Chapter Thirteen.
"Alison, where's Ray Ray's file?" Martin asked as he flipped through the files in the drawer.
She stepped away from watering the rubber plant she had bought the week before and had placed in the office window to join Martin at the file drawers. "He's under "D" for Douglas," she said and she wasn't able to help but frown a little when she saw him in the "T" section. "I file by last name," she told her boss.
Martin looked at her as if that was the craziest thing he had ever heard but he flipped to the appropriate drawer and found Ray Ray's file immediately. He pulled it out and looked it over, muttering to himself as he read.
Alison sat back down behind her desk and her eyes couldn't help but float towards the inner window, immediately falling upon Yuriel at his bay. And as was now becoming habit, her stomach fluttered at the sight of him. She couldn't believe that she was going out on a date with him; that he had asked her to go out on a date with him. She felt as if she was hardly able to think about anything else except what she would wear and where they would go and what they would do. She hoped he didn't plan something extravagant. The perfect night to her would be on the back of his bike, going for a ride with him with no particular destination.
Martin, still muttering, went to the door and opened it, sticking his head out into the garage. "Yuriel!" He shouted over the noise.
She loved that the uniform for the mechanics was jeans and a dark blue Martin's Garage tee-shirt because it showed off Yuriel's arm muscles perfectly and instead of fluttering, her stomach now clenched and she did her best to just keep breathing as she watched him cross the garage and approach the office.
"Yeah, boss?" Yuriel asked, stepping into the office, wiping his hands on the rag he always kept in his back pocket, and Alison pretended to be staring at her computer.
She wondered if he would kiss her on their date or if she would feel brave enough to kiss him. Outside, the night of the roller derby, she had surprised even herself at the surge of bravery she felt when she pushed herself up on her toes and kissed his cheek. She had felt the warmth of his skin and the bristle of his facial hair and she felt the urge to slip her lips over just a little bit so they touched his lips but as soon as she had the thought, she pulled herself away. She couldn't kiss Yuriel. She had to be absolutely sure that he wanted to kiss her, too.
She glanced over to him as he talked with Martin over the parts he needed to have ordered to fix Ray Ray's car and she had no idea where the image came from but she suddenly saw herself wearing Yuriel's garage tee-shirt and nothing else.
She had never had sex before. Before, she had felt too young and hadn't had the interest in it yet, and then she had gotten sick and had been working through that for the past few years and hadn't been mentally or emotionally strong enough to do something like that. That and she hated the idea of anyone seeing her body.
But now, she sat and stared at Yuriel and she realized that she wouldn't mind with him. If they ever reached that point with one another, she would be quite happy. She'd be terrified, of course, but she wouldn't stop it from happening. Of course, she was really jumping the gun on this kind of thing. She and Yuriel hadn't even gone out on a date and who knew if they would even like one another after it was done?
Martin went into his office with a promise to order the parts and he closed the door behind him. Yuriel turned and Alison expected him to go right back into the garage but their eyes met and her heart flipped as she gave him a small, shy smile. She saw his own lips lift in a small smile and she couldn't explain why she felt so relieved at that.
"Hi," she said.
"Hey." He put his hands in the front pockets of his blue jeans and kept his eyes on her. He didn't say anything and she wasn't too entirely sure what to say either but she kept looking at him and he kept looking at her and her smile grew a little. "Do you like lasagna?" He asked her suddenly.
"I do."
"My friend, Mary Jane, made one for me and I've been freezin' it. I was thinkin' you could come over after work tonight for dinner," Yuriel said "This wouldn' count as our date," he then quickly added.
"Why not?" She couldn't help but argue. "Sounds like the perfect date to me."
He just shook his head though. "Ain't gonna take you to my trailer for our date."
The phone on her desk began to ring. "I love your trailer," she said right before she picked up. "Good afternoon. Martin's Garage."
He smirked at her and shook her head. "This won't be a date," he said to her before he turned and left the office and she smiled into the phone as she listened to the person on the other end and what they needed.
The rest of the afternoon passed slowly as it tended to do when she knew she had plans with Yuriel in the evening. She refrained from just sitting there at her desk for the rest of the day and watching him through the window. He made her want to giggle like some silly schoolgirl with her first crush. She was able to busy herself with schedules and phone calls and invoices and when Martin came out of his office a few minutes after five, she looked up in surprise. She looked through the window and sure enough, the other guys were putting on jackets and grabbing car keys and calling out to one another that they'd see them tomorrow.
"Have a good night, Alison. You working much later?" Martin asked as he patted his pockets a few times each.
Alison stood up and shook her head, smiling as she found Martin's car keys from where he had tossed them onto her own desk that morning for some reason. She handed them to him and he smiled warmly at her, taking them.
"No," she shook her head. "I'm actually going out with Yuriel for a bite to eat."
A look of curiosity passed over Martin's face for a moment before his smile appeared again. "Good. Have a good night," he said.
"You, too," Alison smiled, watching him go.
"Good night, Yuriel!" Martin called out to him as he always did before he was gone and the door closed behind him.
Alison glanced out the window but saw that Yuriel was still in the midst of cleaning up his bay and she sat down at her desk, taking the time to clean up her own mess she had made throughout the day. She shut the computer down and filed away all of the folders – by last name – and gathered all of those day's invoices, stapling and organizing into their own folders and filing those in her bottom desk drawer where she kept them for a month before moving away to more permanent filing. When she had gotten the job a few months ago, Yuriel had absolutely no system when it came to his paperwork and Alison had spent nearly three days organizing and building her own. Now, she couldn't stand the thought of someone else, especially Martin, touching any piece of paper on her desk unless she personally handed it to them.
"Ready to go?" Yuriel suddenly asked, appearing in the doorway.
She lifted her head and smiled at him. "Just about."
"Take your time," he said and then went to sit down in one of the chairs.
Everything was quiet around them except for the turning of pages as she continued gathering paperwork and stapling it together in bundles, making neat piles and writing dates and amounts on post-its, sticking them on top of the appropriate piles. She heard Yuriel smirk a little and she lifted her eyes to look at him.
"What?" She wondered, smiling because he was watching her and looked so amused.
"That one day a couple of months back, when you called in sick, Martin came out after bein' behind your desk for a couple hours and said that the next time you're sick, he's just closin' the garage for the day," he said.
Alison felt her cheeks blush at that and she smiled. "Really?"
Yuriel nodded his head once. "Said we couldn' do anythin' without you."
She felt a warmth in her at that – that she was needed so badly – and she ducked her head down as if overcome with a sudden bout of shyness. She knew Shawn and Vicky said they needed her. It was the reason why after her daddy's accident, they had called and asked her to come home from Atlanta. To help. But Alison knew that they didn't really need her. If s
he had been unable to come back, they would have been able to handle everything on their own. Alison knew she was wanted at home so they could all keep an eye on her and not Lawrence who had just lost his leg. And sometimes, knowing that, Alison wasn't entirely sure why she came home just so they could all babysit her. They loved her and she loved them but she was different. She was still sick but she was getting better and she wasn't glass.
That was what she told daddy about Yuriel. He didn't treat her like glass or like she was about to break. He treated her like Alison. All of these guys did. It made her uncomfortable when they whistled as she walked past or gave her smiles or their best pick-up lines but deep down, the truth was, it was nice to be looked at like a woman to be desired rather than a sick girl who would always be sick. They seemed to need her and actually want her around and Alison knew she had missed feeling like either of those things from anyone. She wondered if she had ever felt that.
"Alright," she slapped her last post-it on the last pile. "I'm ready."
Yuriel stood up and she stood up, too, grabbing her bag and slinging it over her head and across her chest.
"I guess I could have gone ahead and preheated the oven or somethin'," he said as they stepped outside and Alison locked the door behind them.
She smiled up at him. "Thank you for keeping me company. I wouldn't have liked to be alone in the garage."
He looked at her then as if that hadn't occurred to him. He shook his head slightly. "I wouldn't have left you alone," he said and she smiled faintly. "Wanna follow me there?" He then asked, tilting his chin towards her car.
She really wanted to ride on the back of his bike but she nodded because she had her car and the farm was so close to the trailer and she didn't want him to have to drive her all the way back to the garage for her car later tonight.
"Or-" he began to say but then cut himself off abruptly.
"Or?" Alison asked curiously, her eyebrows lifting.
"Or," he cleared his throat and seemed to have trouble meeting her eyes. "I could take you to my trailer and then just take you home when we're done and then I could pick you up for work in the mornin'."
He seemed nervous and almost embarrassed to have suggested such a thing but Alison felt her heart skip and race and she smiled, feeling that urge to kiss him but somehow, she was able to fight it off and keep her feet planted on the ground.
"That's the best thing I've ever heard," she said and he looked at her for a moment as if he was studying her to make sure that she really meant it and she smiled at him.
After a moment, he gave another head nod. "This isn't our date," he then reminded her and all she could do was giggle a little because she was going to consider this a date no matter how many times he denied it.
Riding on the back of his motorcycle to eat dinner at his trailer? Just the two of them? It sounded like a date out of her dreams, to be honest.
The ride from the garage to his trailer always took less time than she would have liked and before she knew it, Yuriel was pulling to a stop outside his home and she reluctantly slid her arms back from around his waist and climbed off the bike. Following him inside, he turned on the small lamp he had on the end table beside the door and he went straight into the bedroom, coming out and handing her his beat-up cellphone. She smiled at him and then dialed home.
"Hello?" Vicky was the one to pick up.
"Hi, Vicky," Alison realized she couldn't stop smiling and she wondered if Vicky was able to hear that over the phone.
"Still at work?" Vicky asked.
"No. I'm at Yuriel's. We're going to eat dinner together and then I'll be home," she said, glancing over her shoulder to Yuriel as he read the note of instructions Mary Jane had written out for him and then preheated the oven to the desired temperature.
"Oh," Vicky said and that was all she said and Alison felt her smile slip a little because she couldn't identify her older sister's tone. "Alright, I'll tell Daddy."
And with that, Vicky abruptly ended the call. Alison was frowning now as she pulled the phone away and slowly slapped it shut. She left it on the table and Yuriel looked at her, seeing her frown because she was doing nothing to hide it.
"Everything alright?" He asked her and she automatically nodded her head.
"I think so…" she answered but even she could hear the doubt in her own voice. She shook her head slightly and looked at him. "I think she might be a little jealous of you," she then said, wondering if that was it or if she was just making up things.
Yuriel's brow furrowed at that. "Your sister?"
"I don't know," Alison was quick to add. "I just… it's just, I'm relaxed when I'm with you and when I'm with her, I'm really not like that. I'd much rather spend my time with you than with her," she admitted, her face feeling warm.
Yuriel looked at her for a moment and then shrugged as he looked down to the pan of frozen lasagna on the stovetop. "Maybe if she didn' treat you like she was a prison guard," he said and then he sighed, glancing at her before looking away again. "Sorry. It's none of my business."
Alison didn't tell him that it was but she didn't tell him that he was wrong because he wasn't. That was exactly how Vicky treated her. She wasn't a big sister to her. She was treating Alison like she was a criminal and it was Vicky's job to keep her in line. And Alison understood. She really did. She was so sick and close to dying and Vicky had been so scared. She still was; scared that Alison was going to slip backwards again and nothing or no one would be able to pull her back. But just because she understood didn't mean that Alison didn't wish that Vicky would ease up a little.
She felt herself shiver a little and she crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself. The oven beeped when it reached the right degree and Yuriel slid the pan in, closing the door again and setting the timer. Alison looked and saw that it was going to take forty-five minutes and she couldn't help but be pleased with that. So much time with Yuriel. Without a word, she watched as he then went into the bedroom in the back and came out again a few seconds later.
"Here," he said and he came to her and she saw he was holding a black zipped hooded sweatshirt out to her.
She gave him a soft smile and took it, instantly slipping it on. The sleeves hung past her hands and the bottom hung to her thighs but it was warm and smelled like him and she smiled at him as she wrapped herself in it. Yuriel stared at her and didn't say anything but she saw him visibly swallow. She almost wanted to smile a little wider but she didn't want to call attention to his reaction to her. She couldn't help it. She liked knowing that she had as much of an effect on him as he had on her.
She took a small step towards him, her chin tilted upwards so her eyes could stay locked on his face. He didn't move a muscle. He didn't move back but he didn't move closer to her and Alison wondered what he would do if she was to reach out and touch him. She wanted to rest her hands on his chest and raise herself up on her toes and she wanted to press her lips to his. She wanted to do all of these things almost desperately but she still didn't know if he wanted to do those things to her, too.
And until she knew for certain – without a doubt in her mind – she wasn't going to.
A sudden knocking on the trailer door startled them both, both nearly jumping and Yuriel moved away from her as quickly as if she was on fire. He went and opened the door and she peeked around him to see that it was Sherriff Kerry.
"Hey, Yuriel," the Sherriff said, stepping forward, forcing Yuriel to take a step back as he entered the trailer. He stopped short however when he saw Alison standing there. He looked at her for a moment and then smiled, looking back to Yuriel. Yuriel only frowned as he looked down to the floor and Sherriff Kerry looked back to Alison, tipping his hat to her slightly. "Evening, Alison," he said.
She did her best to smile. "Good evening, Sherriff."
She knew that Yuriel and Sherriff Kerry were close friends – probably best friends – having known one another since school. The Sherriff's office had their own mechanic to work on their
squad cars but the Sherriff always brought his into Martin's, never wanting anyone but Yuriel to work on his.
"Smells good in here," the Sherriff commented.
"Just makin' some dinner," Yuriel grumbled, looking at him again. "What's goin' on?"
"Sorry for interrupting your evening," he said, more to Alison than to Yuriel, and then looked to Yuriel. "Let's talk outside," he suggested and Yuriel didn't hesitate in stepping outside, Sherriff Kerry following him after giving Alison one more warm smile and tip of his hat.
The door shut behind them and Alison stood in the middle of the quiet trailer, tightening his sweatshirt around her as she felt another chill. She wasn't entirely sure what to do with herself so she moved towards the couch, sitting down. She looked to the stack of books he had on the end table and she smiled when she saw not only White Fang but Call of the Wild there, too.
And next to the books, she nearly stopped breathing when she saw that he had placed the turtle shell she had given him. He hadn't thought it was too weird and he hadn't thrown it away like she had thought. He had kept it and had it out in the open and she looked at it for a moment, carefully picking it up and holding it in her hands.
Alison suddenly didn't care what Yuriel wanted. She really, really, had to kiss him.
Chapter Fourteen.
He kept his head under the hood, working on the dead alternator – a problem he was able to fix with his eyes closed – so he didn't really have to think about it and was able to watch Alison through the office window. She was sitting behind her desk and Zach was on the other side, leaning into it, saying something to her with a grin. The kid had gone in there to hand her a customer invoice and was still there nearly five minutes later. Not that Yuriel was keeping track.
Alison was smiling faintly in return and Yuriel kept reminding himself that of course Alison was smiling because that was just who she was. She smiled at everyone and Zach wasn't anyone special. He wasn't. The kid had been after her since the day Alison had started working there but she had never taken him up on any of his invites. Instead, she smiled at Yuriel and went for rides on his bike with her arms around his waist and came over for dinner when he invited her. She wasn't interested in Zach and Yuriel knew he was being ridiculous that he had to remind himself anything when it was just so damn obvious.
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