blood.
"Let me take over. Go sit down." Taiyang approached and set a hand on Yang's shoulder. "Cold waters in the fridge. Go cool down. Besides, your phone was going off earlier."
"Did you see who it was?"
"I didn't. Should I be doing that? I thought it would be too much parental snooping even for me." He laughed and stepped over to pick the rag up from the ground. "Just the hose left on this, right?"
Yang turned, already calming down. "I- Yeah, I haven't gotten it off yet. I checked everything else, though, and there weren't any other leaks."
"Alright. Now, go, take a break," Taiyang laughed and shooed his daughter towards the office.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm going," Yang mumbled as she went, curious about her phone. Inside, she unzipped the front of her coveralls down and tied the arms around her waist like a belt to keep them up. The air conditioning sent goosebumps over her exposed arms and shoulders while her tank-top clung to her skin. She unplugged her phone from the corner and flipped it open to see three missed text messages.
The first was from Ruby. 'Sis! What was it you wanted from the store again?'
The second was also from Ruby three minutes later. 'Nvm, I remembered!'
The third was from Winter, only ten minutes prior. 'I hope your day is going well.'
The message from Winter seemed just as formal as most of her other messages. They were always sent at the same time, alternating every other day, and switching between "I hope your day is going well." and "Thinking of you." The formality in them, combined with the schedule, made them feel impersonal but also very much Winter. True to her word, she had backed off and let Yang set the pace of things, only sending the text messages as a gentle reminder of interest.
Yang only replied to them sparingly.
'Been better. What about you?' Yang set her phone on the desk and walked to the counter to open the mini-fridge and pull out a bottle of water. As she took a drink she heard her phone go off behind her. "Mm, that was fast," she mumbled and questioned what Winter even did while she was at work. The thought was soon swept away with an urge to sit down. Maybe her dad and sister were right and she was working too hard. Yang shook her head to banish that thought and reached for her phone.
'I'm glad, and everything is going well.'
Yang tossed her phone on the desk again and plopped into the desk chair. It was nice to see that her dad had finished calling the customers, so she leaned back and waited for Ruby and Cinder to get back. The two had been hanging around the shop more and more, sometimes offering to run small errands just to have something to do as an excuse to go off and do who knows what. Yang didn't mind the extra company at the shop, especially on days when their dad wasn't there.
The bells on the front door jingled and Yang sat back up. A quiet, "We're back," called out and soon Ruby and Cinder entered the office with three shopping bags. "Dish soap, hand soap, and coffee filters like you wanted." Cinder held a plastic bag out for Yang. "And I know you didn't ask for them, but here…" Cinder added. Ruby was the one to toss a package of pens to Yang. "We, uh… might have borrowed a few of your pens and wanted to at least restock you." Cinder's voice was low and embarrassed.
Yang laughed. "Thank you. I was wondering where they ran off to."
Ruby excitedly held up a large package of cookies.
"Oh, and we got maple creme cookies since they restocked them," Cinder added and grinned.
Yang rolled her eyes. "Alright, well, don't go too crazy." She stood from the chair and stretched. "Dad's ordering pizza tonight."
Ruby sighed and nodded, lowering the cookies, but still smiled because she would get to have both cookies and pizza.
With the shop closed for the night, Yang reached her truck to find Winter leaning against it. "Still on for grabbing something to eat?" Her question was calm and collected, but the way her mouth curled into a playful smile had Yang sighing.
"That was tonight, wasn't it?"
"Did you forget?" Winter raised an eyebrow.
"No," Yang quickly answered. "Yes," she admitted shortly after.
"What's on your mind?"
Yang walked to the back of her truck to let the tailgate down. She nodded for Winter to join her as she hoisted herself up to sit on it. "A lot but I keep coming back to questioning why I'm even doing this. Us. It's… weird. I haven't even told anyone about it, either."
Winter half smiled as she hopped up next to Yang. "It's alright, I haven't either. And I didn't think there was an 'us' in this, according to what you clearly said the other day. I was under the impression we were, and I quote, 'two people who are casual acquaintances that happen to not hate the other's company once in a while' and I didn't think that was worth informing everyone of, unless you would rather change that."
Yang groaned and laid back in the truck bed. "You know what I meant."
"I did, but I feel like these conversations are more fun when there's the looming threat of being punched," Winter smirked down at Yang who rolled her eyes and gave her a shove. "Besides, you don't exactly open up otherwise. I feel like you would need a therapist slash MMA trainer to have any sort of breakthrough." That comment earned her another shove.
"Yeah, whatever."
"How's Ruby, by the way?"
Yang turned her head to look at Winter, not bothering to sit up from her laying down position. The question didn't hit a nerve as hard as it did the previous times it was asked. "She's good. Cast should come off next month and she's been excited about that."
Winter nodded. The word choice alone, downgrading from the venomous 'fine' to a flat 'good' made her feel a bit better.
"I guess this is about when I should ask how your dad is?"
Winter did a half shrug. "You don't have to if you don't want to. But he's doing about the same."
Yang was quiet and a silence fell between them. When the parking lot lights flicked to life and cast a bright light over them Yang let out a groan and sat up.
"Want to reschedule then?" Winter asked and slid off the tailgate, stretching right after. "My evenings are typically free, so you can message me to do something most nights."
"Alright," Yang agreed. "Anyway, I should get home. I'll, uh… I guess I'll talk to you another time then." Yang reached up to shake and adjust her hair while she hopped down. Without much of a goodbye, she turned to close the tailgate and fish her keys out of her pocket.
"Drive safe. I'll talk with you later," Winter smiled and headed back to her car.
After watching Winter leave the parking lot, Yang sat in her truck a minute and leaned her head back against the seat. "What am I even mad at anymore?" She banged her head back against it a few times and growled. Her thoughts were interrupted by the buzzing of her phone. It was a message from Ruby.
'Can you get soda on the way home? Plz?'
Yang stared at the message and had to admit that Ruby wasn't letting things slow her down, so maybe she shouldn't either. 'Yeah, I'll be home soon.' She smiled and tucked her phone into the cup holder, started her truck, and left.
Ruby and Cinder were sitting on the couch watching a movie when Yang got home. One of the pizzas was sitting on the coffee table in front of them, half gone. She walked over carrying two cases of soda. "Got strawberry, like you always get, and got pineapple-orange for us with taste," Yang teased Ruby who only glared at her. Cinder laughed. "Someone here appreciates me," she added and handed Cinder a pineapple-orange soda.
Ruby held her hand out for one, too, but Yang pretended to think, taking her time. "I guess," she said and handed her a strawberry soda, then set another pineapple-orange one on the coffee table before heading to the garage. "Rest will be in the fridge out here," she said.
When Yang got back in the living room, she took a seat on the edge of the couch and grabbed a piece of pizza, and leaned back to see what movie was on. "Just started, too. Nice."
"We only put it on a few minutes ago," Cinder replied.
"So, are you staying the night again, or am I giving you a ride in a bit?"
Cinder looked to Ruby, then over to Yang. "I'm okay with either."
"Alright, well, you're staying since I don't want to go back out," Yang sighed and kicked her shoes off. "Dad already go to bed, Rubes?"
Ruby typed out a message and leaned over to show Yang. 'He pretended to be upset we didn't want to watch the same movie as him then went to his room to watch it in there so we could hang out in here.'
"Sounds about right," Yang laughed and shifted to get comfortable and watch the movie and eat.