He worked a while longer, managing to get paint on himself in the process, and looked at his watch. He was meeting Cade for drinks in two hours and decided to head home and shower the paint away. Elias said bye to Christa before leaving, the bottom lock clicking into place automatically behind him.
“How’s business treating you?” Cade asked as they sat at a table in the corner.
“It’s good. I’m working on three bikes currently, and most of my tattoo slots are booked out for the next two months,” Elias replied. “What about you? Still having trouble with your co-lead?”
Cade groaned. “He’s insufferable. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t want to strangle him. He’s gotten worse recently too, but that might be because he’s leaving soon. There’s talk of it, and I’ve never wanted anything to be more true in my life.”
Elias shook his head. Since being promoted to the position, Cade had been having trouble with the other lead. At least,anytime the two of them had spoken or hung out, he had. He could understand his friend wanting the news of the man leaving to be true.
“If he leaves, are they going to promote someone else, or will you hold the position alone?”
“They’ll promote someone, or hire externally. There are too many employees for one person to oversee. I don’t care who it is. Anyone would be better than him. As long as I’m not contemplating murder every day, it’ll be an improvement.”
Elias chuckled as he shook his head because he knew Cade was serious. He also knew he shouldn’t have been laughing, but it was slightly amusing.
They were an hour and a half in and on their second drinks when his phone rang. Elias looked at where it sat on the table and saw Eri’s name flash across the screen.
“Give me a minute,” he said to Cade before answering the phone. “Hey, Amate.”
“Hey, babe.” She paused. “Are you busy?”
“I’m having drinks with Cade. What’s up?”
“Oh. My bad. I didn’t want anything. I just wanted to talk to you before I went to bed,” she replied.
Elias looked at his watch. It was a quarter to ten. “Give me about an hour, and I’ll come by when I leave here.”
“You don’t need to rush. Take your time and have fun. Honestly, I just wanted to hear your voice before I went to sleep. Mission accomplished.”
He shook his head in amusement, even though she couldn’t see him. “Alright, baby. I’ll text you in the morning.”
“You’ll text me when you get home, so I know you made it, even if I might be asleep,” she corrected.
“Bossy,” he countered. “But you got it.”
They ended the call, and Elias turned his attention back to the conversation he and Cade had been having.
It was a little over an hour later when he found himself at Eri’s front door. He should have just gone home, but he didn’t want to. He hadn’t seen her in a few days, and he wanted to. Elias was aware he was being selfish as he knocked on the door because she was likely asleep. It opened after a minute, and Eri stood there, eyes lidded, in a T-shirt that looked suspiciously like his.
“I told you, you didn’t need to rush on my account.”
“I didn’t,” he responded, picking her up and stepping inside. Cade had to work the following morning and had headed home forty-five minutes after Eri called. Elias locked the door behind them and headed to her bedroom.
He laid her on the bed before undressing and joining her. Reaching over her to turn off the lamp, he was sure she turned on when he knocked. Elias pulled her to his chest as her easy breathing filled the room, and his would soon join hers.
30
Elias watched as Jordan went around his motorcycle, labeling the parts with the sticky notes he’d given the teenager as fast as he could. Each time he’d asked to shadow Elias, to learn something, he’d make him label parts. This was the first time he had him doing so for any part that could be seen. Not only that, but he was timing Jordan. Not that the teenager knew it. That would undoubtedly have made him nervous and caused simple mistakes he wouldn’t have otherwise. For the parts he couldn’t see, Elias would have him match the name of the part to its function once he finished his current task.
“Done!” Jordan announced, and Elias stopped the timer on his phone.
He held out a stack of index cards to the teenager. “Take these and match the parts to the functions.”
Jordan took the index cards to the clean work table and began matching them while Elias started another timer. He wasn’t timing him to see how fast he could do it. He was timing him to see how confident he was while doing it. That was a major part of any profession and building anything custom. You needed to be confident in your work. This was the first step for Jordan to gain that confidence.
Sure, he’d watched Elias build a couple of bikes and passed him tools, but he had done little hands-on work. Before he would allow the teenager to do so, he wanted to make sure he knew each part of a motorcycle inside and out, and what they were used for.
Elias technically wasn’t looking to take on an apprentice, but he didn’t see the harm in teaching Jordan a few things, while his interest seemed to fall into the realm of motorcycles. He knew that at nineteen, one’s focus and what they wanted could change. His hadn’t, but he wanted to make sure Jordan was serious before wasting either of their time.
