Eri was silent briefly, wondering if she’d be overstepping, but knew Avian would tell her if she was.
“Do you think it’s a good idea to give her more access to you when the two of you haven’t really resolved anything? Or is that what you’re hoping to do if she takes you to dinner?”
“That would be nice, but I know my mom. She’s set in her ways, and one dinner will not change that. I’m just hoping for a sliver of progress, but if I go and she disrespects my husband or my marriage, I have no issue pushing her right back to the edge of my life and leaving her there.”
Eri understood where her friend was coming from and knew she’d be capable of doing so, but that it was also hard on her not to have her mom in her life and to be supportive of her happiness. Avian had gotten to share none of the things a woman normally would with their mother regarding wedding planning or the general excitement. Eri would not get to either, but their circumstances were different. At least Avian had Lorna and her aunt Willa.
They finished lunch, and their plates were taken away, only to be replaced a few minutes later by a mini strawberry shortcake.Eri placed a candle in it and lit it as she and a few servers sang “Happy Birthday”.
They enjoyed their dessert before Eri paid the bill and took Avian back home so she could take a nap and be energized for her night out with her husband.
Eri didn’t have any other plans for the day, and she knew Elias was working. She decided she would take some time to research new gig sites and set up social media ads for her work.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Elias had dealt with plenty of difficult or…unique tattoo clients, but this was the first time he’d had to deal with one during a motorcycle consultation. The issue at hand was one he thought he’d handled over the phone when making the appointment. However, either Dan, the client, hadn’t understood, or he was under some delusion that the more he said it, the facts would change. Elias was a few seconds away from putting the man out.
“So you want a touring motorcycle or a chopper,” Elias stated, knowing full well that wasn’t what the other man wanted, but thought saying it that way would get the message across to him.
“No, I want a standard bike.”
“With that type of motor in it?” Elias confirmed, pointing at the picture on Dan’s phone. The other man nodded. “Then you want a touring bike or a chopper because that motor is too big for a standard bike. It won’t perform well.”
“That’s impossible. This is the best engine on the market. It should perform exceedingly well.”
Elias refrained from sighing. “It’s the best on the market for touring motorcycles, and it would work for a chopper, but not a standard bike. It would be too heavy, and maintainingcontrol of the motorcycle would be too difficult. You also run the risk of it exhausting the other parts and blowing something. Depending on how often you rode it, you’d have a year. Two tops if something doesn’t explode before then, but inevitably something will go wrong.”
“It’s fine. I’ll only ride it so often. This is the engine I want.”
This time, Elias did sigh. “I can’t in good conscience do that.”
“Listen, I will take my business elsewhere if you can’t make this happen.”
Elias raised a brow. “Go ahead. Anyone who would build that for you is ripping you off and potentially signing your death certificate. That won’t be on me.”
Motorcycles in themselves could be dangerous depending on who was behind the wheel or on the road, but he wouldn’t build something that he knew would cost someone their life because of the parts.
“You can exit the same way you entered,” Elias told him. He didn’t want Dan to feel the need to continue to argue for what he wanted because Elias was not giving him his way.
Once Dan was gone, he decided to work on an extra frame he’d been dabbling with. He was waiting for neon paint for the siblings’ motorcycles that he was building. They weren’t common colors, and he didn’t keep them on hand. Since he was there, he figured he should work on something.
He turned on some music and got to work. He didn’t have a sketch or an idea for the frame, so he was winging it, letting creativity spur him as he did some freehand detailing.
“I forgot you had a consultation today.”
Elias looked over to find that Christa had arrived. “Yeah. I finished it…” he trailed off to look at his watch. “Over an hour ago.” He hadn’t realized how much time had passed.
“How was it?”
“He wanted something dangerous, and I sent him on his way.” Christa raised a brow in question, and he elaborated.
“Wow. People are really willing to put their lives at risk to get what they want or not to seem wrong. It’s far from worth it.”
“Tell me about it. What are you doing here?”
“I need to put in a few material orders. I was nearby and figured I’d do it today. I also need to go through and see if any of the paints, waxes, and whatnot have expired.”
Elias nodded. She went up to the office, and he got back to work. He barely noticed she was there when she went into the storage area to take inventory, but that was usually how it was when he worked on a motorcycle. Everything fell away around him, even the music sometimes. The only time that didn’t happen was when Jordan was at the shop, and Elias was mentoring him.
