Chapter 13
I hate paper work. It's like the homework you have to finish before you can go out to play. I sit sulking in the office while Vince, who just came in, gets to tune up his car. He comes in on weekends to work on his car, not other people's. These are the only times we have to actually do our cars. Jesse will be in next Saturday, and Leon the Saturday after that. Then, Letty will follow suit, and I work on mine when I'm done at the end of each day. I sit here in the office, my entire body covered in grease, dirt, and smut, except my hands, typing up receipts and invoices for record. Although, I've become quite good at typing, my hands are still too big to be faster. As I curse my appendages, I'm reminded why Mia does all the office work. I hear the bay doors open in the garage and turn around to face the office door in my chair. Mia walks in dressed in one of the many bathing suit tops I don't approve of, and a towel wrapped around her waist.....thank God. I watch Vince's jaw drop as she nonchalantly waves at him while walking towards the office. I shake my head.
"Hey," she waves.
"Hey," I wave back turning back around to the desk.
"I just came to get......" she trails off leaning over the desk searching for something.
"Mah shades," she smiles picking up a pair of sunglasses off the desk and putting them on.
"Hey, since you're here, can you take a look at this and tell me what I'm doing wrong?" I ask her pointing to the computer. She sighs, as I give her my best 'pitiful' face and pleading eyes. She finally sits down on my lap and grabs the mouse. She starts clicking and typing at a furious speed as I watch the screen in amazement.
"See this?" she asks pointing to a line of text on the screen.
"Yeah," I nod.
"Well when this comes up, you have to........" she starts, but is interrupted by yelling and whistling coming from the garage. I turn my head to check it out and to my complete surprise, it's Letty. I turn back to the computer trying not to let her know I saw her. My mind stops. Wait a second. Was she wearing a........? I jump out of my chair causing Mia to tumble to the ground. I look back out into the garage. She is. She's wearing a bikini top and a towel, almost identical to Mia's get-up. My heart pounds in my chest as I watch her talking to Vince, smiling. As I watch her everything seems to turn to slow motion. She throws her head back in laughter and her hair flows down her bare back. Her shoulders catch the small amount of sunlight in the garage. Her lips look fuller than I remember . Her almond colored skin seems to be glowing. The deep valley between her breasts catches my eye and I almost wish the top was smaller. God, I miss her body. I can't believe she actually left the house in that. I guess not having me around has made her more liberated. She even looks happier. I snap out of my dream-like state, when I feel a stinging slap land on my arm.
"What the hell, Dom!?" Mia exclaims shaking her head and sitting down in my abandoned chair. My heart actually stops beating as Letty makes eye contact with me. Her face falls from laughter to a sincere smile. She waves looking into my eyes through the glass window. I wave back. She begins to walk towards me and my heart goes back to it's former rate of 6 billion beats per second, as I eye her curvy body swaying with each step.
"Hey," she says softly.
"Hey," I tell her not trying to be so obvious that I'm dying inside. I lick my lips, dried by my increased breathing.
"Umm, can we talk?" she winces. Every time she asks that question, I leave the conversation feeling like shit. Given the fact that, I'm pretty much past rock bottom...........what the hell?
"Sure," I tell her. I look at Mia, who is now staring back at us. We both glare at her until she finally gets the point.
"Oh!.........Ohhhh...yeah, umm.....I'm gonna go......uh....talk to Vince about........um...something," she makes her exit closing the door behind us. Letty takes a seat on the old ragged couch in the office. I sit at the desk chair. We sit for a moment in silence as Letty looks around.
"Are you actually doing office work?" she looks past me to the computer, laughing. I laugh at my attempt also.
"Well, I was trying," I smile back. She gets up off the couch and stands beside me eying the computer screen.
"Is this what Mia was helping you with?" she asks staring intently at the screen.
"Yeah, she was trying to explain what this means," I tell her pointing at the same line of text.
"She said something about........," I start, but before I can finish Letty leans over and starts pointing, clicking, and typing just as furiously as Mia. She stares intensely at the screen with her hair draping over the desk. Her deep eyes framed by her furrowed brow, seem miles away. I watch her as intensely as she watches the screen, only looking away when she looks away from the screen, for fear that she'll catch me. She looks down with her forehead wrinkled, and pushes my chair back, and me a little, with the back of her knee. She plops down in my lap without a second thought and continues to type, trying to explain to me what she's doing.
"Mia showed me how to do this that summer I broke my leg, 'member?" she asks. I nod.
"Well, what you have to do is.........enter all the figures then, save it all.....close it, then reopen it....." she tells me typing up the figures along the way, never taking her eyes fro the screen. She's just sitting in my lap, like it's no big deal. Her hair right here in my face, smelling like that shampoo she always uses. Some pink looking flowery garden smelling shampoo that I always had to pick up for her in Pasadena. I still have a half-full bottle of it in my shower. It smells so good. I even caught myself just sniffing the bottle this morning while I was showering. The beautiful flesh on her bare shoulders staring me right in the face. I breathe in deeply to take in her scent. I slowly let my gaze fall to her chest as she rambles on about something computer related. The two mounds heave with each breath she takes and I can only remember being able to touch them, to touch her. I sigh, in remembrance, almost mourning the lost love of my life, missing the way things used to be. I can't keep doing this to myself. I take my eyes off her, for fear of getting too 'excited' and for my heart's sake. I look back at the screen and she has put in all the figures and is finishing up.
"So...that's pretty much it," she cranes her neck to face me. I nod as she rises from my lap, leaving the warm area where she once was, exposed to the air. I grab the mouse and close down the program, because she has just done all my work for me.
"Thanks, Let.....now I can actually get to work in the garage," I tell her now facing her. She sits back on the couch. We sit for a moment, in an uncomfortable silence.
"So....how have you been?" she asks hopefully. I don't have the strength to lie to her, but I muster up enough to keep her from seeing what a wreck I am without her.
"Ok, I guess.......you know?" I tell her. She nods.
"What about you?" I ask back.
"I'm okay....better," she nods. She starts smiling which makes me smile.
"You like it, don't you?" she laughs, looking down at her bathing suit. I laugh.
"Yeah, I do actually.......It's uh.....It's nice," I smile, laughing with her.
"It's Mia's," she tells me.
"Yeah, I noticed," I smile. She looks down, and I know she's about to say something that's going to change my life...............again.
"Look, Dom............the tension between us is so thick I can't even see straight.........I just...I don't want it to be like this anymore........as much as I may try to convince myself that I don't, I do miss you, I miss this....talking, laughing, just being............And as much as I want to forgive and forget.......I can't yet.........it still hurts too much........" she tells me looking off into the distance. I see a flash of pain run through her eyes, and though it hurts me to hear that she can't forgive me yet, I understand why.
"I want us to be close.I don't want to walk on eggshells anymore........I'm tired of dwelling on it...and trying to figure out reasons why......It happened, I know that you're truly sorry.......and I accept it for that.......You and I both know, that we're meant to be together, and I know that this is not the end of us........and I hope that you don't want it to be the end of us.........." she rambles.
"Of course I don't," I stop her. She leans forward on the edge of the couch as I listen to each word closely. She locks eyes with me as she speaks.
"Three days ago, my life was changed within a matter of seconds. This is how much in love with you I am. Only three days, and I'm already dying to be back with you," she lets out a laugh as tears begin to fall from her eyes. My heart trembles in my chest as I resist the urge to fall to my knees in front of her and hold her. I just sit in my chair and let her finish.
"We just have to start over, okay?" she sniffs wiping her eyes and regaining her composure.
"We just start over.....and....we just see how that goes........so we're just friends for right now.....unattached, and we're gonna be friends for as long as it takes............" she sighs.
"Okay?" she asks me, like I would actually say 'no'.
"Okay," I nod and smile. She doesn't hate me, and she wants to be friends. I can definitely live with that. I smile even harder. I woke up this morning hating the world, and wishing I could just see Letty, and now we're actually back on speaking terms.....and not just speaking, but we're friends. The only way this day could get any better, is if she told me that she forgives me, but I'm more than grateful for what I have. She smiles back at me, and for the first time it's that smile I remember. The one I saw the day I came home from the pen, the one I saw when she won her first race, the one I saw after the first time we kissed. We both stand grinning like crazy. I look at her and immediately she knows what I want to do. She smiles and sighs. She looks up at me and walks towards me. She gives me a nod of approval and I immediately scoop her into a hug. I can't even explain what it feels like to just hug her. We stand and embrace for only seconds, but it feels like longer. We pull away and she walks out into the garage with me following behind her. She walks over to Mia and interlocks her arms in hers. I stand with them and Vince, who is grinning like an idiot.
"Well, I guess we should be going," Mia nudges Letty.
"You guys heading to the beach?" I ask casually.
"Yeah, soak up some sun.........watch people try to surf.......guy watch...."she trails off, mumbling the last part under her breath. Letty elbows her and she smiles. I give her an 'eat shit' glare before walking over and kissing her on the cheek.
"Be careful," I warn them dryly. They both smile as I walk back towards the office.
"So, I'll see you at the races?" Letty yells to me. I turn back to face her.
"You coming to the races?"
"Yeah, I'm gonna win Carlito's RSX."
"You're gonna win Carlito's RXS?" I repeat back smiling. She's always so confident. It's sexy and one of her many qualities that I admire.
"Damn straight," she smiles back. I nod and walk towards the office.
"Then I'll see you tonight," I yell back at them. I walk back into the office, smiling like an idiot. I get to see her again tonight. Now I'm convinced that this day couldn't get any better.
I hate paper work. It's like the homework you have to finish before you can go out to play. I sit sulking in the office while Vince, who just came in, gets to tune up his car. He comes in on weekends to work on his car, not other people's. These are the only times we have to actually do our cars. Jesse will be in next Saturday, and Leon the Saturday after that. Then, Letty will follow suit, and I work on mine when I'm done at the end of each day. I sit here in the office, my entire body covered in grease, dirt, and smut, except my hands, typing up receipts and invoices for record. Although, I've become quite good at typing, my hands are still too big to be faster. As I curse my appendages, I'm reminded why Mia does all the office work. I hear the bay doors open in the garage and turn around to face the office door in my chair. Mia walks in dressed in one of the many bathing suit tops I don't approve of, and a towel wrapped around her waist.....thank God. I watch Vince's jaw drop as she nonchalantly waves at him while walking towards the office. I shake my head.
"Hey," she waves.
"Hey," I wave back turning back around to the desk.
"I just came to get......" she trails off leaning over the desk searching for something.
"Mah shades," she smiles picking up a pair of sunglasses off the desk and putting them on.
"Hey, since you're here, can you take a look at this and tell me what I'm doing wrong?" I ask her pointing to the computer. She sighs, as I give her my best 'pitiful' face and pleading eyes. She finally sits down on my lap and grabs the mouse. She starts clicking and typing at a furious speed as I watch the screen in amazement.
"See this?" she asks pointing to a line of text on the screen.
"Yeah," I nod.
"Well when this comes up, you have to........" she starts, but is interrupted by yelling and whistling coming from the garage. I turn my head to check it out and to my complete surprise, it's Letty. I turn back to the computer trying not to let her know I saw her. My mind stops. Wait a second. Was she wearing a........? I jump out of my chair causing Mia to tumble to the ground. I look back out into the garage. She is. She's wearing a bikini top and a towel, almost identical to Mia's get-up. My heart pounds in my chest as I watch her talking to Vince, smiling. As I watch her everything seems to turn to slow motion. She throws her head back in laughter and her hair flows down her bare back. Her shoulders catch the small amount of sunlight in the garage. Her lips look fuller than I remember . Her almond colored skin seems to be glowing. The deep valley between her breasts catches my eye and I almost wish the top was smaller. God, I miss her body. I can't believe she actually left the house in that. I guess not having me around has made her more liberated. She even looks happier. I snap out of my dream-like state, when I feel a stinging slap land on my arm.
"What the hell, Dom!?" Mia exclaims shaking her head and sitting down in my abandoned chair. My heart actually stops beating as Letty makes eye contact with me. Her face falls from laughter to a sincere smile. She waves looking into my eyes through the glass window. I wave back. She begins to walk towards me and my heart goes back to it's former rate of 6 billion beats per second, as I eye her curvy body swaying with each step.
"Hey," she says softly.
"Hey," I tell her not trying to be so obvious that I'm dying inside. I lick my lips, dried by my increased breathing.
"Umm, can we talk?" she winces. Every time she asks that question, I leave the conversation feeling like shit. Given the fact that, I'm pretty much past rock bottom...........what the hell?
"Sure," I tell her. I look at Mia, who is now staring back at us. We both glare at her until she finally gets the point.
"Oh!.........Ohhhh...yeah, umm.....I'm gonna go......uh....talk to Vince about........um...something," she makes her exit closing the door behind us. Letty takes a seat on the old ragged couch in the office. I sit at the desk chair. We sit for a moment in silence as Letty looks around.
"Are you actually doing office work?" she looks past me to the computer, laughing. I laugh at my attempt also.
"Well, I was trying," I smile back. She gets up off the couch and stands beside me eying the computer screen.
"Is this what Mia was helping you with?" she asks staring intently at the screen.
"Yeah, she was trying to explain what this means," I tell her pointing at the same line of text.
"She said something about........," I start, but before I can finish Letty leans over and starts pointing, clicking, and typing just as furiously as Mia. She stares intensely at the screen with her hair draping over the desk. Her deep eyes framed by her furrowed brow, seem miles away. I watch her as intensely as she watches the screen, only looking away when she looks away from the screen, for fear that she'll catch me. She looks down with her forehead wrinkled, and pushes my chair back, and me a little, with the back of her knee. She plops down in my lap without a second thought and continues to type, trying to explain to me what she's doing.
"Mia showed me how to do this that summer I broke my leg, 'member?" she asks. I nod.
"Well, what you have to do is.........enter all the figures then, save it all.....close it, then reopen it....." she tells me typing up the figures along the way, never taking her eyes fro the screen. She's just sitting in my lap, like it's no big deal. Her hair right here in my face, smelling like that shampoo she always uses. Some pink looking flowery garden smelling shampoo that I always had to pick up for her in Pasadena. I still have a half-full bottle of it in my shower. It smells so good. I even caught myself just sniffing the bottle this morning while I was showering. The beautiful flesh on her bare shoulders staring me right in the face. I breathe in deeply to take in her scent. I slowly let my gaze fall to her chest as she rambles on about something computer related. The two mounds heave with each breath she takes and I can only remember being able to touch them, to touch her. I sigh, in remembrance, almost mourning the lost love of my life, missing the way things used to be. I can't keep doing this to myself. I take my eyes off her, for fear of getting too 'excited' and for my heart's sake. I look back at the screen and she has put in all the figures and is finishing up.
"So...that's pretty much it," she cranes her neck to face me. I nod as she rises from my lap, leaving the warm area where she once was, exposed to the air. I grab the mouse and close down the program, because she has just done all my work for me.
"Thanks, Let.....now I can actually get to work in the garage," I tell her now facing her. She sits back on the couch. We sit for a moment, in an uncomfortable silence.
"So....how have you been?" she asks hopefully. I don't have the strength to lie to her, but I muster up enough to keep her from seeing what a wreck I am without her.
"Ok, I guess.......you know?" I tell her. She nods.
"What about you?" I ask back.
"I'm okay....better," she nods. She starts smiling which makes me smile.
"You like it, don't you?" she laughs, looking down at her bathing suit. I laugh.
"Yeah, I do actually.......It's uh.....It's nice," I smile, laughing with her.
"It's Mia's," she tells me.
"Yeah, I noticed," I smile. She looks down, and I know she's about to say something that's going to change my life...............again.
"Look, Dom............the tension between us is so thick I can't even see straight.........I just...I don't want it to be like this anymore........as much as I may try to convince myself that I don't, I do miss you, I miss this....talking, laughing, just being............And as much as I want to forgive and forget.......I can't yet.........it still hurts too much........" she tells me looking off into the distance. I see a flash of pain run through her eyes, and though it hurts me to hear that she can't forgive me yet, I understand why.
"I want us to be close.I don't want to walk on eggshells anymore........I'm tired of dwelling on it...and trying to figure out reasons why......It happened, I know that you're truly sorry.......and I accept it for that.......You and I both know, that we're meant to be together, and I know that this is not the end of us........and I hope that you don't want it to be the end of us.........." she rambles.
"Of course I don't," I stop her. She leans forward on the edge of the couch as I listen to each word closely. She locks eyes with me as she speaks.
"Three days ago, my life was changed within a matter of seconds. This is how much in love with you I am. Only three days, and I'm already dying to be back with you," she lets out a laugh as tears begin to fall from her eyes. My heart trembles in my chest as I resist the urge to fall to my knees in front of her and hold her. I just sit in my chair and let her finish.
"We just have to start over, okay?" she sniffs wiping her eyes and regaining her composure.
"We just start over.....and....we just see how that goes........so we're just friends for right now.....unattached, and we're gonna be friends for as long as it takes............" she sighs.
"Okay?" she asks me, like I would actually say 'no'.
"Okay," I nod and smile. She doesn't hate me, and she wants to be friends. I can definitely live with that. I smile even harder. I woke up this morning hating the world, and wishing I could just see Letty, and now we're actually back on speaking terms.....and not just speaking, but we're friends. The only way this day could get any better, is if she told me that she forgives me, but I'm more than grateful for what I have. She smiles back at me, and for the first time it's that smile I remember. The one I saw the day I came home from the pen, the one I saw when she won her first race, the one I saw after the first time we kissed. We both stand grinning like crazy. I look at her and immediately she knows what I want to do. She smiles and sighs. She looks up at me and walks towards me. She gives me a nod of approval and I immediately scoop her into a hug. I can't even explain what it feels like to just hug her. We stand and embrace for only seconds, but it feels like longer. We pull away and she walks out into the garage with me following behind her. She walks over to Mia and interlocks her arms in hers. I stand with them and Vince, who is grinning like an idiot.
"Well, I guess we should be going," Mia nudges Letty.
"You guys heading to the beach?" I ask casually.
"Yeah, soak up some sun.........watch people try to surf.......guy watch...."she trails off, mumbling the last part under her breath. Letty elbows her and she smiles. I give her an 'eat shit' glare before walking over and kissing her on the cheek.
"Be careful," I warn them dryly. They both smile as I walk back towards the office.
"So, I'll see you at the races?" Letty yells to me. I turn back to face her.
"You coming to the races?"
"Yeah, I'm gonna win Carlito's RSX."
"You're gonna win Carlito's RXS?" I repeat back smiling. She's always so confident. It's sexy and one of her many qualities that I admire.
"Damn straight," she smiles back. I nod and walk towards the office.
"Then I'll see you tonight," I yell back at them. I walk back into the office, smiling like an idiot. I get to see her again tonight. Now I'm convinced that this day couldn't get any better.
