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7
Kimberly
“He will be here in a minute.”
“I hope so. If not, we’re going to call the police.”
My anxiety was up and the man at the car place wasn’t helping. I’d been quoted one price to get the scratches from keys taken out of my car, and he had doubled the price when it was done, saying that the scratches were deeper and needed more work. Since I didn’t have that much, I offered him what I had, which was more than it was supposed to be, but Dante wasn’t going for it.
“You go ahead and call them. I’ve nothing wrong. You doubled your quote. If you had told me it was going to be twelve hundred dollars, I would have gone somewhere else.”
Dante didn’t want to hear anything about it and to be honest, I was done trying to make a case about it. It was obvious that he found an opportunity to make a little extra money and he was using it. I wished that I’d had any other option than to call Dennis, but it was all I could come up with. I would rather owe him, than have to call my dad and tell him the same situation I was in. He wouldn’t take it well, so at least Dennis wouldn’t hound me about it. I was going to have to work a lot of extra hours to pay him back, though. Chelsea was really starting to get on my nerves.
I was worried about how long it was going to take for him to get here. The last thing I’d said to him was to leave me alone, and he was the first person that I thought of to call. I guess that should have told me something. I should have listened to the voice in the back of my head.
Dante sneered at me every time he passed me, going in and out of the back. I ignored him and I ignored the grease-covered surroundings that I found myself in. I couldn’t imagine working in that sort of place, and I was sure that was why he was in such a bad mood.
The front doorbell rung and I was feeling better. It had to be Dennis and he would be able to help me. It was something that was becoming commonplace, Dennis helping me. I liked to think of myself as an independent woman, but at the moment, I would have just settled for a woman that could drive her car out of the shop.
I didn’t hear Dennis come in, just heard his voice once he was there. It surprised me and I jumped a little. I guess I was already on edge.
“What’s up, Kimberly? You okay?”
He looked worried, like it was an emergency, and I was glad he came so fast. When he moved to hug me, though, I stepped back. I was about to ask him for hundreds of dollars. I probably should have given him a hug. I didn’t want to get that close, though. I knew full well what happened when we were too close and touched. Things happened.
Before I could say anything, though, Dante came out of the back, looking Dennis up and down. He must have seen money signs, because the twelve hundred that he was trying to charge me, went up to fifteen hundred.
“What? I thought it was twelve, and I already gave you six!”
He just shook his head and asked me if I had the receipt. It had all happened a little while ago, and he hadn’t given me one. I was fuming, but I was feeling helpless. I just wanted to get out of there, I wanted to get away from Dante, but he had my car. I felt like there wasn’t much I could do and if there was, I wasn’t sure what it was.
I turned to Dennis and gave him a quick recap of the situation as I saw it.
“This guy quoted me six hundred to fix the scratch on the side of the car.”
“I already got it fixed.”
“Yeah, well, I pissed her off again, kissing you I guess, so she did it again.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
He was losing sight of what mattered, and I was losing my patience. The guy was screwing me over, why couldn’t he understand that?
“He wants me to pay twelve, now fifteen that you’re here. I need to borrow a few dollars, just so I can get my car and leave.”
Dennis looked from me to Dante. “Is this true, you quoted her a lot lower price?”
“Well, yeah, but things came up. It ended up worse than I’d thought, and I had to buff it for another hour.”
“I am pretty sure that you are stuck with that estimate, especially if you don’t call and get the rest of the work agreed upon. I can call my lawyer friend. He is on retainer for the family, and I am sure that he wouldn’t mind coming down here. What time is it?”
Dennis pulled his phone out and started to dial a number. I didn’t know who he was calling, and Dante didn’t know either. Dante looked worried and before I could say much else, the two men had come to an agreement, for six hundred dollars, not a penny more.
I was able to drive away and since I was so grateful to Dennis for his help, I asked if he wanted me to buy him lunch. It was said not really thinking, but when he agreed with that look on his face, I knew that I was in trouble. It felt like it anyway.
“Yeah, dinner sounds good.”
“I said lunch.”
