Roxanne was about to drink from her champagne glass again when she was bumped from behind and almost all of the remains landed on her top.
"Oh, sorry!" a slender brunette apologized and immediately fetched several paper napkins.
"Never mind," Roxanne assured her as she wiped over the blemish in a makeshift manner. "It's not noticeable on the black, and it'll dry up. Roxy," she introduced herself and the brunette smiled.
"Donna."
"How are you stuck in here or who are you with? I don't really get the big picture here yet."
"I'm married to Opie," Donna replied, and Roxanne raised her brows in surprise.
"I didn't know he was married. But I know little to nothing private about anyone so far. Except maybe Tig's. And no, there's nothing going on," she added before Donna could follow up on that, too. "He just brought me here because my pickup conked out."
"That would've been my next question," she said promptly, grinning. "And you've supposedly worked a miracle on his Harley!"
"After I practically ground it down. So it was basically only damage repair. Anyway, it got me a job."
"You want me to enlighten you a little bit about who's with who?" Donna offered, and Roxanne wondered if she'd run into a tattletale par excellence, but that would be revealed in a minute.
"That would be great," she said, "before I put my foot in my mouth. All I actually know so far is Gemma and Clay are Jax's parents."
"Not exactly. Clay is his stepfather," Donna corrected, pointing to a dark-haired woman, also slender, who was clearing some empty glasses from the table and disappeared into the house.
"That's Tara. Got a thing going with Jax. What that is exactly, I don't think they know quite yet themselves. You probably already know Piney, that's Opie's dad and my father-in-law. The blonde talking to Gemma right now is Luanne, they're best friends. Luanne is the head of Caracara. Heard of it?"
Roxanne shook her head. "A whorehouse, I guess, right?"
Donna chuckled shortly. "Almost. A porn movie production. Her husband Otto is a club member, too, but he's in jail. Life sentence. That's about it, actually. Shocked?" she asked as Roxanne's eyes widened.
"Not really. A little bit, maybe. I mean, I guess the guys aren't choir boys, I realize. What about all the other chicks milling around?" A number of them were also hanging around the clubhouse on a regular basis, and Roxanne had already suspected they were hookers or some would-be sluts, and Donna was now confirming her suspicions.
"Crow eaters," she said tersely. "They'll getting laid by anyone if they have to. Sort of common goods for the guys."

"And you're okay with that?" Roxanne wondered. "Whereas, I'm sure Opie won't go along with it - not since you're married anyway, right?"
Donna shrugged. "I don't know. It's just the way it is. If there's something going on, he doesn't tell me, and I don't want to know. It's the only way to deal with it. At least for me."
Roxanne nodded thoughtfully, wondering if she could also handle something like that.
She couldn't even answer that on a moment's notice. Maybe she could, but maybe she couldn't.
They talked for a while about this and that, not least because Roxanne didn't let personal questions to her emerge at all, but Donna was instantly sympathetic to her and she wouldn't mind if they became friends eventually.
"Say, what do you think about us having coffee together sometime soon?" Donna suggested now, as if she had read Roxanne's thoughts. "You're the only normal one, apart from Tara, I should say, in this cosmos."
"Yeah, we can do that!" Roxanne agreed, delighted.

Would she get along as well with Tara? After all, she'd better get along with the junior exec's wife, too.

After she had gotten herself another drink, this time a glass of water, and came back outside, Gemma beckoned her over and introduced her to Luanne.
"Roxy?" Luanne raised her plucked brows. "Roxanne is probably your real name, then?"
"It is." She resisted the impulse just in time to cross the index and middle fingers of one hand behind her back like some superstitious child.
"So with the shape and name ...", Luanne now eyed her so intently from top to bottom and bottom to top again she blushed. "You could easily join us. Would you be interested in a part-time job?"
Roxanne had to laugh now, after all. "I already know what that's all about but I'm quite happy working in the garage. Anyway, thank you!"
Luanne conceded. "If you change your mind at some point though, let me know."

So Roxanne mingled with the crowd randomly, she didn't want Gemma, Donna and certainly not Tig on her tail all the time, especially regarding the latter she wanted to avoid more needless gossip and since he was sitting with Chibs, Half-Sack, Clay and Bobby most of the time anyway, she didn't want to interfere there either.
She got to talk for a moment with some of the prospects and even a 'crow eater' or two, who, after realizing that Roxy wouldn't be competing with them in terms of their activities, were actually quite friendly and affable.

At one point she was back standing with Donna when Tig suddenly stepped in between them, hugging one on the left and one on the right.
"Well, you two beauties?"
"Tiggy, your pick-up lines have definitely been better!" Donna joked, and he wiggled his eyebrows with a grin.
"Really?"
"I'm not a great judge of that," Roxanne said.
"Not yet," he pointed out. "But seriously, the guys and I have some impromptu stuff to do, so I don't know how long it'll take."
"I'll get back home somehow, don't worry about that."
"I could give you a ride," Donna said. "Among other things, this is exactly why Opie and I usually ride bikes and cars separately."

In the next few days, Roxanne overheard something about a club party next Saturday, but didn't ask about it. Instead, Half-Sack did, as he handed her various tools while she was working on a station wagon under the lifting platform.
"Are you coming on Saturday, too?"
"Nah, I'm not supposed to be there," Roxanne replied. "I'm only a mechanic and nothing else, according to my contract."
"Oh, right, I forgot. Tig could bring you, but I guess you're not ready yet."
Roxanne looked around before grabbing Half-Sack by the collar of his jumpsuit and dragging him to a quiet corner.
"What the hell are these hints regarding Tig and me! I've hardly exchanged more than four words with him in the last few days!"
"Roxy, that guy is crazily into you!" Half-Sack said in a tone of conviction, but Roxanne only raised her brows.
"That so? I don't notice anything about that!"
"Well, pay some attention to it. Anyway, at breakfast on Sunday, he could barely keep his eyes off you! If you don't believe me, ask the other guys. Or even better, ask him!"
As if on cue, he now drove into the yard and Roxanne shoved the wrench into Half-Sack's hand.
"Fine, I'll do it now!"