Chapter Eleven
IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG to show Caroline how to buff out the light scratch on the tank that she said she accidentally did with the zip of her jacket.
I loved watching her learn something new like this, because her focus was so intense, and direct, that she forgot all of the fears and anxieties that usually plagued her, and just worked on the problem.
She had a pretty fierce analytical mind, and having something to busy her brain seemed to relax her.
“So you design websites and stuff?” I asked idly as she was polishing over the now pristine paint. She nodded, keeping her eyes on the task.
“Yep. It’s fun, and keeps people away. I like that part. Architecture meant meetings and site visits, and that was too much for me.” She was an architect?
“You design buildings?”
Her head lifted, and those highly intelligent brown eyes fixed on mine.
“I was learning. I guess… I really enjoyed the design side, and the visual side of it, because I can’t picture things in my head, but I had to keep being around people and that was… difficult.”
“You can’t picture things?” I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, because surely a job like that was literally about picturing what she wanted to design.
“Not like an image in my head no. I can know what I want to design, and how it should be laid out and put together, and I can draw it, but I can’t actually see it in my mind. It’s just black.”
I scratched my jaw as she carefully folded my polishing rag and passed it to me.
“Most people see more than that?”
“If you read a book, can you see the characters in your head? Can you see the scenes playing out?”
“Yeah, kinda. I guess. Like if it’s a blonde woman in a red dress, yeah, I could picture that.”
“I can’t,” she said simply, standing up and tucking her hands in her jeans pockets.
Huh. I guess it’d never occurred to me that everyone couldn’t do that. I don’t think I’d really thought about it at all. I could do it, so I assumed we all could. But wasn’t that true about so many things in life, and how we just blithely overlooked that they were only easy for us?
“Do you regret that you can’t do it?” I asked, as I carried the polishing kit back to the cupboard and packed it neatly away.
“I regret a lot of things,” she said quietly, “like the fact that right now is so easy, but if you put me in a situation like a simple coffee shop, suddenly I’m like a child out of her depth.”
I closed the cabinet, and joined her beside her ride again.
“I definitely don’t see you as a child, and I don’t think you’re out of your depth. I think you’re just treading new waters. Actually, that doesn’t make sense. I was trying to go for a swimming metaphor, but… I guess I mean that-”
“No, actually it kind of does. I think… I want to be braver, I just don’t know how.”
I reached out and took her hands, pointedly nodding my head at them.
“You don’t mind me touching you, and that seems like a pretty big deal to me.”
Her fingers twitched in mine, and I lifted my head to see her staring at them instead.
“It feels easy, but if you said let’s hold hands, I’d probably get in my head about it. I should go. I’ve taken up so much of your time today.” Her head lifted, but her eyes were still on her fingers.
“That’s not how I see it,” I said matter-of-factly. I led her back into the shop and pointed at the bathroom, noting that Rocket was staying firmly behind his counter this time.
“You wanna wash up before you go?”
Caroline nodded, and disappeared in there, the door pushed halfway closed, as I popped over to nose around at Rocket’s area.
He had some pictures out on the counter, presumably of the custom job he was working on, which was something for himself, since he didn’t have any jobs booked in yet.
His work was fucking amazing. Detailed, but flawlessly elegant, and flowing like it was real.
There were flames, and among the flames were faces, but I didn’t know if those were based on people he knew or not.
“Like it?” He asked, as he stepped out from his covered area and lifted his mask off.
“It’s incredible. This is for you?”
He shrugged. “I buy extra parts and do them up, then I can change them when I feel like it.”
“Thinking it’s time my ride got customised like this. I’ve been so focused on the performance side of things, but now she needs to look the part too. You wanna work on one for me, before you get inundated with other jobs?”
Rocket grinned, reaching for a thick folder of plastic covered designs.
“You wanna see if any of this gives you some inspiration, or do you have something in mind already?”
I took the heavy book and started flipping through pages.
“Not sure yet, but your spray work is immaculate.”
He shrugged, tucking his hands under his armpits, and resting back against the wall.
“I coulda told you that, man.”
Prick. I felt Caroline’s presence beside me, and moved the book to the side, so she could see it too.
“You’re getting yours done?” she asked me, trailing her finger lightly over a detailed design featuring skulls, with purple vines wrapping around them.
“You like that one?”
“It’s stunning,” she practically breathed as she leaned closer to it.
“I’d do you a deal,” Rocket offered as he kept his eyes on me, but I know he was talking to her. Good on him, for realising I was watching him. I wasn’t being possessive or anything. It was mere protectiveness. Upset her and get punched. That kinda thing.
“Oh my god, I could never afford something like this. I’d need to do some saving up first!”
I lifted the book and closed it, nodding to Rocket.
“Okay if I take it away to look at? I’ll bring it to the club tonight to give it back.”
Rocket nodded, looking a little edgy about it.
“It’s valuable to me, man. I’m not sure I have spare copies of all of those, if I had to try and replace it.”
“You could scan them all in and store them digitally,” Caroline suggested, and Rocket grimaced.
“I work with my hands. Not my brain. No, wait, that didn’t come out right.” He glared as we both laughed, and shook his head. “I just mean, I can use computers but I’m not gonna sit there for hours doing something like that. I’d lose my mind.”
“I could do it for you.” Caroline suddenly looked excited at the prospect, even though it’d probably take her days to do it all.
“I mean, that’d be amazing, but I don’t know that I’d want it away from here that much. I kinda need to show it to clients and stuff.”
Caroline looked at me next, but I had no idea what she was thinking until she spoke.
“I could bring my kit here and set it up for a day or so, while I scan and upload them. Could… would that be okay?” I fought the smile that was desperate to escape, because would it be okay? Fuck yes.
“Sure!”
“That’d actually be great, because then I could direct people to an online version, right? It’d expand my customer base, if they can look and know if they like my work before they come here.”
Well duh, but I wasn’t about to say that. It was what others did, after all. I grinned at Caroline.
“I guess it’s a good thing I had another delivery of your god-awful coffee today, then.”
Caroline
IDON’T KNOW WHY I was poking my nose into Rocket’s business, but the idea of sitting and scanning those beautiful pictures, and building him an online gallery, was suddenly so enticing that I couldn’t help myself.
I enjoyed what others would see as monotonous or repetitive work.
There was comfort in repetition, a safe place where you know what’s happening now and what’s happening next.
Building a process, finding ways to improve productivity. Definitely my jam.
“I’d do you a major discount on a spray job for this. Like huge, massive discount. I mean, this’d be amazing!”
Rocket wasn’t so bad once he was just talking in a quieter tone, and he was standing far enough back that he wasn’t crowding me.
Harley, on the other hand, was standing so close, I could feel warmth emanating from him and into me, and it didn’t scare me.
It didn’t bother me at all. It made me feel safe.
Was he the person I’d waited my life for?
Someone who’d offer comfort instead of fear or intimidation?
Someone who was already showing me that my boundaries were just acceptable and respected, instead of in his way?
“I’ll bring a spare desk out of storage, and set it up over here,” he said suddenly, pulling me from my thoughts, as I watched him and Rocket plan out my temporary workstation.
“I’d need to bring my scanner, and laptop, so I’ll need to plug both in too.” I pointed at the sockets in the wall, and they rearranged their planning to allow for that.
Just like that, it was all decided. I’d bring my laptop in tomorrow, and sit and work through the book.
That meant Rocket could carry on doing his thing, and know his precious pictures were safe and nearby.
And maybe then I could afford that gorgeous skull design.
I’d always enjoyed the fact that my motorbike was an electric blue colour, and so perfect and pristine, but now I was picturing a very different look.
What if the rest of the bodywork, including the mud-guard, was in black and purple too?
“Rocket, Grease is coming in tomorrow to map out the camera feeds and stuff. You gonna manage to not be a dick to him?”
I watched as Rocket glared at Harley briefly. “He’s the dick. Still feel like he’s just slumming it with us because it’s all a game to him. This is our fucking lives.”
Harley sighed, reaching under his counter for what looked like a leather jacket or something. I caught a glimpse of a ‘VP’ patch stitched onto it. Was that what I thought it was? Proof that he wasn’t just a bike shop guy, but a bike club guy too?
He tucked it under his arm and turned to face Rocket again.
“He’s a good guy, man, and he’s fallen in love with the life. Can you just ease off and get along? I don’t want a pissing contest here, okay?”
“I promise to only piss in the can.”
Rocket was still laughing as I reached the door, ushered ahead of Harley.
“Lock up when you’re done. I’m out, got a meeting with Micro. Caroline, wait outside and I’ll bring her around for you.”
I dutifully waited outside for Harley, and I noticed he was wearing that leather item when he parked up outside.
It wasn’t a jacket but a waistcoat, and it definitely said VP on it on one side, with his name on the other.
When he turned around to rest the bike on its stand, there was a large image of a phoenix with flaming wings on the back, and it said Phoenix MC Hampshire.
Oh god. He really was a biker, and that meant Rocket was too.
And someone called Grease? No wonder they all had weird names.
“You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Harley rested warm hands on my upper arms and waited for me to lift my head and look at him.
There was so much kindness and unthreatening friendliness coming from him, and that made me wonder if him being in a biker club might not be the horror it seemed to be.
Maybe they weren’t bad guys as such. You hear such horrible things, but maybe it was worth letting him prove to me one way or another just who he was. Hadn’t he been doing that already?