“Where are you?”
“I’ll be leaving in an hour. I’ll meet you back at the venue at noon?”
“Yeah, okay. I’ll meet you there.” She hung up and placed her phone on the counter. “Can you take me to the venue to meet Mickey at noon?”
“Sure, Amate.”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me.”
He’d also told her that last night, but she still felt inclined. The rest of breakfast was spent discussing random topics. As much as she enjoyed giving him a hard time and keeping him at arm’s length, she had to admit there was an ease about being in his company, about talking to him.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
After taking Eri to get her car and ensuring she left safely, Elias ended up at his shop. He didn’t have any plans for the rest of the day and took an inventory of some basic parts he liked to keep in stock. Buying them in bulk was always cheaper, andsince he used them for ninety percent of his builds, running out wasn’t an option, especially since they sometimes shipped out slower than other parts.
He wrote the numbers to compare with Christa’s spreadsheet of all the parts, tools, and paint colors they had on hand. Most of which she’d reorder unprompted when they dropped below a certain number. However, with several parts, Elias would go in and turn the background of the total red. A signal for her to reorder if she wasn’t around when he realized there was something he needed.
He compared the numbers he’d taken down to those on the spreadsheet and thought back to the previous night. Elias wasn’t sure how long he’d been asleep when Eri entered his room. He’d heard the door, which he’d left cracked, push open, and he slowly roused from his sleep. He thought she needed something because he’d told her to tell him if she did.
He hadn’t been lying to her when he said he was surprised to find that she was sleepwalking. He knew people did it, but it was his first time witnessing it. When he called her name several times, and she didn’t respond, he knew it was happening.
What he hadn’t told Eri was that the first time, he had not only moved her off him but taken her back to the guest room. He’d barely settled in bed when she returned, attempting to straddle him again. The second time, Elias rolled her to the side. It was short-lived, and seconds later, she was back on top of him, head settling on his chest as her soft breathing continued.
At that point, he’d said, fuck it. Waking her up was an option, but he’d heard that unless they were going to harm themselves or someone else, it was easier to lead them back to bed. It wasn’t like he minded her being on top of him, and it seemed she wanted to be there. Elias had chosen to let her stay and deal with whatever came in the morning, which turned out not to be as bad as he had assumed.
He was accustomed to the walls she seemed to have up only around him, which was unfair of him to think because he only saw her in specific settings with the rest of the group. He thought that would be the outcome of the morning. Her throwing that wall up as high as she could and then giving him some snarky response that he would only find amusing, and she would be irritated about.
That hadn’t happened. If anything, she seemed to be fine with their position after realizing they were in it. He was sure it was his being awake that startled her more. She seemed relaxed on top of him, and it wasn’t until he’d pointed out she was still there that she seemed to react to it. If a non-reaction could be one.
For him, it solidified what he already knew. Eri was just as attracted to him, but she was fighting it. Maybe she wanted to wait until she finished school. If that were the case, he could do that. It was only a few months; he’d already waited. What was the harm in a bit longer? However, he needed her to communicate that to him. While he’d been trying not to push or come on too strong, sensing that would be the wrong approach with her, he needed to bring it up soon.
One thing was for sure. He’d have to thank Mickey for her forgetfulness because the time he’d spent with Eri had been easy. There was comfort and flow between them. It was also the first time they’d spent together with no one else around. He would make that happen more often. He needed them to get to know one another on a level that wasn’t superficial, on something more profound than their physical attraction.
Elias finished reviewing the spreadsheet and marked a few things to be reordered when Christa came in on Tuesday. He could do it himself, but she always chastised him. In her words: “If you’re going to do everything, why are you paying me?” That was far from true. The primary things he paid her for were social media advertising and running his motorcycle and tattoo pages.He preferred her doing it to tackling it himself because he wasn’t the biggest fan of the different platforms.
He brought up the current design he was working on and looked it over. Something was missing. He felt it needed to live up to the standards of all the other bikes he built while still adhering to the client’s wishes.
They wanted speed over anything else, which meant the motorcycle would be lightweight. He’d gone with an exposed design for the parts that various weather conditions wouldn’t affect. Still, he wasn’t entirely satisfied with it. Elias still had a week before he’d need to send the initial design, but he’d hoped the idea would come to him from looking at how far he’d already gotten.
His phone ringing pulled him from his thoughts. He removed it from his pocket and checked the screen before answering it.
“Ehi, Mamma.”
“Ciao, Figlio. Did I catch you at a bad time?”
His mother was notorious for asking if it was a good time to talk when she called him. He understood why she did it, but to his way of thinking, if he answered the phone, then he had time to speak to her. On the rare occasions he didn’t answer, he’d text her and let her know he would call her back when he could.
“No, what’s up?”
“I wanted the family to get together on Wednesday night for dinner. Your father and I are hosting.”
Sunday was usually when they would get together for dinner. But with Marco’s wedding yesterday, their mothers had bypassed this Sunday. The only reason he could think of for them now wanting to have it on Wednesday was that his Zia Celia probably bitched about not being invited to the last several, or the wedding, which was her and her son’s fault.
His mother was likely trying to keep the peace, and with his older cousin away on his honeymoon, the chances of Vince getting hands put on him went down by sixty percent.
“Okay, Mamma. What time?”
