A Slight Mechanical Problem

By Sarah


It had been, an un-deniably sucky day, Grace thought she sorted through the last of the receipts in the office. It was only the waning hours of 4: 30, the late fall of Colorado slanting warm sun across their hardwood floors, but it did little to appease her current state of mind. Had Sarah not been otherwise occupied, Grace might have sweet-talked the paperwork off on her, but her partner in crime was still on her way back from the shipyard, with several dozen boxes of her precious make-up supplies.
It hadn’t meant to start out as a bad day. Really. It had been a beautiful autumn morning, and Grace loved fall, all it’s vibrant colors coming out around her like a symphony. But no one can account for the stupidity that is corporate bureaucracy. Grace had been working for weeks on a proposal for a production of her own, and after the success of the previous opener by Marlee Matlin, she figured she had more than a shot-after all, hadn’t she set up the whole problem herself? What she got was “I think we’re looking for something with a little more pizzaz-it’s just, too artsy and moralistic for us.”
“You Mean too intelligent and quality?” Grace had wanted to say, and the thought of it made her shut the cash register with extra vigor. That had been several hours ago, and Grace for once, was glad she’d decided to take the conference via phone and not webcam. It allowed for all sorts of catharsis via facial expression if no one on the other end was watching you.
The whole day had been weird, Grace admitted. They’d decided to close a little early-and on a Saturday, no less. Most of the college kids were out of town on fall break and business was a bit slower than usual. Plus, both of them had just felt plain lazy. Amid Grace’s musings the shop phone rang, making her jump in surprise.
“Hey you!” Sarah’s cheery voice came over the line.
“Hey.”
“Whoa, okay definite dearth of enthusiasm. What happened?” Sarah knew immediately the news from the board hadn’t been to Grace’s liking.
“They...morons! They want more...”pizzaz” can you believe it?” Grace spat out.
“Are you kidding me? That’s ridiculous! What unimaginative cretins!”
“I know, don’t get me started, I can tell you when you get there-where are you anyways? “
”That’s just it, I’m on my way in-but I think I’m going to need help-there were more boxes than...I remembered.”
“Than you remembered?” That got a laugh out of Grace, “weren’t you the one who packed them?”
“Errrr, possibly. It’s been a while.”
“Sure...Well I’m sure we’ll get it figured out. How long do you think you’ll be?”
“Oh, like fifteen minutes or so?”
“Ok, see you then.” Grace hung up and mentally added another fifteen minutes to Sarah’s time. It had been decades and the girl still claimed to be on “Latin Time” (and she was from Asia!)
Roughly thirty minutes later Grace heard a vehicle pull up front. It didn’t sound big enough to Grace’s VW Van Sarah’d borrowed, and Grace sincerely hoped that were it a patron that they could read the sign and leave well enough alone. She ventured down the stairs and towards the front regardless, curiosity and a need to stretch her legs getting the better of her.
She was richly re-warded with the sight of (by now) two very familiar figures coming towards determinedly towards her front door despite the “CLOSED” notice.
“We know you’re in there!” Cameron Mitchell yelled and pounded the door in mock anger. “We want our coffee, let us in!”
“I’m waiting for you to break that.” Grace heard Daniel say-muffled on the other side of the glass.
“What are you guys doing here?” Grace asked, laughing. They were, after all, their morning regulars.
“Hey, can’t a guy change his schedule to see a pretty girl?” Cameron asked, all charm as Grace let them in.
“Yes, Sometimes they let us out to play during the daylight hours.” Daniel added, deadpan, and Grace snorted.
“Yeah, so, what’s with this?” Cameron flicked at the paper announcing their closing in interest.
“Oh, well it’s been a ...long strange trip.” Grace finished, and Cameron smiled in appreciation for her humor. “I had a long conference this morning for a theatrical script proposal, which went...well.” She made a face.
“Hey, isn’t that the one you were telling me about?” And despite the unpleasant reminder of that morning, Grace was pleased that Cameron had remembered the little snippet of conversation from several mornings ago.
“Yeah, it was-they wanted more...pizzaz.”
“Losers.” Cameron said succinctly
“Pretty much.” Grace agreed, becoming even more cheered the longer he was there. “And then Sarah had to get up at the crack of dawn to go fetch a shipment of her make-up supplies that were coming in from across the country-she took my Van...”
“Oh-I wondered where she was.” Daniel said, failing any attempt at subtly. Grace and Cameron shared a smirk before Grace answered. “Yeah, she just called and said she should be here in couple of minutes, but...”
“Your partner in crime not exactly know for her punctuality?” Cameron asked.
“Not exactly. So,” Grace craned her neck around to the front window where she could see a corner of their vehicle- “What made all the noise?”
“Oh-that?” Cameron attempted to sound casual, but it was obvious he’d been waiting for her to ask since they’d come in the door. “That’s just Lola, I got her back from the shop today.”
“Lola? I had a car named Lola once.” Grace showed a wry grin. “Woman of mystery...of bad mysteries.”
“Well, I can assure you that all my Lola’s mysteries are very good ones indeed.”
“I certainly hope so.” Grace was about to pose a borderline suggestive reply when the unmistakable sound of Sarah butchering Grace’s clutch came through the now open doorway.
“Shite.” They heard her mutter under her breath as she jumped down and hurried around the side of van to peer at something under the underbelly of the vehicle.
“Oh, that doesn’t sound good.” Grace said while Daniel chuckled behind her. The three of them hurried out the front sidewalk where Sarah soon spotted them and tried too act like nothing was too much the wrong.
“You Killed it!” Grace exclaimed, and the guys couldn’t help but laugh as Sarah’s face cycled a myriad of reactions until she comprehended that Grace was kidding.
“Only a little bit!” She protested a bit feebly and handed the keys back to Grace. It was acting up the whole way back, I had to stop twice because there was this strange clickey noise coming into town.”
“And you didn’t call?” Cameron and Grace exclaimed together.
“Ummm,”
“Nevermind, I’m sure it’s fine, we’ll just take a look in a minute, let’s get you unloaded. You want to take this all to the apt?”
“Sure.” Grace climbed in the drivers seat and promptly failed to start the engine.
“Okay-maybe not.” Cameron said after several false starts and waited till Grace shut off the engine to pull up the hood.
“Well, I guess I can sort some of this in the shop...” Sarah trailed off dubiously, looking at the open back doors of the van.
“Can I help you?” Daniel appeared by her side.
“Oh gosh-Hi! I’m so sorry I didn’t even say hi to you guys, I was so preoccupied-how are you? Wait-what are you doing here at this time of the afternoon?”
“What a guy can’t change his schedule?” Daniel said, amused at her nervous babble.
“No.” Sarah retorted good-natured-ly.
“Maybe I just wanted to see you again.” Daniel remarked leaning against one of the van doors and looking her straight in the eyes. Sarah fish-mouthed at the direct honesty of his statement and the kiss on the forehead sprang unbidden to her mind.
“Umm, er, oh.” She fumbled for something intelligent in her repertoire and found squat.
“Here, let me get that.” Daniel seemed amused at her flustered state and took the crate from her hands. “It’s heavy.”
“They’re all heavy.” Sarah called half-heartedly to his retreating back.
“No, no, no!” We can deal with this later.” Grace said firmly, pulling down the hood on the van and narrowly missing Cam’s fingers. He gave her a mock glare. “You brought me out to see “the wheels” and I want to see them.”
“Alright. But we’re fixing this beauty up later.” Cameron seemed intent on making sure he had a hand in the repairs.
“Promise. Now?” She waved over to where Cameron’s car sat gleaming in the sun. Grace had been sneaking covetous glances at it since they’d come outside, but now took the time to fully appreciate the beauty of Cam’s fully restored silver and chrome (insert year here) Mustang Convertible. It was, of course going to be completely impractical to drive in a couple weeks, with the Colorado winters always arriving early, but Grace had a feeling that wasn’t of much import to the good Colonel at the moment.
“Beautiful.” She couldn’t help but gush a little at let her fingertips hover just along its surface, watching Mitchell to see if he was going to fuss about her botching his wax job. He said nothing, however; but watched her with a sort of satisfied envy as though her reverence for his vehcile extended to him.
“Well?” Grace said after a moment of opening doors and inspecting hubcaps, while Mitchell spouted a lot of stats at her.
“Well what?” Cameron looked confused-what more did the girl want?
“Aren’t you going to take me for a drive?” Grace raised an eyebrow.
“Oh well yeah, doy! But don’t you want to let Sarah know you’re deserting her in the middle unpacking with a busted vehicle first?” Cameron smirked.
“Oh...I think she’ll be fine.” Grace said after watching Sarah flirt outrageously, carrying heavy boxes no less, for a few moments. “But I’ll give her a heads up anyways. Oi! S! Cam’s going to take me for a spin in -Lola.”
“Er...okay.” Sarah yelled back, confused at first at the strange name and then catching on- deciding that while she might ordinarily be jealous of Grace getting to ride in all that muscle, she had an very attentive archaeologist carrying her boxes inside. “Have her back before midnight young man.” Daniel said with believable authority, and Sarah snickered.
~*~
“This is the life, huh?” Cam yelled as they sped around the winding Colorado roads, the late-afternoon sun on their backs, wind in their hair.
“Oh, yeah!” Grace yelled back, brushing her hair away from her mouth. Despite the tangles she felt a bit like Grace Kelly speeding along to a posh resort in the Hamptons. Yeah, a girl could get used to this.
“So, what made you come to Colorado?” Cam asked as they slowed to a leisurely cruise along a blazing autumn back road.
“Oh, a little bit of everything-work, friends, it just...captured me, I guess.” Is that too cheesy?”
“Nah.” Cameron said comfortably and stretched his arm along the back of the seat till his fingers brushed her hair. “I came for work-although-I gotta admit, it’s a hella better than some god-forsaken desert, you know?”
“So true.” There was a brief pause while they both took in the rich layered scent of fall. “You really love your job, don’t you Cam?” Grace asked. She and Sarah had been no ends to curious about what their two favorite customers really did up in that mountain-but one thing was clear-it certainly wasn’t pulling teeth getting them to work in the morning.
“I really do.” Cameron emphasized, obviously have actually considered this for a moment. It’s not just about, you know “saving the world-well all that playing solider” stuff, it’s-like well did you ever feel like you were meant for something better? Something truly amazing?”
“Yes.” Grace said simply after a moment, “Every day.”
“Exactly.” Cameron was un-characteristically still, just smiling at her-and then he pulled the gear into higher gear. “Come-on, I wanna show you something.” He proceeded to drive to the top of a bluff overlooking the valley below and Grace allowed herself a smirk. As beautiful as it was, it did put her in mind of “Make-out Spot”
“Wow. I wish I had my camera!” Grace exclaimed as the sun began to set over the town.
“Next time, I can’t remember everything, you know.”
“Oh why not? You’re supposed to be on top of these things.” She snuck a side glance at Mitchell, who looked sly indeed. “We’re...not going to run into any hormonal teenagers up here, are we?”
“Oh no, it’s too early for that-they don’t show up until at least 2100 hours.”
“Please tell me you don’t actually know that.”
“Maybe.” Cameron leaned toward her grinning. He had shut off the car engine. “Then again, maybe I just thought I’d beat the crowd?”
“Oh, well that would be very-ah-strategic, of you.” Grace managed, unable to tear herself away from intense gaze and ever-leaning form.
“I’m like that.” Mitchell said, one hand moving stealthily along the back of the seat around her shoulders, the knuckles of his other skimming along her arm and up her shoulder. She tried to repress a shiver and failed. Cameron’s eyes sparkled as he caught it.
“Is this something they teach you in the Air force?” Grace asked, raising an eyebrow suggestively.
“Works, huh?” Mitchell raised both eyebrows, grinned and leaned in for a kiss. A million little shocks shot up Grace’s spine and she found her hands in Cameron’s hair quite of their own accord. Despite various experiences and the added bonus of long-building anticipation, Grace had to admit Cameron wasn’t good, he was very good. Her fingers curled around his neck, gently massaging and Mitchell mumbled something happy and incoherent against her lips and leaned her back against the door. A few breathless moments later and they froze in mid-kiss as they felt a click and then without warning Grace’s seat back collapsed flat and they tumbled right into the back seat.
“Oh...Sarah would DIE if she heard about this!” Grace laughed helplessly, all pretense of romance having flown out of the window.
“You’re going to tell her, aren’t you?” Cameron asked, propped up on one elbow with a woebegone expression on his face.
“Well...it’s kinda how it works between best friends, isn’t it?” Grace said, not in the least apologetic. Cameron sighed dramatically. “ I’m doomed to certain embarrassment! We could always not tell them.”
“Right! Like even you can keep a story like this in-please!”
“You make a very good point. Now, I believe you were saying something before we were so rudely interrupted?” Mitchell leaned over her all bright eyes and wicked grin.
“Was I? I don’t remember.” Grace attempted innocence.
“Yes, something along the lines of...this...” Cameron trailed off and closed the distance between them.