Back To You by Nia Arthurs

Author:Nia Arthurs [Arthurs, Nia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-10T18:30:00+00:00

Doc has more cars in his workshop than he could fix in a lifetime. He’s swimming in the broken and irreparable. I wonder how he handles all the demands on his time and attention. A timer? A color-coded work calendar?

Does he love fixing broken things that much?

I’d be annoyed if people kept coming at me to fix their messes. At least in my loan business, I get my money back plus interest. Doc won’t ever get his time back. Maybe that’s why he charges.

If that’s the case, he doesn’t charge enough.

Doc is observing the data on his scanner when I walk closer. He seems pleased. He taps his finger on the screen and takes a screenshot of the numbers.

I stop and lean against the neighboring car. “Every time I come in here, you’re observing something. When do you actually work on the car?”

“It doesn’t make sense to work on something when you don’t know where the real problem is.” He flips the lid of the scanner and sets it aside. “The biggest problem a mechanic faces is when someone brings in a car with a problem and those problems don’t appear.”

“Why? If the problems don’t appear, that means it’s fixed.”

“No. That means the real issue is still a mystery. I want to see the symptoms. I want the car to breakdown or misfire or make the noise in front of me. That’s the only way I can find the issue and repair it.”

It feels like there’s a lesson in that, but I don’t have the mental bandwidth to search it out.

Doc gestures towards my bike.

This time, I get the wrench without him asking. “I have good news and bad news.”

“Start with the bad news,” Doc says.

“I scared Joshelle today.” I fold my arms over my chest and feel my muscles flex. Feel Doc eye my tattoos and my bulk. I answer the question in his gaze. “I didn’t touch her. Or her ex-girlfriend. But I wanted to do some damage and it was all over my face. She saw it.”

“What stopped you?”

“You.”

The wrench he’s using to take down my bike goes still.

“I’d already tried it my own way and I dug a deeper hole.” I think about that day I cornered Joshelle when she was getting out of her car. I’ll never forget the wariness in her eyes when she saw me hovering around her apartment. It made me feel like a criminal. “So I listened to you this time.”

“And?”

“If it wasn’t for your advice, I would… probably be in jail again.” I nod and let out a sigh of relief. “Even before today, I would have been pushing her, stalking her, trying to get her to talk to me. But I’m not doing any of that and it’s throwing her off her game. I can tell that she doesn’t expect what I’m giving.”

“Machines that need repair should not be on the road.” He removes the seat and exposes the wires beneath the engine of my bike. “This is why you don’t pursue.

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