Chapter 11
"Man, this is just... We're gonna need more help," Dom grumbled as he wandered around the garage fumbling through the clip board of backed up orders, "that Supra was supposed to be ready for pickup on Tuesday."
He took pride in his job and didn't like running behind.
"I'll get on it," Vince hollered from the office.
"On what?"
"Finding extra help," Vince responded, emerging from the office with car keys in hand.
"Oh yeah... Right," Dom replied. His head was all over the place lately.
"I'm gonna go grab lunch. You want anything?" asked Vince.
"Um...yeah. Hey, ask Mia if she'll make me that hoagie she made me yesterday. She'll know what your talkin about."
"You got it brother," Vince replied. He headed outside toward his car when a familiar purple Nissan 240sx pulled up and halted to a stop.
"Hey what's up man," she said as she emerged from her car and stretched,"Dom in there?"
"Yo what's up Letty girl," Vince replied, giving her a quick hug before heading toward his own car. "Yeah he's in there," he called before jumping into his royal blue Skyline and speeding off down the street.
Letty entered the garage to find it filled with jacked up cars and Dom scratching his head as he rifled through a clip board of papers.
"Looks like you got your hands full," she observed, taking a long swig from the Evian bottle she was holding.
"Hey," he replied, cracking a slight smile, prying his eyes away from the headache of paperwork he'd been going through all morning.
"You don't even know how fucked I am. I told Vince to see if he could find some extra help," he grumbled.
"Extra help huh?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah," He replied before shoving his head back into the mound of papers.
"Today might be your lucky day Dom," she said coyly.
"You know someone?"
Letty couldn't help but laugh. He could be so dense sometimes.
"Yeah I know someone dumbass. Me," she laughed.
"You?" he asked, surprised, "I thought you were leaving next week?"
"Change of plans," She replied, a more serious tone taking over her demeanor.
"Really... Everything alright?" he asked as he set down the clip board and made his way over to her.
"Yeah. I just...I dunno. I think I'm gonna stick around for a while. I did just inherit a house after all," she stated.
"What about..."
"Alex?" she responded, finishing his question for him.
"Yeah," Dom replied, "he's cool with this?"
"Yeah...that. That didn't really work out," she said nonchalantly.
"You broke up?"
"Isn't that what I just said?" she snapped.
"Let, I'm sorry."
No he wasn't.
"I'm not," She replied, "it's for the best. We'd been having problems fora while so, whatever. I don't really wanna talk about it. So do I have a job or not?"
"Let, you always have a job here, you know that," he replied smiling, still trying to wrap his head around this new information...
"So what's up with this Supra?" she asked, picking up the clip board and fumbling through the papers. The Supra... It wasn't all that long ago that they'd spent many long nights in that garage working on a different Supra...
The ragged creme colored couch caught the corner of her eye and she couldn't help but smile. That couch had been pretty helpful in taking some of the aches and pains out of those long days...and nights...
Dom glanced at her to see where she had drifted off to. He knew instantly what she was looking at and smiled.
"Distracted?" he growled as he sauntered over to her.
"What?" she responded, his voice snapping her back to reality.
"I'm surprised that things still intact after all these years," he laughed as they stood there, arms crossed, both staring at the old couch. Their couch...
"Yeah. That things seen some action in it's day..." she said quietly, smiling a little at the thought. "It's too bad..."
"What is?" he implored.
"It's too bad, I mean...for the couch, that it won't be seein anymore action."
"Why's that?" he asked.
"Do the math Dom. You're practically a married man," she teased.
"No I'm not," he growled, turning toward her and grabbing her gently around the waist.
"Really..."
"Do I have a ring on my finger?" he asked, holding up his left hand and then sliding it lightly down the side of her arm, letting it rest once again at her hip.
The phone in the office rang loudly, breaking the tension between them. He silently cursed it and grabbed her tighter. He slid a strong hand around her lower back and up under the black tank top that clung to her tiny tanned frame.
"Letty..." he whispered between heavy breaths and a speeding pulse.
"Dom..." her skin tingled from his familiar touch, "you better get that," she whispered, nodding toward the office where a nagging phone rang.
"Ugh...fuck," he cursed, breaking his hold on her and stalking toward the office.
Letty took a deep breath and gathered her hair into a high ponytail. She grabbed the clip board once again and slowly read down the list of everything that needed done to the Supra.
Focus...she told herself, still feeling his rough hands caressing her skin...
Dom emerged from the office a few minutes later to find Letty on a dolly under the jacked up Supra.
"Everything alright?" she called from under the car.
He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and took a sip of the cold refreshing liquid.
"Yeah," he replied, smiling as he watched the familiar sight of Letty, perfectly content, stuck on a dolly under a jacked up import.
"Hey Dom?" she called.
"Yeah?"
"Do you miss it?"
"Miss what?" he asked, confused.
"Racing."
Did he miss racing? God if she only knew how much. Racing was in his blood...
"Kinda," he lied.
"Me too."
"Yeah?" he said, rasing an eyebrow at where this conversation was going.
"Yeah. Maybe we should...you know, for old times sake," she suggested.
"You wanna race?" he proposed, a smile creeping across his lips. The thought of feeling that adrenaline...
"I think so. I ran into Hector the other day and he asked if I wanted to come tomorrow night," she stated, tools dropping to the ground. "Can you hand me that oil filter wrench?"
Dom fumbled through the tool box, pulling out the wrench.
"Tomorrow night huh?" he inquired, kneeling down and handing her the wrench.
"Yeah," she replied, taking the wrench from his hand.
It had been four long years since he'd last raced. Four long years since he'd felt that rush. The thought of it gave him chills.
"Let's do it."