Hot Laps

by Shey Stahl

  Charlie wasn’t about to back down. “You don’t mean shit to her, Casten. You may think you do, but you don’t. She’s fucked the entire hockey team and most of the male population at our high school.”

  What a fucking tool!

  I wanted to punch Charlie and I nearly did if it wasn’t for Casten’s firm grasp on my waist holding me back.

  “The fact that you keep that close of an eye on her sex life doesn’t say a lot about your own there, buddy.” Casten let out an arrogant chuckle knowing he had control over the argument.

  “Fuck you, Riley.”

  Casten chuckled again unphased by his remarks. “Like I said, if you want to keep your job, I’d walk away right now.”

  “Yeah, I know, daddy owns the shop so the son walks all over everyone!” Charlie yelled across the shop.

  Noah walked in and nudged Casten distracting him from Charlie. “The bearing alignment is off. Could you look at it before you leave today?”

  Casten nodded but didn’t say anything as he turned toward me, his gaze fixated on Charlie.

  Great. Just great.

  As you can see, the days following my Saturday morning with Casten, you know, the best day ever, were hectic. It didn’t help that Charlie suddenly thought I needed another father and assumed he could tell me who to sleep with.

  Charlie told Casten about Jacob and the rest of the hockey team like I was with them.

  I had a real problem with him talking about those “hockey players” like we had some kind of relationship. We fucked around; it wasn’t a relationship.

  Casten was the only boy I’d had sober sex with, and could possibly consider a relationship with him sometime. Well, let me rephrase, I’d consider the possibility of a relationship if it involved what we had right now, sex and simplicity.

  Relationships to me were strange. Take two ordinary people and slap a title on what they became and suddenly one thinks you own the other or vice versa. I couldn’t for the life of me understand why it had to be like that.

  How come two people couldn’t just have a good time, fuck if they wanted, and then move on when one wore out their welcome?

  Why did there have to be a break-up?

  Seemed dumb to me so, for now, I’d never been in a relationship.

  And I wasn’t so sure I wanted to start with one. But then, there was this adorable winking boy who was slowly capturing my heart by simple gestures like smiling, giggling and having sober sex with me.

  Stupid engine builder anyways.

  Anna called me shortly after I got off work to tell me her and Cole were heading to the bar in a few hours. I knew Casten was working late tonight since I distracted him for a while today so I snuck downstairs once more before heading out.

  He was alone, and don’t think it didn’t cross my mind to swagger down there naked, cause it did.

  I remained fully clothed and approached him from behind; watching him work with a boring machine that nearly sent me over the edge.

  “What are you doing there?” I asked eyeing the way the muscles in his arms flexed each time he pushed the handle of the machine forward.

  His head whipped around with a wide grin before he stopped and had me pressed up against the machine kissing me fiercely.

  “Now this is a welcome I could get used to,” I told him in between my own fierce kisses.

  “Hey, Casten?” a voice called out from the top of the stairs.

  I knew the voice; it was Noah pissing on my parade.

  “Oh, sorry guys,” he kind of laughed. “But I need you, Casten.”

  Damn you, Noah.

  Casten pulled his head back that had fallen forward against my shoulder. “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

  “It’s okay,” I straightened my shirt out from where his large hands had been close to ripping it off. “Anna and Cole were heading to the bar. Wanna meet up when you’re done?”

  He did that squinting thing again when he pulled back to look at me. His features softened. “I was kind of hoping to have you alone tonight, waiting in my room for me.” He reached inside his jeans to pull out a key. “Wait for me?”

  A key? A motherfucking key?

  My eyes focused on it and, sure as shit, it was a key.

  “That’s a key. To your parent’s house.”

  He looked at me like I was crazy.

  I wasn’t sure how to act to this. No one had ever offered or trusted me for that matter with a key.

  Why would they? I couldn’t even house sit a fucking dog without the pound being called.

  “Are you … sure?” my eyes widened as I thought of all the ways this could go wrong for me and this engine builder. “What if something catches on fire?”

  He offered a careless shrug. “Don’t light any matches?”

  “What if a pipe breaks and the place floods?”

  “Put on your bathing suit and have a good time.” The smirk that’d been tugging at those beautiful lips went into a full-fledged grin.

  “What if Rosa is there?”

  “She’s not. She’s spending the week with her sister in Pittsburgh.”

  Well, he had an answer for everything, didn’t he?

  “So I’m supposed to take this key, drive to your house, and let myself in?”

  “That’s the general idea,” he said turning around to place the wrench he had in his hand onto a cart beside his toolbox. “Can you handle that?”

  “I’m not sure,” I groaned. “I think that’s an incredible amount of responsibility for someone like me.”

  “Pretty girl, you’ll be fine,” he said before tossing the key toward me and then jogging up the stairs to where Noah was still standing there.

  So on the way to his house, I contemplated stealing some beer from Adam but then decided against it and drove to Casten’s house instead.

  Some think I drink for depression or to escape reality but that has nothing to do with it. I do it for fun. I don’t hate my life or wish I was someone else. Just because my bank account only had $3.46 in it didn’t mean I was unhappy.

  I just liked to have a good time and, to me, that happened to involve alcohol.

  Knowing this, I did understand some boundaries were going to need to be drawn between me and my addiction.

  When Casten got home from the shop that night, I had let myself in just as he told me to and added a little surprise of my own to his bedroom.

  He laughed eyeing his transformed bedroom. “What is all this?”

  “Well, some would say it’s a fort but I would say it’s a fort for adults.” I gave him a smirk while I shook my hips a little standing in front of the sheets hanging from his ceiling and walls.

  Casten walked toward the fort and smiled wider. “You built a pillow and blanket ‘fuck fort’ in my bedroom?”

  “I guess I did,” I said with a shrug wiping sweat from my forehead. It did take a lot of effort to make.

  “You might just be my soulmate.”

  I think I snorted and then tried to play it off with a cough that turned into choking. Being awfully close to needing CPR, I decided to just keep my mouth shut after that.

  “Come on, crazy,” he pulled me by the arm toward the bed. “I brought dinner.”

  As we ate, I noticed I missed a text from Anna: You should come to the bar. All your past fucks are here. It’ll be like a family reunion.

  Rolling my eyes, I replied while Casten took out the Chinese food he brought home with him.

  No thanks. I hated high school. I was given a key.

  Her reply: No shit? A key to what? Place tell me the local liquor store because you would so be my best friend.

  I thought I was your best friend?

  You are but it’d be a lot cooler if you had a key to the liquor store, too.

  I laughed and replied with: It’s to Casten’s house.

  Oh…well…don’t burn the place down.

  See, she had just as much faith in me as I did.

  “So I was happy to see my parent’s
house was still standing,” Casten said with a slight chuckle just as he twirled some chow mein noodles around his fork. “My dad was really pissed about the party. I’m not sure his head could take it if something else happened.”

  “You doubted me … didn’t you?” Picking through the options of food, I chose some fried rice and began eating it.

  He seemed to contemplate his answer for a moment. “No, I don’t care about the house as much as I cared that you were still here when I got home.”

  I inhaled again only this time rice got lodged in my throat and nose somehow. I sneezed and then gagged. Gagging turned into me actually puking in his bathroom sink.

  I’m not sure why I couldn’t act like a normal version of myself around him but I felt like a complete fucking dumbass and wished like hell I had alcohol. Maybe then I could calm the fuck down and be somewhat normal.

  His response, with that adorable wrinkled nose and a smirk, “It happens to the best of us.”

  Stupid engine builder.

  Casten kindly allowed me some alone time to collect my thoughts and get the puke smell off myself. After brushing my teeth a few dozen times and changing into one of his shirts, I made my way back to the fuck fort where I heard the TV in his room on.

  He smiled, his body relaxed against the fluffy pillows and his head leaned back against the couch. His shirt was off now as he lounged in just a pair of jeans. I noticed off to his side he’d poured us some drinks, thankfully, and a large bowl of popcorn.

  I didn’t care so much about the popcorn but the drinks were appreciated. Maybe then the normal me could reveal herself. This one was unacceptable.

  Returning the smile, I sauntered my refreshed self over there. It didn’t take long and I was snuggled into the fuck fort with him as we searched through his movie collection.

  “So what did your dad say?”

  “He said by the time he gets back from California in two weeks everything better be fixed and he’s taking it out of my paycheck.”

  “Wow.”

  Casten shrugged. “It’s understandable. We did go overboard.”

  When I thought about that night, he was right, it was overboard. But, oh so amazing.

  Not really focusing on the movie, I let him pick one and just continued to stare at his body.

  Apparently, my stupidity returned, thankfully I had nothing to drink or eat this time and I asked: “Have you ever been in love?”

  You just need to shut your mouth now you lunatic! Overall, at this point in the night, I’d say shutting up would be the optimal outcome but it wasn’t going to happen.

  “No,” he answered with a nervous edge. “Not like marriage type love or anything. You?”

  “Yeah, once,” I told him. “My goldfish Sampson but the jerk died on me,” I replied without even thinking the answer through, as if I expected anything more from myself.

  I was sure I lost any credibility and dignity I may have had when I pissed myself in front of him. And anything that wasn’t lost then was gone when I choked on fried rice and puked in his sink.

  Casten propped himself up on his elbows. “Uh … I just poured my heart out to you and you compared that to a goldfish?” his amused but concerned expression left me analyzing his reaction.

  “He was my best friend. Have some fucking compassion.” I took a handful of popcorn and shoved it in my mouth to control it from saying anything else just as asinine. I just hoped I didn’t choke this time.

  Casten chuckled. “Wow, geez … sorry,” he paused taking a drink of his beer. “That must have been really difficult for you.”

  “Yeah, it was a rough twelve hours.”

  “Was he on his death tank or something?” he let out another amused snicker as he played with the remote to change the channel for the movie. “Do they put fish on life support?”

  “No, I had him for twelve hours. Turns out, you can’t bathe a goldfish. Like I said, it was a rough twelve hours.”

  Casten let out a chuckle along with a whoosh leaning back again. “I’m sure he’s in a better place.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure.” Snuggling in, I made myself a little more comfortable. His arms wrapped around me pulling up his chest. “Are we going to watch this shit or what?”

  His head rolled back against the couch looping to the side before he let his eyes drift shut slowly. “I can think of a few other things to do besides watching that movie.”

  Finally!

  And the hump was on.

  “You need to look for a new job,” I told myself.

  Not only had I only gotten a few hours of sleep thanks to the fuck fort, but all I could think about now was that fuck fort every time I saw Casten. And with today being ordering day, that was a lot.

  This wasn’t lost on him and with little effort, he was controlling my mood today and had me changing my underwear a few times.

  Once we finished up the ordering, he approached me from behind, his voice had that same seductive pitch it had last night when he was whispering engine honing processes to me.

  “You know, I’m a little upset with you.” His bloodshot eyes raked down my body before a rakish grin spread over his features.

  “Why is that?” Reaching for my binder, I attempted to distract myself.

  “I couldn’t walk past that fort this morning without getting hard.” Just to demonstrate this, he pushed his hips flush against me. The smell of oil engulfed me from the bottles around me and my heavy breathing intensified.

  “And that’s bad?”

  He smiled with a shy edge. The curve of his lips distracted me thinking of the way he smiled when he saw the fort. “Well, yeah, Rosa was in my room cleaning for once.” He did that squinting thing. “Talk about awkward.”

  “You’re so adorable,” I told him and then regretted it when his eyes shined.

  Believe me, I had a thing for this engine builder, a big thing for him but I couldn’t have all his cylinders in his engine block, could I?

  He knew the revving was in his favor and replied with. “Adorable enough for you to spend the weekend with me?”

  “Say what?” My eyebrow arched taking in his suddenly brooding demeanor.

  “Good enough to fuck around with but not spend the weekend with?” he countered backing me against his tool box, hips shifting forward.

  “No, I didn’t say that.” I pushed him right the fuck back. “I just need to think about it. Where were you think of going?”

  “Texas.”

  “Oh.”

  He stood there for a second before giving me another ruminative glance and turning away, his eyes suddenly guarded. “Well, you think about it and let me know. My dad said he’d give you Monday off to come with me.”

  And then he walked away back toward the dyno room slamming the door behind him.

  Well then.

  Confused and slightly annoyed, I made me way back upstairs to my desk to think about it.

  Anna had sent me a message. Hey slut, hockey game tonight? Cole’s in.

  I don’t know. I think I pissed the engine builder off.

  I replied with.

  That’s not good.

  No shit.

  Hey, don’t get bitchy.

  By three that day, I hadn’t seen Casten again but I was too goddamn busy being Peter’s Girl Friday every five minutes. When Jameson wasn’t there he automatically thought I would be his slave.

  Every time I got up to go to the bathroom, he would ask me questions or demand something of me. I got to the point, on the edge of my sanity, where I basically said, “I’m gonna piss in your coffee cup if you ask me another question when I’m going to the bathroom.”

  He stopped after that. Apparently my piss frightened him too much.

  Around four, my plans were still up in the air. Casten had me completely tangled as to what his deal was. I mean fuck, I built a fuck fort then he goes and gets all serious over it. The sex was awesome, he was awesome and then I thought, “You’re the weirdo, what the hell is wrong with you
? He’s a great guy. Just go with him.”

  Just before I was ready to leave and go find him, heavy footsteps trudged up the metal steps from the shop. The only one left was me and Casten.

  The door swung open, he walked through with the same confidence I’d seen in the past. Beer in hand, he made his way over to my cubicle. Leaning against the side, similar to the night of his party, he relaxed and then sighed.

  “You don’t have to go. I was just throwin’ it out there.” His voice seemed different as he stood there focused on his feet rather than me who was looking up at him with curiosity. “Just know I want you to go, that’s all. I really like you.”

  “Okay,” I squeaked out avoiding the “really like” portion of his admission. “Do you want to go back to your house and do some damage to the fort first.” I wiggled my hips when I stood up trying to emphasize my point.

  His eyes met mine, now alive as they were last night. “What’d ya’ say I apologize first?”

  “For what?”

  “For being cranky earlier.”

  “Oh, yeah … what’d ya have in mind?” I drew out yanking him forward by his belt.

  His hands fell against the side of my desk leaving him hovering over me. “Are those doors locked?” Casten asked gesturing with a quick nod to the one office door that led to the showroom.

  “Yeah,” I said against his deprived lips. “Is the door to the shop?”

  “Yep,” he moved shifting forward to pick me up and place me securely on his lap. “Now … let me show you exactly how I plan to apologize.”

  Livery – The paint and stickers applied to the cars to show sponsorship.

  Body parts tangled quickly and before I had a moment to respond to his urgency, Casten was yanking away clothes and going in for the kill.

  This was all well and great, awesome even, but at that moment, I had my stapler up my ass.

  “There’s a stapler up my ass. Can we move?”

  Casten just grunted and moved me away from the stapler to me keyboard. This didn’t really seem like that great of an idea but those thoughts quickly vanished.