Thereafter: College
Chapter Four- Something Old
Dom flipped the open sign of Sam's hardware at exactly eight a.m. He went back to the counter where he battled with the account books.
A few minutes after eight his employees came trickling it. It had been rough. It took an entire month to get the business up and running again. Another month for him to find the right employees and he figured it would be another month for him to balance the books. Three months after he had moved back home, he had hit a stride, gotten into a groove.
Ramsey arrived first, holding a cup of coffee and her phone in her hand.
"Morning boss," Dom waved at her from behind the counter. She got to work, sweeping the aisles. Tej trickled in next, he checked out Ramsey before greeting Dom. He worked at reorganizing the shelves between customers. Finally, Fenix trickled in and began chatting up a first customer. Dom rolled his eyes and took the books to the office in the back. Once the daily running of the store had been taken of, it gave Dom the time to figure out how he was going to pull the hardware out of dept.
Dom had stepped into every shoe his father had left open. Taking over the house, it felt right but every night he fell asleep in that big empty house alone it left him a with a hollow emptiness. He missed Letty but she hadn't spoken to him since they had broken up. And he couldn't blame her. He also missed his dad. He never realized how much his dad did. He also didn't realize how much the mortgage was. He had a lot of slack to pick up. And he would. He was determined.
He just didn't realize how lonely it would all be.
Sometimes when he spoke to Mia he could hear Letty talking in the background. That was as close to her as he had gotten. He clung to those little pieces of her. Crumbs.
He called Mia, maybe he would hear her voice again.
"Hey, how are you?"
"I'm good, most days you know," Mia said. "How's the store?"
"It looks like we're finally going to make a profit this month, for the first time since I came home. I feel like it's only uphill from here." he said but he knew the loans he had taken out would see the money before he did. But he didn't want Mia to worry.
"Dom that's amazing. I'm proud of you, I know dad would be to."
He waited a moment before he asked what he really wanted, "How is she?"
Mia sighed, trying to lower her voice, Dom assumed she was in earshot. "Not good, you broke her heart."
His eyes closed at the thought. He tasted his own guilt in his mouth. Powerless to do anything he said, "I gotta go, I'll call you tomorrow."
He returned to the books, trying to see the numbers through the blurriness of his tears.
Letty, Mia and their neighbors stumbled into their apartments after their bar hopping. Letty was the designated driver, she didn't have much interest in alcohol since she had been dumped. Or in anything else fun for that matter. She went to school and came out. Her friends had had enough of her and dragged her out the door. She didn't expect to have fun. But here they were, laughing in their apartments after one in the morning.
"The first time I go out in months and Cara wants to pick fights with a female biker gang," Letty said.
Cara hunched over laughing, "I thought she was being ironic about wearing the leather."
"Are you two feeling better?" Monica asked.
Letty and Mia exchanged looks before nodding.
"Good," Monica straightened her back, seeming soberer than she did only a moment ago. "Mia how are you lately?"
"Better, Mon, thanks."
"Great, then you can tell me why the fuck you've be sleeping with my ex?"
Letty and Mia collapsed unto Mia's bed, silent for a moment.
Letty was the first to begin to laugh, Mia joined in after a moment, covering her face.
"We're the worst aren't we," Mia said.
Mia was on the verge of tears, "I thought we were being so careful."
"I told you, you two would get caught."
Mia shrugged. "We should move,"
Letty nodded. "I was gonna suggest the same thing."
Mia curled into Letty side. "You and me,"
They looped their pinky fingers together, "me and you."
Dom was making a trek back to the hardware after getting some lunch. His plan was to make decent workers out of Fenix, Ramsey and Tej but they were giving him a run for his money. He couldn't leave them unattended for too long. When he got back to the hardware Fenix was alone at the register and Tej and Ramsey were no where to be found
"Where are the others?" Dom said.
Fenix shrugged. "Yo boss, I heard you were strapped for cash."
Dom put his sandwich down on the counter and listened. He didn't know where Fenix was going with his line of questioning.
"It happens, but I know someone who can help."
Dom folded his arms. This was the most he had heard Fenix talk since he came begging for a job. It occurred to Dom that Fenix wanted to employ Dom and not the other way around. But he also knew he would be drowning in dept if something didn't give soon.
"I'm listening…" Dom said.
Fenix grinned, gold teeth glistening.
"His name is Braga."
The move was painless, once Letty employed Jah and Sean's car to help them. They moved twenty minutes from campus but the longer commute was worth it as this place was much bigger. More reminiscent of juniors in university.
They weren't in an apartment building with other units but a small house. The landlord was a skinny Nigerian man with a thick accent. He seemed nice enough and lived off site.
The final box had been moved when Letty dropped her weight on to the couch. She had been glad to have a distraction from her internal torment.
She needed her university to teach a class on 'how not to think about Dom all day.'
She needed to figure out something fast before she turned bitter. As was now customary, the girls ordered pizza as their first meal in their new home.
They fell asleep before midnight without unpacking anything. Letty stirred awake when she heard the front door jiggling. She was scared shitless and climbed out of bed to wake Mia.
"What so we do?" Mia said, the rustling continued. "I'll call Brian."
"We go check," Mia stopped her, "this is not the movies Letty. Let's call 9-1-1."
Ten minutes passed with them huddled in Mia's room, they heard the sirens approaching and breathed sighs of relief.
There was a knock on the door and a deep voice announcing himself as police.
Letty went to the peephole and almost laughed when she saw who was under the hat. She opened the door with a shocked smirk.
"Well look who it is," Letty said.
Luke Hobbs stood before her in full police garb. Flashbacks of their awkward prom photos came back to her.
"Letty?" he took off his hat, "last time I saw you, we were on a date and you were kissing Dominic Toretto."
Letty laughed nervously, Mia peered around the corner, awkwardly waving at him. He returned the wave, turned to Letty and said, "how the hell are you?"
Letty shrugged, "better now. Did you see anything officer Hobbs?"
"It's nothing to worry about. I see animal prints. It could have been a prairie dog or maybe a coyote."
"Nothing to worry about?" Mia said from behind the door.
Letty opened the door wider for him.
"Get your butt in here Hobbs."
He was a criminal now. How quickly things changed Dom thought. He didn't plan to run for Braga forever. Just enough to get out of debt and get the hardware back on track. And from the money he made, it wouldn't be long.
He was in the club with the rest of Braga's 'employees'. Braga sat across from him but he couldn't see much with the strobing lights and cigarette smoke in the air. A pretty blonde in booty shorts approached him. She smelled like cotton candy and booze. She attempted to put her arms around his neck but he just waved her off. The girl then went to grind on Braga.
"Not your thing?" Braga yelled over the music.
Dom shook his head. It never would be. "There's someone else." Dom said.
Braga laughed. "That's what I like about you Dom, loyal to a fault." Though the way he said made it sound like an insult. Dom knew looks were deceiving with Braga. He seemed harmless enough but he could only imagine what would happen to him if they had a falling out.
Moments like this he was glad Mia and Letty were in Arizona. Safe and sound.
Letty was sitting opposite Luke at a small café three weeks after the coyote debacle. He knew all the nooks and crannies for good food. He'd been living in Arizona longer than she had. He was looking at the menu, or at least pretending to. He was really peering at her, studying her like he did.
They had been out every week since they reunited. Getting food, going to football games and he even helped her with studying. Letty only met him during the day at neutral places because she couldn't give him anything more than a friendship. She knew was using him as a distraction from Dom. She also knew that Luke knew as much. She had explained that much to him. She still had not healed from Dom and wasn't going to rush into anything. They would both end up hurt.
"Would you spit it out," she said.
He scoffed, "can always count on you to be upfront. I suppose I owe you that much."
She shrugged, "out with it,"
He set his menu down and looked at her. "These few months have been good. I really enjoy your company as I always have. And I know you're not ready to get back into any romantic relationship at the moment, and I respect that…I just wanted you to know. When you are ready, I'll be here."
Letty didn't know how to react to that, but she was already smiling. It was just refreshing to be in a man's company without all the baggage that came with being with Dom. But Luke was such a nice, he didn't realize how dangerous it would be to get entangled with her. Because as far as she could see, she would never be over Dom.
Dom was in the hardware, preparing for closing when he heard an awful commotion outside. He locked the store before hustling out. Someone had run into the back of his charger. He felt anger boiling inside of him. He was going to let whoever did it have an earful. He marched over to the red Chevy with balled fist when a petite woman stumbled out of the car crying.
Dom sighed, he didn't want to deal with hysterics at the moment. He also new he couldn't bite her head off while she was already crying.
"I'm so sorry I don't know what happened." he heard her say with an accent.
Dom sighed, he took a look at the back of the car and realized the damage wasn't that bad. He could probably fix it himself.
"It's okay, don't worry about it."
"Please let me pay for the damages," She pulled out her purse. "Let me get your information.
"I'm Elena by the way," she outstretched her small hand for him.
Dom shook it and she gave him a small smile.