"Katey Miller, please pay attention!" Katey's pale cheeks flushed a dark rosy pink and she muttered her apologies to her dance partner. The teacher, an elderly woman with silky gray hair pulled back severely from her dusky-skinned face made a noise of disgust deep in her throat before turning to another pair of dancers.
"What's the matter, Katey?" Katey's eyes flickered to her dance partner, an earnest, tall boy named Jake. When she shook her head, he looked slightly disappointed and she sighed. Jake was a nice guy and wanted nothing more than to have some friends here in Miami. He came to the University from a small town in New Hampshire and was used to knowing everybody. Now he knew next to nobody, and Katey was one of the first people to actually acknowledge his existence.
But, she kept him at a distance like she did most people. It wasn't that she didn't think she could ever trust him, on the contrary, he had proved to her already that he was a rather trustworthy fellow.
"It's not you, Jake," she whispered to him as they did an intricate turn, the salsa music blaring from a record player that Senora Alvarez lugged along with her every week. Jake rolled his eyes and dipped her, and they spun. Katey longed to launch into one of the fiery routines she and Javier had done at La Rosa Negra back in the day, but she knew she would shock the uptight teacher along with half of her classmates.
"Alright students, you have done well," Senora Alvarez finally called out, her voice creaking almost as much as Katey was sure the older woman's bones did. Chagrined, she dropped her head in shame. She wasn't normally so nasty, even in her thoughts but ever since running into Javi on the beach she had longed to see him and to talk to him. She however, didn't feel that it was proper to be alone with the boy since she was engaged.
Susie had flung herself once more into her social activities now that she was satisfied that Katey was curious about Javier enough to the point that she would go see him on her own and therefore the younger girl wasn't around to oversee things. Katey WAS curious and she was dying to see Javier. Unfortunately Chuck had decided to make his visits more frequent and was always underfoot.
"Here," Katey took half a step back as a towel was thrust underneath her nose. Smiling thankfully at Jake, she mopped off her dripping face and neck. The pale green tee-shirt she wore was almost soaked through, and her white pedal pushers had seen better days. The ribbon she'd tied her blonde hair up into a pony-tail hung limply against the back of her neck. It was a dreadfully hot day for late October even by Florida's standards.
Gathering up her stuff, she walked outside into the blinding sunlight and sighed. Hearing someone call her name, she sighed again when she saw Jake running up to her. His dark brown hair was long and he swept it back with grease, like the rock and roll kids did. She had no idea why he was taking salsa dancing and had never thought to ask.
"You left this in the classroom, Katey." Smiling her thanks, she tucked the textbook that he handed her back into her bag. Falling into step beside her, she studied Jake through the furtive sideways glances that she tossed in his direction. He was tall, and lanky. But he had a lean muscular build to his body that made it pleasing and not too skinny, plus he had nice broad shoulders and his arms were thick with corded muscle. Katey came to the conclusion that he was her age, maybe a year or two younger and that he worked for a living. He didn't have the wholly being in Miami as a student air about him.
"Katey, you're staring at me." Katey turned bright red and ducked her head, lifting her eyes up once more and giving him an embarrassed, apologetic look. Hearing a clunking noise, she looked down at his feet and was shocked to find him wearing motorcycle boots.
"Err…Jake, I have to ask you although it's probably none of my business, but why on Earth are you taking salsa lessons? You don't strike me as the type to want to know how to dance like that." Jake's hazel eyes winked at her as she continued on her way from the dance building to the main part of the campus where her next class was.
"Have you SEEN the way the Cubans here dance the salsa? It's absolutely unreal, and after going to a club for the first time with my new friend Javi, I just had to learn it. Besides, I needed another credit to graduate this year and it seemed like an easy class." Katey stopped motionless on the sidewalk as he rambled on, mind stuck on one part of his sentence.
"Did you say Javi, as in Javier?" Jake gave her a curious look, one shaggy eyebrow raised in question. Nodding, he hefted his book bag higher on one wide shoulder blade and cocked his head towards a side street that ran away from the University's campus.
"Yeah, Javier and I work together at Mason's Garage down on South Street. I'm meeting him for lunch right now, today's my day off. Would you like to join us? If you know him he probably won't mind." Katie bit her lip, thinking of her next class. It was a lecture on Behavioral issues in the classroom, a side class for her teaching certificate. She was focusing on the journalism aspect of her schooling; the teaching was really something to fall back on. Remembering that she had a few friends in the class who she could borrow notes from, she gave Jake a wide smile and took a deep breath, trying to embolden her decision.
"Yes I believe I will join you for lunch that would be lovely." Jake gave her a grin and hooked an arm through hers, winking as well.
"Great! Let's get going then, I'm starving."
A loud smattering of swearing in rapid Spanish brought up many a dark-haired head around the garage, white teeth flashing in grins. The voice was slightly muffled as it came from underneath a battered car raised slightly with a jack. The only part of the young man that showed was his feet and denim covered legs. The clanging of a metal tool hitting concrete was followed by the barrage of words a few seconds later.
Javier shot out from underneath the car on his back, most of his body reclining on a board with wheels. Grease stained his thin face, dripping down to where it pooled on the already dirty ground underneath the car. He had come across a faulty connection from one wire to the next that led to the engine which ended up with all the oil pissing everywhere.
Standing up, he took the rag that one of the other mechanics handed him, a short young man with dark red hair and an easy going smile. Swiping it angrily across his face, he looked down at himself. His friend Jake was coming to meet him in fifteen minutes to go out to get a bite to eat and there was no way any place was going to let him set foot through their doors, looking and smelling the way he did.
It wasn't until a few minutes later, while he half-heartedly was wringing greasy water out of his white tee-shirt, his chest bare in the afternoon heat, the oil rapidly drying and stiffening on his jeans that he looked up and over when the bell tinkled on the top of the front door alerting the men that a customer had entered the garage. His face dropped in disbelief, pleasure, and then horror as he saw who else but Katey Miller on the arm of Jake, the pair entering the front office and then heading into the back part of the garage where everyone worked.
"Shit!" he cried out, jumping back into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. Almost immediately there was a rapid knock, and he opened the door a crack to see an amused trio of men who barreled him backwards, shutting the door behind him. Two Cubans, and the red haired man, all of them close friends of his at the garage surveyed the damage the oil had done.
"This girl with Jake, she's the one you've been going on about for weeks isn't it?" The red haired man asked his smile slightly sympathetic. Javier nodded, while the two Cuban men, Domingo and Luis set about searching for things for him to wear. The mechanic's lockers were all in the bathroom as well, so amongst the trio they came up with a wrinkled, yet clean pair of khakis and a short sleeved, button up red dress shirt. Javier had already washed the oil off of his body and face the best he could, sticking his head underneath the faucet and slicking his black hair back with a tiny black plastic comb.
When the four of them finally left the bathroom, it was to see Jake and Katey looking at the mess of a car Javier had been working on. Javier tried to nonchalantly walk up behind her to surprise her, but she chose that moment to turn around suddenly, putting the both of them off-balance.
"I'm sorry," she cried out, grabbing his arm to help steady him. Her touch made his body tense and she seemed to have felt it, and misreading his tension yanked her hands away. He frowned, berating himself silently as he gave her a charming smile and shook hands with Jake.
"I'm glad to see you," he said softly as the trio walked out of the garage towards where Jake kept his truck parked in the shade of a tree. Katey shot him a look and her cheeks instantly turned pink, a response that delighted Javier. They sat in the cab of the truck, Jake's radio blaring a Bill Haley and the Comets song, windows down, wind rushing through their hair. Katey was instantly relaxed in the company of the two young men, Jake amusing her with stories about the garage and some of the times he and Javier had gone out to Latin clubs, while Javier sat silently, smiling and quietly adding his assent to some of the more wild stories.
When they reached the hamburger joint, a waitress on roller skates came around to Jake's window and they all ordered the food they wanted. Javier got only a milkshake and French fries, food that he was obsessed with once he had tasted it for the first time in the US. Katie got a cheeseburger and a cola while Jake got the same thing as both Javier AND Katey. When they looked at him incredulously, he only shot them a grin and winked.
"I'm a growing boy," he said whistling at two teenage girls walking towards the restaurant. Katey was shocked to see that one was her sister Suzie, as she whacked Jake on the arm. Suzie spun around to give the greaser a piece of her mind, when she saw both Javier and Katey sitting in the cab of the truck of the obnoxious boy.
"Oww, what did I do, Katey? Javier, make her stop I beg you!" Javier was laughing, clasping an arm around his middle, head bent forward so he hadn't seen Susie yet. She ran up to his window on the opposite side of the truck, and poked her head around him after kissing him on the cheek to look at Katey, sandwiched between the two men.
"What are you doing here, don't you have class?" Javier raised an eyebrow at Katey as she guiltily glared at her younger sister. Jake looked at Susie, interest darkening his light eyes. She tried to ignore the older young man, she had said time and time again that she wasn't into 'those rock and roll' types of boys but there was something quite captivating about this one. She resolved to ask Katey about him later on when no one else was around.
"Uhm, yeah I did but it got canceled…or something, so if you mention anything in front of mom and dad I'll kill you!" Her tone of voice was half-heartedly threatening and Susie scoffed at her, a smile tugging up the corners of her mouth. Jake stared at the younger girl in awe, drinking in every toss of her blonde curls, every giggle, every widening of her bright blue eyes. She was your All-American, girl next door type, the sort that never gave his sort a second look unless it was to wrinkle their nose and ask them to get out of their way. But here was this one, joking with his friends Javi and Katey, and including him in their conversation not just out of politeness, but with a genuine interest in what he had to offer. Although once their food came and he still stared at her, even while ripping into his burger with a sudden hunger as if he hadn't eaten in a month, she gave him a look like he was crazy.
"Do I have something on my face? You haven't stopped looking at me the whole time I've been standing here…Jake is it?" He nodded solemnly and took a long draw off of his soda.
"I can't help it, you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, will you marry me?" Javier snorted into his hand, and Katey hid her face in his shoulder to hide her laughter from her sister. Javier loved the feeling of her rubbing her cheek against his shoulder and he lifted his arm so that it settled back down over the backs of her own shoulders. Susie gave them a pleased look and fluttered her eyelashes at Jake.
"Sure since you got my sister to spend the afternoon with the RIGHT boy." Jake laughed out loud, balling up the wrapper his hamburger had come in and pitching it into the paper sack by his feet.
"Is that all it takes? Well Hell, why don't I drop them off and you and I can talk out the details of our wedding while they spend even more time together. Or, if you don't like that idea, they're playing a new movie down at the Cinema in an hour…whaddya say?" Holding his breath, he watched the pretty little thing look up to the sky, a sudden breeze ruffle her hair. Both Javier and Katey held their breath, hoping for the same thing so that they might finally prolong their afternoon.
"Well I just met you; I don't know you at all."
"He's in my dance class at school, Susie. Maybe he'll show you a few of his dance moves, he's quite good." The skin high up on Jake's cheeks turned red and he shot Katey a slightly murderous look, for he didn't believe that he was any great at the salsa although Katey would beg to differ. Javier immediately piped up after, his brown eyes dancing with humor, his heart lifting with hope.
"He's also one of my co-workers and friends from the garage so I can vouch for his behavior. Plus, I'll know where to find him if he gets fresh," Javier added in a mockingly menacing tone. But Susie was satisfied knowing that it was the truth if that were to indeed happen. Fluffing her hair so that it settled about her shoulders becomingly, she put her sunglasses on and opened the truck door.
"Alright, alright if we're going to the movie, we should leave sometime soon or else it'll be long over." Katey and Javier piled out of the truck, assuring Jake that it wasn't far from Javier's place. He could drive Katey back to wherever she needed to go or she could call a cab. Together they watched the truck roar away, bouncing down the boulevard merrily. Katey turned to Jack, a tiny crease forming between her eyebrows.
"That WAS a good idea, wasn't it Javier?" When nodded, face armed with a disarming grin, she relaxed, only to tense up once more, wrapping her arms around her chest and darting a nervous smile in his direction.
"Well, it's just you and me now, what do you think we ought to do?"
"Let's go back to my place," Javier said without thinking. Watching Katey's face was priceless, it went through a myriad of expressions all one right after the other. She smacked his arm, and he winced laughing.
"I didn't mean like THAT or however you thought," his eyes danced and Katey found herself laughing along with him instead of huffing in a mock-offensive way.
"Come on," he cajoled grasping her hand and starting to walk down the sidewalk. Katey had no choice but to follow, hoping that this whole afternoon wasn't going to end up a bad idea.
A/N/-- I'm not going to do individual shout outs this time, I will the next time. I just want to thank all the people, new readers and old who left me messages and urged me to continue. Thank you, that means a lot to me, you all kick ass. I will get to individual shout outs again next chapter. Thanks again, hope this doesn't suck!