Saphora vol.1 Retention

by Jaz Johnson

  “So what happened to your car?” Jared asked, cleaning out a mug and leaning on the counter behind the register. Maverick shook his head, closing the register and handing the woman her change. She smiled to him and he returned the gesture, before turning around to face Jared as she walked away.

  “I had to uh, get some work done on it. I got into a little accident on the highway,” Maverick said, crossing his arms.

  “Aw, man. Not the Camaro. Not Black Beauty. Is she doing alright?”

  “Yeah, she should be out of the shop in a few days. It wasn’t anything too serious,” Maverick chuckled.

  “Oh thank god. And speaking of highways! Did you hear about the massive accident that happened? A car blew up and everything. Like in the movies,” Jared said, coming closer to Maverick, and leaning beside him on the register’s counter. Maverick’s body grew a little stiff as he averted his eyes.

  “Oh yeah? What caused it?”

  “I don’t even know. I haven’t had time to watch the news about it. I just heard my sister talking about it this morning. Pretty wicked. I think she said there was some like, fire that came out of nowhere – whatever that means.”

  “Random fire, huh? Maybe a gasoline truck exploded?”

  “I don’t know, but that whole road is messed up. It’s probably not going to be open for like, the next week.” Maverick sighed, letting go of any chance he had to get his car back within the week.

  “Yeah, most likely.” Jared nodded, pausing in the conversation before changing it entirely.

  “So,” he sighed, looking over at Maverick. Maverick raised his head to give Jared his attention, noticing the change in his voice. Seeing the wide grin on his face, he groaned, knowing exactly where the conversation was going.

  “Drop it, Jared.”

  “Like hell I will. And you’ve got some nerve, man. This is the first girl you’ve looked twice at in the past two years and you’re keeping her a secret? Not cool, man,” Jared complained, shaking his head. Maverick rolled his eyes.

  “Well maybe if you weren’t so critical of her I might talk about her a little more,” countered Maverick. Jared raised his hands in surrender and lowered his head.

  “Okay, okay. I will not bad-mouth the girl. So please.” Maverick sighed, shifting the weight on his leg to the other and tapping his foot slightly.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Let’s start with why you like her.”

  “She’s different.”

  “Different how?”

  “She just is. She looks at things differently. Experiences them differently. And everything she says is genuine.”

  “Genuine, huh.”

  “Yeah.” Jared shook his head.

  “Is she the one?” Maverick rolled his eyes and dropped his arms.

  “Come on, man. It’s been like a week.”

  “Well! You seem to be head over heels already. Leaving work to talk to her. Ignoring my calls. Ditching game nights,” Jared pointed out, theatrically counting them on his hand. Maverick shook his head.

  “I just … I really like her. I don’t know.”

  “You guys bang yet?”

  “Dude!”

  “What!” Jared laughed, shrugging his shoulders innocently. “It was an innocent question, I swear.”

  “No, we have not banged, yet,” Maverick groaned. Before Jared could respond, Liz came out of the kitchen.

  “Good. That means there’s still a chance,” she chimed, coming behind the counter area with the boys. Jared’s brows shot up as he heard Liz’s voice from behind him. He made an expression that read ‘shit’, and averted his eyes to the right. Maverick scoffed, looking at Liz, unmoved by her flirtatious tone.

  “For you? I’m afraid not,” he responded with sudden bluntness. Taken aback, Liz frowned with the rather forward rejection. She crossed her arms, jerking her neck to move her hair from her face.

  “You’re forgetting that you owe me a favor for closing by myself,” she warned. Jared looked from her to Maverick, knowing better than to interrupt the conversation.

  “I’m going to fix that. The next time we close together, you can leave. And I’ll do it by myself, so we can be even. Aright? How about that?” Maverick said matter-of-factly, quickly dismissing the problem before it could escalate. Liz frowned, as Jared fought to contain his laughter. Liz scowled at Jared, smacking his arm with the back of her hand and making him jump slightly with a smile.

  “Whatever. I’m sure you’re horrible anyway,” she countered, turning away and going back into the kitchen to retreat. Jared snickered as Maverick’s brows pinched together.

  “Horrible?”

  Jared chuckled, shaking his head.

  “Don’t even worry about it, dude. You did good. You did good,” he laughed, patting and gripping Maverick’s shoulder.