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Chapter 1
Lilia
I sighed heavily as I leaned my head against the steering wheel. Today was not a good day. The pain wracking my body wasn’t anything new. It just made everything ten times harder. Now I had a flat tire on some country road with little to no cars driving by.
Closing my eyes I went through the options I had. I could call my dad or brother, Alex, but they would make it out to be a huge imposition. They didn’t understand my fibromyalgia and neuropathy. They didn’t even try to understand the daily pain my defective nervous system caused me. I’d even had my doctors explain the truth to my family. Despite that, Alex accused me of faking it to get out of chores and helping the family out.
My dad had said more than once that I needed to be less lazy and exercise more. My rheumatologist and neurologist both agreed that was a bad idea. I was a healthy weight with good numbers, my body just hated itself. More than once I wanted to just cry about how unfair it all was. I loved life, but I couldn’t help it when the pain was so bad I could only sleep.
Taking a deep breath, I changed the direction of my thoughts. Looking at my cell phone, I had a single bar. Maybe I could call the police. No, that would just be bothering them. I just needed to put on my big girl panties and see what I could do before I imposed on anyone, especially the police.
Making sure my hazard lights were on along with the parking brake, I got out of my little car. I’d never changed a tire before but I had to try. So, I went to the trunk and opened it. I could do this, I would do this. “Let’s see,” I mumbled to myself. “I need the tool that removes the nuts, the thing that lifts the car, and this tire. What the heck? Why is this tire so small?”
I looked at my car and the replacement tire skeptically. This seemed sketchy at best. I closed my eyes as a wave of pain rolled through me. I looked up at the evening sky, fighting back tears, and said to the first stars I could see, “Give me strength to do this. I need just a little bit to get this done so I can go home and rest.”
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and quietly begged my body to cooperate this one time. Just this once. I opened my eyes and lifted the spare before almost dropping it to the ground. I sat down on it for a minute, already exhausted from the internal battle I fought against my own body.
My mom’s words filled my thoughts, “Honey, just try. Your dad just wants you to sleep less and try without calling us all the time. Same with Alex. It doesn’t mean we don’t love you or understand. We do. We just need you to not let it beat you all the time.”
Wiping my eyes to remove the frustrated tears, I got up and rolled the spare to the flat. Sitting down in front of the flat, I took a look at what I needed to do. Before I could figure it all out, I heard the rumble of a motorcycle get louder as it approached me. I just prayed they either drove on by without stopping or meant me no harm.
I couldn’t see the motorcycle because my trunk was still open and it blocked the view from the passenger side front tire where I sat, but I could tell it stopped behind my car. I silently banged my head on the side of the car. Taking a deep breath I pasted a smile on my face and prepared for the worst.
The biggest man I’ve ever seen looked around the back of my car and slowly approached me. He had a beard, more tattoos than I’ve ever seen on a person, and kind green eyes. At the sight of his eyes, all words left my brain. I just blinked at him. He was by far the most gorgeous man I’d ever been within ten feet of.
“Hey there, little beauty. I saw you with your hazards on and the trunk open. Can I help?”
I blinked, struggling to form a coherent thought when he smiled. If there had ever been a case of a woman turning into a puddle of goo, that would have been me. “Oh, um, tire… flat… tire.” My inner self smacked the back of my head for sounding like a complete idiot. With a slight shake of my head, I tried again. “Hi, yeah, sorry for sounding like a blithering nincompoop. I have a flat tire. I don’t know what I’m doing. Help would be great.” The whole time I spoke I just looked at the tire, looking at him was too dangerous.
“I don’t mean to make you nervous. I mean you no harm. If you like, you can wait in the car with the doors locked and I can change that for you.”
It dawned on me that by his suggestion, he thought he scared me. “I’m Lilia. I’m sorry. I’m normally not such a nitwit. Today’s just been a really hard day. But, um, if it’s ok, can I watch you? I’d like to learn.”
“I’m Tank. It’s real nice to meet you, Lilia. Have you ever used any of these tools?”
Shaking my head no, I admitted, “I wasn’t sure if I should loosen the nut things first or do the jack first. To be honest, with the pain I’m feeling, I’m not even sure if I’m strong enough to loosen anything.”
“Pain? Are you hurt?” The look of worry on his face took me by surprise. It wasn’t a look I was all that familiar with.
I smiled to show I was just fine. It was the smile I gave most people in my life. They may ask how you're doing but the truth was they didn’t want to hear more than ‘I’m okay’. If you tried to tell them anything else, they ran the other way. So I mentally made sure that my mask was firmly in place and simply smiled as a way to avoid all that awkwardness. “Oh no, I just have a condition that results in chronic pain, I’m okay, really.”
“Wait, is it one of those inflammatory conditions?”
“Sort of. I have fibromyalgia and neuropathy.”
“I’ve heard of those two but I admit I don’t know much.” As we chatted I watched him jack up my car, make quick work of the nuts, and change out the tire faster than I could say gas station.
“They’re just scary words that mean my nervous system is the life of the party but the rest of me deals with the hangover. Wow, Tank, I swear I’ve never seen a tire changed out so fast before.”
His chuckle vibrated through me, leaving my skin feeling like I’d been caressed. “I do stuff like this all the time so I could probably do it in my sleep. I’m a little concerned about this donut tire, though. How far do you have to drive?”
“Maybe thirty to forty miles. Are they supposed to be that small? It looks like something I’ve seen on a bicycle.”
“Depends on the maker.” He stroked his beard thoughtfully. I found myself wanting to run my fingers through it. “I don’t think it’s going to take you much further than ten, maybe fifteen miles, safely. If you’re okay with this idea, my club has a garage just a couple of miles down the road. We could get you all fixed up so that you’re safe and sound.”
“Oh Tank, that’s so sweet but I couldn’t possibly put you out any further. Let me try calling my dad first. You’ve been so kind already and I hate to be a bother.”
I grabbed my phone out of my back pocket and called my dad. To be honest, I didn’t even know why I was doing this but I was. It rang several times before I heard, “What is it now, Lilia? I just settled down to watch some television and have no patience for your ridiculousness.”
