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“The new manager is called Bri, and she’s amazing. And yes, we’ve recently started seeing each other. She’s exactly my type, and myage,” I add on with emphasis.
I watch as she turns towards the door that would lead her into the back of the shop, and I wonder if I’m going to have to tackle her to the ground. Instead, she stalks back to the row of chairs along the side of the room, and drops back into her seat. She doesn’t pick up her book again, though.Shebends over her phone and starts to type away furiously.
“Are you fucking mental, Jax? You know she’s obsessed with me. Youknewshe’d react badly to perceived competition. Nothing good was going to come out of that.”
“Except the look on your face.That was priceless.” He retorts. I wish like hell that he would shut the fuck up already. He’s never been so damn chatty before.
“And how would you like it if I did that to you?” I question.
“You wanna die?” He grunts.
Why are all younger siblings such pricks?
“Listen here, you asshole—”
But I never get to tell him just how much of a prick he’s being. Just as I’m searching for the right words to fully encompass how much of a prick he is, the door that stands between the back room and the garage floor opens. We both turn to look so fast that I fear our necks will snap and roll onto the ground.
But it’s not Chloe sneaking into the back as I’d feared. It’s Bri making her debut on the garage floor. For a moment, Jax and I just stare stupidly. Because, what is she doing here? After all these months, she’s only just now braving it and coming out into the floor? What changed?
But then I see the hungry anger in Chloe’s eyes as she sizes up Bri, and I know that I have to do something. Bri is a strong woman, and I’ve no doubt that she can handle herself against aspoiledbrat like Chloe, but she shouldn’t have to. If I can save her from the potential disaster, I should.
“Sorry, guys, I uh,” she shoots a surreptitious look over at Chloe. “I didn’t realize the customer waited around, or I’d have ordered more. But I had some coffee delivered to keep you both going, since, you know, you’re working harder today than normal. I just wanted to make sure you were energized.”
She hands me a giant cup, like the ones you get at the 7/11, and then moves to give one to Jax too. All the while, Chloe’s predatory eyes are following her every move. I almost want to bundle Bri up in a blanket and carry her from the room just to protect her from the heat of thegirl'sglare.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Chloe asks.
Bri startles, looks to me for help, and then turns to Chloe with her shoulders straightened.
“What?”
“‘You’re working harder today than normal’,” Chloe mimics in what hastobe the worst Bri impersonation I’ve ever heard. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that the job they’re doing today is a particularly big one, and they’ve opted to work through lunch to get it done.”
“Oh, and I suppose that’s my fault?” Chloe challenges.
My body goes cold all over, like I’ve just stepped into the ocean in January. Chloe hasno rightto talk to Bri like that, but I don’t want to step in the middle. I’ve done that enough times and gotten shouted at from everyone involved.
“What makes you think you’d be at fault?” Bri asks.
Jax and I share a horrified look, because just as I’d been certainthatBri was going to panic, she simply quirks an amused smile.
“Because it’s my car they’re working on.” Chloestates rudely.
“Right, but it’s their job. If they didn’t want to work this hard, they’d have told you it would take two days to finish. But they didn’t, and that’s their choice. No ones at fault. Least of all you. Do you need a tea? You seem pretty wound up. I’ll go make you a tea.”
The room is silent except for the rhythmic clip of Bri’s heels hitting the concrete of the shop floor. Even Chloe seems to be in awe of the woman she, not just one second ago, despised so dramatically that she was parsing through words searching for something to argue about.
“Bri’s badass,” Jax says without bothering to keep his voice down.
“Yeah, she is.”
Chloe’s car is done. It drove Jax and I to sweat as we tore out and fitted all the changes she’d asked for. We worked hard to ensure that we got it out of the shop before another argument was struck, like a match too close to something flammable. But it turns out we needn’t have worried.
Bri was a force. In all the mess that came after the sighting of herex, it was so easy to think of her as some vulnerable person who couldn’t fend for herself. But I was so, so wrong. And I’ve never been happier to be proven wrong before. Bri isn’t some child that I need to shadow in order to make sure she doesn’t trip over her shoelaces. She’s a grown woman, capable and strong. And she can handle a girl like Chloe.
****
