Chapter
3: Revved
Jay rushed out of her apartment the next morning, books in hand, and
hopped into her car as she usually did the morning of a test. The clock had
just hit seven, and her study group was meeting once more before the test to
make sure they had everything down pat. She knew rushing to Starbucks was probably
the best idea since they all needed their caffeine jolt in the morning in order
to function properly for the rest of the day.
As she pulled off the curb, Jay realized that something was off with
her car. The steering wheel veered slightly to the left. She made a mental note
to get it checked out that afternoon if it kept doing that and headed straight
for the coffee shop then to school for the last minute studying she knew she’d
need if she was going to have a chance at passing this test.
By the time
Taking one last cleansing breath before the test started, Jay took the
packet of stapled material and began reading through it. ‘Here goes nothing,’
she thought, grabbing her pencil and starting to jot down the first answer on
the sheet of paper in front of her.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Three hours later, and Jay was finally out of the stuffy hall lightly
conversing with her friends waiting for the results of the test. The stood impatiently
at the doors along with several of their other classmates, anxiously milling
around the large bulletin board until someone finally walked towards them, a
printout in hand, and posted it for all to see.
Jay eagerly scanned the paper looking for her name. She quickly came
upon it and, with her index finger, traced a line across the sheet to her score,
which happened to be one of the highest in the class, a 96%. “Woohoo!” she screamed
out, starting to do her little happy dance in front of her friends.
“Go Jay, it’s your birthday!” Max started singing until they were all
laughing at him.
“You can be such a dork,” she told him as they made their way down the
hall.
“Hey, why don’t we all go celebrate?” he suggested.
“Sorry, Max, but I can’t,” Jay sadly answered. “I have to go see why
my car is acting funny. I’ll try to make it. If I don’t, I’m sorry. Maybe another
time just you and me, okay?”
“Yeah, that’s cool,” Max replied as they parted ways, Jay heading for
the parking lot while he and the rest of the group made their way off campus
towards one of the local bars.
Jay sighed, knowing she was purposefully taking herself out of the loop
in order to avoid seeing Darren again. If anything, she knew their chance of
meeting again was pretty good. Going to as few social gatherings as possible
was probably the best way to keep those odds down, so she headed for the local
body shop to make good on her promise to get her car checked out before she
had no ride.
Jay rang the bell several times for service at the front desk, but when
no one came, she yelled, “Hello? Anybody there?”
“I’m coming!” a man yelled from the back. She heard the clattering of
metal on cement and cringed. She could only hope the poor guy hadn’t hurt himself.
“Just give me a second!”
“Alright,” Jay hollered back as she took a seat on one of the old plastic
folding chairs set out for the customers who had to wait. She felt odd being
the only person there, then again, who would be stupid enough to go to a mechanic
at
“How may I help you?”
Jay’s head shot up when she heard the guy’s voice now only a few feet
away from her. What she got was an eyeful. The man standing before her was absolutely
gorgeous with a thick mane of chocolate brown hair that almost reached his shoulders
and fell partly into his stunning ocean blue eyes. Glancing a little lower,
she noticed the bulge of his chest and abs beneath the tight white shirt he
wore. He was wiping his hands with an old orange cloth that he threw to the
desk beside him as she stood up, unconsciously biting her lower lips as they
now stood eye level to each other, with the help of her three inch high heels
of course. ‘Oh, God,’ she silently prayed, suddenly realizing she was in the
presence of what had to be the hottest man alive.
“Ma’am?” he asked, seeing that she hadn’t spoken for the last few minutes
he had been standing there in front of her.
“Huh?” Jay replied, suddenly remembering where she was and why she was
there. Her face turned bright red when she realized she had been staring at
him all this time. “Oh, uh, my car is, um, sorta acting funny and I, uh, don’t
know why, so, uh, I just wanted to know if you could, um, take a look and see
what was wrong with it,” she finally stuttered.
“Alright, why don’t we go take a look at it then?” he replied, showing
her to the door. He led as Jay followed, admiring the wonderful view of his
backside as they walked to her car. “So, what’s been the problem?” he asked.
“Well, the steering wheel is jerking to the left,” Jay answered.
“How long have you had that problem?”
“I just noticed it today.”
“Do you mind if I take if for a spin to see what you mean?” he asked,
completely throwing her off with the question.
“What?” Jay replied, confused.
“I’m not gonna steal it. Here, I’ll make it a fair trade,” he said, grabbing
his wallet out of his pocket and throwing it to her. Jay caught it, still a
little confused about what she was doing. He took the keys out of her hand and
opened the door of her car, then sped off down the road. She just stood there
on the curb and watched, wondering what the hell just happened. Jay shook her
head and glanced down at the wallet in her hands. The temptation to look inside
and find out who this guy was quickly made itself apparent as she opened it
and glanced at the driver’s license in the first slot.
“Donovan Strummer,” Jay said to herself. “Well, Donovan, I hope you don’t
mind me prying, but then again, you do have my car, so I guess I have every
right to take a peek at what you got in here.” Besides the driver’s license,
Jay found a wad of hundred dollar bills along with three credit cards and a
few rental store cards. There were no family pictures, no pictures of former
girlfriends, and definitely no little slips of paper with numbers written on
them. When she heard the familiar sound of her engine quickly approaching, she
closed the wallet and glanced up to see that he was getting ready to pull up
to the curb next to her.
“Not a bad ride,” he said, getting out and tossing her back her keys
as he took his wallet. As they walked back inside, he asked, “Did you find what
you were looking for?”
“What?” Jay replied, wide eyed and embarrassed.
“In my wallet. You looked through it, didn’t you?”
“What? I…” she started before he interrupted her.
“I know you did. It has never looked this clean before.”
“But…”
“Hey, don’t worry about it… as long as you didn’t take any of the money
inside.”
“Excuse me?” Jay nearly shouted, putting her hands on her hips.
He merely laughed. “I’m just kidding. You look too rich to be taking
money from a poor man like me. Come on, you drive a friggin’ Jaguar XKR convertible
with steering on the right instead of the left, so I have a pretty good feeling
that this car was either purchased in the UK or possibly Australia.” Jay just
stared at him, dumbfounded by what he was telling her. He smiled at her as he
extended his hand and added, “I’m Van, and you are…?”
“J-J-Jay,” she stuttered, taking it in hopes that she had embarrassed
herself enough that afternoon. “And I’m, I’m sorry about…”
“Don’t be,” Van waved it off as if it were nothing. “So, am I right about
the car?”
“Yeah, you are. It was purchased in
“Yeah, the steering might be off ‘cause you probably have a nail in your
tire. I just gotta do a quick check under the hood to make sure nothing else
is wrong, but I can fix it,” he replied.
“How long will it take?”
“Less than an hour, unless you have plans tonight.”
“I don’t, take your time. I’ll just wait it out until you’re done.”
Van left to grab all the paperwork Jay would need to fill out as her
cell phone began to ring. “Hello?” she softly answered. “Oh, hey Danny!” Van
noticed how she managed to slip into an Australian accent, but kept his distance
to let her finish her call or move closer if she chose to. “No,” she continued.
“I’m just getting the car fixed… No, thing’s wrong with it. I might just have
a nail caught in the tire, that’s all. No worries. Oh, no, I have enough money;
you don’t need to send more. Thank you, though. Yeah, um, could I call you later?
I still have to fill out some paperwork. Alright? Bye, Danny.”
Van handed Jay the paperwork as he asked, “Boyfriend?”
“Oh, no, that was my cousin from
“Don’t lose the accent. Guys dig chicks with an accent,” Van said as
he started to make his way to the back of the shop to start working on Jay’s
car.
“Excuse me?” she asked as she followed him, wondering why he’d make that
kind of comment. “What accent?”
“Well, I noticed that you slipped into a very Australian accent while
you were on the phone. Don’t hide it.” Van grabbed a tire from the rack and
started making his way back to her car as she continued to follow him.
“Why?” Jay kept questioning. She was beginning to wonder if this was
his way of telling her he found her attractive. She had met plenty of guys who
tried to hide the fact that they thought she was hot, but none quite like Van.
“Because a girl as beautiful as you should never hide anything. It makes
you all the more attractive,” he responded, kneeling down in front of the left
wheel of her car and starting to unscrew the hubcap.
“Are you hitting on me?” Jay replied, slipping into her Australian accent
just for him.
“Maybe,” Van seductively answered as he looked up at her, ocean blues
eyes locking on emerald green. They stared at each other for a couple of moments
before Jay looked away, feeling awkward and embarrassed about putting herself
in this situation as her cheeks turned a subtle shade of pink. Maybe she, too,
was hitting on him in more subtle ways. She was, after all, wearing a teasingly
low cut black V-neck blouse; an even more teasingly cut black wool skirt that
went well above her knees, and a pair of black stiletto three inch heels that
coiled halfway up her calves. To finish off the outfit, she wore a soft black
wool trench coat that fell just below her knee and a silver choker with an emerald
cross around her neck.
But there was something about Van’s eyes that made Jay turn away. They
were bright, as if lit by an intense fire from the inside. They delved deep
into her soul as if looking for the secrets she was not willing to tell. It
was the way the Darren used to look at her when they were together. She sighed,
recalling the afternoon before when they had seen each other again, and she
saw that same intensity hadn’t been relinquished. She knew he still loved her,
and maybe she still loved him too, but only time would tell.
Realizing that Jay had been looking away for far too long, Van continued
his work on the car, wondering if he had said or done something to offend her.
Either that or she had lapsed into a reverie of some kind. He was hoping it
was the latter. This “chick” was really beginning to get under his skin, and
not in the bad way. She was absolutely beautiful, photos doing her no justice,
and the way she looked tonight just topped everything off. Billie had told him
not to sleep with her, but she had told him to get close enough so he knew her
every move. That didn’t mean he couldn’t ask her out to dinner later on that
night, or the next day, or maybe even the next.
“Would you like to go to dinner with me after I finish checking your
car?” Van finally asked.
“What?” Jay quickly snapped out of her thoughts when she heard him ask
her out.
“Would you like to go to dinner with me tonight?” he asked again.
Once again, their eyes locked. Jay didn’t know how to respond. This was
the first time someone had blatantly asked her out in years. Her mouth began
to move, but no words were coming out.
“Meet me tonight at Maxi’s,
Jay had no idea what she had just gotten herself into, but she was glad
that it had happened the way it had. It was nice having a guy ask her out for
a change instead of her doing all the work. Maybe Van was going to end up being
the man to break her dry spell. Jay didn’t know, but she was willing to find
out.
But what about Darren? The thought crossed her mind as she got into her
car and sped off towards her apartment. Jay decided not to think about it any
longer while she ran to the second floor flat and began searching through the
closet for something else to wear. It was nearly