Monday found Gabe starting to tear the Chevy down. The most time consuming project was the fuel injection and ignition upgrade to electronic and that was something he had to sub out so he wanted to make sure it came back in time. He was on the phone with the technician for about 15 minutes discussing options and costs. They could do the upgrade with completely hidden wires but the cost was half again as much as the standard conversion. He made the decision to go with the standard and save Mindy some money since hidden wires were usually just used on show cars but he wanted it and the valve covers polished. The tech told Gabe how to box everything up and where to send it to get it returned the quickest. Gabe thanked him and told the tech to watch for his shipment. He then made a call to order the front disc brake conversion and also ordered the two inch dropped spindles to give the Chevy a modern look. Gabe made another call for the new rack and pinion steering from one dealer and electric power steering assist from another. His last calls before lunch were to order a new wiring harness and front end suspension parts.
Pizza was being reheated when his phone rang. It wasn't a number he recognized so he answered, "Gabe's Restorations."
The voice at the other end said, "Wow! Aren't we formal!" and he immediately knew it was Mindy.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know your number but I'll save it right now!"
She laughed. "You'd better! I had a couple minutes before I had to go back to work and I'm going to be working late tonight and wanted to see if you wanted to have dinner with me tomorrow? Your place?"
"Let me check my schedule... I'm pretty booked up." Gabe hummed a little tune, as if he was going through his planner. "Oh, you're in luck I'm clear then!"
Mindy questioned him. "When? I never gave you a time!" There was a long pause on the other end.
"Ya got me!" he laughed.
Mindy said, "Even though you're jerking my chain I'll still bring Chinese at 6:30 if you think you can squeeze me in."
Gabe responded, "That sounds great if you think you can squeeze ME in."
Mindy snickered, "I see what you did there and I'll see about that tomorrow night!"
After lunch Gabe boxed up the fuel injection unit and valve covers and dropped it off at the shipper. He continued to work into the evening before locking up and heading up to the house for dinner. He had his routine.... dinner, dishes, a shower, the day's bookkeeping, a little TV and a night's sleep before doing it all again the next day. But now there was a potential interruption to his daily routine on the horizon. Gabe had dated several women over the years but there was always something in those relationships that he couldn't live with... or without... but Mindy checked all the boxes. As much as he was attracted to her, he wasn't going to rush into anything but he was going to enjoy the ride for as long as it lasted.
Mindy was in a similar quandary. She'd met a man of honor, honesty and humor. He wasn't impressed with the fake trappings of today's society, instead valuing the 'real' of whatever it was he was dealing with, be it a person, house or car. She had been duped by the handsome, by the rich, by the players and found herself alone at the end of the relationship. Even though Gabe had all of the confidence and qualities she looked for, the others had too, at the beginning. But Gabe was genuine, all the time. There was never a question of his character. She was going to focus on this man until he proved himself otherwise. She was scared but was willing to risk it.
Gabe's work days normally went by quickly, his mind occupied with problem solving and interesting challenges but neither of those could hold a candle to his anticipation of dinner with Mindy. He finished the electrical work on the Thunderbird so he could trailer it over to the upholstery shop. That would get one more project out of the way of Mindy's Chevy so he could be sure to have it done on time. It kept him occupied until 5:00 when he finished the wiring and locked up before going up to the house.
Gabe's day picked up when he heard Mindy's car pull up in front of his house. He walked out and gave her a warm kiss and tight hug when she stepped out. She reached back in and grabbed a couple bags of Chinese food, handing one to Gabe one as he thanked her for getting dinner. The aroma of dinner hung in the air around the door of the Mustang so Mindy got back in to roll the windows down a little to air it out for the trip home. Gabe had the table on the deck set up with dishes and utensils and when Mindy saw it she turned to him.
"Oh, thank you for setting us up out there. I love spending time on this deck."
The table was barely big enough for their plates, glasses and all of the cartons. "What would you like to drink?" Gabe asked as he opened the freshly stocked fridge. "I've got some sodas, diet and regular, iced tea, beer... "
"Beer!"
She cut him off to save him going through the rest. "I'm off work and could sure use one."
Another box checked, Gabe thought. He opened two beers and went back to the table. Mindy grabbed a pair of chopsticks and Gabe a fork as they started putting their favorites on their plates. Mindy easily ate with the sticks and teased Gabe for having to use a fork. She tried to show him how to use them but he dropped more back onto his plate than into his mouth so went back to the fork.
Mindy looked at him and winked in mock disgust. "I thought this relationship had real potential but now I'm not so sure."
'Relationship'. There, she had said it. She had taken what they had experienced and put a name and quality to it and put it out for each of them to object to. Neither did. The needle on the gauge had quickly moved past 'excited meeting', 'going on a date', then blew past 'romantic dinner at his house' and 'spending the night'., landing on 'relationship with potential'. They both smiled as they ate, seemingly happy with her proclamation.
They talked about their lives over the last couple days. Mindy's company, ISCCO, had a new product that another company was trying claim was a copy of theirs. It was her job to work with ISCCO's attorneys to demonstrate theirs was unique from their competitor. Since ISSCO's product came to market first it seemed an open and shut case but there was a lot of legal wrangling that had to go on before going to court if it got to that point.
Gabe told her he had finished the commercial transmission job and the owner had come to pick it up Monday morning, anxious to put the truck back to work. He had the Tbird ready to go to upholstery as soon as the shop had room for it. The balance of his time was spent working on her dad's '55 and had made considerable progress. Mindy asked if she could go look at it after dinner. "Sure, but it's going to look worse than it did." and she told him she trusted him to be doing it right.
'Trust'. There was the second solid hit of the evening. Yeah, it was just trust to fix her car, like an infield home run but a home run just the same.
After finishing dinner and taking in the view they cleaned up the table from dinner, each picking their favorite cartons for dinner tomorrow. They headed down the stairs to the garage where Mindy reminded Gabe that she was still waiting for a ride in his Jag. He assured her it would be soon and they walked down the drive with their arms around the other's waist. Gabe opened the last bay and turned on the lights since the setting sun didn't illuminate the shop well. As the door went up, Mindy could see her green wagon looking very sad, much of it disassembled.
There was no front suspension or wheels, which were leaned up against the back wall. The hood was open and the engine looked very naked and small without its trademark fuel injection and aluminum 'Corvette' valve covers. Gabe talked to her about the injection unit conversion and the cost difference for the hidden wiring and she agreed that wasn't nearly as important as reliability. He told her he wanted to go with slightly wider wheels since he had to replace them anyway and he would paint them the same color.
She asked, "Will the stock hubcaps still fit?"
She actually realized that was important to the 'look'?... he fell a little more in love every time she opened her mouth. Gabe assured her they would fit and would look good with the two inch dropped spindles.
Her eyes lit up, "That would give the car a good stance."
STANCE????? Gabe's knees were weak! She was PERFECT!!
Mindy looked at Gabe and said it looked great and she thanked him for all of his hard work. He told her many people are very disappointed at this point in a project because the car looks much worse than when they dropped it off. She turned and pulled Gabe in for a tight hug, pressing all of her into all of him. He immediately wrapped his arms around her and she whispered,