Jeff’s face reddened with anger, but he didn’t say a word. He just turned around and walked away, muttering under his breath. I couldn’t have cared less. I knew I had him. I had four cars that people had brought in for me personally to fix. If he fired me now, he’d have to tell them I couldn’t fix their cars. He would have to tell them anyway after I left, but that was a him problem, not a me problem.
My busy, stressful week did nothing to solve the problem of my growing attraction to Miguel, who was having problems of his own. He hadn’t heard from his sister, and he was really worried about her. He didn’t want to call his parents because he was afraid they would blame him for the shitshow that Carlos caused on Easter Sunday. I personally didn’t think they would, but considering all the grief they gave him, I could understand why he would believe that.
I spent my evenings packing up my apartment. I also spent a lot of time throwing away the useless junk I’d accumulated over the last seven years. I was going through a box at the bottom of my closet when I came across an envelope from when they used to print pictures from rolls of film. I opened it to find pictures from my fifth-grade class trip. We’d gone to the planetarium in Philadelphia. My mother had actually taken the day off work to come as a chaperone.
I smiled as I flipped through the photos. I remembered being really excited about going to the planetarium. I’d wanted to know everything. There were lots of pictures of the star charts and a few of my feet or my thumb. Toward the end of the pack, I came across a picture of me and Robbie, my best friend. My mother must have taken it. I touched Robbie’s face with my finger. We looked so happy. We’d been practically inseparable back then. And just three years later, he was gone.
I felt unexpected tears sting the backs of my eyes. I remembered how lost I’d felt after Robbie and his family moved away. His parents had even apologized to me for leaving. But they’d said Robbie needed to make a new start in a new place. He’d promised to keep in touch, but he never did.
I carefully put the pictures away and rubbed my eyes. Memories of Robbie brought me back to wondering about my attraction to Miguel. I’d been thinking I’d never been attracted to a man before, but maybe that wasn’t entirely true. I’d had friends since Robbie, but I’d never felt for them anything like what I’d felt for my best friend—until now. Now, Miguel filled my thoughts day and night. I couldn’t understand it. Why now when I was thirty years old? Had I just been suppressing that part of myself all this time? The memory of my father’s words came back to me again, “You should have let them finish the job.” He had been disgusted by Robbie, so much so he wouldn’t have cared if those boys had beaten him to death. Was that why? Had his words burrowed into my brain, making me hide that part of myself?
By the time Friday came around, I was no closer to figuring out what to do with my inconvenient crush. The biggest obstacle for me was whether Miguel was attracted to me. I had to wonder why he would be in the first place. I didn’t have a lot to offer. He was smart and successful. He had so much confidence and was so put together. I was scruffy and messy and still trying to figure out my life.
Friday morning, I walked into work, and Jeff stopped me before I even got to my toolbox. “We got an F150 with a bad transmission coming in. I want you to take it.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “I can’t take it. That will take all day, and I’m leaving at noon. I’m moving today, remember?”
Jeff threw up his hands. “Just move tomorrow! Why are you moving on a workday anyway?”
I noticed Craig and Larry, the other two mechanics in the shop, had stopped to listen to our argument. “Because I have to. I told you on Monday that I had to take a half-day today. Get Craig to do it. He’s good with transmissions.” I heard Craig groan and was not surprised. He and Larry were decent mechanics, but they were lazy and didn’t want to work any harder than they had to.
“I didn’t ask Craig to do it because I want you to do it,” Jeff growled.
I shrugged. “Then it will have to wait until Monday.”
“And I said it has to be done today,” he retorted.
I stared at him in disbelief. “What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?”
“Listen, you little shit, you still work for me.”
“And I can leave right now if you want. I only gave two weeks’ notice as a courtesy to you and to finish up the cars I was working on. But if you’re going to push it, I’ll be happy to let you explain to the customers why their cars aren’t done.”
Jeff looked like he was about to bust a blood vessel. He clenched his jaw and curled his hand into a fist. For a second, I thought he would try to hit me. I wished he would. I would have loved an excuse to lay him out. Instead, he spun around and shouted for Craig.
I still didn’t trust Jeff not to pull something to try to keep me from leaving, so I got out my phone and texted Marco.
Me
Can I ask you a favor?
Marco
Sure. What do you need?
Me
My boss is giving me a hard time about leaving at noon. Would you mind coming to the shop to pick me up?
Marco
I can do that. Doesn’t he know you’re leaving in a week?
Me
He does. That’s why he’s being such an asshole.
Well, a bigger asshole.
